2025-26 Learning Analytics Mini Grant Proposals Due 6/6/25

All faculty and staff are eligible

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT), in partnership with the Office of the Provost, invites UMBC faculty members to submit proposals for the 2025 Learning Analytics (LA) Mini Grants. These grants aim to support projects that enhance student success and retention through innovative, data-informed instructional practices.

Grant Overview

Award: $2,000 professional development award, renewable annually, transferred to your department’s PeopleSoft chart string.

Focus Areas

Student Success and Retention: Projects exploring relationships between activities or learning in one course and outcomes in other courses, particularly critical progression points, low-success courses, or foundational skills.
Faculty Development and Support: Proposals that leverage institutional data (via REX and Tableau) to inform instructional practices, contributing insights to the LA Community of Practice.

Eligibility

All UMBC faculty and staff members (including adjunct faculty, lecturers, and tenure-track faculty) interested in improving student outcomes using learning analytics are eligible.

Expectations for Grant Recipients

Engage actively with the UMBC Learning Analytics Community of Practice (LA CoP).
Produce and present a final report or scholarly product (conference presentation, external grant proposal, or publication).
Consider leveraging results to apply for the prestigious Hrabowski Innovation Fund award.

Application Components:

Proposals must include:

Brief Abstract: Suitable for publication on UMBC’s website (maximum 200 words).
Research Project Proposal: Clearly outlining objectives, methodology, expected outcomes, and relevance (maximum 3 pages).
Signed acknowledgement of support: Department Chair (through DocuSign)

Timeline

Proposal Deadline: Friday, June 6, 2025
Notification of Awards: Early July 2025
Grant Period: July 2025 – June 2026

Support and Resources

REX Data Warehouse (available to all faculty)
Tableau training and support provided by DoIT’s Analytics & Instructional Technology group
Access to prior workshops and resources to inform proposal development.

For proposal guidance, questions, or further information, please contact:

Robert Carpenter

Associate Provost for Analytics & Deputy CIO
bobc@umbc.edu

John Fritz
Associate Vice President, Instructional Technology
fritz@umbc.edu

Tom Penniston
Coordinator of Learning Analytics
penniston@umbc.edu