Grants
Ongoing Grants
Teaching Excellence Grants on Teaching Leadership
Summer 2012, Fall 2012
Proposals due March 23, 2012
Are you a full-time faculty member on any USC campus who wants to broaden your students' understanding of leadership? Do you want to explore and promote strategies for teaching students about leadership and for developing their leadership skills?
The Center for Teaching Excellence, in collaboration with the Carolina Leadership Initiative, solicits applications for participation in this competitive grant program to strengthen leadership education in courses taught at USC. Applications are welcomed not only from faculty who teach explicitly leadership-themed courses but also from those who would like to incorporate a leadership-related experience of some sort in a course that they teach. Grant funds up to $3,000 may be requested; please see the Request for Proposals for details.
Teaching Excellence Grants on Integrating Learning Beyond and Within the Classroom
Fall 2012, Spring 2013 and Maymester 2013
Proposals due March 23, 2012
Full-time faculty and instructors are invited to submit proposals to develop, implement and assess instructional materials that integrate beyond and within the classroom experiences to achieve course learning outcomes. Many of us can think of activities we would have our students participate in outside of class, but how can we really leverage those activities to maximize their learning benefit? This grant program will enable faculty to explore teaching methods and assignments that give students opportunities to reflect on, apply, and synthesize what they learn from multiple experiences and activities. Grants of up to $3000 will be awarded to support the incorporation of these types of integrative learning activities into courses that do not already include them, or to improve already existing integrative learning strategies. Courses would be taught in the Fall 2012, Spring 2013, or Maymester 2013 semester. More information about this program, including application materials and examples of beyond and within the classroom experiences that could be integrated, are described in the Request for Proposals.
Teaching Excellence Grants on Service-Learning
Fall 2012, Spring 2013 and Maymester 2013
Proposals due March 23, 2012
Service-learning is an active teaching method that integrates robust community service experiences with coursework to provide a context for and enrich an academic curriculum. The Office of Student Engagement and the Center for Teaching Excellence extend an invitation to full-time faculty members in all disciplines to submit proposals to integrate service-learning strategies into their courses. Five service-learning grants of $3000 will be awarded to be used for research, course development, and course support. The proposed service-learning enhancement should align with discipline-specific outcomes for the course.
Past Grants
Teaching Excellence Technology Loan Program: Using an iPad2 to Enhance Teaching
Fall 2011 and Spring 2012
The Apple iPad2 has a responsive multi-touch screen, two cameras, and is designed as an eReader with Web browsing, email, video viewing capabilities and more. Full-time faculty who teach were invited to apply to this technology loan program by completing the attached proposal form. Proposals were reviewed for potential impact on teaching and since the number of recommended proposals exceeded our inventory of iPad2s, successful applicants were determined through a random drawing.
Teaching Excellence Grants on Teaching Leadership
Summer 2011 and Spring 2012
The Center for Teaching Excellence, in collaboration with the Carolina Leadership Initiative, solicited applications for participation in this competitive grant program. Applications were welcomed not only from faculty who teach explicitly leadership-themed courses but also from those whose teaching could be modified to further develop student leadership skills or address other issues relevant to effective leadership.
Teaching Excellence Grants on Service-Learning
Fall 2011 and Spring 2012
The Office of Student Engagement and the Center for Teaching Excellence invited full-time faculty from all disciplines to submit grant proposals for innovative and creative undergraduate service-learning courses in Fall 2011 and Spring 2012. It was required that eligible faculty teach a new service-learning course or significantly enhance an existing service-learning course. Grants may be used for course development, implementation, assessment and other course support. Winning faculty must attend four cohort meetings in Spring and Summer 2011. Applications due February 18, 2011.
Teaching Excellence Grants on Service-Learning
Fall 2011 and Spring 2012
The Office of Student Engagement and the Center for Teaching Excellence invited full-time faculty from all disciplines to submit grant proposals for innovative and creative undergraduate service-learning courses in Fall 2011 and Spring 2012. It was required that eligible faculty teach a new service-learning course or significantly enhance an existing service-learning course. Grants may be used for course development, implementation, assessment and other course support. Winning faculty must attend four cohort meetings in Spring and Summer 2011. Applications due February 18, 2011.
Using an iPad™ to Enhance Teaching and Learning
Fall 2010 and Spring 2011
The Apple iPad™ has a responsive multi-touch screen and is designed as an eReader with Web browsing, email, video viewing and more. Full-time faculty who teach were invited to apply to this technology loan program by completing the attached proposal form. Proposals were reviewed for potential impact on teaching and learning.
Tablet PCs in Teaching
Fall 2010 and Spring 2011
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) extended an invitation to all full-time faculty to submit proposals for projects that utilize specific strategies for implementing Tablet PCs in teaching. For the past 3 years, the CTE had loaned these Tablets PCs to faculty to explore ways to use a Tablet PC in teaching. In this new program, the CTE distributed these Tablet PCs to selected faculty through departmental inventory transfer.
Teaching Excellence Grants on Improving Larger Classes with Technology
Fall 2010
The purpose of these grants, funded by the CTE and the Office of the Provost, was to go beyond solving individual problems with teaching large classes and develop a model of expertise that would help everyone in the University community. Technology would be implemented to increase engagement between faculty and students, students and the course content, and among students. This isn’t just about teaching a class with 200 students. It might address teaching a class that has traditionally been 40 students and is now 80 students - how do you go about making that larger class work as well as the smaller size?
Teaching Excellence Technology Grants: Tablet PCs in Teaching
Summer 2009 - Spring 2010
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), in partnership with Teaching and Technology Services (TTS), extended an invitation to all full-time faculty to submit proposals for projects that investigate specific strategies for using Tablet PCs in teaching. A Tablet PC is a notebook computer with a screen that can be used as an input device. Selected applicants received use of a Gateway Tablet PC beginning Summer 2009 through Spring 2010. The aim of this project was to encourage creative consideration of how to use this specific technology to improve teaching and learning.
Teaching Excellence Grants on Service Learning
Fall 2008 and/or Spring 2009
This grant program helped faculty interested in implementing service-learning strategies in Fall 2008 and/or Spring 2009 disciplinary courses. It was required that the proposed service-learning enhancement directly impact discipline-specific learning outcomes. Faculty received grants of $3500 each to engage in this instructional development project. Faculty new to service-learning were encouraged to apply.
Teaching Excellence Technology Grants: Tablet PCs in Teaching
Summer 2008 - Spring 2009
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), in partnership with Teaching and Technology Services (TTS), extended an invitation to all full-time faculty to submit proposals for projects that investigate specific strategies for using Tablet PCs in teaching. Selected applicants received use of a Gateway Tablet PC beginning Summer 2008 through Spring 2009. The aim of this project was to encourage creative consideration of how to use this specific technology to improve teaching and learning.
Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Technology Grants: Classroom Response Systems
Summer 2008
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) extended an invitation to all full-time faculty to investigate the use of classroom response systems in their teaching. A classroom response system allows an instructor to obtain instant feedback from students using remote control devices and a portable receiver. The classroom response systems can be used to ask conceptual questions during class and receive equally important feedback from students in a timely manner. Classroom response systems can be used in other productive ways such as integrating peer instruction, formative assessment, and student engagement. Those receiving the grant were loaned a set of iClicker™ classroom response systems for the summer semesters.
Teaching Excellence Grants on Fundamentals of Inquiry
2007 - 2008
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), in partnership with the Office for University 101 Programs, extended an invitation to all full-time Columbia faculty to develop plans for new courses and course strategies that teach the fundamentals of inquiry to undergraduate students in all disciplines. The primary goal of this initiative was to foster innovative courses and instruction methods, resulting in an expanded number of undergraduates engaged in inquiry.
Teaching Excellence Grants on Writing Across the Curriculum
2007 - 2008
This grant program incorporated Writing Across the Curriculum, a long-standing pedagogical approach that values writing as a mode of learning. Writing Across the Curriculum empowers faculty across the disciplines to integrate writing into their content courses in meaningful and effective ways. This grant program utilized the best practices of Writing Across the Disciplines, including faculty development and interdisciplinary collaboration, to prepare participants from many disciplines to teach and evaluate student writing.
Teaching Excellence Technology Grants: Tablet PCs in Teaching
2007 - 2008
The Center for Teaching Excellence, in partnership with Teaching and Technology Services (TTS), loaned a Gateway Tablet PC for one year to sixteen full-time faculty. A Tablet PC is a notebook computer with a reversible screen that can be used with a stylus as an input device. This technology allows for the versatility of writing on your PC like you would on paper. This project's aim was to provide the technology to faculty in order to explore new options of pedagogy involving communication, collaboration, and feedback using a Tablet PC.
Teaching Excellence Grants on Fundamentals of Inquiry
Summer 2007
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), in partnership with the Office for University 101 Programs, awarded 13 Teaching Excellence Grants of $3500 each to faculty interested in joining an interdisciplinary team and to design a course that includes the best elements of inquiry across disciplines. The primary goal of this initiative is to foster innovative courses and instruction methods, resulting in an expanded number of undergraduates engaged in inquiry.