Teaching Innovations Program (TIP)

Current Year: TIP 2025-26

This Year’s Theme: Incorporating Experiential Education and Career Readiness into Your Course

Experiential Education and Career Readiness have been shown to have the most impact when embedded in classroom experiences. Faculty who provide in-class moments for reflection on course learning outcomes that are also work-ready skills and consideration of their application to the world of work become experts at supporting students with preparation for life after college. This year’s TIP is dedicated to building a community of faculty who will incorporate this work into their courses. As part of a broader mission to build a nexus of career success advocates across MSU, TIP fellows will be empowered to use existing workforce data and career planning resources to create in class opportunities for student career preparation. 

About This Year’s Theme

Faculty to student mentoring is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of student career development and success. In a 2024 Faculty Survey, NACE reported that 86% of students felt comfortable discussing their career plans with faculty and another 57% said they worked with their faculty for job search support. Similarly, in a recent MSU Faculty Survey, 90% of respondents reported that they had provided students with career planning advice over the last year. Undoubtedly, faculty involvement in students’ career planning journey can be transformational, allowing learners to see the intersections between their coursework and their career goals. Experiential learning therefore, creates a gateway for the connection between in-class concepts and the world of work. Project-based learning activities, alumni talks, internships, site visits and embedding career competencies in course outcomes can build spaces for the practical application of and reflection on course concepts. Students are then able to articulate their knowledge and skills and can easily maneuver through their career with autonomy and confidence.

This year’s TIP will focus on the importance of faculty to students’ career planning process. In partnership with the Office of Experiential Education and Career Connections, TIP will provide fellows support for incorporating career planning and/or experiential education into their chosen courses. Rather than focusing on a complete redesign of existing models, fellows will explore a wide range of interventions and resources that can be weaved into the classroom experience. Ultimately, our goal is that faculty can see career planning with students as a spectrum of tools that can be easily deployed. In the three-day June workshop, faculty will engage in in-depth, practical exercises to integrate career readiness into their classroom. 

The Commitment

As part of the application process, fellows will identify one course to address in TIP. Fellows must have the chair’s approval and commitment to implementing the new design in the coming academic year. 

In June, each fellow or team will set goals for incorporating experiential learning or career readiness into the identified course, and design materials to support the effort.  

Teams commit to be present during the three-day workshop on June 23, 24, &  25, 2025. 

• Fellows will refine the design over the next academic year, enabling full implementation in the semester after the fall pilot, with support from and meetings with TIP staff.
• Fellows will be introduced to some common strategies for embedding career planning into their curricula. Suggested approaches will include both high impact practices and smaller action steps to align course designs with NACE Career Competencies. Although each course may not have the capacity to include an industry project or employer-led experience, infusing experiential learning into courses, even in small doses, can increase the likelihood of student success. 
• Teams will work with a TIP staff member to build out their courses, spending most of each day working together to create the course syllabus and Simple Syllabus template, course guide, key assignments and activities, and to design a method for gathering feedback through the implementation year. At the end of each day, teams will report out to the larger group, receiving constructive feedback on their work. 

To Apply

Please submit a proposal no longer than three pages to ctai@paulytheprayingpup.com by April 17, 2025 in response to the year’s theme:

1. Proposes a course or program for development and redesign.
2. Describes the problem or opportunity that their application is addressing, per the annual call.
3. Proposes a strategy for addressing the problem or opportunity, how this program will be supportive, and how CTAI can be helpful.
4. Summarizes the value that the program will have for the fellow(s) and how the fellow(s) are well suited for this project, including whether they have taught the course or in the program, and whether they intend to teach in the course/program in the next academic year.

In addition, applications included a letter of support from the relevant Department Chairperson or ADF affirming how the primary unit can provide specific support to the success of the program. This might have included pledging to schedule faculty in target courses, to ask the unit to adopt the proposal for course or program-wide implementation, etc.

Criteria for Evaluation

Proposals are evaluated by CTAI on the basis of:

• Potential value for student success as defined by Montclair’s strategic plan
• Feasibility
• Appropriateness to theme

Note: Priority was given to projects that hold the most potential for sustained positive impact to the University and are aligned with the strategic directions and plan of the University, which evolve given the rapidly shifting challenges facing public higher education.

Eligibility

• Participants must have a full-time appointment as a Tenure-Track or Tenured member of the Faculty or as an NTTP (instructional or clinical specialist).
• Participants must be fully available on the defined dates in June — see “The Commitment.”

Current and Past Work

2024-2025 Theme: Improving Consistency and Student Outcomes in Multi-Section Courses

This year’s TIP will focus on redesigning multi-section courses to improve student learning outcomes and the student learning experience. The application process has closed for this year and teams have begun their work.

2024-2025 Teams and Projects

2023-2024 Theme: Learning Environments that Promote Belonging and Support Learning

Much talk on campus and beyond these last few years has been about creating learning environments that foster belonging and support student success across student populations. We can all applaud these goals, but finding the time and help to create such learning environments can be difficult. The goal of the 2023-2024 program is to provide faculty with support and time to adopt and adapt evidence-based interventions and teaching strategies that promote engagement and support academic success for all in specific courses and/or programs.

Following research on psychological and social interventions that lead to improved student success, faculty teams selected two or three specific interventions or practices to adopt and implement in their program. Each team selected their own interventions and practices from a recommended library of practices, adapting them to their own contexts. Faculty also selected a set of measures to evaluate students’ experiences with these interventions and practices, enabling them to continue to refine their practices over the course of the program.

2023-2024 Teams and Projects

Bisola Neil and Emily Hodge (Educational Leadership), Carving Spaces of Belonging for Aspiring Women Leaders of Color in Montclair State University’s Online Educational Leadership Program. Final report (opens as PDF)

Lauren Covey, Jonathan Howell, and Larissa Goulart (Linguistics), Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) in Linguistics. Final report (opens as PDF)

Thomas Herold, Pascale LaFountain, Marisa Trubiano, and Wing Shan Ho (World Languages and Cultures), Decolonizing the World Languages Curriculum. Final report  (opens as PDF)

Tatum Petrich and Tavya Jackson (Writing Studies), WRIT 105: Improving DFW Rates by Increasing Students’ Sense of Belonging. Final Report (opens as PDF)

2023–2024 TIP Schedule

April 28, 2023: Call for applications
May 12, 2023: Applications due. Email programs to Isaacse@paulytheprayingpup.com with a copy to faculty@paulytheprayingpup.com.
May 17, 2023: Decisions communicated to applicant groups.
May 18-June 9, 2023: Initial team meetings to clarify plan and identify team needs
June 13, 14 & 15 2023: Three-day workshop for all participants to jumpstart and work out the details of the new or revised course or program.
August 1, 2023: Submit brief memo for the Fall implementation and meet with OFE Staff to finalize fall implementation
October, 2023: Check in meeting with OFE Staff
January 5, 2024: Revision Memo clarifying changes for Spring Semester
March, 2024: Check in meeting with OFE Staff
May 8, 2024: Participation in the annual Faculty Showcase
June 3, 2024: Final Action Plan due

Honoraria

During the implementation year, after the planning workshop, teams will meet with OFE staff at least twice and will provide three memos. See below for important dates.

• June: $1,000 (per person), with attendance at the June 3-day workshop: Dates: June 13, 14 and 15. Faculty need to be available all day each day to get all the work done. The workshop will be held in-person, 9:30-4:30. We will meet as a full team to discuss common goals and strategies and share teams’ emerging plans, but much of the time will be devoted to teams working at planning, writing, and executing all the details of their interventions.
• January (of the next year): $500 (per person) with submission of a completed Mid-program Memo.
• June (of the next year): $500 (per person) with submission of a completed Final Report Action Plan
• If the team’s Final Report Action Plan is approved by the department chairperson or school ADF, up to $1,000 will be available to the team to support the implementation of the Action Plan. The $1,000 will be for use in support of the program, jointly agreed on.