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Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in STEM
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in STEM

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4.1 A collaborative SoTL inquiry

In Activity 4, you will examine how two colleagues with complementary expertise in statistics and mathematics accessibility, respectively, were brought together by eSTEeM to set up a SoTL inquiry focussed on improving accessibility of numerical data.

Activity 4 Exploring novel approaches to improving accessibility of numerical data

Timing: Allow approximately 15 minutes

As you watch this 5 minutes 27 seconds video on collaborative SoTL inquiry by Karen Vines and Chris Hughes in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at The Open University, make some notes on the benefits of a collaborative inquiry and the advantages of conducting SoTL as perceived by these two SoTL practitioners.

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Video 4 Sonifications of depictions of numerical data
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Discussion

Karen and Chris discuss how they were brought together by eSTEeM to set up a SoTL inquiry and brought complementary skills to the project: Statistics and Mathematics accessibility. Their project related to investigating the efficacy of the sonification of depictions of numerical data such as in plots or graphs for partially sighted and blind students.

A student, Jeff, who was a participant in the project, discusses his experiences with sonification. Chris outlines the research design of their inquiry. Both Karen and Chris describe how SoTL and their collaboration has influenced their professional development and academic profiles. Encouraged by the results of this project, they have now introduced sonification in ‘live’ modules in their School.

If you are interested in knowing more about this project, the project description and accompanying report and resources are on eSTEeM’s website: Sonifications of depictions of numerical data [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . One of their project’s outputs has been published in the journal: Open Learning, The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning: Sonification of numerical data for education.

Next, you will learn how communities of practice support SoTL in a variety of ways including networking, mentoring and formulation of collaborative SoTL inquiries.