Brightspace Innovation Program announces grant opportunities for West Lafayette, Fort Wayne and Northwest Instructors and Staff

Purdue’s Brightspace team announces a call for proposals and grant opportunities for instructors and staff at West Lafayette, Fort Wayne, and Northwest to explore Brightspace teaching and learning ideas. The program is seeking innovative research proposals that involve Brightspace and promote high-quality instruction, improved outcomes for learning, or other new and emerging approaches to teaching.

Proposals can span a broad spectrum of innovative teaching and learning projects, and might include, but are not limited to projects that:

  • focus on the exploration of truly new ideas and concepts
  • demonstrate the potential for using Brightspace features and functionality to enhance the learning experience of students
  • testing new Brightspace features to determine how or when they can be most effective
  • use new or emerging pedagogies or technologies
  • involve active learning in new learning spaces on campus or in a digital environment
  • promote online education including digital experiential learning (e.g. virtual labs)
  • efforts that lead to widespread adoption of existing Brightspace features and functionality, especially in new or creative ways
  • use student data in Brightspace to enhance student success and retention

The Program will have a budget of $25,000 for FY 2021 with grant awards ranging from $5,000 to the full $25,000. Proposal criteria for receiving a two-year grant include the use of Brightspace, innovation in instruction, measurement of outcomes, feasibility, timeline, sustainability, transferability to other courses/units/campuses, campus priority/impact and scope of the potential impact. Special consideration and higher value awards will be given to proposals that contain cross-campus collaboration.

Project costs can include training, summer salary support for AY faculty and staff as well as overload support for faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate wages. Funding will not support other faculty and staff salary costs, equipment replacement, online course redesign or remodeling of space.

Proposals are due November 25, 2020. For more information about the program, including how to apply, visit https://www.purdue.edu/brightspace/innovation.php .