In the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), faculty study and improve their teaching and the learning in their classrooms and courses, and share their findings to advance the practice of teaching.
SoTL may focus on any pedagogical approach – guided inquiry, lecture, problem-based learning, project-based learning, etc. SoTL may use a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods – case studies, content analysis, focus groups, interviews, surveys & questionnaires, etc.
Many faculty are not familiar with the literature and research methods used in education, and (for various reasons) not all faculty or SoTL studies reach the level of rigor required for formal publication. Thus, for faculty new to SoTL, it would be helpful to receive guidance and templates they could adopt or adapt with less effort than developing such materials from scratch.
This session seeks to design and prototype a SoTL Design Wizard that would guide users through a series of questions and decisions, leading to materials that could be adopted or adapted, including sample materials for an Institutional Review Board (IRB). For example, to study the effects of a single classroom activity, the wizard might lead to some simple surveys with basic demographic information, a few Likert-scale questions, and an open ended response. For a longer term study, the wizard might lead to longer, more details surveys, and outlines for individual or group interviews.
Thus, the SoTL Design Wizard offers several benefits:
- Faculty will find it easier to start with SoTL.
- Initial SoTL studies will use better methods for design, data collection, and analysis.
- Meta-analyses could be performed if the same materials and templates are used for multiple studies.
