AI Teaching Development Fund Terms of Reference

The Teaching and Innovation Advisory council invites all academic staff with a minimum 3-year term or continuing contract to apply for financial support of up to $5000 for projects focused on creating tools, advice, or example assignments that can be shared to help support other University of Lethbridge academic staff to meet the challenges or opportunities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the classroom .

Who is eligible?

• Applications are open to all University of Lethbridge academic staff, as defined in the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association Collective Agreement, who have a minimum 3-year term or continuing appointment. (It is expected that a recipient will be employed by the university for an extended period to ensure the completion of the project, guarantee a presentation of findings, and the submission of a final report).
• Applicants cannot apply to both this fund and ULRF, or ULRF SoTL fund in the same competition year. 
• Applicants may only be the lead on one application per competition.
• Each project submission is only eligible for one round of funding.

The project can be individual or collaborative and must address one or more of the following topics:

• Designing AI resistant assessments (i.e. redesigning writing assignments)
• Incorporating AI into assignments/assessments (while maintaining academic integrity)
• Guidelines for appropriate use of AI in assessment of student learning
• Using AI to support curricular development and classroom instruction
• How to teach students (through specific assessment methods or course materials) about the use of AI in the context of creativity, thinking, and learning.

Applications will be adjudicated by the Teaching and Innovation Advisory Council.  Adjudication in any given call for applications will prioritize that at least one project in each of these two categories is represented: 

• Designing tools, advice, or example assignments that address the challenges of AI to traditional assessment in the classroom
• Designing tools, advice, or example assignments that address the opportunities and/or successful integration of AI in the classroom (through either ethical student use, or ethical instructor use). 

A call for applications will normally be made twice per academic year. Each funded proposal would be provided with up to $5000 to develop specific tools and information in response to the above topics; this includes specific tools, procedures, assessment methods, or curricular changes, for sharing with the Teaching Centre, AI Coordinator, and the broader University of Lethbridge community. Projects should be completed within one academic year and can be at the course, department, or institutional level.

Allowable Expenses: 

It is the responsibility of the applicant(s) to adequately justify the expenditures included in the application. Funds can be requested in line with the following criteria: 

• The costs to hire research assistants (students at any level, undergraduate, graduate, etc.) in accordance with UofL policy;
• No more than 10% of the total budget may be directed toward dissemination of research results, including conference attendance. Use of funds for dissemination will be restricted to expenses that are eligible under the University of Lethbridge Travel Fund;
• Normally, computers, and major equipment will not be considered;
• Projects requesting retroactive funding prior to the application deadline will not be considered;
• Applicable projects should normally be based within software available through the university (CoPilot, Gemini, NotebookLM, etc.). Exceptions can be discussed with the Teaching Centre and IT; and
• Other items necessary for the project may be considered for funding at the discretion of the Teaching and Innovation Advisory Council;

Note: Funding cannot be used for course release. 

Dissemination of Results

Successful applicants are required to present the results of their project to the university community through events organized by the Teaching Centre, public presentations, short video presentations, a short podcast, or other dissemination avenues approved by the Teaching Centre.

Dissemination must include the following:

• Describe the specific tool, assignment, procedures, assessment methods, curricular changes, etc, that was funded by the AI Teaching Development Fund;
• Describe the successful outcomes and/or challenges encountered as part of the project, from which others might learn in their own experimentation;
• Describe the impact the project had on teaching and learning (include student comments if possible); and
• Describe how this project might have enduring benefits to the improvement of teaching and learning for the broader university teaching community, and how people can implement if they are interested in doing so.