Teaching Dossiers

Creative an Effective Teaching Nomination Dossier for a Brock Teaching Award

Adjudication committees tend to look for dossiers that demonstrate impact on students and institutions, those that tell a story, that “jumps off the page.” What impresses is depth and alignment in the dossier, not simply a long list of activities and accomplishments. 

Organization and Format

  • Well-organized dossiers help members of the adjudication committee find key pieces of evidence quickly. We recommended following the format and structure outlined in the relevant Nomination Package Criteria.  
  • A dossier prepared for some other purpose (e.g. tenure, promotion, another teaching award) should be significantly revised to fit the structure, criteria, and documentation required for the current Award submission. 
  • All nomination packages should have a navigable organizational structure. This includes the use of a table of contents, headings and sub-headings, page numbers, and the use of a standard 12-point font with one-inch margins where appropriate. Cover pages, divider pages, the nomination brief, and the appendix are not included in the page count of an award package. 
  • Please ensure all material—course materials, student comments, letters of support—is clearly dated. 
  • Keep the dossier succinct—there is a 40-page limit for faculty awards and a 20-page limit for Teaching Assistant awards.  Adjudication committee members should be able to review a nomination dossier within a one-hour timeframe regardless of format. 
  • Do not include a full CV in your nomination package. Teaching accomplishments should be integrated in the narrative of the dossier rather than listed in a CV. 
  • Lists are unhelpful in making a compelling case for one’s teaching effectiveness. Mentions of workshops, addresses, and articles can be persuasive if supported by commentary on their impact. 

Letters of Support

  • Supporting letters should be recent (ideally dated within the last 18 months). In the letters, please address specifically the criteria of the Award being nominated for.  
  • Supporting letters should address how the candidate has meaningfully contributed to teaching at Brock. Letters might address the following: 
    • Availability to students 
    • Student mentoring 
    • Ability to respond to student needs 
    • Developing an effective and positive learning climate 
    • Approaches to assessment and instruction  
    • Contributions to course development 
  • Supporting letters from a variety of sources is preferred (e.g. students, faculty, peers, and administrators) 
  • Supporting letters should be addressed to the Award title adjudication committee (ex. Distinguished Teaching Adjudication Committee; Graduate Teaching Assistant Award Committee).  

Accessibility

  • All nomination submissions must be in an accessible format when submitted. Inaccessible submissions will not be shared with the adjudication committee.  
  • Nomination packages in PDF format should be searchable and tagged documents.  
  • If included, images require alternative text, videos require closed captioning options for viewers, hyperlinks should be descriptive, and audio files must include a transcript.  
  • Nominees should strive to ensure that any included hyperlinks are sustainable, so that the information referenced will be able to be referred back over time. 
  • Do not include images of scanned documents in your dossier – all scanned images require Optical Character Recognition (OCR). 

Please remember, only material contained in the dossier is considered in the Committee’s assessment. Nominees are permitted to include hyperlinks within a dossier for a Brock Teaching Award. There is not a guarantee that the adjudication committee will review all content linked. Nominees should take care to ensure that the evidence is comprehensively referenced in the main dossier so that the hyperlinks remain as supplemental not foundational support.   

Dossier Support

Consultations for dossier support are available through the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation, by contacting cpi@brocku.ca.  

Each nomination for a Brock Teaching Award will receive feedback. Feedback on the dossier from the adjudication committee will be relayed through the Chair and will include both general and specific commentary that may enrich the reflective process of dossier development and resubmission where appropriate.