UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s Center for Online Innovation in Learning (COIL) has announced it will fund four new projects through its Research Initiation Grant Program.
The goal of the grant program is to provide seed money for Penn State researchers to gather preliminary evidence in the hope of pursuing external funding for larger studies that enhance teaching and learning through online innovation.
The following four projects have received grants from COIL’s fall 2015 round of funding:
- Conrad Tucker, assistant professor of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Design, College of Engineering, “VR Penn State: Teaching Engineering Concepts in an Immersive Virtual Reality Environment”;
- Kyung Kim, doctoral student of learning, design, and technology, College of Education, “Providing touchable knowledge structure graphic feedback for blind online learners: Tablet-based haptic feedback and paper-based tactile feedback”;
- Rungun Nathan, associate professor of engineering, Penn State Berks, “Framework for experiments for online and inline engineering classes”; and
- Mary Beth Rosson, Associate Dean for Graduate and Undergraduate Studies, College of Information Sciences & Technology, “We Are! Building Identity, Participation and Connectivity within World Campus Cohorts.”
“We received a great batch of strong proposals, from an expanding community of faculty, staff and student researchers working to enhance learning,” said Kyle Peck, co-director of COIL. “These projects emerged from a peer review process, edging out other worthy proposals. It's exciting to see the momentum developing and Penn State increasing its contributions in this area.”
COIL’s Research Initiation Grant program began in 2012, and funding has been made available to applicants each fall and spring semester. The next round of funding closes May 13.
For more information about the Research Initiation Grant program and past recipients, visit the COIL website.
Mike Dawson
408 The 329 Building, University Park, PA 16802
