Advancing New Modes of Instruction and Assessment
Advances in technology afford opportunities for new modes of instruction and assessment that can enhance the quality of on-campus instruction and expand the campus’s capacity to meet student demand. As part of our efforts to seize these opportunities, we are pleased to announce an Instructional Technology and Innovation Micro Grant program to aid faculty in all disciplines in creating new programs or courses, as well as revising their existing courses significantly. The campus has a limited amount of non-state funding that was provided for this purpose and anticipates funding 10 to 15 proposals in the $25,000 to $50,000 range.
Proposals for the 2024 Instructional Technology and Innovation Micro Grants are now being accepted via this form.
Eligibility
Academic Senate faculty from all disciplines are invited to apply.
How to Apply
Proposals must be submitted via online form by Friday, March 8 at 6 p.m. Proposals should include a budget justification. Funding decisions will be announced by early April.
Proposal Guidelines
Proposals should describe how funding in the range of $25,000 to $50,000 would be used to advance our educational mission and improve the undergraduate experience.
The campus encourages proposals that are innovative and potentially transformative; particularly encouraged are ideas that can be tested and potentially replicated across the campus. We also welcome proposals for ways to increase opportunities for undergraduates to participate in research, to perform, or otherwise engage in discovery and creation.
For proposals pertaining to individual courses, proposers are encouraged to indicate how they would leverage technology (especially online technology) to increase student engagement. Proposals that promote accessible, inclusive, and resilient instruction and include Discovery experiences are particularly welcome, as are proposals that hold the promise to improve students’ access to and success in gateway and other high-demand courses. Proposals might envision novel, expanded, or improved uses of remote instruction, course capture, Gradescope and other artificial intelligence to grade exams and assessments, recorded lectures for flipped classrooms, or peer-to-peer tutoring or grading.
Scope of Funding
The grant program aims to fund between 10 to 15 proposals in the $25,000 to $50,000 range. The grant period is for one-year and unused funds will be returned to campus after this time to fund future initiatives.
The use of funding from other sources (e.g. Collegium grants) should be clearly documented and justified. For an existing project, grant funds should not be viewed as replacement funding, but rather should be targeted toward expanding or improving (e.g., adding a new component to) the project. Proposals may incorporate undergraduate and graduate education, if relevant.
Criteria for Selection
Proposals will be evaluated according to several criteria, including, but not limited to:
-
The proposal should clearly articulate how the project will create new programs or courses and/or result in significant revision to existing courses.
-
Projects high in feasibility, cost effectiveness, impact, scalability (i.e., capable of being scaled up to involve more students), and sustainability (i.e., capable of being continued past the funding period) will be evaluated more favorably.
-
If relevant, the proposal should articulate the key learning outcomes and impacts of the proposed project, as well as the process for assessing the degree to which these outcomes and impacts are met (impact can be defined in terms of number of students involved and/or in terms of depth of impact)
-
The proposal should consider challenges to future sustainability and/or scalability of the proposed project, and possible ways to overcome such challenges.
-
Proposals that are highly innovative are encouraged.
Types of Expenses that May be Funded
The award funds may be used to:
-
Pay for summer salary
-
Hire one or more Graduate Student Researchers (GSR benefits, including fee remission, when applicable, should be included in budgetary calculations) or undergraduate student workers
-
Fund the cost of project-related supplies
-
Offer students small monetary incentives to encourage participation
-
Purchase instruments and equipment not available through campus-wide licenses that directly support the project
The funds cannot be used to:
-
Pay stipends to GSIs or pay salaries of career or casual staff members (non-student titles)
-
Purchase or update standard software or software packages already licensed by campus
-
Reimburse expenditures made prior to award conferral
Reporting Requirements
To help disseminate the results of the funded projects, grant recipients are expected to discuss their work at a Council of College Deans meeting in 2025. In addition, recipients will work with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) to make a written summary of their work available to be posted on the CTL website.