CFE/Lenovo Instructional Innovation Grants – 2024 Call for Proposals
CFE/Lenovo Instructional Innovation Grants Program
2024-25 Call for Proposals
The University’s partnership with Lenovo provides support for instructors using technology in innovative and impactful ways to further student learning. Over the past six years, the CFE/Lenovo Instructional Innovation Grants program has funded projects utilizing a wide range of technologies to advance the University’s instructional mission.
This year’s call for proposals has a more singular focus. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has burst onto the scene over the past year and presents both opportunities and challenges as faculty and students consider its impact on teaching and learning. This year’s CFE/Lenovo Instructional Innovation Grants Program will be used to support faculty and departmental efforts to explore the instructional use of generative AI.
| Dear Colleagues –
As you may know, a number of campus efforts are underway to help faculty, students, and staff determine appropriate uses for generative AI and develop the skills they need to use it effectively. We are enthusiastic about the upcoming work of the Chancellor’s committee related to Generative AI and have been working with Provost Clemens and Dean Stan Ahalt, co-leads of the initiative, about coordinating support efforts. They have encouraged the CFE to move forward with this Call for Proposals in order to support faculty members and academic units who are ready to begin exploring some of these important questions around the instructional use of AI. The Provost will be announcing other AI support opportunities in the coming months. We look forward to your proposals for the 2024-25 CFE/Lenovo Instructional Innovation Grants! Erin Malloy, Associate Provost for Faculty Development and Success |
Generative AI at Carolina
During the past year, the Provost’s AI Committee and other groups such as Carolina AI Literacy have created modules and other resources to begin educating faculty, students, and staff about generative AI, its potential and pitfalls. With the campus adoption of Microsoft CoPilot, the University has also begun building a shared infrastructure for generative AI.
Faculty members, academic units, and University Administration have begun thinking about how generative AI can be used to support course, curricular, and institutional learning goals. Many instructors and students are already making effective use of generative AI, but faculty adoption and student exposure is uneven. One of the most pressing institutional challenges is ensuring our students graduate with the generative AI skills they will need to be competitive in an evolving job market.
A portion of this year’s Lenovo funding will be used to develop a new 1-credit hour course on generative AI that will be available to interested undergraduate students in time for the spring 2025 semester. It is likely to be offered by the College of Arts and Sciences.
Program Goals
This year’s CFE/Lenovo Instructional Innovation Grants Call for Proposals focuses on efforts that advance the following goals:
- Preparing students to use generative AI effectively during their academic and post-graduation careers.
- Experimentation with, evaluation of, and sharing of innovative uses of generative AI that advance student learning.
Technology Notes
AI-driven tools such as MS Copilot, ChatGPT, Perplexity and other chatbots respond to natural language and are more conversational in nature. They are open to an infinite variety of creative prompts and outputs and promote the kind of critical thinking that will help students make the most of these tools.
The University has recently purchased a site license for chatbot Microsoft Copilot that makes the standard version available at no cost to faculty members, students, and staff. This version of Copilot includes data protection, meaning user input does not become a part of the underlying data model.
Instructors interested in using other generative AI tools should consider the product’s plan for safeguarding student grades and other personal data, should that be an issue for your project implementation. For more information or to request a consultation, we encourage you to visit Data Governance at UNC.
Note that because generative AI tools are evolving so rapidly, campus-based support for effective planning and troubleshooting is likely to be limited. Applicants should assess support available through product vendors and other sources and should factor in the time necessary to develop their own proficiency with tools selected for their projects.
Eligibility
Faculty members or instructors in any school or department at UNC-Chapel Hill are eligible to apply for grants through this program. Students (graduate or undergraduate) and staff can be named as collaborators on team proposals. The Principal Investigator (PI) must be a faculty member and cannot be funded as a PI or Co-PI on more than one proposal for the current year’s grant cycle.
Generative AI Grant Categories – At a Glance
Curricular development
- Supports the effective integration of generative AI into a disciplinary or interdisciplinary curriculum.
- Projects under this category should be implemented no later than the Spring 2025 semester.
- Grant amount: Up to $7500
- Proposals are due Sunday, May 5, 2024. Applicants will be notified before Commencement.
Communities of practice
- Supports individuals and academic units interested in coordinating/leading opportunities for instructors to come together and discuss instructional AI uses and issues.
- Meetings should take place and/or begin during the Fall 2024 semester.
- Grant amount: $500
- Proposals are due Sunday, May 5, 2024. Applicants will be notified before Commencement.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
- Supports faculty members interested in conducting a systematic inquiry on some aspect of generative AI used to support student learning.
- Intervention targeted for study should be implemented no later than the Spring 2025 semester.
- Grant amount: Up to $5000
- Proposals are due Sunday, May 5, 2024. Applicants will be notified before Commencement.
Contact
Prospective applicants are encouraged to reach out to CFE staff if they have questions or would like initial feedback on a proposal idea. Email Bob Henshaw (bob_henshaw@unc.edu), ITS Liaison to the Center for Faculty Excellence.