SoTL University Research Grant Program

The Cross Endowed Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning requests proposals for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning URG 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 2025-2026, funded projects can focus on the systematic study/reflection of any teaching-learning issue(s) explicitly related to ISU students. Reports of previously funded grants (though on a variety of other topics) may be found at https://sotl.illinoisstate.edu/grants/outcomes/ 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 FY26). While 4-5 grants are expected to be awarded, all awards are subject to the availability of funds allocated for FY26.

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 Requirements

The following information is required for all applications via the Office of Research and Graduate Studies internal grant site:

1. A narrative (1500 words, maximum) addressing the first 6 bullet points below under selection criteria should be uploaded.
2. A reference page/bibliography.
3. An itemized budget including a budget justification (i.e., details/sources on where/how numbers were obtained and calculated).
4. Optional appendices (e.g., draft of questionnaire or focus group questions).

Review 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.

• Project clearly fits SoTL related to the teaching and learning of ISU students as defined above and demonstrates alignment with ISU's Framework for Inclusive Teaching Excellence.
• 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 CIPD. 
• Project uses appropriate methodology for gathering evidence to reflect on/study the teaching-learning issue or question posed, and this method is clearly described.
• Proposal clearly discusses roles for student researcher(s) who are on the SoTL project team.
• Project is ethically appropriate in terms of the use of human subjects and this is made explicit.
• Proposal lists specific possibilities for presentation, performance, representation, or publication of funded scholarship.
• Proposal contains an appropriate and detailed budget, and budget justifications including how/where budget figures were found and derived.

Acknowledgements

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 University-Wide Teaching-Learning Symposium held in January 2026 or January 2027.
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 2026 or 2027 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.
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, FY26).

Questions?

If you have questions about this award program, please contact Dr. Jennifer Friberg, Cross Endowed Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, at jfribe@ilstu.edu or (309) 438-7706.