Education Innovation Fund (EIF) Grant

Deadline for Grant Submissions
October 6, 2023 - 5pm

As we seek to be a university where high-impact innovative learning is at the core of the undergraduate experience, Augusta University directly supports faculty whose efforts reflect this commitment.  As part of the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), Learning by Doing, an Education Innovation Fund (EIF) has been established to support teaching faculty who wish to pursue experiential learning opportunities with their students in an undergraduate course. Experiential learning is broadly defined and includes various methods of active learning pedagogy such as (but not limited to) team based projects, field work, teaching content, research, product development, and service learning. To this end, the Division of Instruction and Innovation invites faculty to submit an EIF Grant proposal that will encourage the development of experiential learning opportunities for AU students.

Funding up to $2000 may support adding an experiential learning component to a class for the first time or extending and further developing experiential learning strategies already in place. This fund is not meant to offset regular departmental or course experiences that should be part of the annual budgeting process or course fee structure. Fall and spring term grants support faculty development or materials that allow for the development or modification of an experiential learning course.  Instructional Design coaches are available for faculty support to carry out course planning and innovation during any grant round by submitting a Project Request to the Center for Instructional Innovation.

NOTE: AU will not support travel that contradicts federal or state restrictions due to COVID-19 or other health concerns, Please check current travel restrictions. 

Eligibility and Allowable Expenses

To be eligible for EIF Grant funding the following requirements must be satisfied:

• Courses for which the grant is written must be given the attribute of EXL in the course schedule.
• Courses for which the grant is written must include at least two of the Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) as shown on the final page of this call for proposals.
• Applicants must be an Augusta University faculty member assigned to teach the course discussed in the proposal.
• Applicants may be 9 or 12 month faculty, provided they are scheduled to return to the university the following fall.

Allowable expenses include the purchase of supplies, equipment, software, assessments, payment of fees, reimbursement for transportation, and other costs directly associated with creating, designing, and implementing the learning experience. Some examples of how EIF Grants have been used in the past are:

• Binoculars for Ornithology course
• Microphones for podcast in Humanities course
• Motors and kits for STEM boards for Physics course
• Facebook posts for Marketing course
• Lego sets for Occupational Therapy course

Instructions to Apply:

Submit a Grant Proposal including the proposal, budget and statement of support combined into a single PDF file to INSTRUCTION_AND_INNOVATION@augusta.edu with the subject line: EIF Grant Proposal.