The purpose of instructional excellence is to provide instructional support to faculty through workshops, seminars, courses, lecture series, classroom videotaping, and teaching consultations and services. It also promotes professional and personal development of faculty in ways that contribute to improved learning through conference participation and skill upgrading. Lastly, it assists units to increase the number of faculty with terminal degrees.
The objectives of Instructional Excellence are:
- Provide assistance (through classes, workshops, terminal degrees, conferences, etc.) to faculty who need further training in their areas of expertise
- Provide workshops on various teaching methods, teaching philosophies, alternative teaching strategies, and multicultural education.
- Maintain a library of resources on teaching and technology.
- Provide assistance to academic units preparing for accreditation visits.
Research support is provided through Research Excellence Fund (REF). It focuses on the development of research centers, applied research units, laboratories, and novel technologies. Projects must be directly associated with the mission of the University and have the potential to increase GSU's capacity for attracting external funding. The REF is also viewed as a tool for creating the infrastructure necessary to make Grambling State University nationally and internationally competitive in the development of new technologies and products. To meet the goals of REF, allowable uses of program funds include equipping research facilities, supporting faculty and staff, and purchasing supplies. It also provides faculty with consulting services to facilitate the design, conduct, and reporting of research and evaluation studies. It provides services such as research design, instrument development, data management, and statistics consultation.
The objectives of research support are:
- Fund at least three mini-research grants through Research Excellence Fund.
- Provide workshops on research design and development.
- Provide support for faculty presenting at conferences.
- Co-sponsor research conferences with academic units.
- Assist faculty with research design and data management and analysis.
- In addition, each of these three areas has competitive grants to assist faculty to work on their projects and provide mechanism for mentoring junior faculty members.
