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What Is SOTL?
What is SOTL at Indiana University Bloomington?
A Timeline of Progress
SOTL Organization
Mapping Progress Report
SOTL Tutorial
Profiles of Our SOTL Program
What is SOTL at Indiana University Bloomington?
The Indiana University Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program is
a faculty-driven initiative to improve undergraduate learning by fostering
faculty inquiry into learning and by building interdisciplinary communities
that support and refine this inquiry. This innovative form of faculty
development inspires and improves undergraduate learning by engaging the
scholarly talents and dedication of the faculty. This model is being heralded
as one that is transferable to other institutions.
- Can interactive exercises increase student learning?
- Do students really learn more in smaller classes?
- Can group work aid individual learning?
- Do examples enhance or confuse student learning?
- Can technology help students do more than recall facts?
- Do student misconceptions persist, and if so, why?
That a world-class faculty of a major research university would be asking
questions is not remarkable. It is remarkable that professors on the Indiana
University Bloomington (IUB) campus are asking questions that serve as
a foundation into research about teaching and learning in addition to
their own disciplinary scholarship. Their growing interest in examining
undergraduate education as an evidence-based and theory-framed endeavor
speaks to the power of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL)
Program on the Bloomington campus.
The SOTL program has grown from strong and deep roots. IUB has a long
institutional tradition of teaching excellence. The SOTL program began
in 1998 when a small committee asked: “Given this strong base, what
additional approaches would foster the greatest improvements in undergraduate
learning at Indiana University Bloomington?”
The SOTL program is an initiative that seeks the goal of improved undergraduate
learning. To this end it encourages, supports, and publicizes course-focused
research projects that are faculty defined and implemented. It also carefully
fosters an interdisciplinary community of conversation and engagement
centered on teaching and learning. This community supports and enhances
both the inquiry of individual faculty and a more evidence-based approach
to teaching generally. Rather than focusing on specific issues or learning
methods, the SOTL approach encourages faculty to explore a variety of
approaches and to reflect on questions about student learning derived
from their own experiences in the classroom. As such it is self-renewing
and self-broadening. As more faculty members address more learning outcomes
and explore more alternative learning environments, they use more diverse
and increasingly sophisticated techniques to examine the effectiveness
of their strategies. The reactions of national leaders, and their dissemination
of IUB materials to other campuses, strongly suggest that the IUB SOTL
program is already serving as a model for other institutions of a new
kind of faculty development, namely, one that aims to improve undergraduate
learning by engaging the research talents of the faculty.
CHALLENGE: The challenge is to move teaching toward
an evidence-based and theory-framed endeavor that takes both learning
and student heterogeneity much more seriously.
RESPONSE: The SOTL Program aims to increase learning
by making inquiry into student learning a key component of the research
mission of the University by fostering both individual inquiry into learning
and an interdisciplinary community that supports such inquiry.
IUB faculty members (like most) have been trained to think in terms of
research questions and evidence gathering. They are strongly committed
to the discovery of new knowledge and to the incorporation of that knowledge
into the classroom. The intellectual culture grants special significance
to such activities, as is the case on many campuses. Further, many disciplinary
pedagogical traditions focus mainly on the teacher and on content, largely
underemphasizing both learning and student heterogeneity. Thus, the challenge
here, and in instructional development generally, is to move teaching
toward an evidence-based and theory-framed endeavor that takes both learning
and student heterogeneity much more seriously. The SOTL program aims
to do this by making inquiry into student learning a key component of
the research mission of the University.
The SOTL program builds on faculty research talents and dedication and
directs these toward the interplay of teaching and student learning. Directing
faculty attention to the actual learning of the particular students in
their classes and inviting them to use their honed disciplinary inquiry
skills in that enterprise automatically foregrounds both student success
and student heterogeneity. In summary, the SOTL program is an inclusive,
broad-based, cross-disciplinary effort consistent with the research culture
of Indiana University Bloomington.
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A Timeline of Progress
- Fall 1998. A small committee of faculty, teaching
development staff, and the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
and Dean of the Faculties asked, "How can we best improve undergraduate
learning?" The impetus for a SOTL initiative resulted.
- February 1999. Two hundred IUB faculty members attended
a kickoff banquet. In the main presentation, a Chancellor’s [Research]
Professor asked "Why SOTL? Why now?" The event also included
other SOTL presentations and remarks by several administrators including
IU’s President Myles Brand.
- Spring 1999. Small groups of faculty members discussed
ways to engage research faculty in enhancing learning by focusing on
existing and new SOTL. These "campus conversations" were part
of an AAHE/Carnegie initiative. Broad faculty support for the formation
of a SOTL program became evident
- April 1999. The Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
and Dean of the Faculties appointed an Advisory Council to oversee the
SOTL Initiative. Members include several deans, an associate vice
president, an associate vice-chancellor, IUB’s four Carnegie Scholars,
and other award winning professors.
- May 1999. The program initiated seed grants for scholarship
in teaching and learning.
- Summer 1999. A faculty team attended IU’s annual
Leadership Institute. Their project focused on the new IUB SOTL initiative.
Their report to the Advisory Council formed the basis for an expanded
initiative.
- Fall 1999. The program initiated an annual series
of faculty presentations on their own scholarship in teaching and learning.
In the first, the Vice President for Research emphasized the importance
of SOTL to the research mission of the university. A key early presentation
was a “SOTL jumpstart” designed to give faculty researchers
the background and tools for pursing their own new projects.
- Spring 2000. Initiated (and have since continued)
a SOTL paper series at the IUB Spring Symposium.
- Fall 2000. Initiated a local course portfolios group
as part of a collaborative multi-university Pew-funded initiative. Our
IU portfolio group has focused on an inquiry-based (i.e., SOTL) approach.
- Spring 2001. The SOTL initiative received a $5000
“Going Public” grant from AAHE to disseminate the work of
“Bloomington Scholars of Teaching.”
- Summer 2002. Samuel Thompson, first leader of the SOTL Program retires.
Jennifer Meta Robinson assumes the leadership role.
- 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03. The basic
approach set during 1999–2000—presentations, jumpstart and
other workshop sessions, and grants—has continued each year through
each year of the program.
- July 2002. A SOTL team received a $6000 grant to
attend the AAHE Summer Academy and drafted a plan to broaden faculty
participation, further institutionalize the program, and explore additional
national leadership roles.
- August 2002. Twenty-seven members of the Bloomington
SOTL community participated in a half-day retreat during which they
refined and expanded the new plan for future directions. These include
expanded support for research projects and exploration of both a possible
Ph.D. Minor in SOTL and the foundation of a National Society for the
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (in conjunction with faculty elsewhere).
- August 2002. The Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
and Dean of the Faculties announced a new $35,000 SOTL Leadership
Grant
for departments. The first grant awarded to the Department of Anthropology
in April 2003.
- September 2002. The Chancellor announced a new IU
Bloomington Academy that will start in May 2003 with a focus on
Liberal Learning. Five faculty members selected.
- February 2003. The SOTL program was awarded the
2003 Theodore M. Hesburgh Faculty Development Award, $30,000, sponsored
by TIAA-CREF.
- March 2003. IU Bloomington named the leader of a Carnegie Academy
Campus Program cluster: “Research University Consortium for the Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning” (RUCASTL).
- Spring 2003. Two more IU Bloomington professors and one IUPUI professor named Carnegie Scholars, bringing IU's total to 8.
- Spring 2003. IU Bloomington planning committee launched
the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
(IS–SOTL).
- March 2004. The Pew-funded Peer Review of Teaching Course Portfolio Initiative culminates in a conference at lead campus, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. IU Bloomington sends 14 of its 30 course portfolio authors.
- Summer 2004. RUCASTL receives $5000 grant from Carnegie Foundation.
- October 2004. Over 400 scholars from 8 countries attend the inaugural ISSOTL Conference in Bloomington. 75 Bloomington faculty and graduate students present.
- October 2005. ISSOTL members elect 2 from IUB to the executive committee.
- October 2005. Over 630 scholars from 10 countries attend the ISSOTL conference in Vancouver, BC. Fourteen Bloomington faculty members present.
- April 2006. A second $35,000 SOTL Leadership Grant is awarded.
- Spring 2006. The Research University Consortium, led by Indiana University, posts reports of its activity on the web.
- Fall 2006. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching selects Indiana University to participate in their Leadership Program on SOTL and to coordinate a group of 9 institutions who will be "Expanding the SOTL Commons."
- Forthcoming Fall 2009. Indiana University will host the sixth conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Bloomington, Indiana.
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SOTL Organization
The SOTL program at IUB is an initiative of the office of the Vice Chancellor
for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculties. The leadership by this office with dual responsibility for faculty and academic affairs
speaks to the core vision of reinforcing the relationships among research
and teaching and learning. This office provides the infrastructure
that fosters and maintains it. That infrastructure has been built with
both existing and new resources. Key, but largely unquantifiable, has
been the incremental redirection of faculty, staff, and administrative
time. Key examples of other resources directly provided to the SOTL program
include:
- The SOTL program at IUB is an initiative of the office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculties.
- The University Libraries maintain an online list of resources, supports an electronic reserve site for pertinent documents, and has designated a librarian to be the primary SOTL contact, assisting faculty members in thorough research reviews.
- The Office of Sponsored Research Services has designated one staff member to work with faculty members seeking funding for SOTL projects and provides workshops for faculty seeking external grants for SOTL.
- SOTL scholars work closely with the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects to facilitate ethical classroom research and to educate SOTL faculty on these issues and on the procedures for obtaining necessary approvals.
- The Registrar’s Office works with SOTL researchers to supply grade-point-average, enrollment, and retention data in a way that protects students’ privacy.
- Campus Instructional Consulting offers individualized support for inquiry projects and a lending library of theoretical and practical literature on the scholarship of teaching and learning.
- A SOTL Steering Committee and Advisory Council representing faculty, librarians, staff, and administrators from across the campus meet once or twice yearly to address issues, define initiatives and generally steer the campus initiative.
- The SOTL Program draws its day-to-day coordination and research development from the Instructional Support Services staff and the leadership of Campus Instructional Consulting. They contribute essential human and material resources for the vitality of the initiative, including:
- Instructional and research consulting
- Administrative, logistical, and secretarial support
- Technology support
- Design and maintenance of the SOTL website
- Publications and Graphics support
- Media Pro video production and reproduction
- The SOTL Program coordinates closely with initiatives of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL). Indiana University Bloomington leads the Research University Consortium for the Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, which is sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The IUB program was registered with the AAHE Campus Program.
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