Education Discovery Grants
The Faculty of Humanities invites application for its Education Discovery Grants. These are grants of up to £300 to support you to host discussions between students, academics, professional service colleagues, and/or people connected to the university which help you better understand a teaching and learning problem you want to address.
Grants can be used to pay for:
- catering
- on-campus room hire
- vouchers given to students' or those not employed by the university in recognition of their participation and time
The Education Discovery Grant requires you to complete at least two of three possible templates during your workshops:
Empathy Map
Empathy maps are used to build a rounded understanding of how ‘users’ experience something at present. It is likely that in our context that ‘users’ are students, but they also may be colleagues, school pupils or teachers, or others connected with the university. As a workshop activity, creating an Empathy Map means bringing together groups of people - academics, students, professional service staff, for example- to explore and set out experiences and needs of a fictional ‘user’ who is nominally part of the same group as them. The completed map can be used – along with empathy maps for other users and journey maps – to understand the rounded experiences of people who are impacted by the problem you are exploring.
- Empathy map overview https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=66984
- Empathy map template https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=66980
Journey Map
A journey map is a visualisation of an imagined user's experiences with what you are investigating. A journey map can be used to understand experiences of undertaking a task or other period of time. The mapping process asks your participants to explain what is involved and how it is experienced. To create a journey map your workshop should bring together people who are similar to your imagined user, with relevant experience to draw on. As with the empathy map, your ‘user’ could be a student, educator, professional service colleague, or someone else connected with the university.
- Journey map overview https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=66987
- Journey map template https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=66981
Systems Map
A systems map is a visualisation tool to help identify the component parts and their interactions in the complex system in which your ‘problem’ occurs. As you work within this system it is likely you have an in-depth understanding from your own perspective. It is important to gather people together with diverse perspectives to gain a fuller representation of the wider system. To create a robust systems map you need to gather a input from a diverse group of people across different job roles. This can be done in a workshop with the possibility of additions from other groups who couldn’t attend. The completed systems map will help visualise the ‘big picture’ and complexity of the system. Seeing the relationships, tensions, crossover, and absences can provide new insight into priorities and areas of potential impact as you think about how to address the problem you are exploring.
- Systems map overview https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=66992
- Systems map template https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=66982
We will be awarding up to 12 grants. You could usefully use these grants to support the development of Flexible Learning pilots https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/flexible-learning/news/display/?id=29168 , Institute of Teaching and Learning fellowship applications Institute of Teaching and Learning | StaffNet | The University of Manchester , to address department or school priorities, or for other important areas of education.
The output of a Humanities Education Discovery Grants will be 1) a completed Education Discovery Grant report, with maps attached. These should be submitted to the relevant L&T committee and the Humanities TLSE. The Associate Dean Teaching Learning and Students (Flexible and online) will also arrange for 2) a dissemination workshop for the award holder to share their experiences and findings across the faculty.
Any money awarded must be spent by 30th June 2024 and your report will need to be completed by mid-July. It is anticipated that dissemination workshops will be happen in July and early in the next academic year.
Criteria for selection
Applications for Humanities Education Discovery Grants will be assessed against the following criteria:
- Is the problems being investigated related to education or student experience?
- Does it meet one of the priorities set out?
- Is the problem well explained?
- Is the problem pressing?
- Is the problem widespread?
Deadline for application is 15th April 2024.
Apply for a Humanities Education Discovery Grant (Qualtrics application form)