mellon grantees

We’re happy to announce that ten Austin College faculty members have been awarded Mellon Digital Pedagogy grants beginning in the 2016-17 academic year. The awardees join twenty-three of their colleagues who received grants in the previous two years, with the result that one-third of AC faculty are now directly involved in the “Collaborative Pedagogies in the Digital Age” initiative. Of course, all faculty are involved to the extent that these projects serve as demonstrations and use cases for the entire college, and because the resources of the digital pedagogy designer (Mo Pelzel) and the digital pedagogy fellow (Brett Boessen) are always available to everyone in the AC community.

The new projects span a breadth of academic disciplines and ideas/practices for digital pedagogy. You can read the project proposals of the new grantees by following the links below:

• David Baker and Andrea Petrean (physics and pre-engineering)
• Stacey Battis and Colin Foss (French)
• Tom Blake (English)
• Aaron Block (computer science)
• Shannon Fox-Teichman (digital and book arts)
• Syed Kamal (management)
• Mark Monroe (art)
• Brad Smucker (chemistry)

To learn more about the projects of previous grantees, see these pages for the grant cohorts from 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Congratulations to our new awardees! We look forward to the innovative pedagogy and enriched learning that you will bring to the Austin College community.

We are now inviting proposals from Austin College faculty for the next round of the Mellon Digital Pedagogy grant program. These grants provide faculty with the funding, consultation, and support to augment their courses with digital applications, tools, content, and connections.

Here is the application form with further details. Stipends are $5,000 for the development of a digitally enhanced course that will be offered three times between 2016 and 2023.

At present, there are 23 faculty grantees. You can peruse their applications and project updates at the Mellon Foundation Grant section of the Digital Pedagogy@Austin College website. I am sure that any and all current grantees would be happy to discuss their experience with potential applicants. Of course, you can also contact Mo Pelzel, Brett Boessen, and Patrick Duffey for questions and guidance in preparing your application. Let us know how we can help you become a part of this innovative program.

Applications will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• does the narrative make a persuasive case that student learning will be enhanced by the proposed project?
• does the project involve strategies, practices, applications, and tools that lend themselves to being more widely shared among AC faculty?
• is there clear potential for the project to build over time, incorporating feedback and further development from one iteration to the next?
• does the project invite collaboration with colleagues in the department, in the division, across campus, and/or beyond campus?
• does the project promote active student learning and student knowledge production and creation, preferably in an open networked learning environment?
• is the project feasible and realistic?

The deadline to apply is Friday, June 10, 2016. Applicants will be notified of their status no later than June 30.

We’re happy to announce that eight Austin College faculty members have been awarded Mellon Digital Pedagogy grants beginning in the 2015-16 academic year. The awardees join the first cohort of fifteen grantees, meaning that over 20% of AC faculty are now directly involved in the “Collaborative Pedagogies in the Digital Age” initiative. Of course, everyone is involved to some degree because these projects serve as demonstrations and use cases for the entire faculty, and because the resources of the digital pedagogy designer (Mo Pelzel) and the digital pedagogy fellow (Brett Boessen) are always available to the entire AC community. A third round of eight awards will be distributed next year, further extending the impact of the program. (For more info on the first round of projects and the grant in general, check out the “Mellon Foundation Grant” page.)

The new projects span a breadth of academic disciplines and ideas/practices for digital pedagogy. You can read the project proposals of the new grantees by following the links below:

• Bob Cape (classics)
• Light Cummins (history)
• Ian MacFarlane (psychology)
• Julia Shahid & Sandy Philipose (education)
• Randi Tanglen (English)
• Ivette Vargas-O’Bryan (religious studies)
• Brian Watkins (anthropology)

Congratulations to our awardees! We look forward to the innovative pedagogy and enriched learning that you will bring to the Austin College community.