The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has granted $803,942 over four years to support the launch of the Bay View Alliance, comprising UC Davis and six other top North American research universities that conduct leading research to improve undergraduate teaching and learning.

The other participating instittutions: United States — Indiana University, Bloomington; University of Kansas; University of Texas, Austin. Canada — University of British Columbia; Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario); and University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan).

The network will seek to understand the kinds of leadership practices that can best support the widespread adoption of effective teaching methods, with a focus on STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The alliance will examine leadership practices on member campuses by designing and implementing a range of pilot intervention efforts, and then studying the results of these interventions to gauge their effect on the adoption rate of evidence-based teaching approaches. 

Patricia Turner, vice provost for Undergraduate Education at UC Davis, said UC Davis has a long-standing commitment to excellence in undergraduate education. "Participation in the alliance will help UC Davis improve teaching in the STEM fields here and elsewhere as the campus and other universities share the results of their research and intervention projects," she said.

For example, one cluster of campuses will focus on resources that provide support for course redesign. This effort will assign experienced educators to help faculty redesign large STEM courses for more active learning. Their learning goals and final outcomes will then be systematically evaluated. Campuses will compare results and explore how such an intervention could be institutionalized more widely.

"Innovation in teaching is critical to supporting learning in key STEM disciplines," said Elizabeth S. Boylan, program director with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. "The foundation is excited to partner with the Bay View Alliance in its efforts to learn and disseminate information on the best ways to spread the adoption of evidence-based teaching methods in undergraduate STEM education, efforts that will, in turn, provide benefits to both the faculty and their students."