The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

2024 UVM SoTL Symposium

UVM will hold a symposium of SoTL research across campus on May 21
See schedule and register

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) at UVM is a form of educational research that offers faculty members a way to systematically investigate and answer questions that emerge from their practice as course instructors. SoTL research can involve qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches as well as case study, quasi-experimental, and experimental research designs.

Why engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning?

There are many reasons to pursue SoTL research, including:

  • To find answers to questions about teaching practices that you currently use or would like to use
  • To produce evidence about specific teaching practices and share it formally
  • To enhance your disciplinary research with research on your teaching practice, or allowing those with very little research time in their workloads to engage in efficient forms of scholarship
  • To engage with a community of scholars who are interested in improving their teaching practice

Two New SoTL Opportunities!

1) Campus-wide SoTL symposium

The inaugural campus-wide SoTL symposium is May 21, 2024, 8:30am-3:00pm. This event will be a chance for researchers from across campus to share their findings and work-in-progress related to teaching and learning studies conducted here at UVM.
View the program and register for the 2024 SoTL Symposium.

2) SoTL Research Group

The CTL will facilitate a new faculty research group in the Fall of 2024, and we’re pleased to welcome a faculty associate and a graduate student on board who are dedicated to support SoTL research this semester. During the Fall and Spring of 2022 and 2023, faculty in the SoTL group worked together and developed strong collegial relationships. Several members worked together to write an NSF grant and other participants worked together on another SoTL study. Members of the community helped each other think through the literature review process and the IRB process, establishing rich long-term connections on campus around teaching and research.

Join us in Fall 2024

Please complete this form if you’re interested in becoming involved in this research group.

SoTL research generally progresses through the following steps:

  1. Identify a teaching and/or learning question or problem to address
  2. Review related literature to refine research question
  3. Design data collection procedures to answer research question
  4. Obtain research approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB)
  5. Collect data
  6. Analyze data
  7. Share, present, and/or publish research findings

Gaining Approval for a SoTL study through the UVM Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Before conducting a SoTL study, you will need to submit your plans to the IRB at UVM. Your plans will include the information about the course/s that are being studied. Include the syllabus, the number of students expected, and the method to inform students of the study to opt in or out. This will mean that you will have a syllabus statement and an information sheet for the study.In addition, the IRB will want to see examples of the survey/s or interview questions that you will be using as a part of the study. It is recommended to give the IRB at least 2-3 weeks to review your plans before embarking on the research.

  1. Take the tutorial on the IRB website for Human Subjects Research. Navigate to the UVM IRB website. Sometimes the IRB considers SoTL research as “Not Research” because of the low level of risk associated with many SoTL studies. It is still a good idea to visit the tool available here to determine if your project requires IRB review. Your results from this Qualtrics form are recorded and saved by the IRB.
  2. Navigate to the checklist for a new PI here: Review the checklist to get started with the steps for your study.
  3. You will need to do the Human Subjects Research Training located on the CITI site. This training will take an hour to 90 minutes. Please plan for that amount of time, especially the first time you review it.
  4. Go back to the Checklist to see what forms you will need to complete and submit once you pass the Human Subjects Research Training.
  5. We gathered some sample forms for you to look at as a way to think about what you may want to submit for your own study. *Link to sample forms* (turn into PDFs)

SoTL Resources

Podcasts

Journals

  • The UVM David Howe Memorial Library maintains this research guide on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
  • Kennesaw State University has also created a webpage to assist with locating discipline specific SoTL journals for literature reviews and suggestions for publication.

Videos

SoTL Organizations

SoTL Research Guides

Hopscotch Model Tool: An online research tool developed by Kennesaw State University to assist faculty with the creating thoroughly designed and developed SoTL research projects. The tool provides resources for each step of the SoTL process, as well as a guided form where you can write in your SoTL ideas and create a graphic at the end of the process that outlines your SoTL plan. This is a great tool to use in its entirety or only on parts of SoTL that you need extra assistance with. This tool is freely available to use

SoTL Conferences

Kennesaw State University maintains a list of conferences where SoTL research is presented. This is an important final step in the SoTL process to share your learning.