In the spirit of all new ideas are welcome to apply for the Innovations in Teaching with Technology Awards. A proposal must focus on student learning, and priority will be given to projects that, if proven successful, can be replicated throughout the university.

  • Cross-disciplinary projects are encouraged, but not required.
  • Proposals that call for the use of collaborative teaching and learning strategies and student use of emerging technologies for teaching and learning are encouraged. These projects should be considered as proof-of-concept projects that are new to the University of Iowa.
  • Projects that primarily improve the instruction of undergraduates are encouraged, but this program is not limited solely to undergraduate education.

A total of $100,000 is available, with the number of awards being determined by the quality of the applications. A single award or multiple awards may be made.

Applications can be made to support the costs of hardware, software, and personnel. However, funding is not available to support faculty salaries or for projects that may be technologically sophisticated but are not oriented toward participatory learning.

Benefits of the award

  • Funding support.
  • Resources and consultation time with staff.
  • The award can be for a pilot project that has significant potential for a “Phase II” follow-up project, which could compete for a second award.

Expectations of award winners

  • Use the funding to incorporate or enhance the use of technology to improve student learning.
  • Assess the impact of the technology on student learning in a particular course.
  • Help build a culture of teaching excellence in their departments, colleges, and the university by actively disseminating the results of their efforts through workshops, mentorship, publications, virtual showcases, classroom teaching demonstrations for other instructors, poster presentations, conference presentations, or similar peer-to-peer learning opportunities.
  • Make two presentations about the award to UI campus audiences.

Other considerations

The selection committee also will consider the following:

  • The potential for broader applications beyond a single course, discipline, or the University of Iowa.
  • The possibility for collaboration among instructors in different courses or across disciplines.
  • Whether the project demonstrates a fast follower approach in that the applicant’s efforts will result in fairly rapid payback for other instructors and courses.

Application Process

As part of the application process, you'll be asked to respond to the following questions.

In this section, you must:

  • State the overall unit/course level learning outcomes that you have for your students.
  • Outline the specific learning objectives that you have developed to help your students achieve these unit/course level outcomes.
  • Describe the learning gap(s) you have identified in your lesson/module/unit/course. A gap is the disparity between what students actually learn and what they are expected to learn.

In this section, you must:

  • Describe the teaching intervention(s) that you intend to implement.
  • Describe the technology that will facilitate the teaching intervention(s).
  • Discuss how these interventions will close the learning gap(s) you have identified.
  • Describe how you plan to implement your idea into the lesson/module/unit/course.

In this section, you must:

  • Describe why this technology will assist in the intervention.
  • Share how the unique features of this technology will aid in achieving the outcomes identified in the proposal and provide specific examples when possible.

In this section, you must:

  • Determine how long will it take for you to realize the effectiveness (evaluation timeline).
  • Describe what your expected outcome and how you will achieve it. 
  • Explain your instruments for measuring baseline, if applicable, and improvement (e.g., course surveys, exams, data set, etc.).

Assistance in developing an evaluation strategy is available. Please contact the Office of Teaching, Learning, and Technology if you would like to schedule a consultation. 

In this section, you must:

  • Detail anticipated costs that would be funded by this award. 

In this section, you must:

  • Specify what you already have access to, if appropriate, and what you want funding for.
  • Include external consultants and partners and any required contract or licensed services.
  • Specify if you are using other funding sources for this project and what needs are being covered by these.
  • Please note that the this award will not fund faculty time.

In this section, you must:

  • Describe how funding will be sustained for this project on an ongoing basis, assuming success.

We suggest discussing your proposal with your IT director prior to finalizing your application to ensure required technology can be implemented.