In line with university goals and priorities the curricular innovation grants program, administered by the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL), supports faculty in designing, redesigning and implementing innovative courses that enhance student learning and advance the university’s strategic priorities.
Through this program, faculty receive support to develop courses that incorporate innovative teaching approaches, emerging technologies and evidence-based pedagogical practices. Projects funded through the program aim to strengthen the quality of instruction, improve student engagement and success and generate models that can be shared across disciplines.
Curricular Innovation Grants are intended to support course development and redesign projects that:
2026 Focus: AI Curricular Innovation
For 2026, the Curricular Innovation Grants program is focused on supporting AI-enabled curricular innovation. These grants will support faculty who are redesigning courses to thoughtfully and responsibly integrate artificial intelligence into teaching and learning.
Projects may include efforts such as:
Through these grants, we seek to support faculty in preparing students to work effectively in an AI-influenced workforce while maintaining strong academic and ethical standards in teaching and learning.
During the 2024–2025 academic year, the curricular innovation grants program focused on targeted support for developing general education courses for online delivery. This initiative was part of a broader university strategy to expand high-quality online learning opportunities and ensure students could complete a fully online undergraduate degree at NIU.
Rather than issuing an open call for proposals, CITL worked directly with university and college leadership to identify general education courses that aligned with institutional priorities and would have the greatest impact on expanding online course availability.
Faculty participating in this initiative partnered with CITL instructional designers to redesign selected courses for high-quality online delivery, strengthening NIU’s online learning ecosystem while maintaining strong standards for course design and student engagement.
Launched in 2023, the curricular innovation grants program was created to inspire and incentivize experimentation in teaching and learning across NIU’s academic programs.
By supporting course redesign and instructional experimentation, the program helps faculty:
Through collaboration with CITL instructional designers and teaching support staff, grant recipients are able to develop impactful course innovations that benefit both their students and the broader NIU community.
Phone: 815-753-0595
Email: citl@niu.edu
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