In the year since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, recipients of the Alliance’s Innovate/Collaborate (IN/CO) Grant awards have demonstrated great resilience, coming together in the face of significant challenges to advance the following initiatives:

• Outcomes of Entrepreneurial Education: Perceptions of Career Readiness | $40,000
  Elon University, Towson University, William & Mary
• CAA Debate for Civic Learning | $44,500
  James Madison University, College of Charleston, Northeastern University, Towson University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, William & Mary
• Ethical Reasoning in STEM Through Multi-Disciplinary Collaborative Teaching* | $40,000
  James Madison University, Drexel University
• Using Historical Collections for Civic Engagement and Innovative Teaching & Learning | $40,000
  Drexel University, University of Delaware, William & Mary
• Toolkit for Assessment & Articulation of High-Impact Practices in Academic Libraries | $14,000
  Elon University, Towson University, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Recent Accomplishments 

• The Outcomes of Entrepreneurial Education project team recently completed two rounds of pilot testing and refinement of their survey instrument, gathering data from 250 current business school seniors at Towson and Elon.
• James Madison University’s News site touted the work of the CAA Debate for Civic Learning initiative, available at “JMU receives CAA grant for civic debate.”
• Co-authors Drew Stelljes (W&M), Jess Boersma (UNCW), Kevin Boston-Hill (Hofstra), and Paul Mabrey (JMU), all members of the CAA Debate for Civic Learning team, have received a tentative acceptance for publication of their article “Debate for Civic Learning: A model for renewing higher education’s civic mission” in the Pedagogy of the Polarized special issue of Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
• Faculty from the Using Historical Collections for Civic Engagement and Innovative Teaching & Learning team have incorporated components of Drexel’s Atwater Kent Collection into undergraduate courses at Drexel University, University of Delaware, and William & Mary.
• The Toolkit for Assessment & Articulation of High-Impact Practices in Academic Libraries team recently presented a poster at the Library Assessment Conference.
• The Toolkit for Assessment & Articulation of High-Impact Practices in Academic Libraries has also developed a prototype of format for presenting Assessment Toolkit, available to preview online.
• Nicole Tekulve and Angela Wacker will share their work on the Toolkit for Assessment & Articulation of High-Impact Practices in Academic Libraries grant, hosting a roundtable discussion during the April 2021 Association of College and Research Libraries Conference.

Report

History

The Colonial Academic Alliance launched the Innovate/Collaborate (IN/CO) grant program in 2017, intended to incentivize cross-institutional collaboration, encourage the development of new initiatives, and leverage the diversity of institutions in the Alliance. To date, the Alliance Provosts’ Council has awarded a total of $335,000 in IN/CO Grants over two rounds of funding.

Through the first round of IN/CO Grants, the Provosts’ Council provided $156,500 in seed funds to support four projects, focused on experiential learning, high impact practices, the science of learning, and global engagement. In the first 18 months of the program, first round IN/CO awardees attracted an additional $282,500 in external funding from foundations to support the projects moving forward.

Further Information

Questions about the IN/CO Grant program are welcome and should be directed to Alliance Executive Director Lindsey Interlante at li@caa-academics.org.

The Colonial Academic Alliance launched the Innovate/Collaborate (IN/CO) grant program in 2017, intended to incentivize cross-institutional collaboration, encourage the development of new initiatives, and leverage the diversity of institutions in the Alliance. To date, the Alliance Provosts’ Council has awarded a total of $335,000 in IN/CO Grants over two rounds of funding.

Through the first round of IN/CO Grants, the Provosts’ Council provided $156,500 in seed funds to support four projects, focused on experiential learning, high impact practices, the science of learning, and global engagement. In the first 18 months of the program, first round IN/CO awardees attracted an additional $282,500 in external funding from foundations to support the projects moving forward.

Encouraged by the success of the first round, the Alliance Provosts’ Council elected to fund a second round of IN/CO Grants, awarding $178,500 of funding to support the following initiatives:

• Outcomes of Entrepreneurial Education: Perceptions of Career Readiness | $40,000
  Elon University, Towson University, William & Mary
• CAA Debate for Civic Learning | $44,500
  James Madison University, College of Charleston, Northeastern University, Towson University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, William & Mary
• Ethical Reasoning in STEM Through Multi-Disciplinary Collaborative
  Teaching | $40,000
  James Madison University, Drexel University
• Using Historical Collections for Civic Engagement and Innovative
  Teaching & Learning | $40,000
  Drexel University, University of Delaware, William & Mary
• Toolkit for Assessment & Articulation of High-Impact Practices in
  Academic Libraries | $14,000
  Elon University, Towson University, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Despite the unprecedented challenges that Alliance institutions currently face due to the COVID-19 pandemic, four of the five second round grant teams elected to move forward with their projects as planned, transitioning to virtual collaboration. Project leaders for the “Ethical Reasoning in STEM Through Multi-Disciplinary Collaborative Teaching” IN/CO Grant have elected to postpone their study for one academic year, as virtual collaboration is not suitable for their planned co-teaching model.

Understanding that we are in a time of adjustment and uncertainty, the Alliance is currently working with each grant team to modify timelines, adjust grant budgets, and provide extensions as necessary. For the purposes of this report, grantees were asked to submit only brief progress updates.  Click to download the report here: IN:CO Report for Web | October 2020.

Questions about the IN/CO Grant program are welcome and should be directed to Alliance Executive Director Lindsey Interlante at li@caa-academics.org.

To address the challenges associated with the spread of COVID-19, Alliance member institutions are actively providing information and resources for students, faculty, staff, parents, and other stakeholders.

RESOURCES FOR ALLIANCE FACULTY, STAFF, AND STUDENTS

• Drexel’s Center for the Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning Excellence (CASTLE) has curated and compiled a comprehensive set of resource pages for Learning Remotely, Teaching Remotely, and Pedagogical Resources to assist faculty and students with the transition to online learning.
• UNCW’s Distance Education and eLearning (DEeL) and the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) created the Keep Teaching site to provide guidelines and resources for faculty who must continue teaching from a distance during temporary closures.
• The College of Charleston’s *free* 2020 TLTCon (Teaching, Learning, & Technology Conference), scheduled to be held on May 14-15, is designed to bring together expertise from faculty and staff across multiple institutions, spotlight teaching excellence, and provide a space for idea sharing and networking.

CAMPUS UPDATES

The links below provide access to the most recent updates from each institution:

• College of Charleston
  https://emergency.cofc.edu/
• University of Delaware
  https://www.udel.edu/home/coronavirus/
• Drexel University
  https://drexel.edu/now/coronavirus/response/
• Elon University
  https://www.elon.edu/u/coronavirus/
• Hofstra University
  https://www.hofstra.edu/studentaffairs/studentservices/welctr/novel-coronavirus.html
• James Madison University
  https://www.jmu.edu/news/covid19/index.shtml
• University of North Carolina Wilmington
  https://uncw.edu/coronavirus/
• Northeastern University
  http://news.northeastern.edu/coronavirus/
• Towson University
  https://www.towson.edu/coronavirus/
• College of William & Mary
  https://www.wm.edu/about/administration/emergency/current_issues/coronavirus/

The Colonial Academic Alliance is pleased to announce five newly-funded IN/CO Grant awards. A total of $174,000 will support the following initiatives:

Outcomes of Entrepreneurial Education: Perceptions of Career Readiness | $40,000
Elon University, Towson University, College of William & Mary      

• Evaluate post-graduation employment outcomes, including rates of entrepreneurship or innovative placements, of recent alumni of entrepreneurship curricular programs.
• Evaluate how entrepreneurship graduates are perceived by employers in comparison to other recent graduates related to career readiness competencies.
• Identify and disseminate best practices to build career readiness competencies within entrepreneurship curricular programs.

CAA Debate for Civic Learning | $40,000
James Madison University, College of Charleston, Northeastern University, Towson University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, College of William & Mary

• Implement and assess debate-based pedagogy for civic learning in 24-36 courses across six CAA institutions, developing debate-based assignments, courses, and assessments for integrating civic learning in courses and programs.
• Evaluate the impact of debate-based learning on learning outcomes like communication, critical thinking, civic learning, empathy, and research skills.
• Refine debate-based pedagogical model using assessment data, disseminating best practices among CAA institutions.  

Ethical Reasoning in STEM Through Multi-Disciplinary Collaborative Teaching | $40,000
James Madison University, Drexel University

• Pilot, develop, and assess several variations of multi-disciplinary collaborative teaching for sociotechnical integration as an approach to ethical reasoning in STEM curricula.
• Assess opportunities, challenges, and best practices for integrated courses across institutional settings.
• Refine ethics in STEM pedagogical model using assessment data, disseminating best practices among CAA institutions.

Using Historical Collections for Civic Engagement and Innovative Teaching & Learning | $40,000
Drexel University, University of Delaware, College of William & Mary

• Use the City of Philadelphia’s Atwater Kent Collection to investigate and disseminate best practices for using objects for teaching, learning and civic engagement, with particular emphasis on public accessibility across populations and platforms.
• Develop collaboratively produced toolkit for teaching and civic engagement with historic collections.

Toolkit for Assessment & Articulation of High-Impact Practices in Academic Libraries | $14,000
Elon University, Towson University, University of North Carolina Wilmington

• Develop and disseminate an assessment toolkit of sample outcomes and assessment tools to effectively articulate and evaluate how libraries add value to student success.
• Evaluate opportunities to connect the library and library learning to broader campus initiatives across the CAA.
• Create an “entry point” for academic librarians seeking to lead, partner, and contribute to high-impact practices on campus.

Additional information about the newly-funded IN/CO Grant projects will be posted over the course of the Spring 2020 term. Please check back soon for updates!

To learn more about the IN/CO Grant program, please visit https://www.caa-academics.org/in-co-grant-program/. More information on the IN/CO Grant selection process for round 2 funding is available at https://www.caa-academics.org/in-co-round-2-announced/.