Provost's Learning Innovations Grants (PLIG)
Questions? Contact Michael Starenko via plig@rit.edu
The Provost’s Learning Innovations Grants (PLIG) program was developed to broaden and enrich the learning experience of RIT students by funding faculty-initiated projects that enhance student learning and:
- Integrate funding with institute priorities
- Support dissemination of results to RIT faculty
- Support the scholarship of teaching and learning
The 2023 PLIG focuses exclusively on two areas:
Active learning involves engaging students in the learning process, requiring students to participate in meaningful learning activities that cause them to think about what they are doing. This instructional method is frequently associated with collaborative learning and experiential learning, in which students learn by working together to apply, solve, evaluate, or create. This PLIG focus area invites proposals for exploring and applying an active learning model to (re)design and deliver all or part of a course (or set of courses).
Strong proposals for Active Learning Across Large and Small Format Classes will:
- Incorporate a plan to measure the effectiveness of the active learning component of the (re)designed course(s)
- Have the potential to be adopted by faculty teaching in the new Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED) and renovated Wallace Library facilities (Fall 2023)
The university has identified student success, retention, and on-time graduation as a key priority. Gateway courses provide students with the opportunity to learn foundational skills and knowledge that they will need to be successful in the rest of their college courses. When students don’t do well in these gateway courses, they are often required to repeat a course that causes them to fall behind in their program, creating a high-risk of attrition. This results in lower graduation rates. This PLIG focus area invites proposals that identify strategies that might reduce DFW rates, ensure success in gateway courses, or offer strategies for improving achievement gaps of all our students.
Strong proposals for Student Success and Retention in Gateway Courses will:
- Incorporate a plan to measure the effectiveness of the student success components of (re)designed course(s)
- Have the potential to be adopted by faculty teaching similar courses or using similar methods to ensure broader success across the university
Use of Funds
Provost’s Learning Innovations Grants may range from $1,000-$5,000 Examples of the use of grant funds may include:
- Course release (reasonable, actual replacement costs for full-time, tenured, or tenure-track faculty members removed from teaching)
- Funding for student workers (graduate or undergraduate), teaching assistants, and related materials
- Development of new technology-based learning tools and/or environments
- Technologies or equipment required by the project that are not normally provided by the department/college
- Resources for research design and consultation, data collection and aggregation, instrument development and/or purchase, secure data storage, data analysis, and report generation
- Travel to support research activity and/or meet with potential funding sources
Call for Proposals will open
November 16, 2022
Applications due by 11:59 pm ET
January 25, 2023
Full Project Plan (first deliverable) due to CTL
August 25, 2023
Preliminary Findings (second deliverable) due to CTL
January 12, 2024
Summary of Final Findings and Budget (final deliverable) due to CTL
August 23, 2024
PLIG Showcase (project dissemination event)
November 2024
Proposal Evaluation
The Center for Teaching and Learning is committed to working with RIT faculty to explore, develop, pilot, and disseminate innovative modes and models of teaching and learning. To ensure that we allocate university resources to practices that have promise for or demonstrate innovation, we have developed a definition of and rubric for evaluation of teaching and learning practices.
Definition of innovative teaching and learning practices at RIT
“Any teaching strategy, approach, technique, or tool that is used, or used in a new way, to improve the student educational experience, and can be implemented widely at RIT.”
Evaluation Rubric
The rubric the PLIG selection committee uses is based on the potential success and acceptance of an innovation by looking at six qualitative dimensions:
| EVALUATION CRITERIA | Low | Mid-Range | High | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Utility |
|
||||||||
| Creativity | Standard approach | Incremental improvement or new practice or tool | Breakthrough approach or new paradigm | ||||||
| Efficacy | No evidence approach will work or evidence approach will not work | Some evidence approach will work | Strong evidence approach will work | ||||||
| Feasibility | Unfeasible or unrealistic | Reasonably feasible or realistic | Highly feasible or realistic | ||||||
| Risk | Unacceptable level of risk or high probability of failure | Moderate level of risk or likely to produce desirable outcomes | Acceptable level of risk or highly likely to produce desirable outcomes | ||||||
| Resistance | High resistance/ minimal acceptance | Some resistance/ moderate acceptance | Minimal resistance/ wide acceptance | ||||||
Application
Download the application form for 2023 PLIG. Completed application forms should be emailed to plig@rit.edu no later than 11:59 pm ET, January 25, 2023.