CREEdO's seed grant competition helps computing and engineering education researchers and instructors in the OSU College of Engineering to conduct initial research into novel ways of supporting online learning. While not required, we strongly encourage seed grant recipients to conduct their investigations within the context of OSU's highly-ranked online degree programs in computing and engineering. Indeed, OSU's Ecampus online programs and courses provide a great context for exploring online teaching and learning at the micro and macro levels. It turn, such research can produce results that not only benefit our Ecampus programs and courses, but also generalize to broader populations.

Competition Goals

  • Enhance current and future online courses and degree programs in the OSU College of Engineering
  • Pursue new lines of inquiry not already supported by grants
  • Broaden current research efforts to address online engineering education in ways that have the potential for future external funding
  • Provide research foundations for new proposals to external funding programs (e.g., National Science Foundation IUSE)

Seed Grant Benefits

  • $25,000 for faculty support
  • Support for 12-month graduate research assistant (GRA) position, including tuition and benefits
  • A pool of $8,300 (across all awards) is available to support formal assessment (request and justify a specific amount in your proposal based on your needs)

Important Dates (2024-25 competition)

  • Announcement posted: October 17, 2024
  • Proposals due: February 21, 2025
  • Decisions announced: April 18, 2025 (estimated)

We anticipate awarding 2 or 3 seed grants in this competition.

Example Proposal Topics

  • Designing educational technologies to support and enhance online learning, including
    • tools for constructing, discussing, and obtaining feedback on disciplinary representations (e.g., circuit diagrams, process flow diagrams, algorithms, graphs)
    • tools to support the exploration of disciplinary concepts through augmented and virtual reality
    • tools to support the formation and sustenance of online learning communities
    • tools to support enhanced monitoring of, assessment of, and feedback on online learning (e.g., learning analytics dashboards)
  • Bridging the on-campus and online student experience
  • Closing gender, and intersectional gaps in online learning
  • Comparing the effectiveness of alternative pedagogical approaches, curricular features, technologies, or modalities
  • Expanding the use of computation in online learning
  • Increasing access to College of Engineering programs
  • Creating innovating assessment practices
  • promoting more active and interactive engagement in online learning
  • leveraging learning analytics to enhance online learning
  • developing online laboratories
  • promoting enhanced social and cognitive engagement

Project Requirements and Goals

  • Establish realistic goals and timelines, taking into consideration possible delays in Institutional Review Board reviews.
  • Submit a final report, paper, or proposal for external funding (preferred)
  • Submit an approved abstract (project start) and summary (project completion) for public disclosure
  • Submit quarterly reports in the form of a one page update on progress toward goals and milestones
  • Adhere to the project schedule in the Memorandum of Understanding established for the project

Eligibility

  • The principal investigator must be a tenure stream or research faculty member in the OSU College of Engineering who is eligible to serve as a principal investigator on external grants.
  • Co-principal investigators who hold other faculty positions in the OSU College of Engineering may be included in the proposal
  • A person is eligible to be a PI or co-PI on only one CREEdO seed grant application per competition. However, assessors can be included in multiple applications.
  • Submissions with co-PIs or collaborators outside of the OSU College of Engineering will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
  • Supported graduate students must be enrolled in a degree program in the College of Engineering.

Submitting a Proposal