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New grant will provide funding for technology improvements

UA faculty and students will have the opportunity to benefit from technological advances because of a new grant program that will provide up to $25,000 for selected projects.

University of Arizona Provost Paul Sypherd last month announced a $500,000 grant that will be awarded to projects involving the use of new and innovative technology in teaching and learning.

Faculty members competing for the grant must submit a proposal outlining their ideas. Proposals that solve widely recognized problems or address known institution-wide priorities are most likely to receive favorable review.

"We are looking for projects that will have the most impact on students and that will address institutional-wide priorities," said Mary Barleycorn, administrative associative with the Faculty Center for Instructional Innovation.

The grants will be awarded based on three priorities - instructional innovation, expansion or effective utilization of existing resources and faculty development.

This year, university funds will not be allocated for instructional laboratory refresh, creation of instructional labs, or projects that duplicate the functions of the Classroom Renovation Project.

"This is the first year we will not be awarding funds to labs, so we're excited that the (grant) money can go further," Barleycorn said.

Any instructional faculty member is eligible for consideration. The grant funds may be used for hardware and software for instructional use, technical services such as programming, graphic design, student wages and expenses directly related to new production.

"This grant program is one way we demonstrate a real commitment to the quality of education and to constant improvement. It gives us the freedom to be really imaginative and to take some risks on good ideas," said Sally Jackson, faculty associate for distributed learning, who oversees the grant program.

As a part of this year's grant program, there are two additional special initiatives.

"Our intention for this project is to develop policy, procedures, and support structures needed for development of courses to be delivered completely on-line," Sypherd stated.

The second initiative is to select a course for the Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign. The program is aimed at exploring uses of technology to control the rising costs of education.

Proposals for these special initiatives are due Jan. 14 and will receive "fast-track" review by the Learning Technologies Partnership. All other proposals will be due Feb. 18.

The process of proposal reviews will continue during the spring semester. The recipients of the grant funding will be announced on May 3 at the Learning Technologies Showcase.