In December 2020, President Gordon Gee issued a charge to West Virginia University to transform itself to enable the University to grow and thrive in a challenging higher-education landscape. In response, the Office of the Provost embarked on a multi-year initiative focused on enhancing and transforming the academic enterprise at WVU.
The Academic Transformation effort highlighted the need to prepare students for jobs and careers in the changing global economy, with a focus on growing and creating degree programs that are rigorous, relevant and innovative in both content and instructional delivery.
As part of this ongoing effort, the Office of the Provost today announced a new Curriculum Innovation Challenge with grant awards of up to $10,000. Faculty teams across WVU are invited to participate in the Challenge, which is designed to inspire and provide support for the creation of innovative academic offerings that will attract new students to the University and help to differentiate WVU in the higher-ed marketplace.
“Our faculty are content experts and leaders in their fields and disciplines,” Reed said. “We want to tap into their ideas and expertise to identify new academic programs that can build on existing strengths, prepare students to tackle global problems and respond to the needs of state and regional employers. We want our faculty to be co-architects in helping to design WVU's future.”
The Challenge asks faculty teams to submit their most creative ideas for new programs – at any level, in any modality – that are forward-thinking and transformative for their discipline, their students or the institution. Submissions must come from a team of three or more full-time faculty in any academic unit responsible for degree programs. Cross-unit teams are encouraged to apply, as priority will be given to proposals for intercollegiate programs.
The Challenge presents a two-step proposal process. Initial pre-proposals are due by October 10, 2022, and should be submitted online. Criteria and eligibility details are outlined on the Challenge website. Up to 10 pre-proposals will be selected for development into full proposals. Teams with selected pre-proposals will participate in a hands-on workshop in early November and individualized sessions aimed at supporting their proposal development.
Curriculum Innovation Challenge grant winners will be announced early in 2023.
Complete details about the Challenge, timeline, submission process, criteria and support resources are available on the Provost’s Office website. Questions can be directed to Associate Provost for Curriculum and Assessment Lou Slimak (louis.slimak@mail.wvu.edu) or Director of Curriculum Development Robynn Shannon (robynn.shannon@mail.wvu.edu).