Tier 3 (Catalyst Grants) Program

The following themes and project ideas are not intended to be a prescriptive or comprehensive list; however, these should provide prospective applicants with some sense of the range and scale of proposals that TLC will consider funding via the Tier 3 Catalyst Grant program.

Course-level Enhancements

Tier 3 grants may fund proposals that create new courses and/or substantially change existing courses, integrate new teaching strategies evidenced to enhance learning, provide teaching development activities for groups of instructors and/or TAs within a department to foster student engagement and/or belonging in the classroom, and/or introduce new instructional materials, equipment, or educational technology into a course. Instructional equipment and materials purchased with grant funds should remain departmental property for future use by other instructors.

Project Examples:

• Developing new online modules or units for existing courses.
• Incorporating evidence-based teaching practices such as active and collaborative learning.
• Redesigning courses to align with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles for accessibility.
• Integrating new instructional applications such as multimedia tools and technology; for instance, virtual reality (VR), open AI, 3D printing, or drone-generated images and videos.
• Creating teaching development workshops for TAs to enhance instructional effectiveness.

On-Campus, Hybrid, and Online Course Development

Tier 3 grants may fund proposals supporting instructors in the development or improvement of courses taught in any modality of instruction where the overarching goal is to create accessible and engaging learning experiences for students. This theme should be considered by instructors who are interested in integrating educational technology to enable innovative teaching practices in their on-campus, hybrid, and/or online courses taught in the summer or the academic year. In addition to funding, the TLC also provides in-kind support for these projects in the form of filming, editing, design, and the creation of graphics and other multimedia.

Whether instructors are transitioning an existing course from one modality to another or developing a new technology-enhanced course from the ground up, grant-supported activities should provide instructors the resources and in-kind support from the TLC needed to ensure courses meet high-quality instructional standards and adhere to UCLA Academic Senate guidelines for the establishment or modification of a course.

Project Examples:

• Transforming a traditional lecture course into a fully online or hybrid format.
• Redesigning a synchronous course developed during the pandemic and delivered via Zoom into a fully online course.
• Designing interactive, multimedia-rich online content, such as video lectures or virtual labs.
• Developing course materials for asynchronous online learning, including self-paced assessments.
• Piloting new tools for virtual collaboration, such as AI-driven discussion forums or team-based learning applications.
• Conducting instructor or TA teaching development sessions to support effective pedagogy.
• Creating Open Educational Resources (OER).

Innovation in Access and Opportunity 

Tier 3 grants may be used to support course-level projects aspiring to create inclusive learning environments that cultivate belonging and a growth mindset among students as well as encourage the adoption of equitable and accessible teaching and assessment practices. Instructors may use funding to (re)design courses, integrate new evidence-based teaching practices, or develop instructional materials that address the needs, perspectives, and lived experiences of diverse learners. Successful proposals will consider strategies to broaden participation across multiple courses or course offerings within a department or academic program, ensuring interventions can be scaled to have a large and continuous impact over time.

Project Examples:

• Revising syllabi and course materials to diversify the representation of authors or perspectives in a given field.
• Creating workshops or resources to support instructors and TAs in adopting inclusive teaching practices.
• Developing interventions to reduce equity and opportunity gaps in student success.
• Supporting the conversion of digital course materials to accessible, mobile-friendly formats compliant with ADA policies and legal standards.

Grant recipients will have access to pedagogical and course design expertise within the TLC and the ability to collaborate with teaching support units across campus to ensure their projects are impactful and sustainable.

Experiential Learning 

This category of Tier 3 grant proposals provides funding to support the integration or enhancement of experiential learning opportunities into courses. Instructors may design learning activities that are relevant to students’ lives or career interests, deepen student engagement with the course material or topic, and support the translation of course concepts into real-world applications. 

Project Examples:

• Creating community-engaged research components or community partnerships within a course.
• Developing simulations or project-based learning modules.
• Implementing fieldwork or new laboratory experiments into a course.
• Integrating research and scholarship into a course (e.g., designing a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) course or module).

TLC staff can assist with project design for grant funding used to provide resources for piloting experiential learning models, integrating them into courses, and evaluating their impact on students or other project stakeholders.

Interdisciplinary Collaborations

Tier 3 grants may be leveraged to encourage instructors across disciplines to collaborate on innovative curricular initiatives. Projects should promote interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary learning and address complex, real-world challenges that span multiple fields of study.

Project Examples:

• Designing a co-taught interdisciplinary course.
• Creating courses that explore topics from multiple disciplinary perspectives.
• Developing interdisciplinary research or capstone projects for students.

The TLC offers in-kind support for curriculum development and course design to help instructors navigate the challenges of interdisciplinary course development and opportunities for unique collaborations that can amplify the meaning and relevance of myriad areas of research and scholarship that may be perceived as seemingly disparate topics for students.

Pedagogical Research

Tier 3 grants may fund proposals that promote pedagogical experimentation, discovery, and dissemination of findings, which document the effect of course-level change strategies aimed at improving the student experience and reducing educational inequities. Pedagogical research, also known as the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) or action research, is the systematic study of classroom instruction. It involves inquiries about how, when, and where student learning takes place; identifying teaching and/or curricular strategies that improve student learning, engagement, and belonging; and then publicly sharing study results with colleagues. Successful Tier 3 pedagogical research proposals will bring together investigatory teams to identify research themes and questions, pilot and evaluate course-level projects that elevate teaching excellence, accelerate instructional innovation, and produce generalizable knowledge beneficial to the broader UCLA educator community.  

Project Examples:

• Designing a mixed-method or quasi-experimental study to investigate the effectiveness of an instructional approach or intervention.
• Exploring the impact of technology integration into the classroom.
• Studying strategies designed to enhance student engagement or study skills.
• Analyzing the effect of differentiated instructional approaches in the curriculum.
• Conducting action research to iteratively improve the quality of instruction.

The TLC supports a community of practice, which brings together educators and scholars from across the disciplines to engage in pedagogical research discussions. The TLC also provides support for IRB applications and quantitative and qualitative research studies. Tier 2 grants may be leveraged to defray publication costs for a successful pedagogical research project. 

Restrictions

• Grant funds may not be used to supplement standard classroom expenses, including consumables and basic instructional supplies, that should be covered by departmental budgets.

For all technology-related requests, applicants must consult with the Bruin Learn Center of Excellence to ensure alignment with campus IT policies and scalability requirements.

Checklist with Application Requirements

• Department chair’s endorsement 
• Instructor Name(s)
• Course
  • Course Syllabus (a draft is acceptable)
• Request (select category; include “other”) 
• Project Description (<1200 words)
  • What do you hope to achieve with this project? 
  • What are your expected outcomes? 
  • How will you evaluate the effectiveness of your intervention or its impact on students?
  • How does this activity elevate teaching in alignment with UCLA’s strategic plan? 
  • How do you plan to broaden the longer term impact of this project?
• Proposed Project Timeline (project period)
• Funding requested (Include an exact budget for request, without exceeding the maximum specified limits)  → budget worksheet?
• Brief budget justification (<500 words)
• Departmental FAU to which funds will be transferred from TLC if the grant application is approved
• Any anticipated in-kind departmental/instructor contributions/support (optional)