The Impact of SoTL Grants

Welcome to Teaching and Learning Matters. This is Kim Buch, Professor of Psychology and Faculty Fellow in the Center for Teaching and Learning.

Today I’m going to talk about the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, also known as SoTL. This is Part 3 in a three-part series on the topic.

In Part 1, of the series, I defined SoTL and briefly covered the five steps in the SoTL process. In Part 2, I explained the SoTL grants program at UNC Charlotte and how it can be used to support SoTL research. Today, I’ll discuss the impact that SoTL grants have had on faculty research since they began in 2009. My goal is to show how SoTL grants are driving a campus-wide research agenda focused on improving the teaching-learning process across disciplines in all colleges.

The first year SoTL grants were awarded, six research projects from six different disciplines ranging from Spanish to Chemistry were funded. Each year since, eight or nine new projects have been funded, for a total campus-wide count of 40 funded SoTL research projects to date. Funded projects have come from all university Colleges and over two dozen disciplines. In addition, SoTL grants have funded research exploring the impact of five different campus-wide student success programs.

The numbers attest to the impact of the SoTL grants program on driving pedagogical and curricular reform on campus. There is also evidence that the SoTL grants program is contributing to faculty’s research productivity while contributing to the scientific knowledge base.

The SoTL Committee recently collected data showing that during the first three years of the grant, the 24 funded SoTL projects produced a total of 25 refereed publications and 30 external professional presentations. This is evidence that the SoTL grants project is driving pedagogical and curricular innovation while also enhancing the research productivity of faculty.

I hope this evidence may motivate you to participate in the SoTL grants process. Your next step is to review the program’s RFP which is located under the SoTL Tab on the Center for Teaching and Learning’s Web site.

Thanks for listening, and remember, Teaching and Learning Matters!