Outcomes of Idea Labs

Today, we held our first Idea Lab as part of the 2012 Impact Grant. Jeanne Osborne, Animal Sciences, and Jan Macian, Spanish & Portuguese, and members of their teams met with some of our Impact Grant alumni: Elizabeth Miller (Mathematics), Lisa Lee (Histology), and Ted Clark (Chemistry).

Idea Labs are an opportunity for our IG recipients to learn about each other’s projects and collaborate and brainstorm together, as well as have an opportunity to meet with faculty and staff from around the university. Since this was the first opportunity to bring Jeanne and Jan together, we took this time to introduce each other and talk about their respective projects.

Jeanne shared more about her Animals in Society course which she is hoping to turn to a HyFlex model. Jan talked about not only creating a truly scalable individualized instruction program but about the best practices and processes for developing a sustainable model in her department.

The grant alumni were able to ask more questions of each project which helped to further brainstorm and add parameters of what’s in scope and out of scope. The most beneficial outcomes, though, stemmed from the advice the alumni provided to Jan and Jeanne. Ted encouraged the participants to really embrace the IRB process as a way to scope and form the project. Elizabeth shared ways of engaging other departmental stakeholders in the process to ensure continued success. Lisa shared her insights for maintaining time management and prioritizing the work for the projects.

All in all, everyone left feeling benefits from this interdisciplinary learning community.

If you’re interested in becoming more involved in the Impact Grant program, let us know by writing to ltgrants@osu.edu. The next Impact Grant application deadline is May 21. More information is located at http://go.osu.edu/IG.