Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
SOTL @ UAF
SoTL@UAF is an initiative from the Center for Teaching and Learning to bring our institution’s expertise in research to bare in the classroom. Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is an expanding field of study in higher education that seeks to improve our practice as teachers by researching and sharing the impacts of different pedagogical methods. In addition to cohorted SoTL@UAF programs, this initiative seeks to encourage and support creative, evidence-based investigations of teaching and learning wherever they are happening across the university. If you have work or questions to share, contact Elle Fournier
Ӱԭ SoTL @ UAF 2026-27
Join our fourth annual SoTL@UAF research cohort on “Advancing Student Success.” We invite faculty from all ranks and disciplines to participate in a year-long program where we will conduct systematic inquiry into teaching practices for student success. In Fall semester, we will work to identify student achievement gaps (both inside the classroom and beyond), collaboratively plan interventions, and prepare to gather evidence. In Spring semester, our classrooms will become our “laboratories,” implementing the teaching strategies and data collection we planned in the Fall. All cohort participants will meet throughout the 2026-27 academic year to share experiences and engage in collaborative problem-solving.
Benefits
By participating in SoTL@UAF, participants will:
- Network with other faculty dedicated to evidence-based teaching
- Gain insight into their teaching practice
- Be eligible to apply for summer funding from the Center for Teaching and Learning to analyze their SoTL research results
- Add SoTL@UAF experience to tenure and promotion files. Letters of support will be provided upon request.
Time commitment
The 2026-27 cohort programming will run from August 10, 2026 to May 7, 2027. Participants can expect to complete three two-hour orienting workshops in August before classes begin. During the Fall and Spring semester, we will meet biweekly for one-hour working and collaboration sessions. Additional time to prepare research and teaching materials may be required, depending on individual research design.
Total: 20 hours active programming
Eligibility
Applicants must have taught the course they apply with before, and must be planning to teach again in the 2026-27 academic year. Participants should anticipate teaching in both Fall and Spring semesters. Remote faculty are welcome to apply. Participating faculty may apply individually or with anticipated research collaborators.
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Past SoTL @ UAF Program Details
SoTL @ UAF 2025 – Academic Writing in the Context of AI
Description
SoTL@UAF facilitates a group of UAF faculty as they research the impact of pedagogical changes in their courses using a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) approach. Join a research team! For the 2025-2026 academic year, SOTL@UAF will bring together instructors, across department and rank, who ask students to write as a form of assessment – or who previously asked students to write as a form of assessment, but stopped due to the rise of generative AI tools like Chat-GPT. This program will build a cohort of instructors facing similar challenges in developing effective written assignments and assessing student writing as a mechanism for learning. When: Runs 18 August 2025 – 01 May 2026.
Past SoTL @ UAF Cohorts
SOTL@UAF 2024-25
The Center for Teaching and Learning facilitated a second scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) program for faculty to implement and track intervention in course design. The SOTL Cohort for Fall 24-Spring 25 focused on hybrid/HyFlex teaching situations. Faculty participants collaborated to review current literature on hybrid pedagogy and then determine shared strategies for intervening in hybrid course design. The program followed participants through at least one semester of teaching with these interventions to help understand and document their impacts. All participants had the option to co-author a report of program findings.
SOTL@UAF 2023-24
In 2023, UAF launched the SOTL@UAF program with the goal of improving student success in gateway courses through methodical and collaborative study. With support from the Provost’s Office, the Center for Student Success, and the UAF Center for Teaching and Learning, the program brought together nineteen faculty from across disciplines to review student success data in their courses, ask questions about barriers and contributors to success, and design interventions to address disparities identified through this process. For example, that Ӱԭ Native students were less successful in the identified courses than their non-Indigenous peers due to exclusive, Western education norms and practices in UAF classrooms. The focus of this cohort was addressing the needs of students in “Gatekeeper/Gateway” courses. This SOTL@UAF initiative ran from Spring 2023 – Spring 2024.