Inside UVA

Faculty Senate awards Teaching Initiative grants

The Faculty Senate has awarded 27 projects in the University Teaching Initiatives pilot program, a three-year effort to promote excellent teaching and to support faculty in enhancing courses, especially with the use of technology tools.

Now going into its third and final academic year, 2000-01, the initiative has been funded by Vice President and Provost Peter W. Low at $100,000 per year since 1998. Each project is awarded up to $5,000.

A Faculty Senate Academic Affairs subcommittee, headed by law professor George Cohen, looked for proposals to improve the evaluation of teaching, as well as the development of teaching skills among faculty and graduate teaching assistants.

An annual forum in the fall, organized by the Teaching Resource Center, will give participants an opportunity to share their successes with colleagues throughout the University.

The Faculty Senate and Teaching Resource Center will then evaluate the pilot program to recommend whether it should be continued, said economics professor William Johnson, chair of the Academic Affairs Committee. The committee also plans to highlight the top 10 to 12 projects from all three years, Johnson said.

Teaching Initiatives Awards, Spring 2000
Name	Department	Project
Brian Balogh	History	Electronic Source Book Web Site Expansion
Michael Bednar	Architecture	Digital Representation of Urban Places
Greg Colomb	English	Diagnosing Problems in Student Essays: Training
Shawn Paul Evans	Drama	Scenic Technology Digital Teaching Materials
Steven Finkel	Government & Foreign Affairs	Teaching Assistant Development Program
Cassandra Fraser	Chemistry	Biomaterials: Advanced Interdisciplinary Seminar
Jose Fuentes & Thomas Smith	Environmental Sciences	Develop Lab Manual: Atmospheric Science & Ecology Course
Harry Gamble	Religious Studies	Digitized Course Material with Interactive Map Interface
David Germano	Religious Studies	Tibetan Digital Learning Resources
Jeffrey Hantman	Anthropology	Merging Archaeology Field Site and Web Site
Sharon Hays	Sociology	Promote Excellence in Graduate Teaching Assistants
* Shelley Huffstutler	Nursing	Learning and Sharing Health Assessment Skills
Richard Jacques, John O'Connell & Mark Shields	Engineering School Technology, Culture & Communication Department	Team-Based Simulations
Daniel Lefkowitz	Asian & Middle Eastern Languages and Literature	Develop Resources for Teaching Modern Hebrew
Nelson Lichtenstein	History	Oral History Workshop on Local Textile Factory
Angeline Lillard	Psychology	Improve Discussion Sections, Web Page, Create Teaching Form
Borjana Mikic	Engineering, Biomedical Engineering	Evaluation of Undergraduate Educational Climate
Anne Monius	Religious Studies	Creation of Digitized Video and Audio Database
Deborah Parker	Spanish, Italian & Portuguese	Italian Language Resource Materials
John Pfaltz & Anita Jones	Engineering, Computer Science	Animation of Structures for Lecture, Lab, Homework
Paul Reynolds	Engineering, Computer Science	For the Cost of Lecture, the Benefits of Tutoring
Larry Sabato	Government & Foreign Affairs	Improve Intro. to American Politics Course
* Judith Sands	Nursing	Peer Development for Clinical Educators
Helen Shen & Tomoko Marshall	Asian & Middle Eastern Languages and Literature	Web-Based Chinese/Japanese Character Learning Program
* Virginia Taylor	Cell Biology	Interactive CD-ROM for Learning Human Anatomy
* Virginia Taylor	Cell Biology	Virtual Human Anatomy: 3D Journey Through Human Skull
Diane Whaley	Curry School Human Services Department, kinesiology program	Create Web-Based Evaluations, Update Materials
* Funded by Dr. Robert W. Cantrell, Vice President and Provost, Health System, rather than by Vice President and Provost Peter W. Low