Academic Innovation Grants

Academic Innovation Grants

The Academic Innovation Grant funds innovative projects that are designed to support specific strategic initiatives related to teaching and learning. Former Academic Innovation Grant recipients have created libraries of instructional videos, collaborated with students to create course materials, and developed unique ways to engage students who are learning remotely.

Successful applicants will receive up to $2500 in sponsorship of a project related to one or more of the initiatives listed below. The application deadline is March 24, 2025.

Objectives 

• To encourage faculty to develop innovative teaching strategies to enhance teaching and learning;
• To incentivize specific strategic initiatives that make learning more accessible and engaging to a diverse student population;
• To provide support for projects that enhance the scholarship of teaching in Hood’s academic disciplines.

Strategic Initiatives

All applications must align with one or more of the following initiatives related to teaching and learning:  

SI 1: Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning

Projects submitted under the Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning initiative will focus on transforming the materials, environment, or approach of teaching to accommodate the needs and abilities of all learners.

SI 2: High Impact Practices

Projects submitted under the High Impact Practices initiative will sustainably integrate one of the following experiential HIPs into a course: internships, undergraduate research, community-based learning, capstone courses, or global learning. Successful applicants will clearly articulate how their proposal connects to a high-impact practice and demonstrates one or more of the eight key HIPs features. 

SI 3: Inclusive Teaching

Projects submitted under the Inclusive Teaching initiative should demonstrably show how their goals foster social justice, improve classroom climate, value diverse social identities, and promote pathways to participation for underrepresented groups. 

SI 4: Open Pedagogy and Open Educational Materials

Projects submitted under the Open Pedagogy and Open Educational Resources initiative should show how the applicant will do one of the following: replace an assigned textbook with an existing OER; adapt, update, or combine existing OER into a new resource; create an original OER; or integrate open pedagogy into a course to support student engagement and learning. For more information about how to incorporate OER into a course, faculty should review the library’s OER guide and consult with their liaison librarian. Priority will be given to proposals that engage with best practices around accessibility, equity, and representation.

SI 5: Innovative Use of Technology

Projects submitted under the Innovative Use of Technology initiative will creatively integrate new programs, learning platforms, databases or online archives, and/or devices into a course. Applications should demonstrate how this new technology will be deployed to enhance students’ information literacy, introduce new forms of engagement or assessment into the classroom, or get students to critically engage with new sources of information or machine-learning.

Benefits

Successful applicants will receive a stipend of up to $2,500 for a project designed to enhance teaching and learning. Funding may be provided in the form of reimbursement for expenses (such as technology, experiences, materials, speaker fees/honoraria, or relevant professional development) or in the form of taxable compensation. 

Eligibility and Responsibilities

Applicants must be annual contract (.5 or greater) faculty at Hood College. Faculty who are awarded a Board of Associates or Summer Research Institute grant are not eligible for this grant opportunity in the same fiscal year. The Academic Innovation Grant does not support new courses or new curriculum development.

In accepting a grant, the faculty member agrees to:

• Submit an electronic final report (maximum 500 words), including a financial report, to the CTL Advisory Board by January 2025 or May 2025, depending on when the project is implemented and evaluated.
• Write a short description of the grant work for the CTL website.
• Continue to work at Hood College for at least one year after completion of the grant work.