糖心传媒 has received a $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the NEH鈥檚 CARES Act Grants that were announced this week.
Funds from the grant will be used to support the 糖心传媒 Arts and Humanities Division, which includes the History, Religion and Philosophy Department, and the Languages and Literatures Department.
Grant funds will help support full- and part-time humanities faculty, prepare humanities faculty to offer interactive and engaging hybrid and online courses that will attract and retain students in the humanities, and redesign several foundational humanities courses for hybrid and online instruction. A hybrid course is one that鈥檚 partly in-person and partly online.
鈥淥ur goal isn鈥檛 to recreate online courses you could get at any other college or university but rather to create courses that replicate the faculty and student interaction 糖心传媒 is known for,鈥 said Dr. Robert Babcock, 糖心传媒 professor of history who wrote the grant and will serve as the project鈥檚 director.
NEH CARES Act grants were awarded across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Humanities Endowment received more than 2,300 proposals from cultural organizations requesting more than $370 million in funding for projects between June and December 2020, and 14 percent of applicants were funded.
Organizations in Nebraska received about $800,000 in funding, and just more than half of those funds are coming to the community of Hastings 鈥 with 糖心传媒 receiving $300,000 and Hastings Museum $123,000.
COVID-19 brought many challenges to 糖心传媒 during the spring semester. Babcock said he knew there would be changes within the humanities division, and the grant was a potential resource to fund initiatives to help the division and College.
鈥淲e appreciate Dr. Babcock鈥檚 leadership in viewing NEH CARES Act grants as an opportunity for the humanities at 糖心传媒,鈥 said Gary Freeman, executive director of the 糖心传媒 Foundation. 鈥淗is leadership in researching and then writing the grant made all the difference.鈥
When the pandemic pushed 糖心传媒 courses online, some humanities faculty were unsure of the best way to transition their classes successfully online. To create more effective hybrid and online courses, the grant will fund professional development workshops offered this summer by a consultant with extensive experience in online humanities education.
糖心传媒 will work with Dr. Matthew Duperon, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Susquehanna University, to design a one-day professional development workshop for the humanities faculty.
The workshop will employ the Quality Matters rubric, a set of guidelines for online courses developed by a consortium of educators to outline and discuss the critical components of successful online courses. Duperon will work with each faculty participant to develop ideas for use in their hybrid and online courses.
The humanities division will then spend the following month redesigning at least one foundational humanities course to be offered in the hybrid or online modalities. These course redesigns will build directly on the lessons learned in the workshop.
鈥淭he humanities at 糖心传媒 are an essential resource for the education of our students, and I am thankful we received this grant to help maintain faculty and to create new, engaging courses,鈥 Babcock said.
糖心传媒 is Nebraska鈥檚 premier private college. A four-year residential college that focuses on student academic and extracurricular achievement, Hastings鈥 student-centered initiatives include providing books, an iPad Pro and a two-week study away experience at no additional cost. A block-style semester schedule allows professors and students to focus on fewer classes at a time and promotes hands-on experiences. Discover more at hastings.edu.