Plan for a SoTL Project

A response to the Design Your SoTL Project Activity
created by David Schenk (@dschenk)

Number of views: 218


 

Plan for a SoTL Project

by David Schenk, Conestoga College

Research Question

What are you curious about? >> How subject matter experts as guest speakers enhance the learning outcomes of students

 

What would you like to know about strategies that might hinder and/or help students to learn, in your course? >> How a guest speaker helps them learn

 

Do you want to know if an activity, assignment, or teaching strategy “works?”>> Yes..the strategy above

 

Do you have a question about how to help your students learn a particular skill? >> How do help students take what they have learned form a guest speaker and apply to real work situations

Identify challenge/outcome related to learning  that is related to your question.

Describe the learning in a way that suggests how you might measure it using either qualitative or quantitative methods. >> you can measure with a pre and post class survey with the students

Describe the instructional activity, assignment, or teaching strategy that will promote student learning on the outcome you identified.

SoTL projects might investigate the impact of a modification to an existing strategy or assignment. Describe how the new approach differs from the old approach and why this modification might change student learning on this outcome. >> The activity of a pre and post survey asking students about the effectiveness of the guest speaker will provide a measurement and suggestions for future improvements if any.

Describe the evidence that would persuade an external audience that the new or modified teaching strategy improves student learning on the targeted learning outcome.

Describe the evidence you would need to collect to answer questions about the impact or value of this teaching strategy. How would you convince others that this approach is better than other approaches? What comparisons should you make? Examine students; skill before and after the assignment? Compare students who complete the learning activity to another group of students – what comparisons would be meaningful? >> Evidence would be a survey from students from a class before this activity was implemented and after.   The survey would be ‘How comfortable are you about applying or entering the workforce’

How and where would you publish, present, or disseminate this work? >> School websites (professional development), and teaching / educational websites.