Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation criteria include:

* clearly articulated research question or thesis statement;
* relevance of research to the field of distance education, online, or distributed learning;
* the extent to which the proposed research builds on and contributes to the literature (i.e., conceptual and/or theoretical framework in which this study is situated);
* well conceived research design and methodology (data collection and analysis techniques);
* strength of letters of support;
* projected timeline;
* proposed plans for dissemination; and
* demonstration of financial need.