ITHACA, N.Y. -- Do you teach large-enrollment classes? Have you wrestled with ways to make the large-class learning experience better? Is it difficult to gauge students' understanding during lectures? Do your students ask for more opportunities to have contact with you?
These are common challenges for faculty who teach large-enrollment classes. To bring fresh approaches to these questions, Cornell's fourth cycle of Faculty Innovation in Teaching Grants program will focus on the implementation of instructional technologies to enhance teaching and learning in large-enrollment courses.
Through a competitive process, 16 grants are awarded annually by the college and school deans and four by the Faculty Advisory Board on Information Technologies (FAB-IT). The grants program receives substantial support from the Office of the Provost.
Grant winners receive assistance with project planning, instructional design, Web programming, video production and other services from Cornell Information Technologies' Academic Technology and Media Services, in partnership with the Cornell University Library and the Center for Learning and Teaching.
Charles Walcott, dean of the Cornell faculty, spoke at an information session held April 1 about the Faculty Innovation in Teaching program. "All Cornell faculty members would like to have the best teaching take place, and we think technology plays a role," he said. "Thanks to the Faculty Innovation Grants, there are wonderful approaches now available, both on the Web and in the classroom."
April 25 is the deadline to apply for this year's grants, which focus on large-enrollment classes. Visit