The CTL Small Grants Program is an opportunity for UT instructors to improve student learning by providing them with resources to purchase materials to innovate their teaching. Full-time instructors may apply for grants of up to $400 during an academic year to support an innovative idea or approach that might incorporate the purchase of specialized software, texts or materials, for example.
Assessment of learning outcomes is very important and it is incumbent on the instructor to report back to CTL and demonstrate how the Small Grant award affected student learning.
Guidelines for Small Grants applications are described in the memo below
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August 25, 2008
MEMORANDUM
TO: University Full-time Faculty (tenured, tenure-track, lecturers,
visiting faculty)
FROM: Bernard W. Bopp, Director, Center for Teaching and Learning
RE: Small Grants Fund for Teaching and Learning
The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) welcomes requests to its Small Grants fund to support the improvement of classroom teaching and learning. The CTL hopes to provide several thousand dollars to faculty in AY 2008-2009 via this program.
CTL Small Grants requests must be directly related to teaching and learning. In line with the University’s strategic emphasis on enhancing instruction in general education courses and promoting science and technology literacy, applications related to these and other similar areas are encouraged and will be given priority in funding. Items eligible for funding would include, but are not limited to:
* Instructional materials, such as videotapes, DVD’s, or CD-ROM’s;
* Specialized instructional software;
* Classroom demonstration materials;
* Travel to attend workshops or conferences on teaching.
Awards are limited to a maximum of $400 per full-time faculty member per academic year. The CTL wishes to encourage faculty collaboration both within a department and in an interdisciplinary context, and two faculty may pool their Small Grant requests – to a maximum possible award of $800 - if the funding will enhance teaching and learning in more than one instructor’s class.
Awards for funding will be made during both semesters of the 2008/09 academic year. The fall semester application deadline – for purchase of materials to be used in courses taught in fall 2008 or spring 2009 - is Friday, November 14, 2008. To apply for Small Grants funding, the faculty member should write a brief letter to the CTL which details the items to be funded and describes the learning outcomes that will result. The letter should describe the course(s) to be affected and their enrollments. Small Grants funding is competitive, and faculty are strongly urged to document both the need for funding and the predicted impact on student learning. An evaluative endorsement letter or memo from the department chairperson must accompany any Small Grants application.
The CTL requires that Small Grants awardees assess the impact of their award on the learning of their students. To clarify this requirement, the CTL, following Palomba and Banta's Assessment Essentials (1999), defines assessment as “…the systematic collection, review, and use of information about educational programs undertaken for the purpose of improving student learning and development.” In the semester following the award the faculty member(s) must report data or evidence - and the method they used to collect and analyze such data - that measures the degree to which students did, in fact, learn what was intended. Faculty members will not be eligible for future CTL support until this assessment document is submitted.
If you have questions about this program, please contact the CTL office (MS 612) at 530-2075, or via email at bernard.bopp@utoledo.edu
