About the Award

This is an annual project grant to be awarded to a University of Saskatchewan Department or non-departmentalized College, or a collaboration between academic units, to undertake some innovation in collaborative teaching and learning.

Value: The value of the project grant is $10,000 and will be transferred from the GMCTL to the lead department's operating fund.

Applications

Application Format

The proposal should be no more than 5 pages in length and should include the following elements:

  • a description of the proposed activity, practice or innovation,
  • an explanation of the level of faculty / staff involvement (be specific, use names),
  • a description of the expected impact on students or the student experience, and
  • a proposed budget for the use of the grant, including an indication of any in kind or other funding received for the initiative.

Selection Committee

The project grant recipient will be selected by a sub-committee of the Gwenna Moss Centre’s Advisory Board.

Submission

Please submit proposals to the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning.

Past Recipients

The 2013 Provost's Project Grant for Innovative Practice in Teaching and Learning was awarded to an interprofessional team consisting of Dr. Jill Bally, Dr. Shelley Spurr, Dr. Lorna Butler, Dr. Mary Ellen Andrews and Dr. Heather Exner-Pirot (College of Nursing) and Dr. Alyssa Hayes (College of Dentistry) for "Northern Innovative Teaching and Learning Practice in Pediatric Nursing Education: Caring For Kids Where They Live." It will engage northern Aboriginal nursing students in supporting oral health care for northern children.

The 2012 Provost's Project Grant for Innovative Practice in Teaching and Learning was awarded to Dr.s Priscilla Settee (Department of Native Studies), Sarah Buhler (College of Law), and Nancy Van Styvendale (Department of English) for "Inside-Out on the "Outside,"" which partners students from the U of S, ""non-traditional" learners" from a gang-prevention initiative called Str8 Up, and mature students from Oskayak High school. Part of the proposal includes funds for filmmaker Marcel Petit to produce a documentary film about the experience.

The project will create a transformative learning experience for students as they come together as co-learners and co-creators of knowledge, informed by vastly different life experiences. The project will challenge ideas about knowledge, learning and societal assumptions about which "types" of people should come together in a common project of discovery," said Sarah Buhler.

Inside-Out on the "Outside" is modelled after a community-based education program that started as a partnership between a Philadelphia jail and Temple University in 1997. Simone Davis from Inside-Out Canada met with Settee, Buhler and Van Styvendale in May 2012 and "is enthusiastic about the idea of adapting Inside-Out in this way." Inside-Out on the "Outside" will be implemented through cross-listed 3-credit courses, one course being offered each year and will focus on will develop community-based and student centred curriculum. Faculty training began in the summer of 2013 and course ran from January to April 2014.

A second Provost’s Grant was awarded to an innovative distributed learning project that uses telerobotic technology to bring faculty expertise to remote and rural northern communities. "Telerobotics: The use of Technology for Teacher Presence in the Delivery of an Undergraduate Nursing Course," will be used to connect students in these remote communities with faculty members at the U of S in a way that allows that faculty member to see what their student is seeing.

Students and faculty will be connected using "an articulated flat-screen monitor for visual display that utilizes a dual camera configuration and full on-board audio."  The robot, called the RP-7, is the design of a California company called InTouch Health. According to the project’s proposal, it also contains  ""peripherals” or specialized equipment used for specific physical assessment examinations for example, a stethoscope …, an otoscope …, and an ophthalmoscope …, can be connected to the robot and will allow the faculty member to observe what the student is seeing." The undergraduate nursing students in northern Saskatchewan communities who will benefit from this technology are not only the first in Canada to do so, but the first in the world.

Telerobotics as a method of providing distributed learning is expected to deliver two primary benefits to students: it will "provide the opportunity for "universal access" to a quality education that otherwise would not be possible due to geographic location" and it "facilitates a community approach to education." The project lead is Assistant Professor Carol Bullin from the College of Nursing, who delivers two courses using this technology.

The 2010 Provost's Project Grant for Innovation in Teaching and Learning was awarded to the College of Nursing and Department of Drama, College of Art and Sciences titled "Practice Patients for Advanced Practice Nursing".  

The intent of the proposal was to utilize the knowledge that the Drama students have acquired in class and give them the opportunity to develop their dramatic skills as mock patients for the Nurse Practitioner students, both for physical assessment labs and for the Objective Structured Clinical Exam. Faculty in the College of Nursing and the Department of Drama will be involved in the development and implementation of the program to create standardized patients for use across disciplines and across programs for both graduate and undergraduate learners. Several other Health Science groups on campus (e.g., Pharmacy and Nutrition, Physical Therapy, Medicine) may also benefit from this innovation. The innovation allows for mutual benefit for both drama students as well as nurse practitioner students. These students have the opportunity to work with each other and transform the knowledge they have learned into practice. The College of Nursing and Department of Drama's joint submission reflects the emphasis these academic units place on teaching and learning and their commitment to initiate innovative programs that support student learning.

The project lead was Tony Tung from the College of Nursing.

The 2009 Provost's Project Grant for Innovation in Teaching and Learning was awarded to the Department of Educational Foundations to support the development of its integrated Master's of Education program through land-based institutes and distance education courses. The department is initiating, with collaborators from the University of Alberta and local communities, an land-based Indigenous Education approach that combines locally situated and distance learning approaches to offer a unique Masters of Education program.

The design and delivery of the entire program is framed from within an indigenous paradigm. Four summer institutes will be taught by indigenous faculty, and offered on or near First Nations, Inuit, or Metis communities where students will have access to local knowledge holders, traditional ceremonies, and land-based teachings. Three relevant distance education courses, co-designed with the groups and infused with Aboriginal content and perspectives, will be offered during the Fall and Winter terms. The program is aimed at certified teachers, administrators, master's or doctoral students, and other educational professionals who wish to pursue graduate education through an holistic lived experience that is consistent with cultural teachings according to local protocols.

The 2008 Provost's Project Grant for Innovation in Teaching and Learning was awarded to the Department of History for their project entitled "The Greystone Year: An Intensive, Interdisciplinary, and Collaboratively-Taught Introduction to the Western Humanistic Tradition". This project involves development of a 12 credit-unit foundation-year course that crosses disciplines and departments within the College of Arts and Science, which should provide students with an intensive learning experience quite different from normal first-year studies. It will offer students a broader view of liberal arts education, allow for integration of ideas across disciplinary boundaries, and better prepare students for deeper critical thinking.

Questions

Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning