A cohorts program focusing on cross-institutional collaborations.

This is a cohort program that aims to foster and support collaborations across AMICAL institutions on digital projects or assignments that are integrated into coursework.

AMICAL Digital Collaborations promotes the development and exchange of expertise in digital scholarship and pedagogy while cultivating innovative, multicultural teaching and learning experiences. The program is being funded by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

Program overview

This program will consist of four phases:

1. Gathering members’ collaboration ideas and facilitating matchmaking among interested AMICAL members (April 2022)
2. Submission and review of collaboration proposals (May 2022)
3. Accepted proposals receive support in the form of training, consultations and inclusion in a community of practice before (summer 2022 and until each collaboration completes)
4. Collaborations are implemented in courses (fall semester 2022 and/or spring semester 2023)

Phase 1 – Matchmaking

The first phase of the program is a matchmaking event whose aim will be to help those participating in the event to find a partner at another institution to work on a viable curriculum-integrated digital collaboration in the next academic year.

This event is for those who do not yet have a partner at another institution. If you connect with an AMICAL partner on your own, outside of this event, you will still be able to apply for support for your collaboration through our AMICAL Digital Collaborations program, which will open in early May.

The matchmaking will take place over two sessions on April 26 and 27. We will do our best to schedule there a series of 1-on-1 meetings between participants and all those they’ve expressed interest in partnering with. Participants will be invited to join one or both of the session dates, depending on who we were able to schedule meetings with. (If you aren’t able to attend either session of the matchmaking event, you can still sign up, and we’ll help connect you to potential partners.)

Phase 2 – Proposal submissions

After the matchmaking event, participants can develop their ideas and submit proposals to participate in the cohort program.

A collaboration proposal must:

• Involve digital methods, tools, or projects integrated in one or more courses. The collaboration can range from a single assignment, to one or more modules, to a project embedded throughout a course.
  
  We have created a page on our site which lists the kind of digital methods and project types we are intending to support. It may also be helpful to look at the Digital Assignment Guides (from Princeton’s McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning). While not exhaustive, it provides helpful ideas about potential digital assignments.

• Involve courses that run by summer 2023.

• Involve partnerships with colleagues at more than one AMICAL institution.

• Include at least one faculty member as a partner on the collaboration.

The Digital Liberal Arts Programs Committee will review all submitted proposals and accept into the cohort those it is best able to support.

Phase 3 – Support for accepted collaboration proposals

The support offered will be organized in coordination with the cohort participants and appropriate to the scope of each collaboration.

In general, cohort participants will benefit from:

• A workshop on integrating digital methods into course design (May/June).
• Workshops and training on skills relating to digital projects, digital tools, and/or digital pedagogy relevant to the cohort’s needs.
• Consultations on the needs of your specific collaboration.
• Support to apply for further training or funding through our Small Grant program.
• Connections with other cohort members working on digital collaborations.

The training and consultations will be provided by our Digital Project Advisors, a growing list of colleagues who have agreed to help AMICAL members’ collaborations in their specific areas of expertise.

AMICAL is planning to offer this support in online format, and will cover all related costs. As travel becomes more manageable, in the case of more substantial collaborations, we may be able to support bringing cohort participants together in a face-to-face event, or funding individual travel for partners to meet with each other.

To be eligible for all benefits, at least one participant in each collaboration must be from a Full or Affiliate member institution. There may be some limits in how members from Network institutions can be supported. (You can see the membership status of all institutions on our members page.)

Phase 4 – Implementation and ongoing support

The collaborations will be implemented in the fall or spring semesters of the 2022–2023 academic year in one or more courses. The program will continue offering support on issues that may arise during this period.

Expectations of participants

We expect all participants in the program to attend a small number of organizing meetings (such as the matchmaking event, and a debriefing meeting after the conclusion of the collaboration), as well as the training and consultations planned for each collaboration in coordination with its members.

We encourage all participants to share pedagogical materials they create during their collaboration as Open Educational Resources for others to use. We also encourage participants who receive training to disseminate their knowledge to colleagues through local workshops and trainings.

Members of each collaboration will be asked to briefly report out in a written form.

How to participate in the program

The deadline for submitting a proposal has passed. You may still request support for your digital project outside of the cohort program.

Questions?

You can contact us via email.

How does this program relate to other similar ones?

• AMICAL’s Digital Liberal Arts Cohorts – Oral History. We will be shortly announcing a sibling cohort program to this one, focused on supporting digital oral history projects at AMICAL institutions. That program will focus on digital methods specific to oral history projects, whether or not they collaborate across the consortium. However, a project eligible for both programs (i.e., a digital oral history project that spans multiple AMICAL institutions) can apply to both programs to receive appropriate support from each.
• GLAA’s Global Course Connections Program. GLAA’s initiative partners courses at colleges around its network, which partially overlaps AMICAL’s membership. The AMICAL Digital Collaborations program focuses specifically on effective and collaborative integration of digital methods or tools in a course, whereas GLAA’s program does not focus specifically on digital collaboration.