Grants available for faculty to add interactive, online elements to courses

Western Washington University faculty members who have ever wanted to build more Web-based, interactive elements into courses but lacked the time are invited to apply for a limited number of summer grants from the Center for Instructional Innovation & Assessment.

The grants are open to Western faculty who wish to use online tools such as tutorials, simulations and other strategic uses of the Web to enhance their existing courses. Six awards of $4,000 are available for work to be done during summer quarter 2013. The deadline for submission of applications is March 15.

This program will acquaint faculty with models, open-source resources and ideas for web-based course enhancements and provide assistance and support for making the enhancements. Faculty must be available to attend a five-day, on-campus workshop, often dubbed “summer camp,” from June 17 to 21 and then work independently to implement their improvements, supported by CIIA and ATUS staff.

Especially encouraged are enhancements to gateway courses that might be made available department-wide. Departmental teams may apply to create such enhancements. For example, faculty teams might create online tutorials for concepts or skills for content students typically struggle with in a gateway course, making the tutorial available to all instructors.

Priority will be given to proposals that focus on large courses and/or gateway courses with high failure rates or difficult material.

Instructors who have participated in the past have found the “summer camp” and follow-up support useful in many ways: 

“The course provided a framework and toolkit to rethink [my course] from beginning to end. Thank you for a fabulous workshop. You have clearly helped me to be a thoughtful instructor and your insights and guidance will improve my course for Western’s students.”

“I just want to say that this workshop was very informative, engaging, and fun. I came out of there feeling incredibly motivated to improve my teaching, and with a number of ideas on how to do it. I also really valued the opportunity to connect with others across campus and learn about all of the innovative teaching methods and tools available to us.”

“Thank you for a fruitful and inspiring week of skills building and conversation. I'm grateful I had the opportunity, and I really enjoyed the cohort experience.”

Please contact Justina Brown with any questions. The deadline for submission of the online application is March 15. Applications will be reviewed by the CIIA Advisory Board, and awardees will be notified via email in April.

* Special thanks to Steven VanderStaay, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, for continuing to seek support for this grant program, now in its 4th year.