2023 EdTech Innovations Mini-Grant Program

EdTech is excited to announce a request for proposals for our 2023 EdTech Innovations Mini-Grant Program.

• We are offering up to 4 grants of up to 10-20K each, depending on the grants awarded.
  
• Preference will be given to proposals specifically impacting several of EdTech’s strategic objectives and values, including but not limited to the below:
  
  • Undergraduate medical education (UME) at Stanford
  • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility
  • Exploratory and innovative uses of media in the classroom, including mixed reality (XR, VR, AR), podcasts, and 3D printing
  • Education related to current critical societal health and safety challenges such as firearm safety and reproductive health safety
• Funding can be used for hardware, software licenses, equipment, and vendor/consultation/development fees.
  
• We will accept proposals until midnight on Tuesday, January 31, 2023. 
  
• Funds must be spent by July 31, 2023 and final reports are due December 31, 2023
  
  

The Educational Technology (EdTech) team applies technology solutions that facilitate a positive learning experience for students, and empowers faculty to integrate high-quality, efficient, and effective teaching. Our vision is to transform Stanford Medicine by acting as a catalyst for the adoption of evidence-based, emerging, and engaging educational technology solutions, and to be a leader in the academic community by sharing our best practices.

For this 2023 mini-grant program, EdTech will support your project by:

• Providing an initial consultation with your project team
• Signing-off on your detailed project plan
• Approving all project expenses
• Staff assistance on project implementation
• Meeting with your project team quarterly to review progress
• Providing ways to showcase your completed project (website, newsletter, twitter, etc.)

EdTech seeks proposals from faculty, staff and students that promote innovation in the classroom using educational technology. We are looking for projects that explore or enhance learning in medical education with effective and appropriate uses of technology.  Proposals will be evaluated against these criteria:

• Potential for Impact: How will this project impact Stanford Medicine learners?  How can this effort be used as a model to inform teaching and learning at other schools of medicine? Is there potential for global impact?
• Innovation: How is this effort novel and interesting? How does it advance pedagogy in ways not previously explored?
• Assessment/Evaluation: What can Stanford Medicine learn from this effort? How will you gather and analyze data to continually improve this effort and substantiate whether goals or desired learning outcomes are being met?
• Sustainability: What funding structures are in place to support this project beyond the timeline of the grant? EdTech and its Stanford Medicine partners may consider longitudinal funding models for compelling multi-year projects. 
• Alignment with department and school priorities: How does this project serve the mission of your department and Stanford Medicine?

• Proposals due: January 31, 2023
  
• Finalist interviews: Week of February 6, 2023
  
• Decisions announced: Week of February 13, 2023
  
• Grant kickoff meetings: week of February 20, 2023
  
• Funding spent: by July 31, 2023
  
• Final reports due: by December 31, 2023
  

Your proposal submission should include:

• Abstract: A 100-150 word abstract suitable for websites and news articles.
• Goals: A description of the learning problem and how your proposed solution addresses the problem.  Please address the criteria above.  Describe the potential for impact at Stanford Medicine and beyond.
• Timeline: A clear timeline for the project, including milestones and intermediary objectives. Plan to spend out all grant funds by July 31, 2023. Please detail how faculty teaching/research/clinical responsibilities will accommodate the time required to successfully complete the project within the stated timeline.
• Implementation plan: A plan to implement the project and sustain its innovations after the EdTech mini-grant.  
• Evaluation plan: A description of the criteria that will indicate the success of your project and how will you judge this success.
• Personnel: A list of faculty, staff and students undertaking the project.  Please provide a one sentence description of each person's qualifications as relevant to the project.
• Budget: Provide a brief description and itemization of costs associated with achieving the project goals.  See section below for further details.
• For student and staff submissions, a letter of faculty support: This statement should address the importance of this project and an assessment of the options for long-term support for the project after the term of the grant. 

The budget may include line items for staff, instructional materials, equipment and other services needed to complete the project. Budgets can include the following expenses:

• To recognize faculty efforts, a request can be made for discretionary funds of up to $2,500.
• Research Assistants to find, curate, and create relevant materials for a variety of learning experiences and to assist with project evaluation.
• Teaching Assistants or Course Assistants to help with your implementation. (Please note that if the TAs/CAs are essential to the ongoing success of a course or innovation, the grant should address how TAs/CAs will be supported at the conclusion of the funding.)
• Support for relevant staff to focus on the project for a set period of time.
• Funds for edtech apps, software and equipment.
• Incentives for participants, within the terms of these guidelines

Additional budget guidelines:

• Equipment purchases may not total over $5,000 for any individual item
• Please account for the cost of benefits with any salary expenses (30% of salary)
• Please account for sales tax for any equipment or license purchase
• Any student salaries need to be paid through the sponsoring department

Here are some examples of the type of projects we might be looking for.  This short list is by no means to be considered all inclusive.  We are excited to see your creativity in whatever area drives your edtech passion!

• Evaluating and updating course materials to ensure that they are fully accessible to screen readers and other accessible technologies.
  
• Developing inclusive learning materials.
  
• Exploring new technologies for making in-person and hyflex learning experiences and resources more interactive.
  
• Curating existing online materials as an alternative to textbooks, to reduce course costs for students.
  
• Developing new educational tools using AI or machine learning.
  
• Piloting new classroom technologies in SoM learning spaces.
  
• Evaluating more interactive and authentic assessments types (hybrid or digital), beyond multiple choice.
  
• Evaluating the value of virtual reality in medical education.
  

• 2018 EdTech Minigrant Awardees
• 2020 EdTech Minigrant Awardees