The College of Education O’Leary Learning Center will provide a modern, multifunctional, and collaborative space to advance the College of Education’s research and instruction in the learning sciences. The Learning Center will support interdisciplinary research projects, online teaching, learning and research, and STEM instruction through a technologically advanced and pedagogically sound space which will be integrated into the north-east corner on the ground level of the College.

We are seeking up to 10 interdisciplinary student projects interested in effectively using the Center’s collaborative space in Spring 2018 in Room 10 in advance of renovations taking place Summer 2018-Summer 2019. These projects will showcase the kind of interdisciplinary collaborative research in education that will take place in the center, and provide insight into the collaborative facilities, technologies and policies needed to support the use of the Center.

To this end, we invite project proposals from teams of graduate and/or undergraduate students interested in interdisciplinary projects focused on a broad range of areas including but not limited to education research studies around student collaboration, technology-mediated and online learning, learning interventions, content integration, and a broad range of inservice and preservice instructional approaches.

Students whose project is selected will have access to $1,000 of funding to support the project. They will be expected to spend at least 5 hours per week working on their project in the O’Leary Learning Center’s collaborative space, allowing them to share their expertise and collaborate with other selected projects. In addition, students will be asked to present the outcome of their project at the end of the Spring 2018 semester.

Please direct any questions about this solicitation to a faculty member of the O’Leary Learning Center committee: Gabrielle Allen (gdallen@illinois.edu), Maya Israel (misrael@illinois.edu), Luc Paquette (lpaq@illinois.edu), H. Chad Lane (hclane@illinois.edu) and Barbara Hug (bhug@illinois.edu). Funded projects will be provided with guidelines for accessing the support.

Eligibility
To be eligible for the College of Education O’Leary Learning Center Award, the student PI must meet all of the following requirements:

● Have at least one faculty supervisor who is a member at the College of Education.
● Be enrolled in a degree program in education, teacher certification, or a related field.
● Represent a team of at least two students who are all enrolled in UIUC graduate or undergraduate degree programs.
● Students must be in good standing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Application Process
To apply, the student PI should send an application package to Laura Owen (lowen@illinois.edu) by December 1st containing:

● a subject line saying “O’Leary Learning Center Awards”
● 2-page abstract that summarizes the proposed project (see below)
● very short letters of support from faculty advisors The abstract will describe
● list of student collaborators (with names, degree program and email addresses)
● the project motivation and how the project will benefit from using the O’Leary Learning Center’s collaborative space
● justification of the interdisciplinary nature of the project
● how the project will be completed (e.g., expected steps, stages, timeline)
● budget showing how the $1,000 of funding will be spent (please list necessary project materials, hourly support, and other items)
● expected outcomes and deliverables: (e.g., materials, reports that will be produced, which will be submitted to the Committee as evidence of project completion)

Review Process
Proposals will be reviewed by the O’Leary Learning Center Committee before the end of the Fall 2017 semester. Criteria for decisions will be:

● Appropriateness of collaborative and/or interdisciplinary activities for the O’Leary Learning Center
● Quality of proposed research and teaching innovations
● Diversity of projects across the college