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, full-time 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 250th Anniversary Fund offers seed funding, typically for one to three years. We anticipate departments will help sustain the innovation after the duration of the funding.

Proposals will be accepted between December 2, 2024, and January 31, 2025. All proposals should be submitted in the application portal by January 31, 2025 (11:59 pm ET). Please email Racheal Jones in the Office of the Dean of the College if you have non-technical questions. If you require technical assistance with submitting your application, please email [email protected].

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 (though the use of a well-designed assessment plan)

This year, faculty are encouraged to submit proposals to:

• Create or revise a methods course (a separate call will be made for these proposals)
• As a faculty team, design a new (or substantially revise an existing) sequence of departmental courses
• Design – and develop an assessment plan for – a capstone experience for a minor
• Develop a course that engages deeply with Princeton-specific resources, such as Special Collections, the Art Museum, or unique scientific equipment
• Pioneer novel ways of using digital methods in a new or existing course

Additionally, we encourage faculty to submit proposals to:

• 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
• 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)
• In consultation with the Program in Community College Engagement or Prison Teaching Initiative, develop a new (or significantly revise an existing) course to teach “in parallel” on campus and either at a partner community college or in an NJ college-in-prison program. Proposals for this BA-level course should emphasize how teaching a parallel course will encourage creative thinking about curriculum or pedagogy at our own institution

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 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 is January 20th, 2025. Projects should be related to courses offered during Spring or Fall semesters following the deadline. Please use the following form to submit your proposal. 

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

Now in its tenth year, the Collaborative Teaching Initiative encourages graduate student and faculty co-teaching, enabling new working and mentoring relationships while maintaining the high quality of undergraduate teaching that Princeton promotes.  We now seek proposals for co-taught courses to be offered in either the fall or spring terms of the 2024-2025 academic year, by faculty and graduate students in departments in the humanities and social sciences.

The initiative allows a faculty member and a graduate student to co-design and co-teach an undergraduate seminar or lecture class.  The aim is twofold:  first, to facilitate graduate student intellectual development and pedagogical and professional experience under the guidance of a seasoned mentor, specifically through the design and full co-teaching of a course; and second, to provide innovative team-taught classes for Princeton’s undergraduates.  

The initiative presupposes genuine and intentional team teaching, combined with pedagogical and professional development for the graduate student instructor, who will play an integral role in both course design and teaching.  Consistent with our policy on instructional responsibilities, faculty involved in the initiative must still assume primary responsibility for the course and must teach at least half the lectures or precepts.  But both faculty and graduate student collaborators should be fully engaged through the course’s duration. 

Proposals for team-taught classes under this initiative will be evaluated first by a departmental committee consisting of the chair, director of graduate studies, and director of undergraduate studies.  The chair will pass the most promising proposals along for consideration by representatives of the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, the Office of the Dean of the Graduate School, and the Office of the Dean of the College. 

The program will support only the most promising course proposals submitted from departments in Divisions I and II. We do not plan a fixed department allotment of courses, but will decide based on each nominated proposal’s quality and promise.

To be eligible, faculty must ordinarily be members of the tenured or tenure-track faculty and hold a current, active appointment at the University for the semester in which they propose to teach. Graduate students must have successfully completed their general examination.  They may be in their regular program or in DCE status at the time the course is taught. 

Additionally, eligible graduate students will have completed all departmental pedagogy training requirements, if any, and will have already demonstrated excellence in teaching as an AI in a previous semester or in the current semester.

Graduate students participating in the program will receive a three-hour AI appointment, regardless of the size of the course.  The appointment may include courses that would not otherwise qualify for an AI allotment.  The three-hour AI appointment is the same for lecture and seminar courses.

For students within their regular program length, the AI appointment will be part of their standard financial support.  For participating students in DCE status, the three-hour AI appointment will fully cover the DCE tuition fee and the stipend rate will be the teaching equivalent of three AI hours.  Students may participate in only one collaboration per year, but may combine this with other AI or AR duties, as appropriate.

Successful applicants will be invited to meet with McGraw Center staff before the semester in which they teach to refine their plan for collaborative teaching and to discuss their goals and co-teaching methods.  Participants in the initiative will also be invited to a lunch hosted by the McGraw Center to discuss course design and pedagogical practice and to hear from this year’s teaching teams about their experiences.

Proposals for co-taught courses to be offered in either the fall or spring semesters in AY 2025-2026 should be submitted by department chairs to Dean Rebekah Peeples, no later than February 3, 2025, for full consideration.  Applications must include a completed application form (see the attachment that accompanies this memo) as well as a draft syllabus and the department chair’s formal endorsement. 

Although we encourage departments to submit all AY 2025-2026 course proposals in this cycle, an additional call for proposals for spring 2026 will go out in the summer if funds remain after this first round of selections. 

McGraw Center staff are available to meet with faculty and graduate student teams to help develop and provide feedback on their proposals.  To arrange for a consultation on your collaborative teaching proposal, contact Jessica Del Vecchio.  

We welcome your questions, as well as your proposals, for this important initiative.

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.