UTA Libraries' Experiential Learning & Undergraduate Success and FabLab Receive IMLS National Leadership Project Grant

As a continuation of UTA Libraries IMLS-funded Maker Literacies and the Undergraduate Curriculum National Leadership Planning Grant (IMLS #LG-97-17-0010-17), Experiential Learning & Undergraduate Success and the FabLab are excited to announce that we have been awarded a three year, $241, 845 IMLS National Leadership Project Grant (IMLS #LG-17-19-0126-19). We will be partnering with the University of Nevada, Reno(UNR), and University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA) to pilot maker literacies curriculum in twenty undergraduate courses during the first year of the grant. Subject faculty, librarians, and makerspace staff involved in these courses will provide feedback to revise and improve rubrics that can be used to authentically assess student learning related to the maker competencies that were created during the previous grant.

A key finding of the previous planning grant was that librarians and makerspace staff did not feel entirely comfortable engaging with faculty as full pedagogical partners when integrating making into courses and, subsequently, assessing student learning. In the last two years of the grant, UTA, UNR, and UMA will create and execute two, week-long immersion programs focused on preparing librarians and makerspace staff to utilize the maker competencies and rubrics to develop assignments, curricula, and assess student learning. We will also create an asynchronous, online iteration of the same immersion program.

The goal of this project grant is to create a national network of teaching librarians and makerspace staff who can provide leadership in their institutions to intentionally integrate and assess maker-based experiential learning. If your academic library makerspace is interested in partnering to test the rubrics, please contact me gtrkay@uta.edu or Katie Musick Peery at kapeery@uta.edu.