Teaching Incentive Program – College of Medicine

Program Overview

The UCF Teaching Incentive Program (TIP) rewards teaching productivity and excellence. The TIP award recognizes faculty contributions to UCF’s key goals of offering the best undergraduate education available in Florida and achieving international prominence in key programs of graduate study.

The specifics of the COM-TIP program were developed through consultation between Academic Affairs and the Faculty Senate Steering Committee.

Please contact your college for earlier deadlines.

Funding

Academic Affairs provides funding for new COM-TIP awards. There will be a minimum of 2 awards for the college.

Regardless of the contract length (9-months or 12-months), award recipients will receive a one-time award of $5,000 as soon as practicable and a $5,000 increase to their salary effective at the beginning of the succeeding academic year.

Eligibility

A faculty member will be considered eligible for an award when all of the criteria are met:

1. The faculty member must be on a full-time, 9- or 12-month tenured or tenure-track appointment with the rank of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor; or be a full-time 9- or 12-month employee who is appointed to a rank which is equivalent to professor, associate professor, or assistant professor; or be on a full-time appointment as an instructor or a lecturer; or be on a multi-year non-tenure track appointment. Faculty on visiting (or similar temporary) appointments and faculty on less than full-time appointments are not eligible for these awards.

2. The faculty member must have a substantial teaching commitment at the University through classroom instruction during the past four academic years.

3. The faculty member must have not received a TIP award within the last five academic years.

Application Materials

Applications are submitted through Interfolio. Visit this link for a video tutorial on filing for awards or explore this guide. Gathering the following materials prior to the submission date will ease the application process:

• Teaching and Learning Philosophy Statement (text box 3000 characters – approximately 428-750 words or fewer)
  • Describe your teaching and learning philosophy
• Summary of Instructional Activities (text box 3000 characters – approximately 428-750 words or fewer)
  • Provide a summary of your instructional activities.
• Summary Statement of Impact of Instruction (text box 3000 characters – approximately 428-750 words or fewer)
  • Provide a statement supporting the impact of your instruction.

Supporting Materials: Items 1-6 must be uploaded as PDF  files:

1. Current Curriculum Vitae (Required)
2. Annual Assignments (Required)
   • Upload a single pdf that includes a one-page summary table with a list of  annual assignments by year for all categories for which you had assigned duties (e.g., teaching, research, service) and then the last four years of your annual assignments, in descending order.
   • Please do not use Adobe Portfolio.  
3. Annual Evaluations (Required)
   • Upload a single pdf that includes a table providing, by year, each category evaluation assessment (e.g., outstanding, above satisfactory, etc.) and then the last four years of your annual evaluations, in descending order.
   • Please do not use Adobe Portfolio.  
4. Course Assignments (Required)
   • Upload a single PDF that contains a listing of all courses taught in the last four academic years.
   • Please do not use Adobe Portfolio.  
5. Student Evaluations (Required)
   • Upload a single PDF of Student Perception of Instruction (SPI) summaries for each course evaluated in the last four academic years, in descending order. The applicant may, but is not required to, include the SPI comments; however, if comments are used, all comments must be included rather than selected excerpts. To assist the reviewers, the applicant may wish (but is not required) to consider including a one- to two-page summary of all student evaluation results (e.g., by year, by modality, comparison to department, college, UCF).
   • Please do not use Adobe Portfolio.  
6. Examples of Teaching Products (Optional – Maximum of Three)
   • Applicants may attach materials to support their application. Should supporting materials be included in the application, include (as appropriate) a table of contents, section cover pages and other organizational features to clearly delineate the materials and assist the reviewer in understanding its value in relation to the application. A maximum of three PDF uploads are permitted. Examples include course syllabi, teaching tools, documentation of teaching awards and recognition, and documentation of grants related to teaching. Examples must be from the last four (4) academic years and selected to provide evidence of quality rather than quantity.
   • Please do not use Adobe Portfolio.  

Evaluation and Awards Process

College committees for the TIP award program shall be elected by and from the full-time faculty.

The committee will consist of four members across departments, in addition to one nominated by the Dean. One to two College of Medicine student representatives will inform the committee during the review meeting, but will not vote nor define award criteria. Previous TIP award winners will be encouraged to serve on the review committee. Employees who plan to apply for a particular award in the current or immediately following cycle shall not be eligible to serve on the committee. A committee chairperson shall be elected by and from the college committee. The chairperson shall charge the committee that members shall only consider the merits of the application. No additional outside information or discussion of position, e.g., instructor vs. tenure track faculty, past awards, current salary, etc., may be considered.

The committee shall convene twice, once to establish the selection criteria and then again to review the award applications. After their review, the committee shall submit a ranked list of recommended applicants to the dean or dean’s representative. In ranking the applicants, committee members shall only consider the merits of the application. Applications that are not deemed acceptable for an award shall be left unranked. For completed applications, departures from the application specifications may impact but shall not disqualify an application.

The committee chair will transmit this ranked list to the dean or dean’s representative. If the selection committee awards fewer than the number of awards available or if the dean does not approve an award from the list submitted by the selection committee, then the award(s) shall be retained in the same college for one additional cycle before it is returned to the overall pool for apportionment.

If the selection committee awards fewer than the number of awards available or if the dean or unit head does not approve an award from the list submitted by the selection committee, then the award(s) shall be retained in college for one additional cycle before it is returned to the overall pool for apportionment.

The president, on recommendation from the provost, will give the final approval for award recipients. After the approval by the president, each college will notify all nominees of the results, including an explanation of the unit’s reasons for its recommendations.