Situation:

Advancing the Strategic Plan: Shaping UBC’s Next Century and bringing the various elements of the plan to life is a priority for the UBC community. To support this goal, the university systematically focuses on targeted priority areas within the strategic plan, including Strategy 11: Education Renewal. This strategy seeks to facilitate sustained program renewal and improvements in teaching effectiveness, with particular emphasis on expanding opportunities for graduate students to learn about teaching and to broadening their learning as they prepare for their careers.

Our Actions:

• Constructed a call for proposals funded by UBC Vancouver’s Academic Excellence Funds with three focus areas to support ‘advancing education renewal’   
• Designed the process and logistics for application, adjudication and implementation
• Worked with CTLT and the LT Hub to provide proposal consultation sessions and to build an online application system
• Worked with Dr. Simon Bates and Dean Porter to assemble an adjudication committee of 17 members
• Assigned reviewers and collated the results from online reviews and in-person panel discussion for funding recommendations
• Acquired final decisions from the Provost and communicated the results with feedback to the applicants
• Worked with successful applicants to implement the project and established reporting requirements
• Ongoing monitoring and evaluation to demonstrate stated objectives are being met

Results:

• 24 projects were funded over 2-3 years with an envelope of $1.3M
• Established a call for proposals toolkit with adaptable resources to help translate funding ideas into practice
• Built a strong relationship with CTLT to leverage its existing resources and expertise on funding opportunities related to teaching and learning  
• Compiled an inventory of all the funding opportunities across both campuses to coordinate alignment with UBC’s strategic plan
• Created one central location for call for proposals on strategicplan.ubc.ca