The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL)

Action research is using investigation to solve problems and/or use data to improve practices (not just to publish results of a study). 

• Achievement data refers to data that references student success, such as GPA, retention, and assignment and course grades. This data may be collected formatively or summatively throughout the course, at the end of the course, or longitudinally appropriate to the type of data being collected. 
  
• Demographic data refers to data that references information about a student such as their race/ethnicity, age, gender, socio-economic status, military/veteran status, and/or educational details (e.g., major, student level, first-generation student status, and//or financial aid information).
• Self-reported data refers to data that comes from a test, measure, or survey that relies on an individual's own report of their symptoms, behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes. It is used in both qualitative and quantitative research. 
  • Some examples of qualitative self-report data come from interview (both individual and in groups) and open-ended questionnaires.
  • Some examples of quantitative self-report data come from closed-ended questions, rating scales (e.g. Likert Scales) and fixed-choice questions (e.g. Yes/No).
        

Pilot studies are an opportunity to try out a practice, process, or technique with a test group before initiating a launch at full capacity. This test run allows for testing, data collection, analysis, and continuous improvement.

• Qualitative research is naturalistic inquiry and produces qualitative data. 
• Qualitative data are measures of 'types' and may be represented by a name, symbol, or a number code. Qualitative data are data about categorical variables (e.g. what type). 
  
• Surveys can be deployed in a qualitive format when using open-ended questioning, allowing participants to comment free-form to the items. Thematic analysis is used between and within the responses.
  
• Case studies are in-depth examinations of a single circumstance/instance/event.
  
• Observations are a means of gathering data about a process or technique via watching participants in their natural setting, such as students or teachers in a classroom or experiential learning environment. 
  
• Interviews are one-on-one conversations that collect data from individuals in an open-ended format. 
  
• Focus groups are opportunities, like interviews, to have conversations to collect data, from small groups of people about their perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes.

• Quantitative research produces quantitative (numeric) data. 
• Quantitative data are measures of values or counts and are expressed as numbers. Quantitative data are data about numeric variables (e.g. how many; how much; or how often).
  
• Surveys are close-ended (qualitative if open-ended), or Likert rating scale lists of questions that a participant responds to that generate a series of data that can be analyzed in a quantitative manner. 
  
  • One common type of survey is course evaluations. You can utilize your end-of-semester course evaluations to ask students up to 3 custom questions (close-ended or open-ended). In addition, UBLearns has both surveys and self-assessments for anonymous surveys. 

1.  In the navbar on the UB Learns institutional homepage, click Tools and select Discover.
2. Use the search feature to find the course "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning."
3. Click the appropriate course tile - "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning."
4. Click Enroll in Course.
5. Click OK in the Successfully Enrolled message.

Elon University is a global leader in the scholarship of teaching and learning. This website provides some great resources related to SOTL.