Initiative for Teaching and Learning Excellence projects funded

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has announced its 2004-2005 Initiative for Teaching and Learning Excellence grants, for proposals related to teaching excellence and enhanced undergraduate student learning. Grant winners will be recognized at a public reception hosted by Chancellor Harvey Perlman beginning at 3:30 p.m. March 22 at the Van Brunt Visitors Center, 313 N. 13th St.

The initiative provides more than $500,000 in grants to faculty and staff to support development of state-of-the-art facilities and innovative programming.

Some $427,000 came from the University of Nebraska Foundation Grants Committee. The remainder came from the foundation's year-end effort to secure expendable funds for the Chancellor's Excellence Fund. The chancellor announced the initiative in his annual State of the University address in September, 2004.

"The Initiative for Teaching and Learning Excellence will help faculty and staff create the best undergraduate experience for our students through engaged teaching that focuses on learning," said Barbara Couture, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. "I am delighted that the chancellor has provided funding for a wide range of projects, including ones that bring new technologies into the classroom, involve whole departments and programs, assist individual instructors, and enhance student advising."

Under the initiative, the university obtained proposals from full-time faculty and staff for projects related to the Transition to University Task Force report "Everyone a Learner, Everyone a Teacher."

The task force was created in May 2003 to review and assess the effectiveness of first-year undergraduate orientation programs and courses.

The initiative provides funding in six areas:

* Advising for Life Grants of from $5,000 to $25,000 each to colleges to reform advising to clarify and simplify program requirements, increase faculty-student contact and emphasize advising beyond academics.

* Learner-Centered Classroom Development Grants totaling $250,000 to redevelop classrooms in ways that incorporate new learning technologies and create spaces that enhance interaction between students and teachers.

* Program Innovation Grants of up to $25,000 each to encourage curricular change that focuses on continuing academic program improvement.

* One Campus, Many Views Grants of from $5,000 to $25,000 each to develop curricular and co-curricular programs that engage faculty, staff and students on issues that affect the welfare of the campus, local, national and global communities.

* Teaching and Learning with Technology Grants of from $5,000 to $25,000 each to encourage partnerships to improve teaching using technologies in innovative ways.

* Teaching Fellows Grants designed to recognize faculty who pursue substantive projects involving original scholarly or creative effort aimed at the improvement of teaching and learning, and to engage faculty in public discussion of such work. The grants include a $2,000 stipend and a $3,000 development fund.

The recipients of grants and the titles of their projects are:

Advising for Life Grant: Dan Schmit, Marjorie Kostelnik, Fayrene Hamouz, Jim Walter, Jim Cotter and Karen Kildare, Extending the College of Education and Human Sciences Orientation to Promote Student Efficacy and Success.

Learner-Centered Classroom Development Grants:

* James Goedert, Development of an Interactive Classroom for Freshman College of Engineering & Technology Students.

* Christy Horn, William Glider, Accessible Laboratory Environments for Teaching Biology.

* Marjorie Kostelnik, Renovating 11 Home Economics Building.

* Marjorie Kostelnik, Nancy Miller, Tim Carr, Harriet McLeod, Vince Quevedo, Barbara Trout, Fayrene Hamouz, Georgia Jones, Doug Abbott, Susan Churchill, Pauline Zeece, Charles Ansorge, Room 31 HE: Redesigning a 1973 Classroom to Meet Student Learning Needs of the 21st Century.

* John Osterman, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Laboratory Multimedia.

One Campus, Many Views Grants:

* Nathan Krug and Duncan Case, Kevin Houser, Bruce Fischer, Kip Hulvershorn, Greening the Curriculum: Ecological Literacy in the Built Environment.

* Debra Mullen and Linda Major, Patrice McMahon, Patrice Berger, Pioneering Global Frontiers: Utilizing the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues as a Guide.

Program Innovation grants:

* Mark Awakuni-Swetland, Todd Jensen, Katherine Walter, Omaha Language Learning in the Hands of Students: Student-Centered Native Language Curriculum Development.

* Laurie Bellows, Creating an Interactive DVD to Enhance TA Training.

* Amy Goodburn and Joy Ritchie, Rose Holz, Karen Lyons, Jan Driesbach, Expanding the Women's Studies Curriculum: Supporting Interdisciplinary Course Development and Assessment.

* Glenn Ledder, Bo Deng, David Logan, Irakli Loladze, John Osterman, Mathematical Methods for Biology and Medicine.

* Jim O'Hanlon, John Scheer, Charles Ansorge, Development of a College of Education and Human Sciences Signature Course.

* Paul Savory, Amy Goodburn, Amy Burnett, National Internet Repository for Course Portfolios.

* Andrew Wedeman, Patrice McMahon, Enriching International Studies.

* Tim Wentz, Bruce Fischer, Stuart Bernstein, Team-Learning Assessment in a Multi-Disciplinary Course.

Teaching Fellows Grants:

* John Barbuto Jr., Testing the Impact of Dramaturgical Teaching in the Leadership Classroom.

* Amy Goodburn, Reading and Writing Difference in the English Classroom.

Teaching and Learning with Technology Grants:

* Charles Ansorge, Linda Pratt, Paul Erickson, Marie Barber, Preparing Intentional Students Using Technology.

* Edward Forde and Joan Giesecke, Visual Resources/University Library Digital Instruction Initiative.

* William Glider, David Woodman, Just-in-Time Teaching and Learning in General Biology and Human Physiology Laboratory Courses.

* Kevin Lee, Stephen Ducharme, Carl Lundstedt, Development and Implementation of Interactive Engagement Components for a Large-Enrollment Introductory Physics Course.

CONTACT: David Wilson, Academic Affairs, (402) 472-3386