Just-in-Time Teaching and Technology Grants

The Center for Teaching Excellence, in partnership with Academic Technology Services, is happy to open applications for Just-in-Time Teaching and Technology Grants (JiTTT). This program will provide small grants (up to $500 each) to faculty from across campus when they need it most — at the start of the semester.

The goal of this grant program is to reduce the barriers for faculty acquiring needed materials or technology for their classrooms. We want to help by providing funding at a critical planning point for the semester. It is our hope that this program will support your efforts to improve SMU's teaching quality.

Applications for the Fall 2024 semester will open two weeks before classes start and will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Apply Now!

Important JiTTT Terms:  

• If you intend to apply for the grant as a means to subsidize a purchase greater than $500, the remaining funds must be provided by an SMU department or division. Personal funds may not be used to cover costs over the amount awarded. 
• The goal of the JiTTT Grants is subsidize the purchase of a technology/item that has the potential of pedagogically improving the student experience in the classroom. Requests for personal use items are not likely to be funded.
• If you receive a JiTTT Grant for an initiative/tool and it goes well, you might want to reach out to your department chair or dean to request ongoing funds. JiTTT Grants will not be awarded for the same initiative for more than one term.
• Only one initiative/tool/technology request will be considered per faculty per term.
• Grants must be used in the semester that they have been awarded.
• JiTTT Award winners will be expected to showcase their initiatives to SMU faculty via JiTTT Showcase panels. To view examples of these sessions, visit the CTE YouTube page.

To learn more about previous grant winners, click here. 

JiTTT Faculty Spotlight:

Engineering students in Professor Villarreal-Suarez’s Analog and Digital Controls course work on their final temperature control experiment using sous-vide technique, a scientific approach to cooking, funded by CTE JITTT grant.

Professor Villarreal-Suarez created a unique learning opportunity for students with a twist: using concepts from class to improve their culinary skills! Sous-vide is a scientific method of cooking, used by professional chefs, in which food is placed in a plastic bag and cooked in a water bath for a period of time at an accurately controlled temperature. The objective was for students to team up and build sous-vide machines, consisting of a thermometer, power supply, water heater, and microcontroller. For their final exam, he hosted a "top chef" competition where students cooked food to perfection by scientifically controlling their sous-vide machines. This practice allowed students to not only solidify their knowledge of the class, but also learn/improve the valuable life skill of cooking.