SoTL Seed Program

The call for proposals is now closed! Out next call for proposals will open in April 2024.

The UBC Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISoTL) and the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) offer a support program for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) projects. The SoTL Seed Program provides those interested in exploring the impact of their pedagogical choices with graduate research specialists, collegial collaborations, and limited funding.

All UBC faculty and staff are invited to apply. Priority is given to full time faculty members, those who teach at the undergraduate level, and those who have not had an active SoTL Seed project in the last 12 months. Recipients are expected to disseminate their work and to participate in events to share the outputs of their work with the wider UBC community. The life cycle of a project is typically one to two years.

Trends in the SoTL Seed Program

Since program inception in 2014, an average of 45% of applications have been accepted every year. Applicants are primarily Educational Leadership Faculty, but we have also supported projects from Research Stream, Contract, and Clinical Faculty, and staff.

Common areas of practice being investigated:

  1. Innovative assessment, such as peer grading, ungrading, and group exams.
  2. Adoption of learning technologies (e.g., apps, collaborative tools, new online resources, etc.)
  3. Pedagogies fostering student engagement through student-centered approaches (e.g., community-engaged learning, experiential learning, etc)
  4. Group projects and team formation.

Common areas of impact being explored:

  1. Diversity and inclusion: Exploring more equitable practices and pedagogies.
  2. Student attitudes, engagement and motivation: Better understanding of students’ level of satisfaction, confidence, motivations, and perceptions about pedagogies or disciplinary knowledge.
  3. Disciplinary specific skills: Improving how students retain key concepts in a course, or mastering particular professional skills.
  4. Student actions and behaviours: Understanding and/or facilitating student participation (in class, online discussions, etc.), or time spent on particular tasks.

We encourage you to review past and ongoing projects to learn about the breadth of work being done at UBC.

Criteria

SoTL Seed projects should propose meaningful and novel questions about student learning or teaching activities, with the goal of gathering evidence to answer those questions, and then sharing the results to contribute to the field of SoTL.

The following criteria are used to evaluate the proposals:

  1. Impact: Does the project have the potential to advance our knowledge of teaching and learning at UBC?
  2. Novelty: Is the project investigating a novel practice or context for the practice, which cannot already be found within the SoTL literature?
  3. Practicality: Can the goals be accomplished within the designated time frame? Is the project plan provided able to accomplish the stated goals? Is the proposed project within the scope of support provided by this program?

When developing your SoTL Seed application, be clear in what you plan to investigate, what you hope to learn from the inquiry process, and how this work connects to your teaching practice. When writing your application, be sure to:

  • Review the literature related to your inquiry and situate your work within it. Make sure your study will provide a novel understanding or application of the practice under examination.
  • Narrow your focus of inquiry to 1-3 concrete, attainable and relevant research questions; the SoTL Seed program is a starting point for learning about what is happening in your context. 
  • Envision a research plan that includes possible sources of data and methods, and a tentative timeline. Consider how different sources of data might help  answer your research questions (i.e., a mixed-methods approach).

Eligibility

  • UBC Vancouver or Okanagan faculty, staff or post-docs are eligible to apply as Principal Applicants. Priority is given to full-time faculty members who teach at the undergraduate level.
  • Graduate and undergraduate students may be listed as co-applicants or additional supports on the application. 
  • Project evaluation for TLEF, OER fund, or other UBC funded initiatives will not be supported by the SoTL Seed Fund, please contact trish.varao-sousa@ubc.ca for consultation on these projects.
  • The SoTL Seed Program does not support projects that are part of or related to a student’s thesis or dissertation.

Support models

There are two support models which you can apply for: SoTL Seed: Full Support and SoTL Seed: Limited Support. The application form and process is the same for both, but we invite you to read the information below and consider which support model better suits your needs.

SoTL Seed: Full Support

For projects that have not yet started, or are in early stages of implementation and require help with research design and/or extensive support with data collection and analysis. Support includes:

  • Up to 70 hours of project support from a SoTL Specialist. SoTL Specialists are graduate students with SoTL and behavioural research experience who can assist with project design, ethics applications, surveys, focus groups/interviews, and analyses, and more.
  • Limited support for instructional and learning design, provided by the Curriculum and Course Services at CTLT.
  • Cohort-based meetings in which informal feedback is offered by cohort peers.
  • Up to $200 CAD in discretionary funds to support research expenses (i.e., participant costs and disciplinary data interpretation).
  • Up to $500 CAD to support the dissemination of project outcomes.

SoTL Seed: Limited Support

For projects that require support with specific components, such as project design; developing a BREB application; developing a questionnaire; conducting interviews/focus groups; or conducting analyses with pre-existing data. Support includes:

  • 20 hours of project support from a SoTL Specialist. SoTL Specialists are graduate students with SoTL and behavioural research experience who can assist with project design, ethics applications, surveys, focus groups/interviews, and analyses, and more.
  • Limited discretionary funds to support research expenses (i.e., participant costs and disciplinary data interpretation), assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Application

The call for applications is now closed. You can view a PDF version of the application form to prepare yourself before submitting your application. If you have any questions about the application process or would like feedback while working on your application, please contact us at ctlt.isotl@ubc.ca.