The University of Lincoln’s Centre for Educational Research and Development has launched the call for the 2009 round of the Fund for Educational Development (FED).

FED is open to all members of staff to apply for projects which contribute to the University’s Teaching and Learning Strategy by addressing one or more of the following areas:

• strengthening links between teaching and research;
• delivering innovations in teaching and learning;
• enhancing the learning environment;
• engaging with the wider community;
• improving the overall student experience

Proposals can request up to £5,000 to fund a range of activities from release from teaching, admin or research duties to consumables and travel costs. The deadline for this round is 3rd December 2008 and applicants will be notified of the outcome shortly afterwards.

You can find out more about what you can do with a FED award on the Portal (internal access only).

Last year 54 applications were received, of which 15 were selected for funding. These represented a diverse span of projects from across the institution, including both academic and non-academic staff.

The Virtual Horse

One of last year’s successful projects, held by Prof. Daniel Mills, is developing innovative interactive teaching media for Equine Science students at Riseholme. Sarah Redgate, Research Assistant in the Animal Behaviour, Cognition and Welfare Group and one of the leaders of the project, explains further: “The aim is to bring to life the functional anatomy and physiology of the horse by providing the learner with a view of the horse from the outside in. A ‘virtual horse’ will be developed that will allow the learner to interact with different anatomical areas to reveal an in-depth audio-visual description of the anatomy of underlying structures and how they function in the healthy, injured or diseased horse.”

Chemistry Students as Teachers

Forensic Science lecturers Mark Baron, Belinda Colston and Jose Gonzalez-Rodriguez aim to help first year students overcome difficulties with their course. Their project focused on producing a series of short video clips, each of which covers a specific aspect of level 1 chemistry. Citing the popularity of Youtube as an inspiration, the project recruited students to design, produce and deliver the training videos. Dr Gonzalez-Rodriguez says: “We all know that students often prefer to talk to other students to solve their problems rather than coming to us.”

Contact Howard Stevenson if you have any questions about FED or to discuss whether you think your project idea is a good fit with the scheme.