Learning Lab’s Grand Challenge seeks to incentivize public higher education institutions to embrace data science as an opportunity to build new pathways, modernize majors, attract historically underrepresented students into STEM, and deepen both civic and interdisciplinary learning.
Donor Name: California Education Learning Lab
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 12/09/2022
Size of the Grant: up to $1.3 million
Grant Duration: 5 years
Details:
The following recommendations from the National Academies’ Data Science for Undergraduates report further inform the foundations of this Grand Challenge, providing both rationale and guideposts relative to the grant opportunities, which are further described below:
- Recommendation 2.1 – Pathways | Faculty
- Academic institutions should embrace data science as a vital new field that requires specifically tailored instruction delivered through majors and minors in data science as well as the development of a cadre of faculty equipped to teach in this new field.
- Recommendation 4.1 – Pathways | Interdisciplinary
- As data science programs develop, they should focus on attracting students with varied backgrounds and degrees of preparation and preparing them for success in a variety of careers.
- Recommendation 2.2 – Pathways
- Academic institutions should provide and evolve a range of educational pathways to prepare students for an array of data science roles in the workplace.
- Recommendation 2.4 – Pathways | Faculty | Interdisciplinary
- Ethics is a topic that, given the nature of data science, students should learn and practice throughout their education. Academic institutions should ensure that ethics is woven into the data science curriculum from the beginning and throughout.
- Recommendation 5.3 – Pathways
- Academic institutions should ensure that programs are continuously evaluated and should work together to develop professional approaches to evaluation. This should include developing and sharing measurement and evaluation frameworks, data sets, and a culture of evolution guided by high-quality evaluation. Efforts should be made to establish relationships with sector-specific professional societies to help align education evaluation with market impacts.
- Recommendation 5.1 – Pathways | Faculty | Interdisciplinary
- Because these are early days for undergraduate data science education, academic institutions should be prepared to evolve programs over time. They should create and maintain the flexibility and incentives to facilitate the sharing of courses, materials, and faculty among departments and programs.
- Recommendation 5.2 – Faculty
- During the development of data science programs, institutions should provide support so that the faculty can become more cognizant of the varied aspects of data science through discussion, co-teaching, sharing of materials, short courses, and other forms of training.
- Recommendation 2.3 – Interdisciplinary
- To prepare their graduates for this new data-driven era, academic institutions should encourage the development of a basic understanding of data science in all undergraduates.
Funding Information
Through this RFP, Learning Lab intends to award the following categories of grants:
Learning Lab intends to award the following categories of grants:
- Up to 3 Pathways Development Grants of up to $1.3 million each over 3-4 years
- Up to 5 Faculty Development Grants of ~$200K to ~$350K each over 2-3 years
- Up to 9 Interdisciplinary Collaboration Grants of ~$100K to ~$200K each over 2-3 years
- Up to 1 Cohort Coordinator Grant of up to $500k over up to 5 years
Eligibility Criteria
To apply for a Learning Lab Grand Challenge Grant, projects must:
- Be hosted by a public, postsecondary institution in California;
- Consist of an intersegmental team (except for Interdisciplinary Collaboration Grants). Teams must include faculty and/or administrative co-principal investigators (PIs/co-PIs) from at least two of California’s public higher education segments. Additional partnerships, such as with private independent/nonprofit institutions, high schools, and/or industry partners, are permitted. One institution will serve as the host institution, which will be responsible for distributing grant funds.
- Have support and endorsement from leadership. Projects must submit an institutional cover letter signed by the PIs/co-PIs and the host institution’s president, chancellor, vice chancellor/vice president of instruction, or provost or equivalent. The equivalent leadership from the partnering institution(s) must also provide endorsement by either signing the host institution’s cover letter or by submitting their own letter(s).
- Incorporate other key statutory elements. Projects must incorporate principles of human learning and adaptive learning and incorporate online or hybrid learning environments.
For more information, visit CELL.
