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Request for Proposals: 2023 OPEN Math Workshops

We recognize the deep and diverse expertise of MAA community members as a rich resource that can benefit others through professional development training. The OPEN Math workshops will draw on this expertise to offer impactful and meaningful professional development experiences about a wide range of mathematics education topics. Using online delivery methods reduces the cost and environmental impact of participating in professional development and enables people to take part from a wide range of teaching positions, institutions, and life circumstances. Please consider sharing your expertise in a summer 2023 workshop.

Workshop Guidelines

OPEN Math workshops may focus on educational practices at the course and classroom level or on a co-curricular program or structure within a mathematical sciences department. As you design your workshop and write your application, please note the following requirements:

  • All OPEN Math workshops must emphasize modern, research-based, learner-centered teaching and learning approaches in higher education— both in what they are teaching participants to use and in how they interact with participants during the workshop. Likewise, workshops must use and promote strategies for creating inclusive learning environments.
  • To provide a common framework across all workshops, and to help participants recognize and use the IP Guide as a rich resource for guiding their practice, we ask all workshops to make explicit use of the MAA Instructional Practices (IP) Guide in some way, e.g. using frameworks or ideas, selecting readings, etc.
  • The OPEN Math project also seeks to develop the skills and capacities of new and experienced professional development leaders, and to strengthen the community of practice around providing professional development. Please consider these goals in developing your workshop team.
  • The OPEN Math project recognizes that professional development training is less effective in a vacuum – efforts should be made for pedagogical shifts and curriculum changes to occur at a department, program, or institutional level. To this end, there is a thread within the project specifically for engaging program leaders at various levels. We welcome proposals that take up this thread.
  • OPEN Math workshops require between 20 and 30 hours of direct contact along with pre- and post-workshop engagement. Here “direct contact” means “synchronous activities,” some of which could involve small, independent group work away from the workshop leaders. Individual, asynchronous activities and pre/post workshop work should not count among the direct contact hours.
  • We’re asking workshop teams to follow one of the tested formats described below. This link provides examples of recent workshops that use each format.
    • Format choice #1: intensive workshop (roughly 6 hours per day for 4 days in one week)
    • Format choice #2: extended mini-course (roughly 3 hours per day for 3 days per week for three weeks)
  • We require that all selected workshop teams participate in a collaborative, online winter planning meeting in February/March of 2023, where we’ll exchange resources and ideas, and help you hash out your workshop plans in detail. Please ensure as many as possible from your team can attend. Please check schedules now – it is important (for the success of the funding grant) that at least two leaders of your workshop participate in these planning meetings. These online sessions are set for:
    • February 2, 4:00-6:00pm ET
    • February 16, 4:00-6:00pm ET
    • March 2, 4:00-6:00pm ET. 
  • As a condition of funding, we will also ask for your commitment to take part in the project evaluation. This includes some follow-up work with the evaluation team as well as follow-up with your workshop participants. For more information on the evaluation process, see the Evaluation FAQ document.

Budget

Each workshop team selected for 2023 will have a budget of $12,000 that can be used for materials, software, and stipends. We set the maximum individual stipend at $4,000 to ensure that the workshop team includes several people, preferably from a variety of backgrounds, affiliations, and viewpoints. All materials you develop will remain your intellectual property. The OPEN Math project will help with recruiting participants and managing participant applications; workshop evaluation; and recognition of your leadership in professional development.

How to Apply

To apply for an OPEN Math Workshop you must submit an application through Amplifund, our online application portal. You will need to create a free account within the Amplifund system. If awarded, this account will be used to administer your award, so please be sure to enter all of your contact information correctly. We will notify applicants of their status by mid-December 2022.

   Apply Now Frequently Asked Questions

 

 

How to Create an Amplifund Account

On the "Application Details" page, click "Apply". On the next screen, click "Register". Enter the information as requested, and read and accept the terms and conditions. You may now complete your application.

Getting Started with Amplifund

Get started with Amplifund by watching this video. You will learn about setting up an account, completing an application, and submitting an application. We recommend completing the application on Amplifund using Chrome or Firefox. There are known issues with Amplifund and Safari.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, you will need to create a free Amplifund account in order to apply.

The exception to this would be if your institution already has an Amplifund account. Amplifund is the grants management system for many organizations, not just MAA, so it is possible that your institution’s grants office, or sponsored programs office, has an account for your institution already. If that is the case, please contact that office directly.

On the Opportunity Details page, you will see a button that says “Apply” in the upper right of the screen. Click on “Apply” and then click “Register” on the next screen. You will be asked to enter some information about yourself and your organization (note: for academic institutions please select “Other” as organization type), and then you will be asked to accept the terms and conditions. Once this is complete, you may begin your application.

When setting up your Amplifund account you will be asked for your organization/affiliation name and type. For organization type, most academic institutions or individuals should select “Other” unless they are applying as a Foundation or Corporation.

No, you are certainly welcome to contact your grants or sponsored programs office and ask them to add you as a user if they have an existing account. Since most OPEN Math funding is distributed to individuals though, it's not strictly necessary to contact your grants offce.

This should be the title of your workshop, i.e. "Modeling Inspiration for Differential Equations," etc.

Yes! At any point while you’re filling out the application form you can download the application in its entirety. Additionally, before submitting, on the final screen there will be a button that says “Review” with a download arrow. Click on this button to download your completed application before submitting.

Amplifund has a built-in safety feature to prevent applicants from missing sections. Each page/section of the application needs to be “Marked as Complete” in order for the system to register that it is in fact complete. There is a button at the bottom of each page/section called “Mark as Complete”. Make sure you have clicked this on each page (when clicked, the button becomes “Mark as In Progress”).

You will receive a confirmation email at the email address you used to create your Amplifund account.

No, they don’t need to be MAA members. While project personnel credentials are a factor in making a funding decision, their MAA membership status does not affect their chances of getting a grant.

Applications will be accepted from college and university mathematical sciences faculty at accredited U.S. (including U.S. Territory) or Canadian institutions.

To maintain some consistency, we ask summer workshop leaders to provide 20-30 hours of direct instruction, not counting pre-activities or readings. Additionally, we expect that workshops will have some post-workshop follow up, such as a formal check in toward the end of the subsequent academic term. The winter workshops will have different expectations.

Each approved summer workshop will have a budget of up to $12,000 to pay leaders and presenters as well as any other direct cost of running the workshop. To encourage including a large enough team of facilitators and panelists, we will cap individual stipends at $4,000. We also encourage workshop teams to reflect on the diversity of experience and backgrounds among the team members. One goal of the OPEN Math project is to grow and nurture the community of professional development facilitators, and we want the widest possible range of voices within this community. The MAA will provide a Zoom link that you can use (unless you prefer your institution's tools), so that is not part of the budget. Workshops during the academic year will have budgets based on size and duration, since the format of those workshops can vary greatly. Contact Doug Ensley to discuss this in advance.

For the leaders of the first summer workshops we will have some winter meetings to discuss issues around online workshop design, participant recruitment and engagement strategies, and useful follow up activities. We ask that every workshop running in summer 2022 have at least one leader participate in the winter meetings. These sessions are set for February 9 & 23 and March 9 & 23, with each meeting running 4:00-6:00pm ET.

An important component of the funded project is the evaluation of effective practices, and that evaluation plan depends on maintaining a manageable number of variables. This requirement may be loosened up over the course of the project, but at the outset it is important to maintain consistency.