Summer Grants for Exploration of Technology Enhancing Teaching, Learning, Research, Scholarly, and/or Creative Work

Office of the Provost and Office of the Dean of the College

Proposals should be sent to step@wfu.edu by March 4.

The Office of the Provost and the Office of the Dean of the College are pleased to announce a joint grant program that will expand the support for those Reynolda campus faculty wishing to explore technology-enhanced teaching and learning or technology-enhanced scholarly or creative work.  This program will provide funding for faculty summer projects to explore new technologies with the potential to enhance faculty work. These summer projects constitute the exploratory phase of a program to identify and develop innovative techniques in teaching, learning, scholarly and creative work.  Many promising technologies exist, including video and videoconferencing; smart phones and mobile computing, tablet computers including iPads and Android devices, and e‐book readers.  In addition, the University owns licenses for video collaboration software. The University has two new next‐generation video conference rooms. Such technologies are encouraged as part of the proposals.  However, use and development of other technologies are also encouraged. Submitted proposals will be evaluated by a subcommittee of the CIT.

Goals for these summer programs are:

• To provide a vehicle for Reynolda campus faculty to explore a range of technologies, devices, and software for teaching and learning or scholarly and creative work.
• To provide a process by which faculty can explore and pilot technologies, with the funding and technical support that is necessary to do so.
• To enhance teaching, learning, research, and/or creative work through the use of technology.

Definition of technology-enhanced learning for the purpose of this grant program:

• Students receive feedback on learning outside the classroom though computer-based materials.
• This outside-of-the-classroom learning alters how the instructor teaches or uses class time.
• Technology will provide a solution to an identified problem or pedagogical challenge.  Proposals to develop technology-enhanced programs or online courses for summer 2014 courses would be welcome.

Definition of technology-enhanced scholarly and creative work for the purpose of this grant program:

• Faculty explore the use of technology that they have not previously explored.
• Scholarly or artistic goals that drive the technology that is chosen.

Collaboration requirement:  Exploration grants will be awarded to Reynolda faculty and must involve the assistance and collaboration of at least one technical expert from the Instructional Technology Group, Information Systems, ZSR Library, etc. Grants may also involve collaborative efforts among faculty.

Budgets requirements:  Please provide an itemized budget for personnel stipends, professional development, travel, hardware, software, or other proposal needs.  The budget may include summer stipend (up to $3000) for faculty on 9-month contracts or professional development funds (up to $1000) for faculty on 12-month contracts.  Stipends or professional development funds are not allowed for staff.

Award criteria:  Successful proposals will:

• identify an academic problem or goal and technology to be explored and identify an appropriate (and justified) technology-enhanced solution to the problem and outline a plan for exploration of how well the technology solves the problem.
• describe support staff involved as well as their responsibilities.
• describe the resources required and the required budget. describe feasibility, given the resources.
• make efficient use of already available resources (if applicable).
• demonstrate extensibility to other courses or academic applications in the University.

Download application here.

All grant recipients are expected to:

• Attend several meetings with other grant recipients throughout the duration of the summer. Dates will be provided pending availability and are subject to change upon mutual consent of the participants.
• Attend two meetings during fall semester to share findings and explore pedagogical and scholarly challenges. Click here to see What is a Faculty Learning Community?

Reporting requirements:

• A report (in any format, including written, video, or creative (technology-enhanced) format) on the technology sent to step@wfu.edu by January 9, 2014, addressing the question: Does this technology hold promise for enhancing teaching, learning, scholarly or creative work? If so, provide an outline of expected applications and method of evaluation.
• A presentation at a spring teaching and learning event.
• Equipment purchased under this program is university-owned. Participants must return any  appropriate equipment purchased under the grant to the Bridge, for issuance in future summer programs or for check-out and use by the university community.

Please contact Associate Provost Rick Matthews at 758‐5340 or at matthews@wfu.edu or Brenda Knox, Director of Online Programs (knoxbl@wfu.edu) with any questions or concerns.