Week 6

What are the key points in Chapter 7 as they relate to your grant writing projects?

The idea of strategic organizational communication is important for the two projects I have chosen. Because I am working to fund two projects for my institution, I must think about the Online Tutoring Lab project in terms which will make the project attractive to my supervisor and the college administrators. Because they will have to provide some support and some of the college’s resources will have to be used if the project is funded, then their support is crucial for the ultimate success of the project. I have to think about how to present the project so that the benefits to the college are clear (not only in the long term but in the short term). I know the first question in my VPs mind will be “Will this cost me money?” It has to be clear to him that not only will it not cost money (only available resources will be used), but it will bring in money in the long run by providing greater access and improving student success rates. Also, I have to go back to the goals of the college and make sure that I refer specifically to how this project will help meet those goals, especially the ones that deal with improving access and instructional services. I want to convince them that this project will solve at least one of their most pressing problems: the lack of services for distance education students.

Also, the idea of the proposal development team was very important to me. I have a hard time letting other people be responsible for a project which ultimately will reflect on me. I have to admit that I don’t have all the necessary knowledge and expertise to complete this grant proposal. Doing it on my own would require that I research certain areas like technology capabilities and enrollment statistics; it would be more effective to use the expertise of those who have that knowledge already. This section clarified for me the divisions of labor and what the responsibilities of each team member are. It is important to me to keep control of the direction/vision of the project. Also, as project leader I have some control of what areas I let people work on. I have to be careful to meet their needs for autonomy and creativity and allow them to participate in ways which will benefit the project.

The advance planning questions are also very beneficial. They not only point to different areas which I need to start considering, but the authors provide ideas for each section. For several I didn’t really know what they were referring to until I read the examples that they used. In many of those examples the answers fit my project; if the answers were not relevant, then it was easier for me to figure out how I would answer the question.

Week 5

Detail your two projects. Be specific as to the problem, the solution, and if/once funded who will carry out the solution. This information will be helpful to you as you work to prepare your preproposal memo. Please try to prepare the memo and send it to me before class so that we can review it during class.

Problem
My first project deals with the problem of educational access and limited time. Students do not have the time to seek tutoring when it is offered, mainly during the day. The tutoring schedule is heavily dependent on when students (both those offering the tutoring and those receiving it) can be on campus. Tutoring is offered sporadically during day and very few hours at night or on the weekend.

Many of our students work full-time and have families so their time during the day is very limited. When they do have time to do homework or to seek tutoring, at night or on the weekend, the college does not provide any help for them.

Solution
The solution is to design an online tutoring lab which would fit the needs of our students. A detailed list of what tutoring services students need would need to be determined. Also, the lab would need to be designed to use new technology and implement that technology the most effective way possible to reach the most number of students.

Project Director
The project director would be the person in charge of tutoring.

Problem
The activities which support the curriculum offered to students is many times not relevant in their lives. The students are asked hypothetical questions and are required to create hypothetical solutions. Many students become disengaged when they see that their learning is based on what they consider "meaningless tasks." Also, many community organizations need services which they are not able to afford.

Solution
Service Learning is a solution to both those problems. Instructors need to coordinate with community organizations which would benefit from the type of projects which students are doing and students can see that what they learn and what they produce as a result of that learning impacts their community.

Project Director
I would be in charge of this project. I am intersted in involving the academics division in service learning and I, along with two instructors in other departments, would carry out this project.

Week 4

Detail the progress you're making on your RFP search. In about a week you really need to begin working on the preproposal (the permission memo). If you'd like to add some of your thoughts about the FDCenter's Short Course, that might be useful here too.

Searching for an RFP that I can use has been a bit frustrating. Since I presented on the Dept. of Ed., I really wanted to find something using that site. I found the HSI grant which I thought was very promising, but after doing some networking with individuals on campus I found out that HSI is the same thing as Title-V which we currently are not eligible for because the institution just finished a project with that grant. According to my sources, we are eligible to submit a project which must be collaborative. The institution has been working at a particular project but has not been successful getting anyone to collaborate. "We will sit this one out" is the official word.

Also, in conversations with other individuals I learned that the HSI grant and many other Dept. of Ed. grants require quite an extensive amount of work. Now I understand why Dr. Rice suggested that we search for foundations as funding agencies. My colleagues here urge me not to get discouraged and that my ideas are good ideas. Still the HSI grant will have to wait for another time.

I continued my search and found that most of the Dept. of Ed. programs are for institutional support rather than individual support. I couldn't find a grant that matched my ideas at an individual level. The ideas that I had originally seem too focused and the grants that I found require specific qualifications for funding and I don't have those qualifications nor do I know anyone here who does and who would be interested in the project.

The grant that I found which seemed to fit is the FIPSE grant, again through Dept. of Ed. This is another project that looks like quite an undertaking. I didn't know exactly how my ideas would fit into the grant. So I had to shift my idea a bit. How could I refocus my idea to make the project more institutional and less individual and still solve my original problem?

I realized that my problem focuses on educational access and time constraints. This lead me to the idea of a online tutoring lab. I was being asked to look at several tutoring services which are offered nationwide. I have been suggesting that we do online tutoring for students for several semesters but have had no success. I figured here was the opportunity to solve that problem.

I talked to the director of Student Success (tutoring) and the Academics Director. They both thought the idea was good. I also found out the Director of Student Success is not interested in directing the program. He sees an online lab as being completely separate from what he is doing.

I went to talk informally to the VP for Student Development. During our conversation, I learned that she is involved in creating a way to offer student services to students who take online classes. She is referring to admissions, counseling and financial aid, but my idea of a tutoring lab fits right into her project.

Now it seems that my project will become part of a much larger project. I'm not sure how exactly I will deal with that in the proposal memo.

My second idea is much smaller in scope and I was determined to find an RFP which would fit that, so I had to go outside the Dept. of Ed. I want to do something concerning instruction and methodology. My ideas, some of them, fit with the larger idea of service learning.

I found an RFP for Learn and Serve America Higher Education Grant. "The purpose of higher education grants is to expand participation in community service and service-learning by supporting innovative community service programs carried out through institutions of higher education that act as civic institutions to meet the human, educational, environmental, or public safety needs of neighboring communities. Emphasis is placed both on institutional change to support service and service-learning within higher education and on community problem-solving and capacity-building." This seems to fit my idea.

Several other instructors have also shown an interest in beginning to do service learning in their courses. I approached them and asked if they would be willing to be part of a service learning project. They agreed.

So it seems like I have found the two RFPs for my projects.