The Fall 2023 grant cycle was the final cycle for this year. Look for a call from the Teaching and Learning Center for grant opportunities in Fall 2024!
Questions? Please contact us at iip@teaching.ucla.edu.
The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC), in conjunction with the Committee on Instructional Improvement Programs, provides grant funding to support innovation, experimentation, and development of undergraduate curricula and pedagogy. The goal of the Instructional Improvement Grant Program is to improve the quality of undergraduate education through pedagogical experimentation in areas such as student-centered learning, course design, diversity and inclusion in the classroom, and instructional technologies. The program especially values innovations that will have a lasting impact on undergraduate education.
There are usually two grant cycles per academic year. The primary grant cycle occurs in Spring quarter, for proposals to be carried out over the next academic year. The second is during the following Fall quarter, which is contingent on the availability of program funding.
The deadline for the next grant cycle will be announced once the submission period is open.
Consultation
We recognize that there are many areas open to interpretation, and we strongly recommend a consultation with Dr. Kumiko Haas, Director of Instructional Improvements Programs, to clarify likely funding categories and project design. The Instructional Improvement Programs e-mail address is: iip@teaching.ucla.edu.
Consultation is intended to help develop a proposal and is not an opportunity for lobbying on behalf of a proposal. Please schedule consultation appointments well in advance of the deadline for submission. Appointments during the last week of the application period are not available.
Program Requirements
Every grantee is expected to report to the TLC on the outcomes of their project by either publishing or presenting their project in some venue. This could take a variety of forms, such as:
- Speaking (even informally) at an event sponsored by one of the divisions, schools or the Teaching and Learning Center
- An article or editorial in the Daily Bruin or other campus publication
- A brief report, recorded talk, or slide show to be highlighted on the Center’s website
- Publishing in a journal related to teaching effectiveness
Please acknowledge the Center’s support in all presentations and publications.
Note that grantees will not be eligible for additional funding until they have satisfied this requirement.
Guidelines
The CIIP has adopted the following policies:
- Funds will not be provided for travel expenses.
- Funds will not be provided for supplies normally provided by the department, or that are basic to the course.
- Funds will not be provided for hardware or instructional equipment unless they are integrated with programmatic improvements and are exclusively used for instructional purposes. Equipment costs may not exceed $6,000. Requests to equip laboratories or other forms of project implementation are not appropriate.
- There is no remission support for GSRs provided through the Instructional Improvement Program (IIP) major grants. Remissions, TIF, worker’s compensation, and other hiring fees will be the responsibility of the hiring department. These funds should not be included in the budget worksheet. TLC will provide 19900 funding for GSR salaries when possible, which enables fee remission reimbursement from APB for eligible GSRs.
- The copyright to any material, including, but not limited to, technology, software, games, video clips, etc. developed with these funds will reside with the Regents of the University of California.
Characteristics of Successful Proposals
In general, the CIIP has favored proposals which:
- articulate how the proposal will improve student learning or students’ experience
- are innovative or experimental
- have clearly defined objectives and timeline for completion
- have potential for long-term impact and/or continued use
- have a mechanism for determining success or other evaluative components
- include matching support from other sources of funds (from Departments, Deans, grants, etc.)
- make effective use of existing campus resources, such as involving the support of local technology support centers
- indicate that other non-monetary resources necessary to the successful completion of the project have been carefully assessed or secured
- include substantive statements of support from department or program chairs, fellow faculty, and others
- are not intended to support faculty research
- involve equipment requests only as part of a programmatic change
Proposal Submission Checklist
You will be required to upload the following documents in the application system:
- Project Narrative
The project narrative should clearly present the proposed project plan, timeline, description and justification for budget requests, and plans for assessment. Proposals should be tied to courses or articulate how it will affect courses and impacts students learning. Since funding for Instructional Improvement comes from a number of sources and may be restricted for certain purposes, the budget detail is essential.A good project narrative would start with an explicit statement of what you aim to achieve with your work and what impact you expect it to have. Overall, a good narrative would answer the following questions:
- What do you want to achieve with your work? What are your expected results? How will student learning or students’ experience be improved?
- When will you achieve your expected results? What is your timeline?
- How are you planning to achieve this? What will each person (e.g., Graduate Student Researcher, PI/faculty member, staff) do and how many hours will it take in a quarter? Why do you need the material/equipment?
- Why do you think your work will be successful? What assessment plans do you have to measure the success of the project?
Length is not rewarded, but neither is vagueness. The project narrative should not exceed six (6) pages.
- Budget Worksheet
Please be sure to download the Budget Worksheet (Excel file) using the button below. - Letter of Support from Department Chair
To submit your proposal, please click the online application submission button.
Why should I request consultation with the Teaching and Learning Center prior to submitting my proposal?
We recognize that there are many areas open to interpretation, and we strongly recommend a consultation with Dr. Kumiko Haas, Director of Instructional Improvement Programs, to clarify likely funding categories and project design. To schedule a consultation, please contact iip@teaching.ucla.edu.
Consultation is intended to help develop a proposal and is not an opportunity for lobbying on behalf of a proposal. Please schedule consultation appointments well in advance of the deadline for submission. Appointments during the last week of the application period are not available. Phone consultation and e-mail are the most efficient methods for answering specific questions.
What should be included in the project narrative?
A good project narrative would start with an explicit statement of what you aim to achieve with your work and what impact you expect it to have. Overall, a good narrative would answer the following questions:
- What do you want to achieve with your work? What are your expected results? How will student learning or students’ experience be improved?
- When will you achieve your expected results? What is your timeline?
- How are you planning to achieve this? What will each person (e.g., Graduate Student Researcher, PI/faculty member, staff) do and how many hours will it take in a quarter? Why do you need the material/equipment?
- Why do you think your work will be successful? What assessment plans do you have to measure the success of the project?
Length is not rewarded, but neither is vagueness. The project narrative should not exceed six (6) pages.
How much budget detail is necessary?
The budget sheet is an overview of the requested budget. Each element of the budget should be explained in the narrative. A proposal which, for example, requests $8,000 but doesn’t specify how it is to be spent is not likely to pass scrutiny. In general, there is no upper limit to the amount you can request in the proposal. However, for larger grants (exceeding $15K) the committee would likely be more favorable with matching funds from the chair/division or other external grants.
What kinds of monetary assistance are available?
Salary Assistance
Funds can be provided for undergraduate or graduate student assistance. The type of assistance should be consistent with the level of goals to be accomplished. For some specific work, compensation for staff time can be requested. This may include programming time from local computing support centers that goes beyond their normal job description. Consult with the departmental MSO regarding appropriate funding levels or pay scales for Staff Research Associates (SRA), undergraduates, or Graduate Student Researchers (GSR).
Typically, instructional costs (cost for instructors and TAs) are covered by the department. However, Teaching Assistant support can be provided in cases where additional instructional support will be needed due to the changes and improvements in the course you are proposing. Please include in the proposal how TA funding will be provided in the future. In such proposals, please include letters from the chair/dean indicating such support. Again, the departmental MSO can advise on the appropriate levels for TA funding. Please be aware that GSRs and TAs are not interchangeable positions and requests for each will be evaluated on different terms.
There is no remission support for GSRs provided through the Instructional Improvement Program (IIP) major grants. Remissions, TIF, worker’s compensation, and other payroll costs are the responsibility of the hiring department, and will not be provided. Therefore, these fees should not be included in the budget. TLC will provide 19900 funding for GSR salaries when possible, which enables fee remission reimbursement from APB for eligible GSRs.
Equipment
The $6,000 limit is for equipment only. Equipment purchases come from a separate and limited account. The Committee is willing to support activities to develop new courses requiring equipment, which in most cases can be covered by $6,000. They will not fund individual laptop computers merely for presentation needs.
Course Releases
Faculty should only request a course release when the work is beyond the scope of normal course development that is expected as part of the faculty’s responsibility and cannot be easily delegated to a GSR, and the need should be well justified in the proposal. Senate faculty are not eligible to receive stipends for course development, and are generally not eligible to receive summer salary (except under very unusual circumstances and requiring substantial justification). For non-Senate faculty who propose to develop a course, we encourage consultation with Kumiko Haas to determine the best way to support their goals.
Course releases have to be approved by the department chair. Proposers should be aware that being awarded an IIP grant with teaching release does not necessarily guarantee the release. Ultimately it will depend upon the department finding suitable replacements for the proposer’s teaching obligations.
The course release is a set amount that is provided to the department to provide replacement costs, and not a salary replacement. The department can request up to $11,401 (0.13 FTE at Assistant Professor, Step IV) for both faculty and lecturers. For departments that have specified language about course development workloads in the contracts with their unit 18 lecturers, they may request that cost in lieu of a course release.
Also see section on in-kind assistance from TLC below.
What types of in-kind resources can I request from the Teaching and Learning Center?
You may directly include in your proposal a request for resources or assistance (measured by hours) from the Center’s staff. We understand that faculty may not know exactly how many hours it would take to accomplish their objective, so we encourage consultation with TLC to obtain an estimate. In any event, please include a number of hours even if it is an estimate, and a description of the type of support you would need.
- Assessment: We strongly encourage proposals to include assessment components to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposal as well as impact on student learning. Center for Educational Assessment researchers are available for consultation that may lead to assistance with implementation.
- Studio time: Faculty may request assistance in creating online modules of course materials. Material professionally recorded in the Instructional Media Production Studio, as well as consultation with Center staff, can be requested in an IIP Grant.
- Consultation: Faculty may request consultation on a variety of topics related to instruction, including but not limited to, pedagogy, curriculum development, course design, instructional technology, and hybrid/blended course development.
Why should proposals be shared with Local Support Centers prior to submission?
While IIP funds may assist in the development of projects, it is often the responsibility of Local Support Centers (such as the HumTech, SSCERT, and Center for Community Learning) to maintain or further develop such projects. It is important that they have the capability to do so in terms of personnel and/or expertise. Sharing proposals ensures such linkages and sometimes results in “co-developed” projects, which the applicant might not have anticipated as being possible.
What letters of support are required or recommended?
A letter of support from the department chair is required for each proposal. If requesting a course release, the letter from the chair should include explicit approval of release time. Additionally, the Committee encourages applicants to obtain letters of support from local support centers, other faculty who may use the deliverable, and/or other subject matter experts, where applicable.
Can a department submit a request for funding?
Yes! The Committee looks favorably on projects that involve collaboration among faculty. The project will need a “principal investigator” to contact for specific information, but the proposal can represent a department-wide initiative.
Can more than one request be submitted by a person or department at one time?
Yes. There is no penalty for submitting more than one request, although the Committee will look for evidence that priorities are clearly understood, and that sufficient time and other resources are allotted for each proposal. Each proposal will be considered separately.
How soon are applicants notified of the status of a proposal?
Every effort is made to provide a response as soon as possible. Even under ideal conditions, however, it may require several weeks to notify all applicants. Because many of the proposals may also include further negotiation with the appropriate Dean(s), no specific date can be provided for the response. The Committee meets twice a year to consider proposals and most applicants are notified by the end of the quarter.
If approved, how and when are the funds handled?
Funds are transferred to the requesting department and placed in the FAU as given by the department’s MSO via a funding form provided by TLC. Once transferred, the department is responsible for administering and monitoring the funds.
If the project is not completed by June 30th of the grant year, can funds be carried forward to the next fiscal year?
Yes, but carrying funds forward is not automatic. Permission is granted when it is not reasonable for the project to be completed as originally specified. TLC will send out a carry forward request form around the end of the fiscal year for PIs to submit if they need to request their funds be carried forward. Carry forward decisions will be announced in mid-to-late August.
For a list of previously awarded IIP Major Grants, please visit IIP grant showcase.
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