“This new competitive grants program will enable partnerships across SUNY to leverage technology as a means to educate students,” said Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. “It serves as an excellent example of the power of SUNY to realize efficiencies through the sharing of resources and instructional partnerships within our system.”

Nancy Smyth, Dean of the School of Social Work, who has long advocated use of technology to support education said, “The effective and innovative integration of technology into instruction is one essential part of providing quality higher education in the 21st century. I appreciate the willingness of Dr. Lavallee, SUNY Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, to invest in these initiatives and I’m excited that the School of Social Work received recognition as one of the six schools SUNY-wide to receive a top award amount. Dr. Waldrop’s project, Initiating Conversations about the End of Life: The Advanced Illness Decision Simulation Environment, will become an important tool in educating social workers, nurses, physicians, and other health professionals.”

IITG awards will foster study and development of educational gaming tools, e-textbooks, online classes, e-portfolios for lifelong learning and more. Several projects included collaborations by two or more campuses or with local organizations, vendors or external partners.

UB grant recipients include:

Deborah Waldrop, Professor, School of Social Work - awarded $38,883 for Initiating Conversations About the End of Life: The Advanced Illness Decision Simulation Environment. Professor Waldrop’s team includes:

• Mary Ann Meeker, DNS, Associate Professor, UB School of Nursing (Co-PI)
• David Milling, MD, Senior Associate Dean, UB School of Medicine (Co-PI)
• Steve Sturman, Instructional Designer, UB School of Social Work
• Karen Zinnerstrom, PhD, Coordinator, UB School of Medicine Clinical Competency
• Tony Guzman, UB School of Social Work, Director of Online Education
  

Dean Hendrix, Assistant Director, University Libraries - awarded $20,000 for The E-Textbook Opportunity: The Time is Now for SUNY and is also serving as a Co-PI on another SUNY E-Textbook initiative along with Charles Lyons.

Mark Ludwig, Library Systems Manager, University Libraries was awarded $20,000 for SUNYport: Portfolio site for SUNY students and is working closely with A. Ben Wagner and Dean Hendrix at UB and Andrew Perry, from SUNY Oneonta.

Katharina Dittmar De La Cruz, Associate Professor, Biological Sciences - awarded $10,000 for Development and Assessment of Mobile Device Instruction in STEM Education at K-21 Level, which includes Bina Ramamurthy, from Computer Science and Engineering, and Jessica Poulin from Biological Sciences.

Robin Sullivan, Associate Director, Teaching & Learning Center - awarded $10,000 for Tools of Engagement Project: Discovery Learning On-demand Professional Development, which includes Cindi Tysick from UB Libraries and team members from other campuses:

• Beth Burns, Buffalo State College
• Kathleen Gradel, SUNY Fredonia
• Shufang Shi, SUNY Cortland
• Tom Sinclair, Binghamton University

In addition to the UB principal investigators, several other UB faculty and staff are serving as Co-PI’s or key partners on projects initiated at other SUNY campuses:

Bina Ramamurthy, Computer Science and Engineering, Co-PI on SUNY Co-laboratory on Immersive Virtual Environments for STEM Learning 

Christine Kroll, Assistant Dean, Graduate School of Education, Co-PI on Development & Validation of SUNY Prep: Learner Preparedness Survey

Christopher Loretz, Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Education, Learning and Instruction. Creation, Implementation, and Assessment of Anatomy and Physiology Online Laboratory Modules

Sharon Raimondi, Director, Joint PhD Program in Special Education for 4C-CITI: Four-College Consortium for Innovative Technology Integration

Charles Lyons and Dean Hendrix from University Libraries are also serving as Co-PI’s on Geneseo’s SUNY Open Textbooks project.

UB has another connection to the new IITG program.  Lisa Stephens (Computer and Information Technology at UB) was invited to lead this initiative as the new Senior Strategist for SUNY Academic Innovation.  Once Provost Lavallee gave the “green light” for the IITG grant program, Dr. Stephens quickly consulted with many researchers on campus to help the IITG program meet the aggressive implementation timeline.  “A team of distinguished SUNY faculty and members of Provost Lavallee’s FACT2 team collaborated to create, refine and adapt the request for proposals to an online application form,” Stephens explained, “The entire grant program was launched, reviewed and awarded in less than four months.” 

A post-application survey received a 90% response rate, with feedback being incorporated into the next request for proposals round, tentatively slated for announcement later this fall. All project outcomes will be openly shared in the new SUNY Learning Commons portal currently in the pilot stage.  Projects that demonstrate potential for multi-campus production application will be eligible for additional funds in 2013.

A complete list of grant-funded projects is available at http://www.suny.edu/provost/IITG.cfm