6 Course conclusion
You have seen that SoTL provides an opportunity for educators and institutions to improve academic practice and to make evidence-based improvements to learning and teaching. Engaging in SoTL helps to generate research from teaching initiatives and enables educators to move outside traditional departmental or disciplinary communities and into new communities that SoTL helps to create.
In this course, you have learned how to conceptualise, design, conduct, reflect on and critically evaluate a SoTL inquiry. You have encountered tools, concepts and practices for each of the stages of the SoTL inquiry in Figure 4 of Session 1.
There are overarching principles and frameworks in the course that can help guide your SoTL project. For example, the six principles of SoTL in Session 1 serve as heuristics to guide the design, development and evaluation of a SoTL inquiry. The seven-criteria framework in Session 3 can be applied to self-evaluate your project proposal ahead of submitting a bid for funding or for garnering support, or you may like to use the framework to self-evaluate your inquiry when it’s in progress, or at the end.
The Impact Evaluation Framework (IEF) in Session 6 can be used for planning for impact of a SoTL inquiry, or for evaluating a SoTL inquiry for impact. You may consider the seven-criteria framework in Session 3 in conjunction with the guidance for impact and the IEF in Session 6 when planning or evaluating a SoTL inquiry.
The guidance for each stage of a SoTL inquiry (Session 1, Figure 4) is interspersed throughout the course. However, in Table 1 below, the key locations where each of the stages was either first introduced or elaborated on are listed as a reminder for you.
| Stage of the SoTL inquiry | Sessions and section headings |
|---|---|
| Determine motivation for conducting a SoTL inquiry | Session 1: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Session 2: Motivation for conducting SoTL; Learning Analytics |
| Conduct stakeholder analysis | Session 2: Collaboration in SoTL; Mentoring in SoTL; Supporting SoTL through communities Session 3: Stakeholder analysis for a SoTL inquiry Session 4: Students as partners in SoTL |
| Formulate aim and research questions | Session 3: Formulating aims and research questions for a SoTL inquiry Session 5: Research design |
| Carry out a literature review | Session 3: Literature review for a SoTL inquiry |
| Plan research design | Session 2: Learning analytics Session 4: Students as partners in SoTL Session 5: Planning and conducting SoTL research (entire session) |
| Incorporate ethical considerations and seek approvals | Session 2: Learning analytics Session 4: Three ethical criteria; Ethical considerations in a SoTL inquiry; Planning ethical considerations in SoTL inquiry |
| Conduct the research process | Session 2: Learning analytics Session 5: Planning and conducting SoTL research (entire session) |
| Reflect on the inquiry for self- and peer-evaluation | Session 1: Reflection, critical reflection and reflexivity |
| Disseminate the outcomes for sharing and peerreview | Session 4: Ethical considerations in a SoTL inquiry Session 5: Presenting your findings Session 6: Making SoTL public |
| Conduct an impact evaluation | Session 6: The impact of SoTL |
As you embark on integrating SoTL in your academic practice and move into the extremely significant area of evidence-based and research-informed teaching, we hope that this course will support your SoTL activity every step of the way. Even when you have gained experience on SoTL, we hope that the videos, case studies and other resources in this course will continue to inspire your SoTL practice and guide your mentoring of others who will follow you. We wish you the very best on your SoTL journey.