Proposal Submission Guidelines

Program Goals

The principal goal of this grant program is to apply technology to enhance opportunities for independent student scholarship, primarily in the arts and humanities, focusing on areas in which instructional technology has thus far had relatively little impact. Grant funds are intended to enhance teaching methods and student learning opportunities; they cannot be used to support faculty research projects.

A second goal of the program is to help the College minimize or avoid the future cost of tutoring arts and humanities students in the use of new technologies. The growing use of technology in these areas is likely to require ever more faculty and staff time to introduce students to sophisticated multimedia software or to show them methods for locating resources on the Internet.

A third goal is to achieve benefits that are sustainable within the limits of Reed's operating budget, following the initial investment of Mellon funds. Projects which require significant infusion of additional capital or operating funds will be excluded from the Mellon Program.

Eligibility

Grant proposals may be submitted by Reed faculty members in any division except Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Available grant funds will permit three or more grants to be funded in 1998.

Project Focus

Projects should focus on ways of applying information technology to enhance opportunities for independent student scholarship, primarily in areas where instructional technology has thus far had relatively little impact. For example, the development of a tutorial (or electronic syllabus) that would enable students to find and utilize scholarly materials on the World Wide Web would be appropriate under this grant.

Selection Criteria

Preference will be given to proposals that fulfill as many of the following criteria as possible:

Innovation: projects should involve new applications of existing technologies or development of new technological resources or materials

Impact: projects should benefit the greatest possible number of students (e.g., multiple courses rather than a single course or successive years rather than a single year, etc.)

Feasibility: projects should be feasible, given the constraints of college resources, available technology, and faculty members' time

Sustainability: results of projects should be sustainable in an ongoing manner with little or no additional funding (or with a prior commitment by the College to provide necessary funding)

Collaboration: projects can be proposed jointly by several faculty members, within or across departments

Portability: ideally, the results of a project should be usable by students/faculty at other colleges

Cost-effectiveness: projects should use technology to allow faculty to make better use of their time and to allow the College to make better use of its financial resources

Timelines

Projects may run for as long as 24 months or as little as one month. All Mellon projects must be completed by December 31, 1998.