Grants & Contracts

(Significant/Recent Grants Received)

Funded by Ohio Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation

January 2022 - September 2023

Role: Co-principal investigator
Amount: $2,998,666
Summary: The 5G and Broadband Connectivity Center at The Ohio State University aims to design and implement curricula and programming for Ohio’s Broadband and 5G Sector Partnership in an effort to develop a skilled broadband and 5G workforce, establishing career pathways, K-12 outreach, and forming statewide regional partnerships between education and industry providers. Once developed, the programs will be available to all higher education institutions in Ohio to implement.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training

September 2020 - June 2023

Role: Principal investigator
Amount: $275,342
Summary: An Innovative Toxicology Pathway Mentoring Program Targeting Underrepresented STEM Students seeks to expand the ToxMSDT proof-of-concept project into a nationwide 5-year training program. The aims of the project are to deliver a mentoring program to underrepresented undergraduate students enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and to design, develop, and deliver free online learning experiences for skills development consisting of toxicology case studies and designed to stimulate critical thinking and problem-solving.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training

July 2016 - June 2019

Role: Principal investigator
Amount: $49,904
Summary: The Toxicology Mentoring and Diversity Inclusion Training program aims to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a diverse workforce to meet the U.S. biomedical and research needs.

Funded by The Ohio State University Office of International Affairs Academic Enrichment Grant.

June 2018 - June 2019

Role: Principal investigator
Amount: $4,176
Summary: A mobile learning solution prototype was created during this project. It focuses on educating an English-speaking audience (mostly located in the U.S.) about Portuguese culture by connecting this audience to heritage tourism hoteliers in Portugal.

Funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

January 2014 - July 2016

Role: Co-principal investigator
Amount: $1,643,817
Summary: The goal of the Plant Breeding E-Learning in Africa is to develop e-Learning solutions in collaboration with African educators to train applied plant breeders to improve both conventional and orphan crops in African countries, namely Uganda, Ghana, and South Africa.

Funded by National Science Foundation

September 2014 - August 2015

Role: Principal investigator
Amount: $21,830
Summary: Building a Cyberlearning Research Program: An Early Career Symposium (Award#1449156) was part of the 2014 annual Association for Education Communications and Technology conference. The Symposium provides an avenue for early-career scholars to receive mentoring from established researchers who conduct research and development in educational technology.

Contract with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach

April 2014 - October 2015

Role: Project Leader
Amount: $35,868
Summary: This contract consisted of creating and delivering a face-to-face workshop to on-campus Extension staff. A handbook on adult learning principles, instructional design methods, and principles of instruction was developed and offered to the workshop participants. The workshop was followed by moderator-led online training modules focused on instructional design.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Specialty Crop Research Initiative

September 2012 - August 2015

Role: Co-principal investigator
Amount: $1,582,002
Summary: The primary target audiences for this project were commercial cucurbit growers and vegetable extension educators in the eastern half of the U.S. The secondary target audiences were backyard gardeners and citizen scientists in the region. The outreach program included three features: a mobile app to identify pests and diseases among cucurbit crops; an Integrated Crop Production for Cucurbit Growers Community of Practice; and 30 virtual field days to make on-farm learning experiences available 24-7.

Funded by Iowa State University College of Human Sciences Innovative Teaching Initiative

February 2012 - December 2014

Role: Co-principal investigator
Amount: $29,963
Summary: The development of a strong leadership curriculum in the form of a Global Leadership Minor was the goal of this project. It targeted an undergraduate student population diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, and national origin. The central premise related to this project was that students participating in programs with curricula around global social issues and leadership development would more likely emerge as the future global citizens and leaders that we aspire to foster. The countries involved were China, Indonesia, Brazil, and Portugal.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CSRESS National Integrated Food Safety Initiative

September 2009 - August 2013

Role: Co-principal investigator
Amount: $598,607
Summary: The goals of this project were to: (1) determine internal and external motivators and barriers to following safe food handling behaviors of employees in the food service industry; (2) incorporate age-specific motivational strategies into educational multimedia learning modules in both English and Spanish. An evaluation of the modules’ effectiveness was conducted.

One of the outcomes of this project was the educational series on safe food handling, DoYourPart (English) and Haz Tu Parte (Spanish), created for retail food service industry employees.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service

May 2009 - October 2012

Role: Co-principal investigator
Amount: $1,047,000
Summary: This project enabled cucurbit growers in the eastern U.S. to meet the rapidly growing demand for locally grown produce while protecting agroecosystem health and profitability. The research objectives responded to grower-identified priorities. The research findings and lessons learned were shared with the growers through a coordinated set of innovative online activities (e.g., Community of Practice and virtual field days), webinars, on-farm demonstrations, and a range of face-to-face outreach initiatives.

Contract with Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica

April 2011 - December 2011

Role: Project Leader
Amount: $41,400
Summary: The goals for this contract included setting up an e-learning management system to support the company’s international regulatory affairs and creating an e-learning unit on general requirements for regulatory affairs for the system installed.

Funded by Iowa State University College of Human Sciences Entrepreneurial Program Initiative

April 2009 - June 2011

Role: Principal investigator
Amount: $48,998
Summary: This award offered two years of funding to support the Learning Design Solutions start-up, which provided educational technology consulting services within Iowa State University and communities throughout Iowa, and the U.S. Its primary purpose was to create a context within which student members could develop entrepreneurial skills and competencies, practice managing the organization’s financial and business components in addition to honing their consulting skills and applying their educational technology expertise.

Funded by Iowa State University 2008-2009 Student Computer Fee Central Pool

June 2008 - June 2009

Role: Principal investigator
Amount: $36,306
Summary: This award funded the Alternative Technology Exploratorium & Usability Lab. The purpose was to expose Iowa State students to a variety of emerging technologies, give them opportunities to engage in hands-on usability testing, and contribute to developing highly qualified professionals able to use emerging technologies for learning and teaching, artistic expressions, management information solutions, and interface design.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education

September 2006 - September 2008

Role: Co-Principal Investigator
Amount: $582,042
Summary: This project integrated a comprehensive virtual schooling curriculum into four preservice teacher education programs (from Iowa State University, University of Florida, University of Virginia, and Graceland University). The curriculum was adopted by teacher education programs across the U.S. and supported by collaborating virtual schools, consultants, as well as growing communities of practice through professional development activities.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Higher Education Challenge Grants Program

May 2006 - October 2009

Role: Co-Principal Investigator
Amount: $146,813
Summary: This project aimed to develop and adapt curricula and related materials to support the establishment of a graduate certificate and an interdisciplinary graduate minor in Risk Analysis & Decision Making, emphasizing food science, agriculture, and veterinary medicine.