An excellent applicant’s narrative uses the limited space (500 words per rubric category) you have to persuade a reviewer that your course is exemplary. You do this by shining a light on the areas of your course that fulfill each standard.
Make reviewing your course as easy as possible by providing a road map for a reviewer.
I suggest you use this ECP Self-Review Sheet, even if you already filled it out before. This time, when you make notes think of how you can, with as few words as possible, most efficiently and effectively point out to a reviewer where in your course they can find evidence you have met each of the standards.
You also have the opportunity to provide additional information in a “For the Reviewer” module or folder in your course. Remain as concise as possible, but use that resource to provide screenshots and more in-depth explanations of some of your best course features.
If you have resources that require logins or for some reason cannot be accessed by a reviewer, this is an excellent place to provide screenshots of them.
Tip: make sure you are following best practices and alt-text all images you include. Not only is that inclusive design, since you may be reviewed by a person with disabilities, but these resources will show up in any accessibility reports your institution may use (and reviewers may access).
Narrative Structure
I like to break up my narrative by sub-categories and then explain how my course meets each standard with associated standard numbers in parenthesis (i.e. 1.3). That makes it easy to navigate for a reviewer and the standard numbers are easily picked up when they are skimming.
You can’t assume a reviewer will actually read your entire narrative. You have limited space, and so you need to be targeted. Prioritize space for pointing out to a reviewer exactly where they should look to check any given standard.
And for situations where they won’t be able to find evidence in your course (such as anonymous feedback being something that only shows up in a live course because it is sent out by your college directly to students) be very clear how it is met even though it cannot be directly observed by the reviewer.
Example Narratives
Here are applicant narratives I submitted for two of my ECP awards:
Note: These were submitted under the previous rubric version, so some standards are not quite the same as before.
Submitting for review
You will be asked information about your course and institution and to provide login credentials for your course.
DO NOT provide your personal login. You have contacts at your institution who can set up a copy of your course and create a login for a reviewer. Sharing your own login would be a FERPA violation!
Submission windows for ECP review are open a bit into the fall and spring semesters, then they are closed. You can visit Anthology’s Blackboard ECP site to check to see if they are accepting submissions.
If you are using this resource because you are about to submit your course for review, congratulations! This means you worked very hard, and while waiting to find out if what reviewers say is no fun at all, it should feel pretty awesome that you have improved your student’s experience in your course. Way to go! 😎