Getting Started with SoTL
Getting Started
ATL supports faculty and teaching professor (lecturer) efforts to engage in SoTL by offering workshops and consultations, funding opportunities, and providing access to curated resources to facilitate the planning, execution, and publication of your research. Staff are available for consultations on your project and project ideas.
Note: If you intend to present and/or publish your SoTL research publicly – which we strongly encourage you to do – you will need IRB approval. The Office of Research Integrity provided an overview of the IRB process for SOTL research.
Consultations
Conducting research on teaching and learning – whether in a specific course, for a program, or across disciplines – is part of strong reflective practice and building a healthy environment of teaching and learning. We can help get you started.
- Sotl Resources
- For Course Level Email: Faculty Development [Teach@uri.edu]
- For Program Level Email: Assessment [Assess@uri.edu]
Resources
Please check out the following for more information on successful SoTL Projects:
- New Directions for Teaching and Learning, Special Issue: Doing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Measuring Systematic Changes to Teaching and Improvements in Learning: http://bit.ly/SoTLresource
- Nancy Chick (SoTL expert) has written the “SoTL Guide” to understanding and doing SoTL: https://nancychick.wordpress.com/sotl-guide/
- IRB and Ethical Concern: https://web.uri.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1970/IRB-for-SoTL-4.22.2021.pdf
- The University of Calgary developed a comprehensive guide to what is SoTL and the steps in conducting a SoTL project.
Share Your SoTL Results
Sharing your findings is a fundamental step in the SoTL process. In addition to sharing at the Annual Faculty/Teaching Professors (lecturers) Showcase, we strongly encourage sharing with the field at large (if you have obtained IRB approval.)
There are many conferences and journals looking for contributions. Illinois State University has compiled a great list of publications and conferences for consideration as does Kennesaw State University.
Selected Conferences (SoTL)
- Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education
- Lilly Conferences
- New England Educational Assessment Network
- The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning
- POD Network
Selected Educational Research Organizations & Conferences
- American Educational Research Association (AERA)
- American Evaluation Association (AEA)
- Association for Institutional Research (AIR)
- Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE)
- Comparative and International Education Society (CIES)
- University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA)