2026 Application

The application window for the 2027 CAFE COOL Award is now open! Please submit your application (below) by Oct-23.

If you have any questions email cool@cpp.edu.

Application FAQs


The COOL Award (formerly the Wall of COOL) is a CAFE award which recognizes exemplary courses and learning experiences that demonstrate thoughtful design, effective teaching, and a strong commitment to student learning and success.

The COOL Award includes a super-cool website featuring our awardees and the great learning experiences they create.

It's COOL! Most importantly, if you are proud of how you support your students' success creatively, and you want to share what you've done so other people can learn from your work, the COOL Award is a big way to do that. In speaking with previous COOL awardees, we've found that faculty value this award because it validates the great work they do with and for students.

Also, the COOL Award is selective; bragging rights are attached!

You nominate your course or learning opportunity using the form below. The CAFE team takes a first pass at all nominations, looking closely at materials that you submit or tell us that we can access. Then, previous COOL faculty awardees, CAFE team, and CAFE student assistants have long, lively conversations to decide on the final COOL Award selections.

Courses of any format – fully remote (synchronous or asynchronous), hybrid (synchronous or asynchronous), or technology-enhanced face-to-face – are eligible. Any faculty member or faculty team from any college, department, or unit is eligible to submit a course for the COOL Award. Courses must have been taught in the 2024-2025 or 2025-2026 academic year, including summer, or winter session.

Please do not apply for a course that has previously been recognized by the COOL Award, even if the course has been significantly updated since then.

Learning experiences apart from courses must have been offered in the 2024-2025 or 2025-2026 academic year, including summer, or winter session. Non-course learning opportunities must include significant involvement by faculty.

The COOL Award is all about recognition for your outstanding work.

We will take your picture for the COOL Award website. We'll interview you and feature the best "artifacts" from your course in a cool video, produced by our friends at MediaVision. We'll ask you to give a short presentation (~5min) at a major event in Spring (March/April, exact time tbd). We'll arrange for articles in PolyCentric and the PolyPost, and make sure that your college is aware of your achievement.

Winners will be notified in December.

  1. Thoughtful design and alignment. Your course or learning experience has clear goals, learning outcomes, and expectations. Learning activities, assessments, and signature practices align with those goals. The organization, instructions, sequencing, and resources create a coherent and supportive path for learners.
  2. Effective teaching and learning. Teaching practices engage students in purposeful learning. Students have meaningful opportunities to practice, apply, create, collaborate, solve problems, receive feedback, and reflect on their learning. Activities and assessments help students demonstrate progress toward the intended outcomes.
  3. Inclusive, equitable, and accessible learning. Your course or learning experience fosters care, respect, belonging, and high expectations while responding to the varied backgrounds and needs of CPP students. Course materials, navigation, activities, and assessments are designed to reduce barriers and provide accessible ways for students to engage, learn, and demonstrate their understanding.
  4. Student learning, success, and reflective Improvement. The nomination provides qualitative or quantitative evidence of student learning, engagement, persistence, achievement, or success. The faculty member or team reflects on evidence, student feedback, and identified needs to improve the learning experience over time. The submission also demonstrates a distinctive or shareable practice that could inform or inspire others.

Other Factors

Tell us what you're proud of about your course or learning experience! Are your students constantly engaged and never checked out? Do you exemplify learn-by-doing? Is it a service-learning course or experience? Are you working as a team with other faculty and staff to spread great practices? Is your course or experience a down-to-earth GE or academic success program that serves a lot of students? Do you have a small grad-level class or academic success program that speaks directly to their professional aspirations? Is your course or experience super-tough, but you've made it possible for students to succeed without lowering your standards? …anything goes here!

We'll ask about you, your course or non-course learning experience, and how you feel it demonstrates the criteria listed above. See the COOL Award Nomination Questions (pdf) to review the specific questions, if you'd like to prepare your responses ahead of time.

Following the overall review, CAFE will assign each recipient a Champion designation that highlights a distinctive strength of the winning course or learning experience. Designations may include:

  • Champion of Technology
  • Champion of AI
  • Champion of Accessibility
  • Champion of Canvas
  • Champion of Teaching and Learning Excellence
Applicants do not apply for a specific Champion designation, and the designation does not add points to the rubric score. More than one recipient may receive the same designation, and not every designation will necessarily be awarded each year.

More COOLness...