The 250th Anniversary Fund for Innovation in Undergraduate Education is the University’s principal resource for supporting innovation in the undergraduate curriculum.  With the endorsement of their department or program, faculty members and lecturers at all ranks may submit proposals for a new or reimagined course (or course sequence) they will teach in any subject at any level.  The 250^th Anniversary Fund offers seed funding for one to three years.  We expect departments will sustain the innovation after the duration of the funding.

Proposals will be accepted between December 4, 2023 and January 31, 2024.  All proposals should be submitted in the application portal by January 31, 2024 (11:59 pm).  Please email Racheal Jones in the Office of the Dean of the College if you have questions or difficulty accessing the portal.

While the evaluation criteria are flexible, the selection committee will consider whether the proposal has the potential to:

• Address a significant gap in the curriculum
• Create new and accessible pathways through the curriculum
• Introduce new pedagogical methods
• Serve a significant number of undergraduate students across campus
• Establish interdisciplinary or interdivisional communities of practice
• Assess how students learn (through the use of a well-designed learning assessment plan)

This year, faculty are encouraged to submit proposals to:

• As a faculty team, design a new sequence of courses that will create a new pathway through a department’s curriculum
• Revise an existing course to introduce active learning methods
• Design a new sequence of course assignments with defined grading criteria
• Develop a course that engages students in active learning about community-identified goals and priorities, with the support of the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship
• Develop a course that incorporates international travel and prioritizes collaboration with host communities.  Activities that promote interactive engagement may be supported through the Learning Across Borders Fund, administered by the Office of International Programs.
• Create or revise a junior methods course (a separate call will be made for these proposals)
• Propose a summer course to be developed with the Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity (a separate call with be made for these proposals)

For more information, including application components and budget guidelines, please consult the ODOC website.  For questions about your proposal, please contact Kate Stanton, Director of the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning.

The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning invites proposals from full-time faculty for Inclusive Pedagogy Grants. These grants support the revision of an element of an existing undergraduate course that you will offer in AY 2024-25 to more strongly reflect equitable and inclusive teaching practices. Successful projects will have a defined scope. For example, you might propose additions to or modifications of course content, new classroom activities or pedagogical practices, or redesigned assignments that foster access and inclusion in their broadest sense. (For more expansive innovations, consider applying to The 250th Anniversary Fund for Innovation in Undergraduate Education next year.) Priority will be given to first-time grantees. 

Grantees will receive an honorarium of $1,800.

A complete proposal, approximately 500 words in length, should include the following:

• your name and department affiliation;
• a description of your course or a link to the description on the Registrar’s site;
• a description of the course changes you plan to implement; and
• a description of how these changes will enhance equitable and inclusive teaching.

For full consideration, please submit your proposal by Tuesday, April 30th.

The grant recipients will be asked to submit a brief summary (250-300 words) of the course modification and its outcomes by the end of the academic year.

For more information on this subject, visit McGraw’s Equitable and Inclusive Teaching webpage.

Contact Senior Associate Director Jessica Del Vecchio with any questions.

The Digital Learning and Design group in The McGraw Center invites proposals from faculty, or a faculty member in partnership with a graduate student, to develop digital pedagogy projects. Through this initiative, we seek to encourage faculty to explore creative uses of digital technology that promote active learning and support course learning goals. 

The McGraw Center will ​work​ ​closely​ ​with​ ​the awardees ​to​ ​help​ ​conceptualize,​ ​create,​ manage, and implement projects.​ Our support includes ​instructional​ ​design,​ ​selection​ ​of​ ​appropriate​ ​technologies or existing tools,​ ​web development, custom programming, video or audio recording​ ​and​ ​editing,​ and digitization. We can also provide training for teaching teams and students to ensure the successful completion of the project.

Upon completion of the project, the McGraw Center will award applicants a one-time honorarium of up to $1,800 for each project participant, depending on project scope. Graduate student collaborators do not need to co-teach the course for which the project is proposed. We will ask awardees to share a retrospective assessment of the project with the McGraw Center. 

The deadline for submitting proposals was January 22nd, 2024. The call for 2025 proposals will open in early November, 2024. Projects should be related to courses offered during Spring or Fall semesters following the deadline.

Please note, that many digital pedagogy projects can be supported outside of the grant process. Please contact Ben Johnston and Mona Fixdal to discuss.

Possible project proposals include:

• Technology in support of flipped-classroom teaching or supplemental instructional videos 
• Digital projects including 
  • Digital collections, exhibits, and archives
  • Digital storytelling and oral history projects
  • Podcasting assignments
  • Video production
  • Course-based mapping projects
• Open educational resources (OER)
• New tools that encourage student participation and collaboration  
• Student self-assessment tools, for instance, related to alternative grading practices  
• Innovative use of the Canvas learning management system and related tools 

A complete proposal, approximately 250-500 words in length, should include:

• The names and department affiliations of the applicants 
• A link to or written description of the course for which this project is primarily intended
• A description of the pedagogical goals of the project within the course 
• Specific digital tools, platforms, or approaches you have in mind
• Your availability to develop the project in collaboration with McGraw staff, and an estimated completion date