Instructional Software Fund Program

Introduction

The Student Technology Fee Committee (STFC) has again approved funding for faculty to acquire software to support instructional purposes. An amount of $7,000 is available for the 2025-2026 academic year. The STFC charges the Academic Technology Committee (ATC) to manage this program. The STFC established the following provisions for these funds.

• Funds are to be limited to software that is accessible to students.
• A report on utilization of funds shall be provided to the STFC by March 16th,2026.

Funding Eligibility

Software funded must be used for instructional purposes and be accessible to students. Examples include (not in any priority order):

1. Software to be installed in a campus lab for classroom instruction;
2. Software to be utilized by students for classroom assignments or research activities - likely to be accessible in a campus lab or online environment;
3. Software used by faculty for instructional activities:
   1. Installed on smart classroom(s) computer workstations,
   2. Installed on individual faculty workstations provided that the software will be used for an instructional, classroom-related purpose,
   3. Used for online instruction.

Collaborative Projects Encouraged

The ATC encourages proposals that involve several faculty members including collaborations across multiple departments and/or programs. Collaborative proposals shall have a designated lead that will submit the proposal. Application Process (2025-2026 Academic Year)

Application Process (2025 - 2026 Academic Year)

1. Proposal deadline is 'January 23rd, 2026'.
2. Proposals will be submitted to Chair Elliot Vaughan via the following online form :
3. It is the ATC’s intention to notify applicants by 'Monday, February 23rd^' regarding funding decisions.

Evaluation Criteria*

Funding decisions will be made by the ATC upon a review of applications considering the criteria listed below**:

1. Strength of academic rationale for request
2. Number of students per academic year by software
3. Number of academic programs to benefit from software
4. Software costs
5. Non-availability of alternative software products
6. Annual recurring costs (e.g., software maintenance fees)
7. Existence of any matching funds

* The ATC reserves the right to allocate funding among departments/programs as it deems appropriate to ensure that a diverse group of departments/programs can benefit from these funds.

** The ATC reserves the right to partially meet applicant's funding requests. Applicants to be considered for partial funding will be contacted prior to the final funding decisions to determine their willingness to accept a reduced funding amount.

Project Reports

Awardees are required to submit a brief (< 1 page) project evaluation report to the ATC by January 15^th of the following academic year their proposal was awarded.

Among items the reports shall address include:

1. Program(s) that benefited from the funded project.
2. Number of students impacted.
3. Findings and/or lessons learned related to use of the software funded.
4. Will this software continue to be used in the future? If so, how?
5. How may this software be utilized by other programs, if at all?