Applications are now being accepted for a second round of IN/CO Grant funding!

The Colonial Academic Alliance is turning to true innovators – faculty and staff at our member institutions – to generate powerful ideas that creatively address pressing policy challenges in higher education, fuel collaboration between institutions, and promote innovation in intellectual inquiry. The Alliance will support and champion these ideas through a second round of Innovate/Collaborate (IN/CO) Grant Program funding, providing grants of $10,000—$40,000 to multi-institutional teams of faculty and staff over two years. A maximum of $160,000 total will be awarded in the second round of IN/CO Grant funding.

The IN/CO Grant Program is unique in that the Alliance will assist applicants in identifying appropriate partners across Alliance institutions and, if selected for funding, facilitating these partnerships throughout the lifespan of the grant.

Use the links below to download application materials:

Application Instructions

Short Form Application

Evaluation Rubric 

PRIORITY FUNDING AREAS

IN/CO Grants support multi-institutional teams of faculty and staff in the exploration and development of creative approaches and best practices that positively impact student success, advance scholarship, and promote the dissemination of best practices in one of the following priority funding areas:

• Innovative teaching & learning
• High impact practices
• Civic engagement
• Entrepreneurial education
• Student-athlete initiatives
• Student wellness and mental health.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

Interested faculty and staff at Alliance member institutions are invited to complete an IN/CO Short Form application briefly introducing a topic, idea, or challenge that they wish to explore in collaboration with other member institutions. Please clearly complete each field of the application, succinctly making a case for funding. IN/CO Short Form Applications are due on October 1, 2019 by 5:00PM. Please email the completed application form and any relevant attachments as one PDF document to Executive Director Lindsey Interlante via email at li@caa-academics.org.

SELECTION PROCESS

Alliance staff will vet proposals for compliance with the guidelines outlined in the IN/CO Short Form application. Compliant proposals will be presented to the Provosts’ Council, who will select a slate of finalists based on the IN/CO Grant Evaluation Rubric. Finalists will work with Alliance staff to identify potential partners at other Alliance institutions, respond to any questions or concerns put forth by the Provosts’ Council, develop a grant budget, and complete a finalized project plan for approval. The Provosts’ Council will reach a final decision on which applicants to fund by November 15, 2019. All proposals will receive a response from Alliance staff by December 2, 2019.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND QUESTIONS

Applicants wishing to receive additional information on IN/CO Grants or ask questions should contact Alliance Executive Director Lindsey Interlante at li@caa-academics.org.

The Colonial Academic Alliance works with our member institutions and partner organizations to identify and publicize opportunities for faculty and staff professional development. Several new initiatives were recently announced:

6th National CIRTL Forum

On October 13-15, 2019, Drexel University invites your university leaders and faculty to attend the NSF-supported CIRTL Forum Preparing Future Faculty as Change Leaders Toward Inclusive STEM Faculty Education. The forum will focus on improving undergraduate STEM education, engaging participants on topics such as preparing future faculty, promoting diversity in STEM through evidence-based pedagogy, and change leadership in undergraduate STEM education. Keynote speakers include Dr. Karen Marrongelle, Assistant Director for Education & Human Resources at the National Science Foundation and Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The event is hosted by Drexel’s Center for the Advancement of STEM Teaching & Learning Excellence. A flyer is attached for your reference; additional details and registration info are available online at https://drexel.edu/castle/news-events/6th-national-CIRTL-forum/.

Interested in inviting Alliance faculty and staff to an event at your institution? Email Lindsey Interlante at li@caa-academics.org to discuss!  

The Colonial Academic Alliance’s IN/CO Grant program awarded $156,500 in the first round of IN/CO Grants. Click the graphic or link below to learn more about the four projects and the progress each team has made to date:

INCO Update August 2018

The Colonial Academic Alliance is awarding four grants totaling $156,500 to kick off its new Innovate/Collaborate (IN/CO) program.

Elon, N.C. (Updated April 24, 2018) – The Colonial Academic Alliance is awarding four grants totaling $156,500 to kick off its new Innovate/Collaborate (IN/CO) Grant Program.

The grants were given to four multi-institutional teams from the 10-member Alliance to pursue collaborative initiatives. Funded projects include:

• Tracking Experiential Learning Outcomes Across Three CAA Campuses | $40,000
  Drexel University, College of Charleston, University of North Carolina Wilmington
• Innovative Strategies for High Impact Practices: Access, Success, and the CAA Student-Athlete | $42,500
  Elon University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, College of Charleston, University of Delaware, Drexel University, Hofstra University, James Madison University, Towson University, College of William & Mary
• Learning to Learn: A Student Operator’s Manual for the Brain | $34,000
  Elon University, Hofstra University
• Engaging Difference:
A Deep Dive into the Assessment of Transformative Learning | $40,000
  James Madison University, Elon University

The grants are the first to be awarded under the Alliance’s new IN/CO Grant Program. The IN/CO Program was launched in 2017, providing grants of $5,000—$20,000 per year (for two years) for initiatives that address pressing policy challenges in higher education; fuel collaboration between institutions; enhance institutional excellence; and promote innovation in intellectual inquiry.

“The IN/CO Grant Program affords our member institutions a unique opportunity to work together with other universities and develop creative initiatives to address shared challenges,” said Lindsey Interlante, Executive Director of the Colonial Academic Alliance. “Given the diversity and geographic range of our members, we believe that IN/CO Grant awardees will positively impact their institutions, advance scholarship on teaching and learning, and bring a fresh perspective to some of the shared challenges we face in higher education.”

IN/CO Grants were created to fund teams of faculty and staff from two or more Alliance member institutions. Awards were selected by the Alliance’s Provosts’ Council, its governing board. Any future opportunities for funding will be publicized on the Alliance’s website, www.caa-academics.org.

The Colonial Academic Alliance facilitates collaboration and communication across its 10 member institutions. Its purpose is to engage faculty, staff, and students in meaningful initiatives that challenge the status quo, enrich the academic environment, and advance student success. Alliance members include the College of Charleston, University of Delaware, Drexel University, Elon University, Hofstra University, James Madison University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Northeastern University, Towson University, and the College of William & Mary.

Among the challenges of measuring the educational impact of experiential learning is that a diverse array of experiences–from course-based projects to study abroad to internships, to name but a few–can all be considered as experiential/applied learning . Typical approaches to assessing experiential learning include assessments of students’ perceptions of the value of the experience. This project team seeks to develop a richer understanding of the specific learning and student development that takes place in experiential learning opportunities, as well as the impact on student learning in subsequent coursework, academic programs, and further applied learning settings.

Updates & Progress

Drexel University hosted the first post-award grant team meeting in November 2017. During this session, the project team discussed existing experiential learning assessment tools and practices on each campus, the infrastructure required (e.g., offices involved, systems used to collect data, availability of existing data), the instrument development process, and grant sustainability. University of North Carolina Wilmington convened the project team for a second in-person meeting in February 2018, focusing on the identification of common student learning outcomes and the logistics of piloting the instrument across all three campuses. College of Charleston hosted a third in-person meeting of the IN/CO grant team in April 2018 to review the draft instrument; examine platforms, delivery, and timeline; and follow up on mining current data. Opportunities for future funding and project sustainability were also discussed.

Over the next academic year, the draft instrument will be piloted with a diverse range of students who have participated in experiential learning opportunities. Focus groups will be conducted with participating students to gauge both student perceptions and the efficacy of the instrument in capturing data. The project team will also present on this grant at the fifth annual Drexel Assessment Conference (September 12-14, 2018).

Meet the Experiential Learning IN/CO Grant Team 

Principal Investigators 

Project Team

Not pictured: 

Interested in what Alliance institutions are saying about these grants? Check out the following: 

http://today.cofc.edu/2018/03/13/cofc-joins-colonial-academic-alliance-members-research/

https://uncw.edu/news/2018/02/uncw-awarded-80,000-in-caa-innovatecollaborate-grants.html