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CFE/Lenovo Instructional Innovation Grants Program

 

By

UNC CFE and Lenovo

Technological change continues to influence life and work on campus and beyond. UNC-CH instructors are using technology to explore new opportunities to engage students, lower barriers to student access, and make their own teaching practices more satisfying and effective. The Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) works with faculty members to explore the appropriate and effective use of digital technologies, in partnership with other campus organizations such as ITS Educational Technologies, OASIS, and University Libraries.

In 2017, Lenovo decided that CFE would receive approximately $400,000 over the next four years to support instructional innovation on campus. The funding is part of the University’s renegotiation of the Carolina Computing Initiative contract with Lenovo. As a result, CFE announced a competitive grants program in 2017 and made the initial round of awards in 2018-19, and a subsequent round of awards in 2019-2020.

2021-22 Call for Proposals

The Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE)/ Lenovo Instructional Innovation Grants Program invites applications from faculty who seek to enhance teaching and learning by implementing teaching innovations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) during the 2021-22 academic year. Proposals are welcome that enhance any aspect of teaching and learning with undergraduate, graduate, or professional students at Carolina. Proposals could address any number of factors where one might leverage instructional technologies, digital learning tools, or pedagogical approaches to enhance student learning and success. Prior projects have been developed in partnership with various campus or school-based professional staff (OASIS, ITS Educational Technologies, Libraries, ITS staff in a UNC-CH school). Previously funded project descriptions and outcomes are posted on the CFE website.

Digital technology continues to evolve and with it opportunities to reimagine nearly every aspect of teaching and learning. In response to teaching during the global pandemic, Carolina faculty have increased their use of campus-supported instructional technologies (Sakai, Zoom, PollEverywhere, etc.) and are teaching in various modes of teaching, including some who will have both in-person and remote students. Given the challenges of this evolving context and the lessons learned from teaching remote and/or hybrid courses, you may have new ideas about innovative teaching methods or instructional technologies that could improve your class or ensure the success of all students. Some faculty may want to explore teaching innovations that ensure their courses can be taught well to both in-person and remote students or across various modes of teaching. Others may want to propose and develop innovations that support discipline-specific needs or explore ways to apply universal design principles to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion to ensure that all students can succeed in their courses.

This grants program is designed to support faculty who want to explore teaching innovations using instructional technologies and pedagogical methods that engage and challenge students to learn, lower barriers to student access, or make your own teaching more engaging, satisfying, evidence-based, and effective. We seek to support projects and outcomes that can be relevant and shared with other instructors or that contribute to new knowledge related to effective teaching.

Any eligible faculty member or instructor interested in developing a proposal should review the following information and contact the CFE with questions.

This grants program began as part of the Carolina Computing Initiative (CCI) that ensures Carolina students have easy access to high-quality and affordable technology. In 2017, Lenovo made a multi-year commitment to provide an annual rebate from CCI sales to support this grants program administered by the Center for Faculty Excellence. Twenty-two projects have been funded across two separate calls that have supported classroom innovations, campus infrastructure, interdisciplinary projects, and AR/VR/XR or other emerging technologies in teaching. Please review the Prior Grant Awardees listed under two tabs on the CFE website. The CFE and partner organizations including ITS Educational Technologies, OASIS, Digital and Lifelong Learning (formerly Carolina Office of Online Learning), and University Libraries are excited to continue this opportunity to support the work of faculty or instructors who are exploring new ways to educate, engage, and empower Carolina students in any school or program of study.

The primary goals of the grants program for 2021-22 include:

  1. Empower faculty members and academic units to advance instructional innovation goals via applications of existing or new instructional technologies or digital tools
  2. Increase faculty awareness and instructional uses of digital solutions and/or emerging technologies in teaching courses at Carolina
  3. Support projects that seek to enhance various aspects of teaching across different modalities (in-person, remote, or hybrid students) to strengthen student success

Faculty members or instructors in any school or department at UNC-Chapel Hill are eligible to apply. Individuals or teams can submit proposals. Students (graduate or undergraduate) can be named as collaborators on team proposals. The Principal Investigator (PI) must be a faculty member and cannot apply for, or be listed as a collaborator on, more than one proposal for the current year’s grant cycle.

Grants can be used to enhance any form of instruction or learning at UNC-CH. Proposals do not have to be linked to a credit-bearing course. Applicants have broad discretion to consider a wide range of instructional or learning goals that technology can support. We encourage applicants to review the summaries of previously funded CFE/Lenovo projects for examples of how their proposals might build upon existing campus resources or infrastructure or how they might address unique instructional innovations.

Examples of goals that might be the impetus for a proposal under this program include the following:

  • Enhance specific courses, curricula, or programs through digital transformation
  • Promote interdisciplinary teaching and learning across disciplines in creative ways
  • Make authentic learning experiences more affordable, accessible, and/or scalable
  • Enhance remote, hybrid, or e-learning courses or learning experiences
  • Support student learning using mobile devices or mobile learning tools
  • Develop creative Open Educational Resources (OER) to enhance teaching and learning
  • Pilot an innovation that may serve as a foundation for a larger external grant and/or technology commercialization
  • Conduct a project in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) on innovative teaching
  • Implement new teaching strategies or tools to enhance student skills in research

A strong proposal will note how the project aligns with the strategic initiatives outlined in Carolina’s strategic plan, Carolina Next: Innovations for Public Good, the new IDEAs in Action general education curriculum revision, or the Quality Enhancement Plan.

Approved projects should be ready for full implementation by or before the Spring 2022 semester.

The use of instructional technology or digital resources is a requirement for this program, but proposals are not limited to the use of specific technologies or current campus-supported tools. For example, some proposals may feature the implementation of emerging technologies such as Augmented/Virtual/Extended Reality (AR/VR/XR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), or Internet of Things (IoT) while others may make innovative use of common, widely available technologies. Prospective applicants are encouraged to familiarize themselves with technologies already available and supported on campus.

We expect every proposal to develop a plan for assessment of the impact on your project on teaching or on student learning, attitudes, growth, engagement, or success (with support from CFE) and to disseminate your findings through a white paper, publication(s), and/or presentation(s).

The CFE will partner with each grant recipient to refine the plan for assessment to evaluate project impacts. In addition, grant recipients are expected to respond to brief quarterly reports and to participate in CFE evaluation activities of the overall grant program. If you plan to budget for assessment support within your academic unit, please check with the CFE first to clarify how unit support can complement CFE support. Recipients may seek to adopt assessment or evaluation methodologies modeled on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) to publish or present their findings at disciplinary or teaching conferences. Others may be interested in contributing to a departmental or cross-disciplinary workshop or in participating in the CFE Faculty Showcase on Teaching or conferences beyond Carolina. Grant recipients should include acknowledgment of support from the CFE/Lenovo Instructional Innovation Grants Program at UNC-CH in any scholarly products. Staff from the CFE and relevant partner organizations (including ITS Educational Technologies, OASIS, and University Libraries) often support grant recipients in these scholarly activities. Grant recipients may receive additional support by participating in one of several Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) hosted by the CFE or other units that relate to innovative technologies used in their projects. Examples include the CFE SoTL FLC or the XR FLC managed by University Libraries.

Proposals will be reviewed using the following criteria (not listed in order of importance):

  • Personal Commitment / Interest in Proposal: Brief statement of your personal interest, investment, and effort available to implement
  • Proposed Innovation and the Role of Technology: Explain the importance and role of any technology chosen to the proposed innovation
  • Alignment with Learning Goals: Identify and clearly articulate how the innovation will align with the stated learning goals and enhance student learning. Where appropriate, note how universal design principles or matters of diversity, equity, or inclusive teaching inform the proposal or project
  • Impact: Describe the significance within a course or curriculum, the number of participants affected (# of students per semester), or any potential for use in instructional settings beyond UNC-CH
  • Implementation Plan: Outline the project timeline and milestones (note that projects funded should be implemented before or during the Spring 2022 semester)
  • Feasibility: Note how the proposal can be completed within the stated timeframe using existing campus or technical resources or new support to be developed
  • Technology Support and Sustainability: Consider the shelf-life of any proposed technology innovation noting future updates and any ongoing costs, and consider ongoing leadership, administration, technology support, and partnerships or future funding that may support project longevity
  • Relevance: Explain how the project builds upon existing or contributes to new, generalizable, knowledge or technologies related to teaching and learning

No minimum or maximum has been established for the number of proposals to be funded (prior calls funded 10-12 projects), but the CFE will cap the funds to ensure longevity and impact of the program. The goal is to support instructional innovation across a wide range of academic disciplines and schools at Carolina.

Applicants may request funding to cover costs directly related to their proposals including technology, training, faculty stipends, staff, and student salary support. The CFE will provide some assessment and evaluation support for each funded project. Funds for this program are NOT to be used to support research, travel, or other activities that are not directly related to the proposal implementation.

Grant awards will range from $500 to $25,000. Please indicate the expected range in your application as follows: (a) $500 to $5,000, (b) >$5,000 – $15,000, or (c) >$15,000 – $25,000.

Note: Budget for training, faculty stipends, staff, or student salary support should be directly related to a deliverable that will have sustainable use at UNC-CH for favorable consideration.

We respect every applicant’s time and encourage you to reach out to the CFE contacts with any questions early and prior to your submission. The CFE contacts can clarify whether your project ideas fit within the scope of the program and whether the proposed technology can be supported properly.

Applications will be accepted any time after March 1 with a final deadline of April 19, 2021.

To submit your application, please download and use this 2021-22 CFE Lenovo Application. Follow the instructions on the template to submit via email by the deadline. The template requires you to describe several elements of your proposal including:

  • Personal statement of your interest and commitment (300 words maximum)
  • Descriptive title for your project
  • Course or learning goals for students and how project will enhance learning
  • Proposed innovation / role of technology
  • Technical support and sustainability
  • Implementation plan and timeline
  • Collaborators
  • Project rationale and budget

Applications are due by 5:00 PM on Monday, April 19, 2021. The CFE plans to inform applicants of funding decisions on or before Friday, April 30, 2021.

  • Call for Proposals opens: March 1, 2021
  • Information Session with Lenovo representatives: March 11 or 12, 2021
  • Deadline to apply: Monday, April 19, 2021, 5:00 PM
  • Review Committee decisions: on or before April 30, 2021
  • Funding released: In general, we plan to release the first half of approved funding during Summer 2021 (after July 15, 2021), and the second half in January 2022. The exact dates depend on the funding amount. If needed for summer efforts, we may be able to release funds in May 2021. We will obtain your departmental business contact information if accepted and approved for funding.

CFE staff members or colleagues from related units (ITS Educational Technologies, OASIS, University Libraries) involved in the CFE/Lenovo projects are available to discuss proposal ideas and respond to questions about the Call for Proposals.

Program Contact:

Matthew Belskie, CFE/OASIS (Office of Arts and Sciences Information Services) Liaison

belskie@unc.edu

or please contact:

Dr. Doug James, Associate Director for Faculty Development in Teaching and Learning, CFE (Center for Faculty Excellence)

doug.james@unc.edu

Prior Grant Awardees

The focus of this project is to design and execute a five-day drone (unmanned aerial system, UAS) course and create online learning modules to provide experience, confidence, and skills for faculty to begin incorporating drone technology into classroom curricula and research applications. Participants will be prepared to obtain their FAA Remote Pilot Certification and will plan and execute a flight operation to collect and analyze geospatial data for a nearby natural system.

Results: Project completed. Endeavors Magazine covered the project in their presentation Here

(“Taking Research to New Heights.”) UNC’s The Well also covered their progress Here.

The BeAM (Be A Maker) Makerspace program has four campus locations and has grown quickly to over 4,000 campus users annually. BeAM staff have provided face-to-face orientation and training events for faculty and students on all tools via small groups and hands-on individual instruction which is at capacity. PIs will create online orientation and training modules on various BeAM tools (3D printer, laser printer, etc.). The modules will follow evidence-based learning practices, provide learners with longer-term retention and confidence with skills, and solve capacity problems for staff and locations by allowing users to complete initial or updated training prior to BeAM usage.

Results: Project completed. Development and piloting were completed on modules for Orientation (in person and online in Sakai), the 3D Printer, and Laser Cutter. Given the shift to remote teaching, they also added online modules and digital learning approaches.

These faculty help lead the cross-campus, interdisciplinary effort for the new neuroscience major which has grown quickly among undergraduate students. They will offer a new series of four research methods courses to provide hands-on lab experiences to students. Teaching students how to create and maintain Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) is an essential skill for students in the modern STEM workforce in industry, government, and academia. Students will learn how to design neuroscience experiments and will use ELNs to create detailed records of experimental procedures, data collection, results, and conclusions to conduct and report on their research.

Results: Despite the pandemic, Sabrina Robertson has been able to incorporate the ELNs in a neuroscience wet-lab course (Spring 2020); and several of her students in Spring 2020 presented research posters on their lab findings virtually at the UNC Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research.

This project charters a new pedagogical approach to bring the history of modern Latin American revolutions and culture into the university classroom by using “live documentary” that fuses traditional documentary form with real-time interactions between students, experts, and a documentarian. Students will examine the multiple causes, trajectories, and effects of armed conflicts that swept through Latin America. Students will also engage with the digital humanities to produce their own historical videos via small group projects in which students write, film, and edit short films on course topics. The course will take advantage of resources available in an updated flexible classroom space.

Results: Project planning and resources were completed, but course disrupted due to the pandemic and shift to remote teaching. A collaboration with Duke on the project has advanced with Michael Betts who has pressed forward with IRB reviews of assessment of student outcomes. A systematic study is ongoing of the impact of this interactive teaching module on student engagement and student learning.

This project will develop interactive, interprofessional modules to address the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) competencies (Values/Ethics, Roles/Responsibilities, Interprofessional Communication, and Teams and Teamwork), and to connect students across multiple professional schools and geographic locations. Colleagues in the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, Dentistry, Social Work, and Pharmacy will collaborate to design modules that promote team-based care.

Results: Given that their project is web-based, it was possible to meet the need for more online learning as clinical rotations in the school of medicine were paused. To address the challenge of creating accurate rosters of students moving from their 3rd to 4th years between 2 courses where the web-based modules are embedded, they have embedded these modules entirely in the 3rd year course.

This unique collaborative effort between the Curriculum in Archaeology (College of Arts and Sciences) and the Department of Radiology (School of Medicine) leverages the synergistic expertise of the two groups. The Archeology team has developed photogrammetric and photo-overlay techniques that place a realistic “texture” on 3-D objects. This significantly enhances the visualization of objects, transforming them from bland 3-D models to realistic objects that closely resemble the originals. With such visualizations, students can closely examine and even “handle” precious artifacts and fossil casts without risk of damage. The Radiology team has developed an expertise in extracting the 3-D data from different imaging modalities (CT and MRI). These modalities can rapidly scan biological or nonbiological (artifacts) items without risk of damage to the objects. In archaeology, teaching tools will be developed to introduce students to ancient artifacts and hominin fossils using 3-D technology. In Radiology, teaching tools focused on complex 3D anatomy will be developed based on anonymized and publically available CT and MRI data. The Looking Glass Hologram allows the visualization of 3-D digital objects without the need for virtual reality glasses utilizing a light-field display technology. This enables collaborative discussions and interactive teaching without the need for virtual reality goggles that limit the number of people who can view the object, and more importantly, the ability of participants to interact with each other in the learning process.

Results: Most recent updates include the creation of more than 70 models in 3D of their fossil cast collection along with progress on a set of “teaching modules” built around this collection. Completed models can been seen Here. The medical side of the project has shifted towards virtual teaching techniques since the single screen is not compatible with multiple students. To enhance this effort, they have engaged a realistic 3-D patient avatar who understands human speech and responds following a predefined script. A sample of the system at work on Looking Glass platform appears Here. Also, they have developed a low cost 4-D video recording technique that can easily be deployed for both medical and archaeology teaching using off-the- shelf hardware.

The purpose of this project is to integrate 3D scanning, computer assisted design, 3D illustration, and multiphysics simulation technology into lessons and semester projects for BIOL 064 (Fall 2019) and into two lab activities for BIOL 226/226L (Spring 2020). The specific technology to be integrated includes Autodesk Fusion, Autodesk Meshmixer, Autodesk ReCap, Adobe Photoshop, and COMSOL Multiphysics. This software will be used to perform simulations of flows around and through 3D models of organs and organisms (BIOL 64) and to simulate diffusion of chemicals and heat in biological structures (BIOL 226L). Students will use Adobe Photoshop for 3D illustration and the creation of images for semester project reports and presentations. The topical focus this particular FYS is to describe organisms living within moving fluids using both mathematical and physical models.

Results: Integrating computing and visualization in my BIOL 064 Flows through and around organs and organisms was successful with assessment showing strong improvement and student enjoyment with using COMSOL in particular. While the implementation of the lab in Biol 226 (valve flows) has been delayed due to the difficulty in a remote environment, progress has been made on a paper on the BIOL 064 project to submit to the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology that will include some of the student evaluation data. Finally, a project to make IBAMR easy to install and run as a free alternative to COMSOL has advanced and should expand the impact of the project to colleges and universities that do not have COMSOL licenses.

Our project focuses on fostering instructional innovation in multiple literature and composition courses in the Department of English and Comparative Literature by centering gaming pedagogy. The Digital Literacy and Communication (DLC) Lab will offer support for instructors in developing best practices for games-based pedagogy through training, workshops, and most importantly access to gaming equipment and instructional space in the proposed Greenlaw Gameroom. The courses listed below will be taught in 2019-2020 academic year, and the instructors listed have agreed to work with the DLC Lab to integrate games-based pedagogy into their classes.

Results: A phase I update on the project includes this Gameroom promo. A full progress report can be found Here which described an active/playful learning classroom environment that includes furniture, gaming equipment, along with a website and the establishment of one-on- one consultations, multiple gaming classes both remote and in person, and the establishment of the gameroom as a space for research. Accompanying these activities are new successful efforts in communication and outreach with extensive attention to remote learning during the pandemic and future plans for renovations, and assessment tools.

Human Development and Family Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study examining the biological, relational, and sociocultural influences that shape families and human development across the lifespan. HDFS undergraduates go on to numerous health and helping professions, and rigorous experiences with research methodologies used to obtain valid information about human functioning and evaluate programs aimed at improving lives across ages, contexts, and cultures is critical for their training. The goal of this project is to build upon a ‘flipped classroom’ by creating three new and highly innovative enhancements that will increase the dynamic and direct learning experiences for students. These include (1) a series of virtual reality vignettes to provide dynamic and realistic opportunities explore sensitive content, (2) a hands-on experience with bio-behavioral data collection methodologies, and (3) the development of an online searchable repository of video clips from existing online lectures that would allow students to “ask” questions about specific topics and be directed to relevant material.

Results: While slowed by the pandemic (pause in video recording in the classroom for the VR portion), updates included progress on background work and planning, interviewing, and scripting in anticipation of returning to classrooms.

This proposal builds on the groundwork laid down in a prior CFE/Lenovo award with the mission to support a number of projects and proposals across the university and foster a thriving ecosystem of immersive technology at Carolina. Faculty interested in integrating immersive technologies into their courses often require technological expertise to understand the range of software and hardware that might apply to their subject. Additionally, they need access to those apps and devices, and someone to teach themselves and their students how to use them. Most importantly, faculty need partners who can help them to determine the best ways to truly integrate these technologies into their courses to enhance student learning and outcomes.

This project will unfold in three key areas: (1) Projects: In-depth partnership with approximately 4 projects throughout the year with a focus on integrating technology into curricula; (2) Faculty Engagement & Consults: Consulting with faculty and students looking to use immersive technology, and give workshops or presentations to select groups about how the technology applies in their field; and (3) Campus-wide Ecosystem-Building: Benefit all of campus through support for community building, awareness raising, and engagement through the AR/VR interest group, student group, events, workshops, online resources, Twitter outreach, providing connections across campus, and introductions. The goal is for library’s efforts to enhance a thriving ecosystem; a community of people engaged in helping each other. We have mapped the landscape of departments and labs on campus supporting VR, including the 3D workshops and VR stations at the libraries which are open to all at UNC.

Results: With updates of the Project PI to Nandita Mani, and Co-PI to Lynn Eades, the project has led to these presentations:

Moynihan & Eades (2019) “Disability, Enhancement, and Empowerment: Giving Users Superpowers Through Emerging Technologies” at the IDEAL ’19: Advancing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility in Libraries & Archives.

Mani, Eades & Batista (2020) “Empowering Teaching and Learning Through AR/VR” at the

EDUCAUSE ELI Annual Meeting.

The overarching goal of this project is to improve course design across the Adams School of Dentistry. The School is undergoing curriculum transformation to promote more active learning and creative solutions to instructional design. This project will help to revitalize the learning experiences of students in courses that were traditionally didactic instruction in both dental surgery and dental hygiene. The project will help faculty integrate the use of Articulate Storyline 3 software, a program designed to help users create instructional content that is widely accessible across digital platforms. Faculty will participate in workshops and be able to loan laptops and AV equipment from the ASOD Academic Support Center to use the Articulate software to create more discussions, assessments, and application-based structure in their courses.

Results: Due to COVID, unexpected responsibilities in transitioning courses online, and the need to identify a new collaborator, progress on this project has paused.

This project involves training undergraduate and graduate students to strategically mix media elements for scholarly purposes by employing the technologies Adobe Spark Pages and Muse. In this project, The Digital Muse will create five modules to guide students toward employing these new composing tools in ways that are not only rhetorically sophisticated but also transformative of familiar academic modes. Modules will include assignments, resources, sample projects, and screen-based instructional videos.

Results: Project completed. A summary and links to multiple diverse student projects arising from this initiative are found here on .

PIs will develop a series of onsite and online workshops that offer strategies for successfully integrating augmented reality and virtual reality into curriculum. Workshop goals will include an introduction to enhanced reality environments and technology, increasing awareness about available AV/VR content (e.g. effective use of VR field trips for learning, use of AR/VR in STEAM-related content areas), and an orientation for faculty interested in creating their own VR content.

Results: Project completed. Led an XR workshop in partnership with World View for teachers from the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District. In this workshop, participants interacted with other educators/experts via a virtual classroom environment, Engage VR, installed on their Oculus Quest devices. Also offered a workshop for faculty at Carolina to introduce AR/VR/XR tools. Unfortunately, both PIs have since left UNC.

This project in applied language revitalization will integrate parallel text concordance software to strengthen capacities for language acquisition, produce original linguistic data about the Cherokee language, and empower students to compose their own stories in Cherokee in the Cherokee course series. Computer-assisted translation tools will also allow students to engage in much-needed translation work. Parallel text concordance software, such as AntPConc, can identify sentence-structure conventions that are unique to the Cherokee language. Through long-term collaborations,this project will yield a foreign language “text reader” and radically reduce translation time.

Results: Project completed. The database provided students access to reconstructed grammatical forms and sentence frames with which to construct their own sentences. This fulfilled the primary goal to develop a composition tool to expand and accelerate Cherokee language learning by providing tools for composing sentences, short-form essays, and simple stories. These updates advanced instruction in written Cherokee while ongoing work addresses speaking and listening. A new collaboration with computer science dept staff targeted quicker methods of translation from English into Cherokee with a new a neural network-based machine translation system. The research team expanded to include an instructor and graduate of the program. Undergraduate students created a web page to archive teaching materials and tag them for subject matter and use. Students in Computer Science created a mobile phone game to promote speaking and listening practice in Cherokee. Next steps include a student-to-student apprenticeship program, long-form writing and scholarship, and translation initiatives. Assessment initiatives included a focus on student commitment to a communitarian ethos with the intent to publish. Possible additional funding may be sought through the NSF and through graduate student applications for funding.

The Lightboard installation at the Health Sciences Library will provide a core tool for creating instructional videos in courses that are whiteboard-intensive. This technology is particularly useful for courses where formulas,diagrams, or whiteboard drawing are used extensively. Additional imagery (e.g., maps, code samples) can be incorporated into presentations with the video editing software being requested as part of this proposal. The Lightboard studio will be a shared resource for all courses and instructors, TAs, students and staff for whom it might be helpful. It will be located in and integrated as a service of the Health Sciences Library(HSL) and be a centrally accessible and reservable studio-type space.

Results: Project installation took longer than expected due to material orders and campus facilities but was completed in late 2019. Three faculty had begun to pilot the Lightboard in 2020. 

This project will integrate mobile technology and 3D anatomy visualization into the School of Medicine human anatomy courses taken by over 400 students yearly. This project will utilize the computer-based software platform BodyViz that permits virtual visualization of complex anatomical relationships and correlative diseases processes blended together to create ultra-detailed 3D digital images of the human body. The use of BodyViz revolutionizes the current medical curriculum by transforming MRI and CT scans into interactive 3D visualizations that allows for the coupling of the pathology and pathophysiology of real medical conditions in 3D with the anatomical subject students are studying.

Results: The tool was used in 2020, but in a limited fashion due to the pandemic. 

This project will use photogrammetry software, 3D modeling programs and video game engines to develop 3D models and virtual reality (VR) modules that will digitally transport students to religious sites in Nepal. This VR immersion allows students to explore sacred spaces (monasteries, pilgrimage sites) and ritual objects (prayer wheels, statuary) in the first person and empower them to encounter Buddhism in hands-on ways that appeal to diverse learners and inspire active learning.

Results: Project completed, and small additional funds provided to develop additional materials. Featured on the Lenovo Storyhub linked here. A formal publication was accepted, Lauren and Bradley Erickson. “Visualizing and Materializing Himalayan Buddhist Sacred Sites: Pedagogy and Partnership” in Oxford Handbook of Religious Space and Place. Oxford University Press. Also, a website on the project is in progress. 

This project is centered on the expansion of Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality(AR/VR)offered within the Health Sciences Library as part of the Digital Health Program. Through this project greater access to these technologies will be facilitated for purposes of instruction, research and practice for students, faculty and staff in the health affairs. Year-round consults will be offered and proposals for use of the technologies will be solicited.

Results: Project completed, and Wonda VR license extended. Although Brian Moynihan left UNC, Nandita Mani and Lynn Eades continued to oversee and partner with a faculty led XR Faculty Learning Community to promote XR technology use especially in the health sciences. Two publications/presentations were completed: 

Moynihan & Eades (2019), “Disability, Enhancement, and Empowerment: Giving Users Superpowers Through Emerging Technologies,” IDEAL ’19: Advancing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility in Libraries & Archives 

Mani, Eades, & Batista (2020) “Empowering Teaching and Learning Through AR/VR”, EDUCAUSE ELI Annual Meeting 

This project will create an e-book as an Open Educational Resource to update the 2012 edition of the book ‘Local Government in North Carolina’ by Gordon Whitaker. A new podcast will extend the book with interviews and stories about everyday activities in local government. Augmented reality layovers, implemented with Aurasma will add playful elements to the text, can be used to generate webquests, and connect to video or audio material. This new innovative resource is designed for use in K-12 civic education, School of Government classes, Citizen Academies and more.

Results: Project completed. Implementation continues with the content revision, updated layout, and the podcast channel is up with first episode under review. A link to the podcast is Here. 

The textbook concept was presented at two conferences and is being published as a journal article (forthcoming):

“Digital Citizenship meets Open Educational Resources: Local Government Open Textbook Project.” In S. Carliner (Ed.), Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, linked Here. 

“Designing for Openness: Multiple Audiences, Formats and Delivery Channels – Local Government in North Carolina E-Book, Podcast and AR Channel.” In Bastiaens, Van Braak, Brown, … O. Zawacki-Richter (Eds.), Proceedings of EdMedia: World Conference on Educational Media and Technology linked Here. 

This project aims to provide a 3D interactive learning experience for dental students that will allow them to learn how to identify dental features associated with malocclusion using sample patient cases and learn about the history and application of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN). Students will be able to visualize and manipulate the 3D facial and intra-oral images just as they would with a live patient and learn about malocclusion. Students will be able to take measurements on the 3D images and make notes on a personal virtual notepad,facilitating more engaged dental training.

Results: Prepared online dental modules with release planned for Fall 2020, digital molds work continues as does planning for a paper on user experience via focus groups (didactic and personality focus on learning), and a second paper on knowledge retention. 

This project will use a computer program built around adult learning theory of problem-centered learning to create and maintain an interactive learning conference for medical students and pediatric residents. This computer program would allow a single user to run an interactive educational conference for the medical students and pediatric residents based on the conference style “Pick 5,” currently being deployed by the UNC pediatrics department.

Results: Project completed and resource shared in publications and presentations. Osment, M., Anderson, Chandler, Zwemer, Coletti, & Lawrence (2019). “Pick 5: transforming a paper-based group learning activity into an online gaming experience.” In S. Carliner (Ed.), Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) linked Here. 

Lawrence, Chandler, Osment, Coletti , Zwemer (2020) “Making Pick 5 Come Alive.” Selected as one of three oral presentation for Association of Pediatric Program Directors Annual Chief Forum, Virtually presented, 2020 and presented as oral presentation for Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics Technology Collaborative, Virtually presented. 

This small grant will provide headsets to facilitate group work for courses taught in DE 104 connecting on-site instruction for UNC-CH students with the dual language students off site in Chatham County schools. ROMS is piloting its first hybrid UNC/distance course, SPAN 338, and the primary challenge is difficulty in audio clarity during group work involving on-site students and students in the distance classroom. Because their approach to teaching is student-centered, group work is a critical component of classroom instruction.

Results: Project completed. PI noted more challenges than expected with room noise to include off-site students in language exchange. Some issues identified and addressed with the specific room location and setup. Overall the project was a success and will be continued. 

Program Contact: Matthew Belskie at belskie@unc.edu

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