Grants for Enhancing Learning and Teaching
Due Date: Monday, December 1, 2008
The provost has set aside special funding for individual faculty and departments to enhance student learning. On our campus and on a national level, concern has been expressed about the effects of student "disengagement" - from classes and from the university community. Therefore, faculty members are particularly encouraged to explore changes in instruction that foster more active student involvement in the learning process. In this program, emphasis will be placed upon the applicant's clarity about the specific plan to improve instruction and on the goal of enhancing student engagement in relatively innovative ways.
The Grants for Enhancing Learning and Teaching program continues both funding and scope of those recently available mini-grants. For reports of projects that were funded under Instructional Innovation see a list on our website at: http://www.csufresno.edu/cetl/Funding/InstInnov/Reports/Previous.shtml
Individual (or teams of) tenure track or full-time faculty members may request up to $5,000, which may include 3 WTU of assigned time (at $4,651.20) or up to $2,500 summer stipend for projects to improve learning in their courses. Proposals for projects with costs above $5,000 may also be considered, but authors must seek additional sources of funding to offset those expenses above the $5,000 limit. These funds may typically come from the department or school/college.
Please contact Roy Bohlin (royb@csufresno.edu or 278-7395) at CETL, if you have any questions about the appropriateness of a particular project idea. We will be offering two workshops (11/10 & 11/19) to help faculty to specifically respond to this Request for Proposals.
Workshops:
Nov. 10th 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm in UC202
Nov. 19th 10:30 am - 11:30 am in UC202
These workshops will discuss the Request for Proposals for the CETL minigrants -- including such areas as expectations, budgets, evaluation plans, and assigned time. The process for the application process will be reviewed to address any questions that faculty may have.
Dissemination Requirements.
In the spirit of developing an even stronger academic community, faculty members receiving awards will be expected to share the results of their work with the campus community by submitting a final report for online publication and presenting the results of their work at our annual Conference on Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
Available Resources.
Teaching Learning and Technology staff are available to assist faculty members in finding appropriat sources of information and designing their projects, including assessment teaching and learning. Chris Fiorentino in the Office of Students for Community Service and Civic Engagement is a great recource for projects that focus on service learning or community-based learning, and Digital Campus will assist with the design and implementation of projects that include online components. There will be two workshops (11/10 & 11/19) to go over the process and to give you guidance in designing a meaningful evaluation plan. The dates and times of these workshops will be announced later this week.
Review Process
A committee will review the proposals (using the attached proposal review form) in early December. Awards will be announced in December.
Proposal Format
Due: 4:00 p.m. Monday, December 1, 2008
You may submit the proposal electronically by emailing a MS Word document or pdf file to rsvp-cetl@csufresno.edu and providing the CETL office with one signed cover page. To submit hard copies, provide six copies of the completed proposal to Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (mail stop UC116, room number UC 201) by 4:00 p.m. on Due Date.
Please include the following, in order, when submitting your proposal:
- Completed and signed cover sheet. See the attached sample for the appropriate format.
- Proposal Review Form with your name and the title of your proposal filled in.
- Proposal body. (Maximum length, 4 pages, 1 inch margins, minimum 12 pt font .)
What problem in teaching and learning (as well as any other problems addressed by the proposal) are you trying to address. Why is this an important problem? It would be helpful if you discuss the strategies you have tried previously to address the problem, and what the outcomes have been.
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How does the literature or your previous experience support your project?
What do you anticipate the impacts of your project will be:
in terms of student learning and/or attitude
in terms of your own teaching scholarship?
Describe the project in detail. Why is it important? How does it differ from what you or others have done in the past? How will the changes improve student engagement?
Please note that the focus for your proposal should be on pedagogical approaches and/or approaches to assessing student learning. Generally, a proposal for a new course to respond to content changes in the discipline is not seen as fundable unless it also incorporates pedagogical innovation. Rather, this is a normal part of updating curricula.
Include a timeline that indicates when work will be performed and when the project will be implemented.
How will you know if you achieved the goals of the project?
How will you document the impact(s) of your project on student learning?
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Short Reference list of literature cited in the proposal.
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Two-page maximum abbreviated curriculum vitae. Since proposal reviewers must make judgments about your qualifications for completing the proposed project, be sure you highlight your professional activities that are most closely related to the proposed innovation.
When you are preparing your proposal, please keep the review criteria in mind as well as the specific questions below. Proposals that follow the outline are generally easier for the proposal reviewers to read and evaluate. The reviewers will appreciate any help you can provide in making your proposal easy to assess.
Introduction
Methods
Assessment
Developing an assessment plan that will allow you to evaluate the success of your project is a major component of this proposal. Your plan should center around two primary questions
One good way to develop this section of your proposal would be to make a chart listing the proposed outcome(s) of your project, followed by the assessment technique(s) you will use. You need to be clear about the evidence you will collect to evaluate whether your proposed innovation has been successful-or not.
Example:
Outcome: Students will improve their ability to analyze the quality of their own work based on given criteria.
Assessment: Using a pre-determined scoring rubric, students' self-evaluations will become more congruent with faculty evaluation over the course of the semester. OR Students' written self-reflections about their strengths and weaknesses as writers will become more analytical and more congruent with similar faculty evaluations.
Feasibility
What resources (in addition to the support provided by this funding) will be needed to implement your project? If these resources are not presently available, how will they be accessed? What possible impediments could impact the successful completion of your project? For example, if the course is designed for GE, gaining GE approval for the course would be a possible impediment.
Sustainability
What resources will be needed to continue the innovation after the award period? If other resources will be required, what plans do you have for assuring that necessary resources will be available? How might the success of this project lead to successes in other courses?
Budget and Budget Explanation
The specific amount of funding that you are requesting to complete the project for each expenditure. Indicateadditional sources that are committed to support this project for funding for larger projects. Each expense must be listed and specifically identified. A short narrative rationale should be included that clearly describes the reasons for and the contribution of each proposed expenditure.
*Dissemination Requirements
In the spirit of developing an even stronger academic community, faculty members receiving awards will be required to share the results of their work with the campus community by submitting a final report for online publication and presenting the results of their work at the annual Conference on Excellence in Teaching and Learning.