SUNY Comprehensive Academic Innovation

Innovative Instruction Technology Grant and Open Educational Resources

2024 Request for Proposals (RFP)

 

The Innovative Instruction Technology Grant (IITG) program encourages SUNY faculty and staff to explore “technologies in service of pedagogy” by extending and experimenting beyond departmental and campus boundaries to pilot, share, and scale-up transformative teaching and learning practices.  SUNY’s objective is to leverage and promote our shared commitment for leading sustainable, impactful innovations.

This year, a new two-stage proposal process will increase SUNY-wide collaboration by inviting all campus faculty and staff to align innovative ideas with the Chancellor’s four strategic pillars (detailed below).  These ideas will be aggregated and organized with all participants being required to participate in a brief community building effort to scale innovations by exploring use of:

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) for teaching and learning, and/or

  • Open Educational Resources (OER) development

Program applicants (individuals, groups, or campuses) must participate in both stages to receive funds, additional partnerships however, may be formed post-award decisions.

 

Stage One: Ideation and Collaboration

  • Applicants first review program updates on the IITG Website detailing rationale for program funds and operational changes.  An information webinar will be available.

  • A brief web-based application form collects high level data on the types of innovations being proposed for investigation.

  • Once aggregated, a series of webinars guided by the data will be offered.  An applicant must attend at least one webinar but may attend as many as desired.

  • Stage One Timeline:

 

Stage Two: Proposal 

  • An RFP site will open at the end of January to accept detailed proposals from what is anticipated to have been assisted through the town hall efforts. 

  • Applicants are strongly advised to review the rubric. guiding funding decisions, and all participants are also invited to be reviewers.

  • Stage Two Timeline:

 

Funding Levels

  • Funding levels will be divided into two categories: 

    • Up to $30,000 for teams to develop and support execution of the seed ideas, or combine with other grants to increase future competitiveness in grants to scale-up the concept.

    • Above $30,000 to support teams working to fulfill the mission of seed project delivery in alignment with the strategic program objectives.  In alignment with past IITG practice, higher level awards are considered between $30-$60,000, but proposals will be considered up to $100,000 with clear evidence of multi-campus/multi-sector support that meets program objectives. 

 

Details of Program Funding Priorities

  • Course redesign is eligible for support. This is noteworthy as previous IITG rounds did not consider redesign unless coupled tightly to a proposed use or development of a technological innovation. For 2024-25, course redesign that leverages OER is strongly encouraged when it includes: 

    • Adoption of OER for high-enrollment courses from the SUNY Ready-to-Adopt Catalog.

    • Creation and adoption and/or adaptation of OER support materials (e.g., AI- supported personalized learning tools, course test banks, etc.) particularly for general education and gateway courses with high Drop/Fail/Withdrawal rates. Special consideration will be given to projects that utilize SUNY-supported platforms or collaboration, such as SUNY Press, Lumen Learning, and the Open Learning Initiative (OLI).

    • Professional development that supports faculty, staff, and students through OER and open pedagogy.

 

Please examine the resources available on IITG Website and if you have questions regarding the material, you may reach out to iitgrants@suny.edu.