Mike Daniel, Director of Policy and Operations
@michaeldaniel_

DEI’s approach to academic innovation is both scholarly and practical. We believe in the vital importance of research around digital education and learning analytics, and strive to enable our faculty partners to lead cutting edge research. As a result, DEI contributes to faculty research in a variety of ways. In addition to helping design, produce, and develop instruments for future research through both its Digital Innovation Greenhouse and Academic Innovation Fund, DEI is also the home of the Learning, Education, & Design Lab, which serves as source of potential collaboration, ideation, and dissemination of digital education and learning analytics-related research.

In order to help foster impactful future research while maintaining high levels of integrity related to current faculty, staff, and student scholarship in this area, DEI has developed a variety of internal administrative capabilities related to research that span the gamut of the sponsored project life cycle.  Through this approach, DEI provides a variety of research administration support resources in partnership with central and unit-level colleagues in an effort to help facilitate success in faculty-led DEI research programs. Our aim is to provide clear coordination and effective problem solving in helping faculty to build successful research collaborations with other institutions and engagement with external organizations. Our expertise is rooted in wide knowledge of the digital learning and learning analytics landscape.

DEI’s expertise in this area can help supplement existing research administrative resources located in a faculty member or student’s “home” unit when it relates to research projects connected to digital education innovation (including learning analytics) in some manner, including helping already existing central and “home” unit administrative colleagues carry out key pre-award and post-award-related tasks on behalf of and in collaboration with faculty-led research teams. Our team works with central and unit-level research administration to help interpret regulations, guidelines, funding trends and other information, and tie this information to the broader University’s research mission.  Through this enabling support, it is our goal to help make faculty-led research proposals more competitive for funding (both to internal grant mechanisms and external sponsors).  As an additional source of support in this area beyond what is available in their home units, faculty are encouraged to approach DEI staff early on in the proposal process and connect DEI contacts to their appropriate local support staff as appropriate.

For more information on DEI’s current capabilities in this area, please reference our  Research Administration Support Services.