Innovation Funding Projects
Minnesota State has provided faculty and staff from around the state funding to bring their innovative ideas to life through grants.
| Project Title | School(s) | Description | Funding Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2D & 3D Virtual Activity-Based Learning Approaches | Century College |
Through a collaborative partnership with a company called LRNR, Century College faculty created one of the most interactive and fully online laboratory-based courses in Anatomy and Physiology. As an added value, the course was created using open educational resources. |
$25,000 |
| A Mindful Path toward Equity and Inclusion | Minneapolis College |
A Mindful Path toward Equity and Inclusion combines established mindfulness practices with the cultural awareness piece of equity work. This is accomplished through training those who do the work, promoting self-awareness (a key component of awareness), and offering it as a resource in equity support groups. |
$34,900 |
| Airtame - Wireless Classrooms and Beyond | Lake Superior College |
Cutting the cord to make collaboration easy, Airtame is a wireless device that plugs into the HDMI port of any screen or projector and streams your content to the screen from a computer or mobile device. This solution provides a secure and collaborative learning experience for students at an affordable and sustainable cost. |
$25,000 |
| An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology | Inver Hills Community College |
Inver Hills Community College faculty, in partnership with faculty from California State University, the University of Hawaii, and Grossmont College, collaboratively authored an open textbook to support student learning in the field of biological anthropology. This textbook is a first-of-its-kind creation for the discipline. Using sustaining funding, a lab and activities book to accompany the open access textbook was created. |
$34,900 |
| Apple of My Eye: Clinical Instruction with Enhance | Minnesota State University, Mankato |
Counseling faculty at Minnesota State University, Mankato needed a less obtrusive means of providing feedback to counseling students during clinical exercises. The counseling program had been using “bug in the ear” audio technology, but students indicated the audio was too distracting. Using Apple watches (“bug in the eye”), faculty provided immediate feedback while remaining unobtrusive. |
$12,500 |
| BSU Campus Open Textbook Project | Bemidji State University |
Bemidji State University implemented a three-phase program to increase faculty awareness and adoption of open textbooks across campus, including exploration, campus sharing, and faculty support for implementation. |
$22,768 |
| Becoming ‘Our Community's College' | Lake Superior College |
A campus-wide effort focused on equity and mindfulness through book groups, projects, and community podcasting to improve workplace climate and awareness of barriers and opportunities. |
$10,000 |
| Bridges Health | Winona State University |
Bridges Health at Winona State University is a student-led, faculty-guided clinic that provides healthcare services to underserved communities. It partners with local organizations to both support community needs and give students real-world clinical experience. Through this model, students build practical skills while learning how to work across professions and serve diverse populations. |
$35,000 |
| Bringing the Farm to the Classroom with VR | Southwest Minnesota State University | SMSU uses virtual reality to bring farm experiences into the classroom, ensuring students can engage with diverse agricultural operations even when in-person visits aren’t possible. This approach expands access, supports their sustainable agriculture curriculum, and helps level the playing field with more resource-rich institutions. | $25,000 |
| Building Entrepreneurial Mindset Competency | Metro State University | Encouraging employees and students to “think like entrepreneurs” with the capacity to embrace change, display resilience, think creatively, and self-motivate. These skills are critical to inspiring performance and future success in this competitive marketplace. In an effort to make everyone more competitive in their career paths, this project combines experiential e-learning modules, community engagement, and data collection to assess results. | $25,000 |
| Building of the Base: OER Development at NCTC | Northland Community and Technical College |
Northland Community and Technical College implemented open textbooks across the college. In addition to researching use of and barriers to open textbooks at the college, Northland trained faculty to be OER leaders on campus. These leaders provide in-depth training to other faculty and assist them with implementing open textbooks in their courses. |
$33,748 |
| Burn Box | Lake Superior College | Lake Superior College built a series of shipping container–based live fire training structures (“The Burn Box”) to provide on-site, hands-on firefighter training that was previously unavailable. The facilities support a wide range of realistic training scenarios from basic observation burns to advanced, high-heat, multi-story rescue and response simulations. This project serves students, regional departments, and industry partners, strengthening program enrollment, improving workforce outcomes, and has positioned LSC as a growing regional hub for firefighter training. | $35,000 |
| Career Readiness Digital Badging Program | Minneapolis College | The Career Services Department at Minneapolis College piloted digital badging in their Career Ready Mentorship Program. Focusing on the eight essential core competencies identified by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, this project promotes badging opportunities across the college helping match the core competency skills students have with the ones employers are looking for. | $25,000 |
| Career to College (C2C) | Minneapolis College | Minneapolis College developed non-credit IT courses that align directly with credit-bearing programs, creating a flexible pathway into degree programs and IT careers. These courses are designed to be accessible for non-traditional learners while maintaining academic quality through faculty collaboration. The approach helps learners build skills in stages and transition smoothly into formal college programs when ready. | $24,495 |
| Co-Curricular Assessment | Saint Paul College | Co-Curricular assessment has become increasingly important as colleges evaluate how they provide a holistic educational experience to students. Saint Paul College established best practices to help student affairs staff better examine how they teach students, what they are teaching, and assess the extent of what students are learning outside the classroom. | $10,000 |
| Competency-Based Digital Badges | St. Cloud State University and North Hennepin Community College | Digital badges can be helpful for communicating skills and competencies that a person successfully acquires or demonstrates. St. Cloud State University partnered with North Hennepin Community College to explore ways that digital badges can complement existing credentials, and help bridge the communication gap between the skills students have and the skills employers are looking for. | $10,000 |
| Connecting Students With Diverse Texts | Bemidji State University | Tools are needed to prepare the next generation of teachers to meet the needs of diverse classrooms, and Bemidji State University is expanding the toolkit through the inclusion of diverse texts in their library. These new and diverse texts are supporting BSU’s teacher candidates’ development as culturally responsive educators, while also increasing the engagement, personal connections, and motivation of the rural K-12 students whom they support. | $3,912 |
| Creating Customized OER for Astronomy | Riverland Community College | Riverland Community College created a collection of astronomy materials to act as a full replacement for a traditional astronomy textbook. This collection of documents, modules, and interactive web tools was built within Riverland’s learning management system D2L Brightspace. This design provides easy portability and flexibility, allowing the curriculum to be easily modified, remixed, and copied forward each semester. | $25,000 |
| Creating High Quality Open Adaptive Online Courses | Century College | Century College created an open source series of online courses in Biology, Anatomy and Physiology I and II, and Microbiology using open textbooks from OpenStax and other OER materials. This innovation helps faculty teaching these courses offer hybrid online/at-home laboratories that provide learning experiences comparable to that of face-to-face classrooms. This project utilizes commercially available lab kits through eScience labs, and makes course materials available through Minnesota State Opendora. | $10,000 |
| Creating a Compassionate Campus | Rochester Community and Technical College | Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) is a member of the Charter for Compassion, an organization that works with cities to identify issues of concern that make their communities uncomfortable places in which to live. To support this work, RCTC undertook mindfulness in equity work pioneered by Minneapolis College. Students and employees on the RCTC campus were offered trainings and events around mindfulness practices, helping them learn how to apply mindfulness practices within an equity and compassion framework. | $10,000 |
| Creating an Age-Friendly SCSU | St. Cloud State University | St. Cloud State University is advancing its commitment to inclusive, lifelong learning by adopting the Age-Friendly University (AFU) Global Network principles. Through this effort, the university supports older adults by expanding access to education, promoting second career pathways, and fostering intergenerational learning opportunities. The initiative also prioritizes aligning research, health and wellness programs, and campus engagement with the needs of an aging society—strengthening connections both within the university community and with external organizations that serve older populations. | $10,000 |
| Cross-Curricular Online Graphic Organizers | Ridgewater College | In an effort to tackle the reading challenges faculty witness in the classroom, Ridgewater College proposes to design and share both content area and discipline-specific graphic organizers that faculty can alter to suit their needs. These graphic organizers help faculty teach all students to be better readers. | $17,410 |
| Cross-Disciplinary Anti-Racist Education | Winona State University | The goal of this project is to establish an intentional anti-racism culture through course and curricular development across the disciplines at Winona State University. Initiating this effort is the formation of an anti-racism teaching cohort. The objective of this cohort model is to incentivize, train, and equip faculty to use anti-racist pedagogy in their own teaching, and expand anti-racist curricular content in their various disciplines. | $25,000 |
| Culturally Responsive Inclusion Trainers (CRIT) Corps | Minneapolis College | CRIT Corps aims to ensure student voices are empowered to advocate for supports, practices, and pedagogy for under-served students. Two principle trainers help lead the effort, and these trainers are current or former students with a deep understanding of the challenges under-served students face. The Corps is tasked with elevating student voice and experience to more consistently guide campus activities and ensure members of the communities most impacted by Minnesota’s educational disparities have a chance to help guide the practices that most impact students. | $24,900 |
| Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Cohort Training | Minneapolis College | Minneapolis College has developed a year-long cohort training to help faculty implement Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) in their teaching. Through sustained, collaborative learning, faculty examine their own practices, address bias, and integrate equity-focused approaches, including trauma- and poverty-responsive strategies and open educational practices. The program combines in-person sessions with ongoing reflection and applied coursework to support meaningful changes in the classroom. Ultimately, the initiative aims to improve student success and reduce equity gaps by fostering more inclusive, supportive learning environments. | $35,000 |
| Culturally Responsive Student-to-Student Mentors | Minneapolis College | The Academic Success Center at Minneapolis College aims to expand its current tutor training program to include a sustainable pathway for potential student leaders to become certified peer educational mentors through the College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA), an international certifying body for both peer tutoring and peer educational leadership. Participants engage in a series of peer mentoring modules that touch on topic such as developing leadership skills, enhancing interpersonal skills, and much more. | $9,260 |
| Dreaming by Degrees: An Open Source Podcast | Minnesota State University, Mankato and Century College | In an effort to improve the retention and success of first-year college students, a team of diverse college students are trained in the art of audio storytelling and co-produce podcast episodes designed to make visible the hidden dimensions and potential barriers of college. Episodes are designed to connect directly to the experiences of students who may initially feel disoriented or out-of-place: first-generation students, working-class students, students of color, LGBTQ students, and non-traditional students. | $32,220 |
| E-Orientation for “Flipped Advising” | St. Cloud Technical and Community College | eOrientation leverages technology for increased interpersonal connectedness in the advising and orientation process with new students. Students now access preparatory worksheets and learning modules online prior to scheduling advising sessions, allowing advisors to spend more time working on the most important aspects of academic planning. | $25,000 |
| Early Childhood Education AI Lab Simulation | South Central College | SimSchool is an internet-based simulation program that simulates a classroom. SimSchool has the potential to change the way pre-service teachers are trained, as well as offer in-service training opportunities for educators working in rural settings. Through the use of this innovative software, South Central College brings real-time AI lab simulation to early childhood classrooms. | $10,000 |
| Early Year Research and Creative Mentoring | Winona State University | The program gives first- and second-year students the chance to work with faculty on research or creative projects. Students build foundational skills like planning, analyzing information, and presenting their work. This early experience helps them stay engaged and supports their success in college. | $9,978 |
| Engaging Diverse Students to Boost Enrollments | Minnesota State University Moorhead | This project aims to increase enrollments by engaging target audiences with an Oceanarium featuring a variety of live marine organisms; and to make progress towards our Equity 2030 goals by encouraging transfer of Minnesota State Community and Technical College (M State) students to Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) because M State has a higher proportion of BIPOC, Pell eligible, underrepresented, and first generation students than MSUM. Taken together, this unique project benefits two institutions, the regions they serve, and enhance access to higher education for historically underrepresented student populations. | $24,936 |
| Engaging Faculty in FYE Learning Communities | Metro State University | To help support the newly developed learning community program at Metro State University, this project engages faculty in the process of building learning communities through their teaching. The project team trains faculty on the learning community model and provides them with the tools to build community within their classes. | $10,000 |
| Engaging Trades Faculty to Improve Student Success | Northwest Technical College | The Minnesota State REFLECT Program, originally established at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, is being expanded to Northwest Technical College to engage technical faculty in research on teaching and learning. This is the first cohort of faculty from a technical college to participate, bringing new perspectives and focus to the program. By introducing REFLECT at Northwest Technical College, the project broadens participation and strengthens faculty-driven innovation across Minnesota State. | $10,000 |
| Environmental Science OER Course Materials | Saint Paul College | Saint Paul College developed open source supplementary materials for use in an introductory Environmental Science course, and shared with all Minnesota State faculty through Opendora. This project developed three types of resources for faculty use: online learning activities, study guides, and a test bank. | $10,000 |
| Expanding & Expediting CPL @ South Central College | South Central College | South Central College embarked upon a dedicated program to develop CPL assessment templates across academic programs on their campus. This campus-wide effort was combined with the creation and launch of a website that helps guide students and faculty through the ins-and-outs of CPL. | $25,000 |
| Expanding Faculty Capacity for Accessible Design | Metro State University | Metro State University expanded faculty capacity for the creation and implementation of accessible course materials. The project serves to bring faculty development programs currently offered at Metro State University to other campuses in Minnesota State. The project includes an evaluation of Blackboard ALLY, a tool for identifying and remediating non-accessible materials in D2L courses. | $9,995 |
| Expanding Opendora Awareness and Adoption | Saint Paul College | Opendora is an open educational resource (OER) repository from Minnesota State. Using Opendora, faculty throughout the system can upload curricular materials to share with colleagues everywhere. A team from Saint Paul College created a series of training materials and workshops to help faculty better understand how they can better leverage this new tool and spread their OERs across the system. | $9,379 |
| Expanding Research with Wildlife Tracking Tower | Anoka-Ramsey Community College | Anoka-Ramsey Community College erected a Motus Wildlife Tracking Tower on its Coon Rapids campus, joining an international research collaboration to coordinate automated radio telemetry data on migrating animals, such as birds, bats, monarchs and dragonflies. This tower allows students in courses such as Field Biology, Animal Biology, and General Ecology the ability to track the movements of animals and insects they band with nano tags, thus contributing to the broader body of migratory data used by wildlife researchers around the world. | $8,270 |
| Experiential Tapestries Project | Minnesota State University, Mankato | The Experiential Tapestries Project develops a curricular pathway that integrates a new Hispanic Studies minor with the Computer Information Technology major and engage students in experiential learning and internships with partners who work in Spanish-speaking contexts. The goal is to create an integrated academic experience within the two disciplines thereby interweaving the cultural and linguistic heritage of Hispanic/Latinoxa communities into the computing sector beginning in southern Minnesota and expanding to a national level. | $25,000 |
| Finding Refuge: GIS Tech & Tamarac Wildlife Refuge | Minnesota State University Moorhead | MSUM’s Center for Geospatial Studies, in partnership with the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge (TNWR), created an interactive digital map highlighting artistic, literary, and creative experiences inspired by the natural, historical, and cultural landscapes contained in the 43,000+ acres of the TNWR. This project brings together students from the humanities and GIS students to produce collaborative works that further enhance the rich geographical and cultural history of the TNWR. Throughout the program students gain unique skills in the area of interdisciplinary collaboration, public engagement, and applied problem solving. | $19,560 |
| Finding Your Place OER Text | Minnesota State University, Mankato and Century College | Faculty and students at Minnesota State University, Mankato and Century College created a student-centered, student-produced, open educational resource (OER) text to accompany the Finding Your Place Podcast. As a companion to the podcast, this OER amplifies the stories and strengths of college graduates who, despite facing systemic barriers in our society and our schools, manage to achieve success in college and beyond by drawing on their strengths and cultural wealth. Students who read the texts benefit as they discover the keys to their resilience and success in the stories of others like them. | $24,849 |
| First Generation College Students Anthology | Metro State University | Metro State University is developed a first-generation college student (FGCS) anthology for both print and digital publication. This publication gives a platform to lift FGCS voices and allows students from various walks of life to reflect, resonate, learn, and heal from shared experiences. | $10,000 |
| FlexPace: Competency-Based Business Certificate | Riverland Community College | Mastery-based education is tailored to the needs of the underemployed adult workforce. Riverland Community College identified a need in their surrounding communities for a business certificate program that was online, flexible, and did not carry the restrictions of the traditional seat-time model. Enter FlexPace – a mastery-based program that allows learners to learn at their own pace. In FlexPace, learners who master concepts on the first attempt continue on. Those who don’t receive supplemental help to achieve mastery, and then they, too, move to the next concept. | $25,000 |
| FlexTrack for Working Adults | Dakota County Technical College & Inver Hills Community College | FlexPace is a mastery-based online learning program founded at Riverland Community College. Dakota County Technical College and Inver Hills Community College adapted its own FlexPace program called “FlexTrack” to help support underserved working adults, helping them achieve a credential that for the benefit of both their careers and the businesses they work for. Areas of focus include English, Business, Business Management, and Administrative Assisting. | $9,996 |
| Flourish: Addressing Mental Health Needs | Minnesota State University, Mankato | Taking inspiration from Boston University’s Niteo program, Minnesota State University, Mankato launched a pilot program dedicated to assisting students grappling with significant mental health challenges. Through a combination of instructional techniques and support, this new course at Minnesota State University, Mankato is a significant step toward better serving an underserved sector of the student population. | $9,546 |
| Game-based Learning with Technological Know-How | Minneapolis College | Composition faculty at Minneapolis College were concerned about the low course completion rates they were seeing in online courses. To confront this problem, they envisioned a gamified online learning course based on role-playing dynamics. Employing the services of a programmer and graphic designer, they set out to create a more immersive and enticing online learning environment. | $25,000 |
| Gamification of Fundamentals of Writing I | Saint Paul College | Fundamentals of Writing I is a required course for many students at Saint Paul College, including students entering the trades who take it as a sole writing course. For students who struggle with writing, the course can be a particularly challenging. To assist all students, Fundamentals of Writing I is gamified as a means to channel extrinsic motivation and help more students succeed. | $19,541 |
| Graphic Organizers for Reading and Writing | Southwest Minnesota State University | The English faculty at Southwest Minnesota State University created an online open textbook for their Reading and Writing in the Disciplines course, and created reading graphic organizers as ancillary materials for the open textbook. | $6,395 |
| Growth, Resilience, Initiative, and Transformation | Minnesota State University Moorhead | Minnesota State University Moorhead’s GRIT Program is designed to retain and support students that do not meet automatic admission criteria and are admitted as a conditional student. GRIT creates an opportunity for students to get connected with a success coach, learn the best success strategies, and participate in programming specifically designed to build a student’s academic capacity. | $24,900 |
| Hispanic Cultures through a Media Lens | Bemidji State University | Bemidji State University created an open textbook for use in Hispanic Film and Media courses titled Hispanic Cultures Through a Media Lens. Through the development of this textbook, the use of audiovisual materials can be used in Spanish courses and beyond to engage students in foreign language learning and cultural diversity. By designing activities that emphasize critical analysis, students develop skills in constructive skepticism and approach the content with intrigue and inquisitiveness. This open textbook is made available in both Spanish and English versions. | $10,000 |
| I'm First: A Community of First-Gen Students | Minnesota State University, Mankato | Previously the I’m First project, Maverick’s First is the first program of its kind at MSU Mankato that means to engage the 43% of students who are first generation college students. An interdisciplinary team of faculty and staff are organized around the effort, delivering a series of events, communications, and engagement opportunities to first-generation students across campus. Through these efforts first generation students are building relationships, connection, and persisting. | $20,000 |
| InPsyT: Indigenous Students in Psychology Training | Bemidji State University | The Indigenous Students in Psychology Training (InPsyT) project is a culturally-based cohort program to train and prepare American Indian students for careers in psychology at the undergraduate level. Students in this program benefit from unique experiences that increases the appreciation for psychology, traditional American Indian culture, and the complimentary relationship between the two. Some of these experiences include special orientations, luncheons, American Indian guest speakers, mentoring, research opportunities, and attendance at conferences. | $9,981 |
| Innovating the Science Classroom | St. Cloud State University | This project creates freely available science videos, produced by experts in the field with students from traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM fields designed to augment course content across Minnesota State and provide digital and technological equity to students from diverse backgrounds to enhance access, promote academic success, and maximize student engagement. | $25,000 |
| Integrating OER Anatomy & Physiology Texts with VR | St. Cloud Technical and Community College | Biology faculty at St. Cloud Technical and Community College collaborated with the Visualization Laboratory at St. Cloud State University to develop and write Anatomy & Physiology I laboratory experiences aligned to the OpenStax A&P text objectives. These laboratories are accessible to instructors within the Minnesota State system wishing to incorporate head-mounted display virtual reality laboratories into their classroom. | $35,000 |
| Interactive Design Technology Curriculum | Hennepin Technical College | The Interactive Design and Video Production (IDVP) program at Hennepin Technical College partnered with local high schools, businesses, and history organizations to create community-focused storytelling projects. College students worked with Wayzata High School students, along with input from a business and a historical society, to develop interactive content and games. The projects were shared through multi-touch tables placed in the community to highlight local culture and history. | $10,000 |
| Interdisciplinary AI: Emphasizing Public Safety | St. Cloud State University | Criminal Justice faculty and IT departments from St. Cloud State University and Minnesota State University Moorhead collaborated with a national experts and educators in AI and technical specialists from IBM. Together the partnership is developing, teaching, and providing technical support for a dual enrollment course on applications of Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing, and the ethical concerns associated with these applications across the criminal justice system. This initiative helps prepare criminal justice students to enter a rapidly changing profession. | $25,000 |
| Keepin' it Cool! Commercial Refrigeration | Minnesota State Community and Technical College | Keepin’ It Cool! supplied state-of-the-art equipment and advanced refrigeration training in a program that prepare students for the world of enterprise level heating and refrigeration. | $22,700 |
| Learn to Dose™ Medication Administration System | Normandale Community College | The Learn2Dose (L2D) program at Normandale Community College teaches nursing students how to accurately administer medication in a simulated environment. Each year 160 nursing students are trained using L2D. After three years of use, critical updates and improvements to the system were needs, and through an innovation funding grant, L2D became an even more effective training tool. | $25,000 |
| Learn to Live | Central Lakes College | Mental health therapy is traditionally provided through in-office visits, creating barriers for access such as social stigma attached to in-person visits, long wait lists to schedule appointments, and lack of facilities in rural areas. Central Lakes College developed the Learn to Live© program, providing student online access to free mental health therapy. Through this initiative, CLC addressed equity gaps by making access to online mental health therapy available to all students regardless of their socioeconomic status and geographical location. | $10,000 |
| Learning Calculus Concepts via a Video Game | Anoka-Ramsey Community College | Calculus is challenging for many students, but what if there was a way to make Calculus less intimidating and more fun, while also improving overall achievement? Faculty at Anoka-Ramsey are using game-based learning (GBL) to do just that by focusing on the calculus concept of limits. In this GBL experience, students play the Variant: Limits game to attain mastery, while faculty analyze the results. Let the adventures begin! | $3,593 |
| Lessons to Help Engineering Students Transition | Minnesota State University, Mankato | Engineering faculty at Minnesota State University, Mankato set out to create a series of online learning modules to help at-risk students transition successfully into upper division courses. These modules focus on integral calculus, differential equations, statics, dynamics, and computer programming. | $25,000 |
| Let’s Build a Chatbot for Minnesota State | Century College | Century College’s ambitious chatbot project brings the power of algorithmic learning to online student services across the system. The project is coupled with the information technology program at Century College, where students gain real-life experience programming the chatbot in preparation for entry into the job market. | $25,000 |
| Light Board for Online Lectures | St. Cloud State University | St. Cloud State University’s use of lightboard technology allows instructors to produce high-quality online lecture videos that reflect best practices and open up more in-class work time in flipped classroom designs. The resulting video productions can be used in any developmental online mathematics course at SCSU. Although situated in the mathematics department, faculty from across the university are invited to explore the use of the technology in their own teaching. | $10,000 |
| MCTC Open Textbook Project | Minneapolis College | At Minneapolis College (MCTC) 55% of students meet a designation of low-income. This adds urgency to efforts at lowering the cost of a higher education. MCTC created a website to help educate faculty on open textbooks and open educational resources. They then followed this up with a call out to faculty, inviting them to join a grant supported program focused on implementing open textbooks in existing courses. Faculty were asked to make a $0 course materials pledge. | $25,000 |
| MN NICE | St. Cloud State University | Virtual reality technology present challenges for classroom-based learning since most experiences are designed for the individual and not groups of students. The Minnesota (State) Networked Immersive Collaborative Experience (MN NICE) project can accommodate many collaborative use cases, supporting multiple disciplines and subject matters. For the first time, entire classrooms of students are now collectively experiencing virtual reality in an educational setting. | $24,886 |
| Making the Digital Physical | St. Cloud State University | Faculty at St. Cloud State University merged modern engineering with 3D printing. Through the use of specialized software and 3D printers, graphic design students are learning to rapid prototype package designs and custom graphics in 3D, preparing them for opportunities in a wide variety of more advanced interdisciplinary projects both on and off campus. | $6,554 |
| Mankato OER Professional Development Certificate | Minnesota State University, Mankato | Minnesota State University, Mankato created an internal certificate program for faculty that equips them with the skills needed to implement open source materials into their courses. This cohort-based program features both information and hands-on learning sessions for participating faculty. A dedicated graduate assistant mentor is provided to both manage the program and provide one-on-one assistance. | $25,000 |
| Metro State Queer Peer Education Program | Metro State University | The Queer Peer Education Program (QPEP) at Metro State University combines the best of peer education programming with tiered mentoring so that LGBTQ+ students develop a sense of belonging and acquire marketable skills while simultaneously helping to create a safer and more supportive campus climate for all members of the LGBTQ+ community on campus(es) and in the community. | $9,950 |
| Minnesota State REFLECT | Anoka-Ramsey Community College | Anoka-Ramsey Community College launched a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning initiative to encourage and support community college faculty in conducting research on effective teaching strategies in the community college classroom. With newly acquired innovation funding, Anoka-Ramsey now welcomes faculty from other institutions to join the program, broadening the impact of the program throughout Minnesota State. | $24,952 |
| Mobile Computing Laboratory (McLAB) | Winona State University | The Mobile Computing Laboratory (McLAB) is designed as a collaborative space where faculty and staff can explore, test, and refine innovative uses of mobile technology in education. In response to the rapid growth of mobile computing in K-12, higher education, and industry, the lab provides a supportive environment for developing practical, classroom-ready applications. McLAB also serves as a shared resource across Minnesota State institutions, documenting and sharing findings to benefit a broader academic community. Ultimately, the initiative aims to advance effective, innovative teaching and learning through thoughtful integration of mobile technologies. | $28,030 |
| Mobile Platform to Support Interventions | St. Cloud State University | St. Cloud State University endeavored to build mobile platform software to provide support and remediation to at-risk students early and often. This software was combined with intrusive advising approaches to increase student resilience and preparedness. | $25,000 |
| Networked Education | Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College and Winona State University | Winona State University and Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College partnered to deliver a four-year elementary education degree through a shared, co-enrolled program across two campuses. To overcome distance and improve engagement beyond traditional ITV, the project implemented telepresence and lecture-capture technologies, including mobile robots and interactive cameras. These tools enabled more dynamic instruction, real-time collaboration, and meaningful interaction among students and faculty across locations. | $14,800 |
| New Rivers PodLab | Minnesota State University Moorhead | New Rivers Press integrates the work of undergraduate students into the process of publishing quality books of poetry, creative nonfiction, and literary fiction. With innovation funding, students who work with NRP created content for New Rivers PodLab, a literature and book-themed podcast to connect with readers and market books that they, the students, have worked to edit, market, and design. | $865 |
| Northwoods Queer Outreach | Bemidji State University | Northwoods Queer Outreach (NQO) is an initiative that aims to increase queer and transgender representation, support and acceptance across the Bemidji State University campus and within the Bemidji community. NQO provides valuable education and resources for the LGBTQIAP2S+ student community, while promoting a welcoming and inclusive environment for all. Goals for the project include administering a climate survey on queer/trans issues, connecting with community partners to serve as a resource for queer/trans education, and grow advocacy through teaching, learning, and practice. | $19,323 |
| Novel Application Based Program for Manufacturing | Minnesota State College Southeast | Enrollments in traditional manufacturing programs are in decline, but in southeastern Minnesota, the need for skilled workers in manufacturing remains. Through the use of innovation funding, Minnesota State College Southeast built a collaborative bicycle project that brings together students from computer aided design (CAD), computer numerical control (CNC) machining, welding, and fabrication. | $10,000 |
| OER Accelerator | Central Lakes College | Central Lakes College (CLC) developed a unique program known as the OER Accelerator. Within this program faculty were offered three different on ramps for engaging open educational resources based on their past experience. Beginning faculty could choose an OER review program focused on exploration. More experienced faculty had the option to either engage support staff in course redesign using OERs, or if so inclined, embark upon a project authoring their own OERs for use and sharing. | $35,000 |
| OER Learning Circles in Northeast MN | Minnesota North College | Minnesota North College expanded the use of open educational resources (OER) by creating faculty Learning Circles to redesign courses and develop new materials. Faculty collaborated, received training, and shared their work, helping increase awareness and adoption across campuses. Over time, the effort grew to include multiple colleges and led to broader support, resources, and coordination for OER use. | $24,970 |
| OER in Biology Courses | Anoka Technical College, Century College, Saint Paul College, and St. Cloud Community and Technical College | The project studied how using open educational resources (OER) in biology courses affected student learning and teaching practices across multiple colleges. It found that OER materials were just as effective as traditional textbooks while lowering costs and highlighting gaps in how students use course materials. Based on these insights, the project created and shared new open assignments to better support faculty and expand OER adoption. | $333,050 |
| Open History Textbook | Minnesota North College | Minnesota North College created an open textbook to complement their American History survey courses, making the course more accessible to students by lowering textbook costs. | $25,000 |
| Open Invitation to Geotechnical Engineering Design | Minnesota State University, Mankato | Minnesota State University, Mankato developed a high-quality, peer-reviewed open textbook for geotechnical engineering courses, including foundation design and earth structures. The project focused on creating accessible, expert-reviewed content to support student learning across key engineering disciplines. By providing the textbook as an open educational resource, the initiative significantly reduced costs for students. Overall, the project improved access to essential course materials while maintaining academic rigor and quality. | $10,000 |
| Open Source Book for Business | Minnesota State Community and Technical College | Minnesota State Community and Technical College had already been exploring the implementation of open educational resources into their business program, but they wanted to take their work to a new level for faculty and students. By leveraging affordable tablet technology for their students, they were able to expand the use of open educational resources in their business courses. | $10,000 |
| Open Textbook Institute | South Central College | South Central College (SCC) started upon a two phase program to encourage faculty adoption of open textbooks. The first phase provided face to face and online overviews of open educational resources to groups of faculty members. The second phase consisted of two summer institutes: one for exploring open textbooks, and another for actually implementing them into the curriculum. In the latter, faculty were provided support from knowledgeable SCC staff who were dedicated to the project. | $24,500 |
| Open Textbook Project | Ridgewater College | Four communications faculty created an open textbook for Ridgewater College’s introductory communications studies course. The open textbook is supplemented with online materials, teaching aids, and a test bank. Out of the gate this open textbook created savings for approximately 437 students enrolled in introductory communications courses at Ridgewater College. | $20,480 |
| Open Textbooks: A Path to Explore | Minnesota North College | Minnesota North College expanded their D2L Brightspace-based Faculty Resource Room by creating a training module to assist faculty adoption of open textbooks. Ten faculty participate in summer workshops that help them better understand how to leverage the Resource Room to identify and review open textbook alternatives for their courses. | $25,000 |
| Orientacion, Janeera, or Orientation | St. Cloud Technical and Community College | St. Cloud Technical and Community College created an eOrientation program to help better serve its diverse students. This program created greater orientation access for students on the whole, but also proved challenging for some English speakers of other languages, which led to providing the eOrientation program in both Spanish and Somali. | $10,000 |
| Out from the Shadows of Minneapolis | Minneapolis College | Minneapolis College authored an anthology named Out from the Shadows of Minneapolis: Power, Pride, and Perseverance at a Northern Community College. This open text features the stories of students from diverse backgrounds, and the anthology helps faculty throughout Minnesota State teach cultural literacy in the classroom. | $10,000 |
| Peer Wellness Coaching: Belongingness & Retention | St. Cloud State University | Peer Wellness Coaching is a free service that offers all students at St. Cloud State University an opportunity to discuss their personal goals in a collaborative and encouraging environment.Peer Wellness Coaching provides a way for students to connect with a peer and learn of campus resources available to them. This connection increases their sense of belonging and overall health and wellness. Peer Wellness Coaches are graduate students from a variety of disciplines, including: Social Work, Rehabilitation and Addiction Counseling, College Counseling and Student Development, and Higher Education Administration who are specially trained in Motivational Interviewing. | $10,000 |
| Peer-Team Mentoring for American Indian Students | South Central College | South Central College is constructing a program that pairs American Indian students attending SCC with American Indian students who are attending local area high schools. Through a peer mentoring approach, both mentors and mentees gain benefits through a relationship that builds a shared sense of growth and determination as both parties strive to succeed in their respective schools. | $8,971 |
| Performance-Enhanced Biology | Bemidji State University and North Hennepin Community College | This interdisciplinary collaboration between Bemidji State University and North Hennepin Community College uses the power of performance to enhance the teaching and learning of genetics. In addition to bringing science and theater students together for an interdisciplinary learning experience, this project also features participation from members of The Expression Lab, a team of professional actors and educators who coach scientists of all levels in communication skills. | $9,966 |
| Preparing Professionals to Work with Diversity | Century College | Minnesota has a proud tradition of welcoming immigrants and refugees, many of whom do not speak English fluently. At Century College the translating and interpreting (TRIN) faculty are helping prepare their colleagues to provide better guidance to students who will provide services in the future to culturally and linguistically diverse populations. The TRIN program is collaborating with faculty from programs such as Dental Assisting, Dental Hygiene, Emergency Medical Services, Law Enforcement, Nursing, and more. | $9,929 |
| Professional Fluency in Online Courses | Lake Superior College | Lake Superior College has developed a system focused on professional fluency that helps students learn professional skills within their academic programs. However, the system was only adapted for a face-to-face setting. Innovation Funding has helped LSC create an online version of the system so students can learn professional fluency in online courses AND face-to-face courses. | $7,600 |
| QR4U | Minnesota North College | The Minnesota North College QR4U project explored the potential of QR codes within active learning environments. The QR code activities were woven into three sections ENGL 1511 and students were then required to use a mobile device to engage the learning content. Tablets were also provided for use. Through the use of active learning and mobile technology, student engagement and motivation was increased. | $24,880 |
| Real Learning through Virtual Reality | Winona State University | This project explored the use of virtual reality and 360-degree video to create more immersive, accessible learning experiences for students unable to attend events in person. By capturing environments such as nursing simulations, classrooms, and field experiences, the initiative enabled students and faculty to engage with content in a more interactive and realistic way than traditional recordings. The approach supported review, observation, and participation across disciplines while expanding access to high-impact learning opportunities. Overall, the project demonstrated how VR can enhance engagement, support instruction, and extend the reach of campus experiences. | $6,921 |
| Removing Hurdles for OER | St. Paul College | The lack of ancillary materials to accompany an open textbook is one of the greatest obstacles to faculty adoption of OER. To help assist health science faculty, St. Paul College created and disseminate D2L-based open source assignments for use in general biology and anatomy and physiology courses. | $10,000 |
| Rural Excellence in Education Droid (REED) | Southwest Minnesota State University | This project used telepresence robots to help SMSU faculty teach students in partner schools across long distances, especially in rural areas. It addressed teacher shortages by making it easier for instructors to reach more students without needing to be physically present. The approach expanded access to education in areas with limited teaching resources. | $10,000 |
| SCSU Assistive Technology Lab | St. Cloud State University | St. Cloud State University’s Assistive Technology Lab educates students, staff, faculty, members of the community, and international visitors about the resources available to help remove barriers people with disabilities face in education, employment and daily life. As a center for disability education, the Assistive Technology Lab is helping people better understand how they can create more inclusive environments. | $10,000 |
| SMILE your Health Depends on It | Lake Superior College | Lake Superior College purchased two Bionic Hybrid Simulator Suits to help power simulation training across the allied health disciplines. Using this new technology, students can now experience the highest levels of fidelity and realism not currently achievable through any other simulation technology. | $25,000 |
| Simulated Columbian Coffee Exchange | Century College | Through a partnership with faculty members at the Universidad de Mendellin in Colombia, Century College faculty built a culturally immersive business experience for business students in both countries. Leveraging web technology and their own ingenuity, students at both institutions perform business functions in the sale and purchase of coffee. This pilot provides insights for future learning collaborations that can cross virtual borders. | $22,200 |
| Student Learner Hub | Minnesota State College Southeast | Under current Minnesota regulations, 16 and 17 year old students are prohibited from working in many areas of advanced manufacturing. Through the creation of a Student Learner Hub, Minnesota State College Southeast acts as the hub, allowing students to enter into a bona fide written school-work training program and eventually get paired with employers around the region. | $25,000 |
| Student Reviews Driving Change in Online Learning | Lake Superior College | This project gathered student feedback on online course design, focusing on navigation, tone, and usability. Students, including those from diverse backgrounds, reviewed courses using a structured rubric to share their experiences. The feedback helped faculty improve courses and supported the creation of training and resources to make teaching more student-centered. | $24,000 |
| Student Voices | Minneapolis College | The Student Voices project collected and shared student stories about experiences such as COVID-19, racism, and personal challenges. Stories were created in video or multimedia formats and shared to highlight student perspectives. The project helped reduce feelings of isolation and strengthen a sense of connection during online learning and the pandemic. | $25,000 |
| Students Takeover OER | Central Lakes College | The Students Takeover OER initiative trained students to help faculty with creating open educational resources, finding materials, and redesigning courses with a focus on accessibility. Student assistants supported faculty who had limited time for OER work by contributing to content development. This approach helped expand OER use and created materials for future courses at Central Lakes College. | $25,000 |
| Supporting Autistic Student Success Initiative | St. Cloud State University | This SASSI project aims to examine how St. Cloud State University (SCSU) can provide individualized and intensive support services and strategies to recruit and retain more students with autism. Emphasis is placed on integrating existing student support services, the Communication Sciences and Disorders Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, and other School of Health and Human Services programs. The data and information gleaned from the project helps inform best practices in serving the academic and non-academic needs of autistic students not only at SCSU, but across the entire system. | $25,000 |
| Taking OER to Scale | Anoka-Ramsey Community College | Anoka-Ramsey Community College implemented a four phase approach to encouraging faculty adoption of open textbooks in their courses. In the first phase the college launched a promotional campaign to raise awareness of open textbooks among faculty and staff. In the second phase, participating faculty attended workshops that prepare them to undertake their own open textbook project. In phase three, participating faculty received seed grants to support the creation of open textbooks. In phase four, faculty showcased their open textbook project before the college community. | $23,725 |
| The Communication for Social Change Hub | Metro State University | The Communication for Social Change Hub (CSC Hub) is conceptualized as an online resource for faculty, students, practitioners, and community members who are working on social and behavioral change projects that are grounded in communication. The CSC Hub includes resources such as readings, interactive objects, and lessons on communication for social change; a blogging space for contributions from students, practitioners, and faculty; and learning modules that support course offerings at Metro State University as well as individuals and organizations working on social and behavior change projects around the world. | $10,000 |
| Thrive in Five: It’s Good for Business | Saint Paul College | The Thrive in Five project utilizes an eight-week course model that addresses the barriers faced by non-traditional students, particularly those who work full-time. To improve the success (retention, persistence and completion) rates of these part-time students, Saint Paul College offers a holistic and measured approach to college success. This program allows students to continue full-time employment while completing one credit-bearing course at a time for eight weeks, successfully finishing two three-credit hour courses per 16-week semester. | $25,000 |
| Undergraduate Research Experiences for Nurses | Anoka-Ramsey Community College | Biology faculty at Anoka-Ramsey Community College noted that many students studying for the health professions were not receiving adequate training in laboratory techniques and research, a critical component of modern healthcare practice and immunology. To address this need, external partnerships were created to bake a full-fledged research program into the Anatomy & Physiology II courses focused on wolf blood sampling and analysis. Students studying for the healthcare professions now gain professional research experience, providing them a broader understanding of how laboratories work and the important role they play in healthcare. | $24,960 |
| Understanding Writing & Research in Disciplines | Southwest Minnesota State University | The English faculty at Southwest Minnesota State University envisioned a website of free online resources that could replace the need for textbooks in their English 251: Writing in the Professions course. Through a collaborative effort between 18 faculty members, the group authored original materials that crosscut disciplines and programs across the campus. They then provided these materials to students via the web using a content management system. | $34,868 |
| Unleashing CPL at St. Cloud State University | St. Cloud State University | Students at St. Cloud State University needed more credit for prior learning (CPL) opportunities, and through South Central College’s groundbreaking work, faculty and administrators saw a path to expand CPL. Using innovation funding, St. Cloud State provided comprehensive training to several “CPL champions” who help lead the college to a more comprehensive use of CPL. Best practices from South Central College and other national leaders are included. | $10,000 |
| Using Multiple Assessments to Help Urban Students | Minneapolis College | Minneapolis College observed an increase in the number of students who were entering college undecided. This was accompanied by an uptick in the number of students changing majors multiple times. In an effort to better assist students in identifying a right-fit career path, a new innovative program at Minneapolis College combines a multi-assessment approach to career advising. | $10,000 |
| Virtual Reality Laboratory | Rochester Community and Technical College | The Virtual Reality Laboratory takes the latest in hardware and software innovations and immerses the learner in an engaging learning experience that cannot otherwise be obtained in the classroom. | $22,700 |
| Workshops for Software and Data Carpentry OER | Winona State University | Winona State University leveraged open source materials from Software Carpentry and facilitated workshops across Minnesota to support faculty adoption in courses. | $25,000 |