Andrew W. Mellon Grant Initiatives

This program is designed to engage faculty in activities that will enable them to acquire, improve, and advance their capabilities in using information technologies to transform the teaching and learning process. The specific objectives of the program are to:

provide training in the use of currently available software applications and information technologies (a sort of "core curriculum" for faculty technology skills);
provide expert support and consultation necessary for faculty to integrate information technologies into their courses;
establish collaborative networks of faculty and students to work together to integrate information technology into research and the curriculum;
provide incentives for faculty to develop and implement Web-enhanced or Web-based courses and other more innovative uses of information technology [note that the grant funds individual faculty technology projects; this is in contrast to the Bush initiatives (see below)].

Faculty technology projects during the 1998-99 academic year (the first year of the grant) ranged from using spreadsheets for recording grades, to holding virtual office hours via WebBoard, incorporating e-mail into courses, and creating course websites. Of the sixteen projects, most involved the development of course websites or integration of WebBoard into a course. At least 29 courses offered at Xavier were affected by these projects. (WebBoard is a Web-based conferencing system that itself is a result of the Mellon grant; read more about it at http://cat.xula.edu/webboard/.)

During summer 1999, eight faculty members were supported by the grant. All but one of the projects involved the development of course websites (the other project involved the development of an interactive CD-ROM). These projects were integrated into at least fourteen courses at Xavier.

During the 1999-2000 academic year, ten faculty members either continued projects begun during summer 1999 or launched new projects in the fall 1999 semester. These projects included course website development, assessments of technology use in the classroom, use of electronic communication and the JSTOR database in the teaching and learning process, and multimedia development for CD-ROM.

During summer 2000, several faculty members developed design documents as the first phase of the Rich Media Projects initiative.

Finally, during the 2000-01 academic year, 10 Xavier faculty members are participating in projects that are supported by the Mellon grant. These include faculty involved in phase II of the Rich Media Projects Initiative and faculty who are using Web Course Management Systems (e.g., WebCT, eCollege, Blackboard) in their courses.

Next, let's look at some more faculty development initiatives funded by a Bush-Hewlett grant.