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
*Project leaders for the “Ethical Reasoning in STEM Through Multi-Disciplinary Collaborative Teaching” IN/CO Grant elected to postpone their study for one academic year, as virtual collaboration is not suitable for their planned co- teaching model; this initiative will kick off in fall 2021.
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
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 the spring 2021 update, grantees were asked to submit brief summaries of the progress made in the past year, available to view in the March 2021 Update 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.
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 five initiatives discussed above.
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.
