SoTL University Research Grant Program

Overview

The Cross Endowed Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning requests proposals for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning University Research Grant Program. The program provides scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) small grants to study the developmental and learning outcomes of ISU students. At Illinois State University, we define SoTL as the “systematic study/reflection on teaching and learning [of our ISU students] made public.” This definition allows for research in any discipline and the use of various methodologies. The work may be quantitative or qualitative in nature and focus on class, course, program, department, cross-department, and co-curricular levels. All SoTL work must be made public and peer reviewed in some way via presentation, performance, juried show, web site, video, and/or publication.

For 2017-2018, funded projects can focus on the systematic study/reflection of any teaching- learning issue(s) explicitly related ISU students. Reports of previously funded grants (though on a variety of other topics) are available.

Grants of up to $5,000 are available. Funds may be used for any appropriate budget category (e.g., printing, commodities, contractual, travel, student help, and salary in FY18). While 4-5 grants are expected to be awarded, all awards are subject to the availability of funds allocated for FY18.

Eligibility and Requirements

All tenured and tenure-line faculty, non-tenure line faculty, faculty associates, graduate teaching assistants, and AP staff with teaching or teaching support responsibilities at Illinois State University are eligible to apply. Each proposal, however, must be from a team of at least one faculty/staff member and at least one student (graduate or undergraduate). Team members may be from the same discipline or include members from more than one discipline.

Application Materials and Procedures

Please send the following materials (first four required; fifth is optional) via email in ONE PDF file by 4:00 p.m., May 22, 2017 to Jen Friberg (jfribe@IllinoisState.edu). Your last name should be part of the file name.

1. A cover page with name, department and email address of all applicants, and project title.
2. A narrative addressing the first 7 bullet points below under selection criteria. The narrative must be a maximum of 5 double-spaced pages using approximately an 11-12 font and 1 inch margins all sides. (The bibliography, budget pages, & appendices do not count toward the 5-page max.)
3. A reference page/bibliography.
4. An itemized budget including a budget justification (i.e., details/sources on where/how numbers were obtained and calculated).
5. Optional appendices (e.g., draft of questionnaire or focus group questions).

Incomplete proposals or proposals that do not meet the above requirements will not be considered.

Selection Criteria

In addition to checking that the proposal meets all eligibility and materials requirements noted above, three faculty/staff members with expertise in SoTL will review the proposals using the following criteria.

1. Project clearly fits SoTL related to the teaching and learning of ISU students as defined above.
2. Project must focus on a teaching-learning issue(s) explicitly related to out-of-class learning opportunities experienced by ISU students.
3. Proposal includes a brief but relevant literature review (‘theory’ and past relevant SoTL research) and how the proposed project ‘fits’ in this extant literature. (General and discipline-specific journals on college teaching-learning are available at both Milner Library and CTLT. See, also, the list at Guides.Library.IllinoisState.edu/SoTL.)
4. Project uses appropriate methodology for gathering evidence to reflect on/study the teaching-learning issue or question posed, and this method is clearly described.
5. Proposal clearly discusses roles for student researcher(s) who are on the SoTL project team.
6. Project is ethically appropriate in terms of the use of human subjects and this is made explicit.
7. Proposal lists specific, possible presentation, performance, representation, or publication outlets.
8. Proposal contains an appropriate and detailed budget, and budget justifications including how/where budget figures were found and derived.

Requirements for Recipients

All award recipients (as teams) must meet the following requirements. Acceptance of grant funding indicates agreement to fulfill these requirements.

1. If human subjects are involved--submission of an IRB protocol form and receipt of IRB approval before starting the project (as this research will be made public);
2. Presentation of the funded SoTL research project (in progress or completed) in any format (poster, paper, panel, video) at the CTLT Teaching-Learning Symposium held in January 2017 or January 2018;
3. As appropriate to the discipline(s) and the project, submission of a representation of the work (e.g., article, video, web site, portfolio, poster) to a teaching newsletter, website, conference, show/competition, journal, or book by December 2018 or 2019 with a copy of that product and/or a summary report with information on the project to the Cross Chair. The submission or report will be placed on the ISU SoTL website. This can include Gauisus (ISU’s internal SoTL publication) or the SoTL Advocate (ISU’s SoTL blog).
4. Explicit recognition of this funding source in all presentations, publications, videos, etc. of the project (Funding source is ‘Illinois State University, Office of the Cross Endowed Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, SoTL URG Grant Program, FY18’).