October 2025 LITE grant - Call for proposals

For this themed round of LITE Seed Grants, we strongly encourage projects that contribute to streamlining courses and programs in new ways while upholding UW’s standards of academic excellence.

In alignment with the ongoing work of the Academic Innovation Working Group (AIWG), we are seeking project proposals at the course or program level, that

1. investigate
   • approaches to optimize teaching effectiveness and assessment of learning, including ways to better integrate new and existing high-impact learning activities, and/or
   • more effective use of learning tools, including new opportunities afforded by GenAI.
2. develop
   • strategies, toolkits, or guides to foster more effective use of learning technologies, and/or
   • new opportunities afforded by GenAI tools, and/or
   • approaches to optimize teaching effectiveness and assessment of learning.

Questions to consider:

• What is currently the biggest disruption to your teaching? What new methods or strategies would you like to undertake to address that disruption and promote deep student learning? How could the results of your project inform program changes?
• How do we adapt our current teaching and assessing methods? How can we teach and assess more effectively? How do we integrate learning technologies in our classrooms? What are effective strategies for enhancing and transitioning to online and blended learning environments?
• How do we critically leverage GenAI to enhance student learning? How could we use GenAI to develop or revise courses and programs? How do we ensure that our use of these technologies is inclusive in scope and respectful of diversity?

We are particularly interested in proposals that

• include applicants and co-applicants from multiple departments, faculties, and/or support units, to advance our university’s aspiration to be “One Waterloo”;
• have the potential to inform decision-making across departments, faculties, and programs;
• elicit insights that are applicable and transferable to other departments, schools, and/or faculties.

Proposals outside this scope will be considered, but priority will be given to proposals that directly address the topics outlined in this call.

Learn about recently funded LITE Grant projects