ON DEMAND: SoTL Collaboratory: A Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Resource for Instructors, Faculty Developers, and Administrators

Abstract

What is SoTL?

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is the systematic study of teaching and learning in higher education with the goal of improving student learning, including examining classroom practice in a scholarly way, researching teaching and learning across programs or student populations, and sharing work through publication.

What is the SoTL Collaboratory?

SoTL Collaboratory Website: https://sotl.gmu.edu

Broadly speaking, the SoTL Collaboratory is a group of educational developers and graduate students from a few institutions in Virginia (George Mason Univeristy, University of Virginia, VA Tech, James Madison University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and University of Mary Washington) who gather regularly to exchange SoTL programming and leadership ideas, strengthen individual SoTL support planning efforts, and collectively work towards creating shared resources that enable SoTL leader success beyond our individual institutions. The SoTL Collaboratory during AY2020-2021 consisted of a proto-regional community of practice (CoP) for faculty developers and future faculty developers. The project is funded in part by a grant from 4-VA, a collaborative partnership for advancing the Commonwealth of Virginia

The first main SoTL Collaboratory project goal during the AY2020-2021 was to build a proto-regional community of practice for faculty developers at Virginia institutions who offer programming to support SoTLers at their institution. SoTL Collaboratory members met regularly to exchange ideas and resources, contribute to a regional SoTL support model repository (which evolved into SoTL Strategic Planning Tool Development), give feedback on the strategic plans for SoTL at our institutions (that we are each developing), and explore ways that we can “share” the workload in the future through offering cross-institutional SoTL programming for our faculty.  As part of this knowledge exchange and work towards establishing cross-institutional program offerings, George Mason University opened it's Innovations In Teaching and Learning conference to faculty developers and instructors from any institution to participate and Virginia Commonwealth University opened it's online SoTL workshop series to instructors at Virginia institutions.

The second main goal was to produce a website that houses SoTL resources for three main audiences: instructors interested in learning more about SoTL or already engaged in SoTL work; faculty developers exploring ways to support SoTLers at their institutions; and administrators (deans, chairs, etc.) who are seeking clarification on what SoTL is and how other institutions recognize SoTL work in promotion and tenure processes.  Please visit our website for more information: https://sotl.gmu.edu

The SoTL Collaboratory also designed, developed, and offered one of the “Post” POD Conference Workshops in January 2021, “Creating a Strategic Plan for SoTL at Your Institution“—in which the goal was that attendees left the workshop with a solid draft of their strategic plans with peer feedback from several people.  The SoTL Collaboratory is currently preparing the strategic planning tools developed over the past year for public sharing.

Interested in getting involved? For more ways to connect with the SoTL Collaboratory, please visit our connect page.

Founding SoTL Collaboratory Members

Laura Lukes, Ph.D., Assistant Director for Teaching Excellence, Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning, George Mason University

SoTL Collaboratory Director, contact at thesotlcollaboratory@gmail.com

Liesl Baum, Ph.D., Associate Director for Professional Development, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Virginia Tech

Ed Brantmeier, Ph.D., Assistant Director of Scholarship Programs, Center for Faculty Innovation, James Madison University

Kim Case, Ph.D., Director of Faculty Success in the Office of the Provost, Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence & Faculty Success, Virginia Commonwealth University

Kim Filer, Ph.D., Director, Associate Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Virginia Tech

Dayna Henry, Ph.D., Coordinator of Student Research and Faculty Associate for Scholarship, Center for Faculty Innovation, James Madison University

Jessica Taggart, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate, Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Virginia

Melissa Wells, Ph.D., Faculty Fellow, Center for Teaching, University of Mary Washington

Lindsay Wheeler, Ph.D., Assistant Director of STEM Education Initiatives & Assistant Professor, General Faculty, Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Virginia

Graduate Research Assistants

Jessica Dauterive, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History and Art History, George Mason University
SoTL Collaboratory Web Editor (2020-2021)

Sharrell Hassell-Goodman, Ph.D. Student, Higher Education Program, George Mason University
SoTL Collaboratory Data and Analysis (2020-

Liliana Ferrufino, Master’s Student, School Psychology Program, James Madison University (2021-

Sophia Abbott, Ph.D. Student, Higher Education Program, George Mason University (2021-