Guidelines for Educational Technology Grants
Academic Information Technology Advisory Committee (ACITAC)
IST
Governance Education Services Committee
Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems (IAIMS) Project
Background and History
The AcITAC, which also serves at the IST Governance Education Services Committee, is composed of representatives of all schools at UMDNJ plus Central Administration. One of its purposes is to encourage the formation of partnerships to advance the use of information technology for education and research.
The IAIMS Operational Phase Project was supported by a five-year grant received in May 2002 from the National Library of Medicine. The IAIMS Project is designed to target the integration and coordination of information technology across UMDNJ's missions. Key areas include educational innovation and enhancement, faculty development, integration of scholarly resources into the clinical record and infusion of informatics into the curriculum.
AcITAC has been awarding grants since 1996 to faculty for the development and use of instructional technology in academic programs throughout the University. Information on previously funded projects can be found at http://www.umdnj.edu/minigweb/ETACminigrant recipients.htm. These grants fund and provide resources for an entire project, but the larger purpose is to encourage faculty to strive for better educational outcomes through the integration of technology. The grant provides seed money in the broader development of an instructional technology infrastructure that seeks to intensify the UMDNJ response to academic issues of access, pacing and customization of learning.
The maximum that can be requested is $20,000.
Types of Projects Encouraged
Projects should be responsive to the educational goals of the University, its Schools and IAIMS. Collaborations among schools and/or departments are encouraged. Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate imaginative and innovative uses of educational technology (e.g., CD-ROM, video streaming, online learning, wireless applications, multimedia, etc.) in one or more areas such as:
- Faculty and student development
- Course design
- Curriculum
- Teaching methods
- Delivery of course content
- Access to materials/learning opportunities normally inaccessible to students
Of particular interest to the IAIMS Project are:
- Integration of informatics teaching into the curriculum
- Development of interdisciplinary Web-based clinical case simulations
- Creation of Web-based programs on topics of interest to all UMDNJ students (such as ethics, health care financing, evidence-based medicine, jurisprudence, population health, and information management)
Successful proposals will:
- define the need for the project
- extrapolate its applicability to the larger University community
- set quantifiable objectives
- describe anticipated outcomes
- describe or design those mechanisms and/or tools which will measure them
- determine what is needed to accomplish these ends
- identify the activities and resources necessary for implementation
Proposals that merely replicate current educational practices may not be funded unless a reasoned argument clearly justifies the anticipated outcomes.
Uses of the Grant Money Awarded
Grant requestors are asked to provide a budget narrative with justification and itemization of anticipated expenses.
Funding may be used for:
- Instructional design expenses*
- Computer programming costs**
- Product beta-testing and revision with targeted populations
- Faculty training
- Work-study students/assistants
- Software to implement educational change
- Required hardware upgrades, system enhancement and/or peripherals necessary to project completion
Some hardware, such as high-end scanners and digitizers will be purchased centrally for shared use by funded projects. All hardware purchased through this grant is the property of UMDNJ and will be re-allocated by AcITAC for future projects.
* Designated Academic Computing Services staff will provide general guidance with instructional design.
** UMDNJ policy requires all computer programming associated with instructional design to be done in-house except in those circumstances where the project is beyond the scope of in-house resources.
Excluded expenses:
- Travel funds
- Salary for the principal investigator or other full-time UMDNJ faculty members or staff.
- Furniture and office supplies
- Computer purchase, including personal digital assistants (PDA's)
Requirements of Grant Recipients
Timetable
Projects must be accomplishable within one year of the date the grant
is funded.
Workshops
& Consultations
While the grant is in progress, grant recipients or their designated representative
must participate in relevant training sessions provided by Academic Computing
Services and attend periodic consultation sessions with instructional
designers.
Reports
During the grant period, regular progress reports and a mid-year written
review assessing project progress must be submitted to the grant administrator.
A Final Narrative Report with assessment of outcomes and a Financial Report must be furnished by the grant recipient to the grant administrator within 90 days following the expiration date of the grants. It is understood that grant reports are made available to the Educational Technology Subcommittee and the IAIMS Operational Phase Grant Principal Investigator. The Final Narrative Report must give details of:
- activities
- conclusions drawn
- estimation of the degree to which project goals were achieved
- statement as to whether the project has helped in securing additional support funds
- how a future generation of the project might be handled
The Principal Investigator and/or grant associates who publish academic papers about the grant funded project are requested to submit a copy of the publication to the grant administrator with the Final Narrative Report or as soon as possible thereafter.
Products
All print, web, video, and audio materials related to the grant project
or program must identify and credit the educational technology grant program
for its support, with the citation: This project was supported by
an Educational Technology Minigrant awarded by the University of Medicine
and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and funded jointly by the Foundation
of UMDNJ and the UMDNJ IAIMS Operational Phase Grant 2 G08 LM06230-03A1
from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.
.
Copies or descriptions of all materials arising from these grants must be supplied to the University by the grantee in accordance with the Universityıs internal procedures.
Grantees must make any product developed available to other UMDNJ faculty for the cost of reproduction and distribution.
All work funded under this program must be conducted in keeping with the policy of the University regarding patents, copyrights and materials transfer. Applicants should consult the following University Web sites for current copies and information regarding these policies:
http://www.umdnj.edu/oppmweb/Policies/HTML/LegalServ/00-01-90-45_00.html
http://www.umdnj.edu/oppmweb/Policies/HTML/AcademicAff/00-01-20-21_00.html
http://www.umdnj.edu/oppmweb/Policies/HTML/LegalServ/00-01-90-45_05.html
Promotion
& Publicity
Publicizing the products of the grant projects to others within and beyond the University community, in order to enhance their impact, is important to the granting agencies (the IAIMS Project and the Foundation of UMDNJ). Grant recipients are strongly encouraged to demonstrate their projects at appropriate conferences, workshops and symposia, both within and outside UMDNJ. They should also pursue opportunities to publish reports of their results in both internal and external publications. Such reports should include acknowledgement of the support from the grant agencies, with the following citation: This project was supported by an Educational Technology Minigrant awarded by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and funded jointly by the Foundation of UMDNJ and the UMDNJ IAIMS Operational Phase Grant 2 G08 LM06230-03A1 from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.
Information regarding these presentations and publications should be forwarded to Laura Barrett, the IAIMS Coordinator, at barrett@umdnj.edu , for inclusion in annual reports to the granting agencies.
The grant recipients' project descriptions and contact information will be posted on the Educational Technology Minigrant Web site so that faculty interested in pursuing similar projects may contact them for information and advice.
AcITAC reserves the right to publicize the grant awards in cooperation with the IAIMS Project.