The Five Colleges of Ohio is pleased to welcome proposals from teams of faculty, educational technologists, and librarians for the inaugural Ohio Five Collaborative for Digital Engagement and Experience (CODEX) Summer Institute to be held this summer at the College of Wooster from Monday, July 13, 2020 through Thursday, July 16, 2020. The deadline for submission is February 16, 2020.
Over the past six years, the libraries of the Five Colleges of Ohio have partnered with faculty, educational technologists, and students to design and develop pedagogical digital projects under an Andrew W. Mellon grant titled Digital Collections: From Projects to Pedagogy and Scholarship. The Ohio Five CODEX Summer Institute, endorsed by our college provosts and presidents, builds on those collaborations by seeking to create the space and time for partners to think together about how to more intentionally align collaborative digital projects like these with the learning goals of the courses, independent studies, and co-curricular initiatives for which they are developed.
The institute invites proposals from teams interested in collaborating to design pedagogical digital projects that promote critical engagement with technology and digital methods of teaching and scholarship. This could include:
- Designing/redesigning a new or existing course.
- See Dr. Clara Roman-Odio’s Transnational Feminisms course for an example of a course-based project that culminated in a collaborative research project developed and managed by students entitled Crossing Borders for Feminist Resistance
- Designing a pedagogically-centered co-curricular digital project.
- See Dr. Hanada Al-Masri’s project Arab-American Community in Central Ohio: Negotiating Cultural Identities and Adapting Traditions
Successful proposals should address the question, “Why digital?” What is it about the digital component that allows for engagement with the subject in ways that might be different or otherwise impossible with non-digital approaches?
The expected outcome at the end of the institute for each team is a curricular package that includes the following elements:
- Clear written learning objectives and an articulation of the ways in which the digital component supports them
- A rubric for assessment of students’ work in the course or project
- A prototype or roadmap for developing the digital component
- Clearly defined roles for each member of the team upon leaving the institute
- A plan for taking the course or project forward into the academic year following the summer institute
To facilitate this, the institute will offer an ample balance of focused time for teams to work together and opt-in workshops focused on course design, assessment, pedagogical digital platforms, and other special topics in response to the specifics of the selected cohort’s proposals. Selected teams will receive stipends of $1,000 for each team member, housing for three nights, as well as breakfast and lunch for each day of the institute.
Proposal Guidelines:
The institute is intended to promote collaboration across and between divisions, disciplines, or even institutions. Therefore, proposals are expected to come from teams, but the composition of each team may vary. One example of team composition might include a teaching faculty member, librarian, and an educational technologist. Other models might include multiple faculty members, faculty members and external colleagues, librarians and educational technologists, and some teams may include students as collaborators. While interdisciplinary proposals are welcomed and encouraged, interdisciplinarity is not a requirement of the proposals.
We strongly encourage interested applicants to consult their colleagues in educational technology, the libraries, and/or faculty administration for help in developing proposals.
We held an online information session on January 22, 2020 during which two teaching faculty members, Amy Margaris from Oberlin College and Katie Holt from College of Wooster, shared examples of pedagogical digital projects they are working on currently. We also shared general information about the institute and the proposal process. A recording of the session is available at https://youtu.be/xhG6qkKQ6hI
Proposals should be 2-4 pages in length and submitted in PDF form to codex-proposals@ohio5.org by February 16, 2020. Please follow the outline below when developing your proposal and include the section titles in your proposal:
Project Title
Provide a descriptive title for the proposed course or project your team intends to work on at the institute, along with the name, department, and institution of the primary contact for the team.
Description & Goals
Provide a brief description of the course or project, along with an explanation of how the proposed digital component will support the pedagogical goals of the project. The most important element here is to articulate the relevance of the digital component. Again, what is it about the digital nature of the course or project that facilitates student engagement in ways that are different than, enhance the learning of, or could not be accomplished with non-digital approaches? What will this work add to the student experience?
Relevance to Curriculum
Provide a brief description of how the course or project relates to the curriculum, either a specific departmental curriculum or a broader institutional curricular goal or initiative.
Team Members
Provide a description of the team that will be working together during and after the institute to help design and ultimately implement the course or project. For each team member, please include a name, position title, and expected contribution to the project, including specific duties, during and after the institute.
Timeline
Describe the anticipated timeline for the course or project. For example, when do you anticipate teaching the course, or for co-curricular projects, what is the timeline for development and initial release? What are the project’s milestones, content deliverables, and deadlines?
Experience with the Digital Technology or Method Proposed
Please describe any prior experience you or your team members have with the method or technology your team is considering for the digital component of the course or project.
Ethical Considerations
Are there any ethical implications for the course or project? For example, does the project involve copyrighted materials, privacy concerns, human subject research, etc.? If so, how does the team plan to address those?
Sustainability
Describe your plan for sustaining both the labor of maintaining the course/project over time, as well as any digital artifacts produced through the process. Will subsequent courses build on the project’s initial work? What additional staff and support might you need at your college/university after the institute to sustain the course/project long-term? Where will the work be housed and who will maintain it?
Assessment
Beyond the evaluation of student work within a course, how will this project be assessed? In particular, how will you measure the effectiveness of using the digital in this work and subsequent learning?
Accessibility
What steps will your team take to ensure the materials from the project will be accessible to those with disabilities? If the research is to be housed for a public website, who will continue to ensure it meets standards for disability access?
Why CODEX?
Describe why you feel it is important for the team to work on this project alongside other teams at the CODEX institute as opposed to more traditional and local modes of collaboration on your home campus. What do you hope to achieve at the institute?
Review Process
Proposals will be reviewed immediately following the closing date. The inaugural institute is limited to 10 teams so there will be an evaluation period during which a committee of representatives composed of teaching faculty, educational technologists, and librarians will review the proposals. Teams will be notified by March 2, 2020.
Questions
For general questions about the Ohio Five Collaborative for Digital Engagement and Experience (CODEX) Summer Institute, please feel free to contact the institute’s co-directors Ben Daigle at bldaigle@owu.edu or Heather Fitz Gibbon at hfitzgibbon@wooster.edu or schedule a time to talk during office hours at https://calendly.com/bldaigle
