Academic Technology Innovation Pipeline

The Academic Technology Alliance (ATA), in partnership with Information Technology Services (ITS), is pleased to announce the Academic Technology Innovation Pipeline—a three-tiered, multi-phase grant funding system that builds from small-scale, local campus innovation to district-wide program implementation with $50,000 available yearly.

This grant system, funded by Maricopa ITS, differs from the other excellent grant opportunities available in MCCCD because it will allow recipients to test academic technology innovations on a small scale without risk, while also pushing innovators to dream big. Innovation requires the opportunity to fail and build upon both failure and success, and innovation as a District requires the ability to learn from one another, build on strong ideas, and collaborate to identify the best ways we can use educational technology to improve student success. The Academic Technology Innovation Pipeline supports these varying degrees of innovation over three year-long phases.

• Phase I (year 1): CTLs at each campus will have $5,000 to award to new innovators to buy technology (hardware or software). At the end of the first phase, grant recipients will report on their success or failure through short recorded presentations and a report on how the technology did or did not meet proposed outcomes. Faculty who did not apply for or were not awarded Phase I Innovation Pipeline funding may still be eligible for participation in Phase II of the Innovation Pipeline. Faculty who have been using an academic technology prior to the Innovation Pipeline Grant process and wish to be considered for Phase II funding must submit the deliverables required of all Phase I recipients. Each college will then evaluate their overall innovations and submit their top college innovation to the ATA for consideration of further development and support in Phase II of the Pipeline.
• Phase II (year 2): the ATA determines the top five innovations (from those forwarded by the college) to move to Phase II. Innovations that move to Phase II are those seen as having the greatest opportunity for collaboration, replication, and impact on a larger scale. These five Phase II innovations would each be awarded up to $10,000 to expand beyond the scope of their initial work. At the end of the second phase, grant recipients will again report on their success or failure through short recorded presentations, a report, and a presentation to the panel that will make the decision as to which single innovation will move to Phase III.
• Phase III (year 3): at least one innovation will receive up to $50,000 to expand beyond Phase II to help implement the innovation across the district.

The Academic Technology Innovation Pipeline does more than offer the opportunity to innovate one time and on a small scale; it provides a system that encourages, develops, and builds upon innovation to make Maricopa a leader in education. This three-year, three-phase Academic Technology Innovation Pipeline develops a system of innovation where ideas are collaboratively fostered, implemented, evaluated, and shared so that MCCCD may be recognized as a leading innovator among institutions of higher learning in the nation, while continuing to build access and success for Maricopa students and communities. The Academic Innovation Pipeline dares you to take try something new, take a risk and dream big.

Academic Technology Innovation Pipeline FAQs

How much money is available?

$50,000 is available for each phase. For Phase I, CTLs at each campus will have $5,000 to award to innovators to buy technology (hardware or software). For Phase II, the ATA determines the top five innovations (from all of the innovations from the first phase) to move to Phase II. These five Phase II innovations would each be awarded up to $10,000 to expand beyond the scope of their initial work. At least one innovation will receive up to $50,000 to expand beyond Phase II to help implement the innovation across the district.

Can the money be used for faculty time?

Phase I of this grant does not fund faculty hours or reassigned time. Future phases can fund faculty time.

What is the purpose of this grant?

The purpose of this grant is to encourage innovation through the use of academic technology. This grant allows recipients to test innovations on a small scale without risk, while also pushing innovators to dream big.

Can adjunct faculty receive this funding?

Adjunct faculty can apply for this funding in connection with a full-time faculty member. They are not eligible to apply on their own.

What is ATA?

ATA stands for Academic Technology Alliance. This is a group of faculty and staff who are focused on advocating for the effective use of academic technology across the district. This group meets regularly throughout the academic year.

Why is it called a pipeline?

The idea of this grant is to help faculty move forward with innovation.

What if I am already innovating with this technology? Can I still be considered for Phase II?

All Phase I participants who complete the deliverables can be considered by the college for advancement to Phase II. Additionally, faculty who have been using an academic technology prior to the Innovation Pipeline Grant process (or were not funded by Phase I and innovated anyway) and wish to be considered for Phase II must submit the Phase I deliverables to be included in the review for Phase II. Colleges will decide from both pools which innovations to forward to the Academic Technology Alliance (ATA) who will choose five innovations to fund in Phase II.

Academic Technology Innovation Pipeline Phase I Deliverables

At the end of Phase I of the Academic Technology Innovation Pipeline, faculty are expected to deliver the following information to their college CTLs no later than May 15, 2018 at 5:00 pm:

Short recorded presentation

• Video should be 5-minutes or less
• Video format should be posted on YouTube and shared
• State your name, college, and department
• Describe the technology you used for the innovation
• Describe the implementation and use of the technology
• Describe your outcomes and lessons learned. Remember, failure is ok. Share information that will help others learn from your experience.

Phase I Report

Background Information

• Name(s) of applicant(s)
• College
• Discipline
• Courses taught using technology innovation (course and section #s)

Technology Innovation  

Include the following details:

• Name of the technology that was used
• Short description of what the technology does
• Cost of the technology
• Additional associated costs necessary to implement the technology (if any)
• How much time was required for you to learn how to use the technology?
• How much time was required for you to implement the technology in your class(es)?

Impact  

Include the following details:

• How long have you been using this technology (one semester, two semesters, more)?  Over this time period, how many students were affected by the use of this technology?
• How much time was spent using the technology in the classroom (ex. daily, weekly, three weeks in the first Unit of the class, etc)?
• How did the technology impact students (was there a learning curve or was it intuitive; did students like using it; did it improve student success?)
• Prior to implementing this technology, what criteria did you establish that would indicate success when utilizing the technology in your class(es)?
• List each intended outcome and how it was measured.
• How would you characterize the success of using this technology (successful, neither successful or not successful, not successful)? If it was anything but successful, do you feel that it could be successful with modifications? How would you need to modify the use of this technology for it to be successful?

Phase II Considerations  

Phase II can provide funding up to $10,000 which can include reassign time. Please include the following details about how you will scale your technology and collaborate with colleagues in Phase II:

• Is this technology scalable? Would the cost per implementation decrease as more instances of the technology are used across disciplines and/or colleges (ex. tiered pricing)?
• Describe your plan to scale the use of this technology in Phase II. With which other disciplines at your college will you collaborate to increase use of this technology? Will you  collaborate with other colleges? If so, please elaborate.
• Will reassign time be required to implement Phase II? Please provide details (how many hours, how many faculty, etc.).
• It will be necessary that “word gets out” about your technology to other disciplines and other colleges. How will you market this technology and get buy-in to help ensure that scaling this technology is successful?
• Collaboration will most likely not only be with your peers in Phase II. There may be other support areas at your college,other colleges, and even the District Office that will need to be involved with this. Besides faculty, with whom else will you need to collaborate? How will you achieve this?
• Data collection may become more difficult as others adopt this technology. How will data collection and analysis be standardized as the use of this technology grows?

Phase III Considerations

Phase III of the Innovation Pipeline will involve scaling your project at the District-level. While all colleges may not implement this technology, the intent is that a majority will be able to. The same considerations that need to be taken into account for Phase II will also need to be taken into account for Phase III. To be successful moving forward to Phase III, you will need to think about and plan for what will be necessary to implement this technology at the District-level.

• What concerns, if any, do you have if your innovation were to be ultimately selected for District-wide implementation?
• How can this innovation be used in different ways so that it can be most valuable to the District?
• Be sure to consider issues like communication, collaboration, data collection, and evaluation of this tool for use at the District-level.

More information about Phase III will be shared as we move closer to this part of the grant.