Eligibility & Expectations

The SoTL Scholars program is open to all instructors, including faculty (tenure-track, tenured, and general), staff, graduate students, and postdocs. No prior experience with SoTL is needed. In order to conduct your SoTL project, you will need to be teaching the course of interest during the Fall 2024 or Spring 2025 semester.

Prior completion of the CTE's Course Design Institute (CDI) or c3Design (either facilitated or independent) is encouraged before the SoTL Institute. If you have not participated in either of these programs previously, c3Design is available online asynchronously. Learn more about completing it independently.

The SoTL Scholars program is designed for instructors who are 1) seeking to engage in scholarly work around learning-centered approaches to teaching and course design, and 2) willing to fully and actively participate in all aspects of the program (i.e., institute, workshops, writing retreat, submitting a conference proposal). Since a major goal is to complete a full SoTL project in the academic year, consistent and active participation in the program is crucial.

All participants are expected to participate in the institute, workshops, working sessions, and writing retreat.

May 14-16, 9 am-4 pm (in person, ALL participants)

All SoTL Scholars will participate in the SoTL institute, where you will be introduced to the foundational principles of SoTL research. During the institute, we will explore different approaches to SoTL and the kinds of questions SoTL can answer. You will learn how to develop a SoTL research question you have about your own classroom instruction and/or student learning and design a study to answer that question.

SoTL Scholars will participate in two workshops and two working sessions throughout the academic year. During the program, you will dig into relevant research literature, learn how to develop a SoTL research question related to student learning, and gather and analyze data. The program ends with a writing retreat to support your movement toward presentation and/or publication of your work. A postdoctoral researcher will be available to assist SoTL Scholars with data collection and analysis.

• Workshop 1: IRB & planning for data collection

  
  

• Working Session 1: Making the most of SoTL

  
  

• Workshop 2: Managing data & data analysis

  
  

• Working Session 2: Developing a SoTL research agenda

  
  

• Writing retreat

  June/July 2025 - ALL participants, attend minimum of 3 of 5 days