Ideas-to-Action Program for AY 2025-2026

Our goal is to empower faculty to pose their own questions about students’ experiences, answer those questions with evidence, and then use these answers to guide improvements in student learning, engagement, and success. This approach is especially valuable for units that are:

•  preparing for comprehensive degree-level assessment review 

•  working to “close the loop” from inquiry to evidence to action

• seeking to improve DFW rates or enhance retention and matriculation of majors

• interested in exploring alumni outcomes (e.g., what skills do alumni report using in their careers, which of those skills do they attribute our program?)

2024-2025 Program Summary 

Ideas-to-Action is a team endeavor. Departments will identify a team of faculty and staff to develop questions about their curriculum or their students, explore evidence and opportunities related to their questions, and develop plans based on the results. The program will support exploration, ideation, and planning by providing access to data, tools, guidance, funding, and community. We will partner with teams to explore existing institutional data (e.g., retention patterns, progression analytics, National Survey of Student Engagement results) and learning outcome data, and gather additional evidence, especially student-reported data (e.g., focus groups, surveys, exit interviews), relevant to teams’ inquiries.   

What Will You Do in Ideas-to-Action? 

Department teams will:

1. Have two or more team members participate in three program meetings, scheduled for   Friday, September 19; Friday, February 6; and Friday, March 27 all from 10:00 AM until 12:00 PM at CTE in 135 Budig Hall (we’ll provide refreshments). 

2. Meet on their own in between program meetings to develop questions, discuss results, and envision next steps. 

3. Share their completed work with their department and the broader KU community.

What Will Ideas-to-Action Do for You? 

To support your work, CTE will provide: 

1. Consultation, guidance, and support in defining high-impact inquiries; gathering and interpreting evidence (e.g., learning within courses, student learning analytics, evidence from the teaching and learning literature); and developing a vision for next steps. 

2. Access to tools, dashboards and reports, and collaboration with data analysts in CTE and AIRE, that enable use of student learning analytics (e.g., patterns of student flow through the curriculum, grade distributions or retention data disaggregated for student subgroups), as well as surveys or focus groups with students to address inquiries. 

3. Opportunities to connect with an intellectual community of colleagues from other departments who are working toward similar goals and solving similar problems. 

4. A flexible fund of up to $2,500 for the team. The funds can be distributed as small stipends for the team members or to support a broader range of expenses, such as travel to a professional conference to present the results of the work, purchasing physical materials, inviting a guest speaker, and/or hosting a departmental retreat or workshop.     

Eligibility and Expectations

Any KU-Lawrence or Edwards academic unit is eligible to apply. Department teams should be composed of at least three faculty members who will play an active role in the activities, with demonstrated support of the department chair. Staff (e.g., advisors) are also welcome to be part of the team. “Faculty” include multi-term lecturers, teaching specialists, and professors of teaching who have an ongoing role in their departments. 

Department teams are expected to have at least two people attend program meetings (Friday, September 19; Friday, February 6; and Friday, March 27 all from 10:00 AM until 12:00), and share their work (questions, results, and proposed next steps) in at least one department meeting and in a poster at CTE’s annual Celebration of Teaching the afternoon of May 8, 2026. 

Application

Interested departments should submit a brief application (1-2 pages) by 5 p.m. Monday, September 8 at the following link: Form Submission

 Applications should address the following:

1. Faculty team and leader. Who will lead the team, and what other faculty members will participate? Why is this the right team for this work? How will you go about sharing your work with other department colleagues?

2. Goals. What are your goals for participating? What sorts of questions are you interested in exploring and why? What types of actions might your team/department consider taking in response to the evidence you explore during Ideas-to-Action?

3. Other Efforts. How would the project connect with prior or current department efforts to support effective teaching and learning?

4. Availability. Will at least two team members be able to attend the three working group meetings? Note that all members are welcome to attend. 

5. Budget. A short budget detailing the expenses the team hopes to cover with I2A funding. 

6. Only if your dept has previously participated in I2A. What action steps did your department take in response to your results from the last iteration of Ideas to Action? How might participating a second time build upon those earlier efforts?

Selection

Ideas-to-Action projects should promote cooperative, integrated participation among faculty members. Preference will be given to units that will have broad engagement by faculty and seek to explore questions with meaningful implications for the teaching and learning culture in the unit. We will notify departments of decisions by Thursday, Sept 11.  Funds will be available in early November.