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/.
The Colonial Academic Alliance is turning to true innovators – faculty and staff at our member institutions – to generate powerful ideas that creatively address the challenges we face in higher education.
The Alliance’s annual Pedagogy/Learning Summit will be hosted by James Madison University on 
Dr. Megan Rodgers Good is the Director of Academic Assessment at Auburn University, serving as a resource to academic programs on all phases of student learning outcomes assessment (e.g., outcome creation, instrument development, data collection strategies). Megan earned her PhD in Assessment and Measurement from James Madison University. Her doctoral work focused on connecting assessment with teaching and learning strategies to evidence student learning growth at a programmatic level.
