3.2 Supporting SoTL networking

Mentoring programmes can also be used to help foster interdisciplinary collaborations and knowledge-sharing across disciplines. A mentor:

• helps to connect the mentee with other scholars with similar SoTL interests, key researchers in other disciplines who could support the inquiry and specialists; for e.g. statisticians, learning designers, data analysts, accessibility managers, inclusive curriculum designers and user experience or usability evaluators
• suggests training programmes and potential funding opportunities and helps to set up collaboration opportunities for the mentee within or outside the institution
• introduces the mentee to possible avenues for making the SoTL public; for e.g. conferences and journals for dissemination.

Hubball et al. (2010) describe SoTL mentoring as a key element in the growth and development of SoTL across faculties within a research-intensive university.