4-VA@Mason is offering ten $4,000 grants to support faculty interested in developing and piloting alternative assessment strategies for online learning. The goal of the effort is to examine student evaluation practices and help bolster student engagement, encourage academic integrity, and reduce tendencies toward academic outsourcing. To ensure broad representation from all disciplines, proposals for the grants are encouraged from all ten colleges within the university.
The grants are being offered under the direction of The Stearns Center, which will provide 1:1 instructional design support for the accepted proposals.
“When we pivoted to remote learning in March, through the Instructional Continuity Working Group, we quickly heard that faculty were struggling with academic outsourcing and other integrity challenges,” said Charles Kreitzer, Executive Director of Online Operations. “Through these grants, we want to work together to develop strong, tested models for assessment.”
The proposals are due November 20. The planned timeline builds out the assessments in the spring, with pilot programs running in the summer and fall. From there, each program will go through data analysis to closely examine impact before they are introduced for use.
“One of the pillars of our mission at 4-VA@Mason is to identify and grow innovative ideas in teaching and learning,” explains 4-VA Campus Coordinator and Associate Provost Janette Muir. “This effort to reimagine online assessment practices clearly supports that goal.”
For more information, contact your school’s Instructional Continuity Working Group representative.