Exploring Curiosity about Teaching and Learning through LITE Grants

lightbulb_with_tree_220_wide_for_sidebar_0 The intent of The Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Grants is to promote curiosity, reflection, and exploration in the areas of teaching and learning, with the ultimate purpose of fostering deep student learning. At uWaterloo, we have a vibrant community of faculty and staff members, graduate and undergraduate students involved in this exciting and important work.

Since the inception of the LITE grants just over two years ago, over 30 projects from across all six faculties have been funded. The range of project topics is rather remarkable and includes inquiries into online learning, experiential learning, case-based and community service learning, learning across disciplines, language learning, assessment, written communication, teamwork, and many more. Almost 90 people have been involved in a LITE Grant project. Indeed, most projects are collaborations – some within departments, others across departments or units. Several projects also include graduate or undergraduate students as co-applicants. For most projects, graduate or coop students are hired.

The LITE Grant website features descriptions of the projects and provides a forum for sharing resources generated by the projects, such as reference lists and presentation materials. We invite you to browse through the project descriptions, findings, and resources. You may find answers to a question you’ve had, ideas for a topic you’d like to explore, or the names of colleagues with whom you can connect to talk about shared interests in teaching and learning. We also invite you to consider applying for a grant. The next deadline is October 1, 2014 for the LITE Full Grants and February 1, 2015 for LITE Seed Grants.

Finally, we’re pleased to announce that nine new Seed Grant projects will begin this fall. For more information about the projects, please visit the LITE Grant website.

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Julie

As the Instructional Developer - Consulting and Research, Julie supports research on teaching and learning. She is Chair of the annual teaching and learning conference at uWaterloo: Opportunities and New Directions and manages the Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Grant program. She also collaborates on research projects, regularly reviews journal manuscripts, and works on publications. Most recently, Julie has had the opportunity to facilitate a week-long course design workshop in Japan and see first-hand how the questions, frustrations, and joys related to teaching are both similar and different across cultures.

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