VIDL awards funding to enhance teaching

The Vanderbilt Institute for Digital Learning distributed more than $32,000 in grants and awards this spring as part of its Innovation Programs initiative.

Faculty and staff were invited to apply for VIDL funding for their projects that met criteria in one of two categories: MacroGrants or Faculty Working Groups.

The 2017-18 spring grant and award recipients are as follows:

Macrogrants

A seed-funding program to promote development and research in digital learning. The goal of this program is to jumpstart innovative projects that may otherwise not be undertaken. Ideally, these will continue to grow beyond the initial seed-funding period.

Awarded to:

John Bradley, senior lecturer in English and writing and interim director of the Vanderbilt Writing Studio

Project: Approaching digital productions as a rhetorical act – exploring best practices for growing one-on-one digital composition support on campus

Nicole Creanza, assistant professor of biological sciences

Project: Digital Learning brings natural sounds to the classroom – integrating digital tool development, project-based learning and long-term birdsong research

Jonathan Rattner, assistant professor of cinema and media arts and art

Project: Nashville Refuge – Southern Refuge a multimedia project that will focus on the daily lives of refugees in Nashville, Tennessee

Guojun Wang, assistant professor of Asian studies

Project: Transcultural learning through virtual and performance spaces

Faculty working groups

Designed to provide faculty with the resources for open-ended experimentation with a novel digital tool, pedagogic approach or research avenue.

Awarded to:

Algorithms as Artifacts Working Group

P.I.: Clifford B. Anderson, associate university librarian for research and learning; professor of religious studies, College of Arts and Science

Virtual Environment Battlespace Working Group

P.I.: Brandon Hulette, associate professor of military science, Department of Military Science

For more details about VIDL’s Innovation Program grants for 2018-19, visit the VIDL website, or contact Ole Molvig, assistant professor of history and assistant director of VIDL.