SoTL Seed: Limited Support Program Guide

Congratulations on receiving limited support for your SoTL project! This guide provides details about your support package, key information about using your project hours, working with SoTL Specialists and how to access ongoing support.

Support package

  • Up to 20 hours of support from a SoTL Specialist 
  • We may be able offer limited discretionary funds to support participant recruitment expenses (e.g., incentives, focus group supplies) on a case by case basis. Please contact Trish (trish.varao-sousa@ubc.ca) or Adriana (adriana.briseno@ubc.ca).
  • We encourage you to apply for the SoTL Dissemination Fund.

Project duration

  • Project hours can be used for up to 12 months from project adjudication. Please let us know if an extension is required. 
  • Projects that have seen no activity for 3 months will become “inactive”.
  • After 3 additional months of inactivity, projects will be “terminated”, and we will ask you to re-apply for support should you want to access our team’s support.

Professional development opportunities

A primary goal of the Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISoTL) is to create an expanding community of multi-disciplinary researchers who engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and inspire others through their SoTL leadership. Accordingly, we invite you to attend workshops or information sessions we offer throughout the year. A full listing can be found on the ISoTL Events page

SoTL Specialists

After project adjudication, you will be paired up with a SoTL Specialist. SoTL Specialists are graduate students with expertise in all aspects of carrying out human behaviour research plans. Specialists are assigned to specific projects based on matching expertise related to a project’s needs. SoTL Specialists may not necessarily be experts in your particular discipline but are experts in research methodologies and evaluation.

What kind of support does the SoTL specialist provide?

Your project will likely span beyond the support provided by the SoTL Specialist. Given the limited hours of support available, please carefully consider what activities will be of most value to your project. Specialists can provide support with:

  • project planning and design
  • applying for ethics review (if necessary)
  • survey development
  • design and implementation of interviews and focus groups
  • data analysis and reporting of findings

Please note: SoTL Specialists typically do not engage in literature reviews beyond familiarizing themselves with the pedagogies and context of the project, but they can provide support in identifying relevant literature related to project evaluation and research methodologies. Other activities not covered by your Specialist include:

  • Transcription of data
  • Learning design
  • Write literature review summaries
  • Annotated bibliographies

Working with your SoTL Specialist

It is important to schedule regular check-in meetings with your SoTL Specialist. This will ensure that you are in open communication with one another, and that your project is on track. It is important to communicate expectations regarding project milestones such as data collection and analysis as early as possible in order to avoid potential time/scheduling conflicts. While the SoTL Specialist is here to support you with your project, the successful completion of the project is the responsibility of the project investigator.

Presenting/publishing with your SoTL Specialist

  • When Specialists make significant intellectual contributions to the work it is expected that they are included as co-authors on relevant publications and presentations. 
  • As appropriate, please include the following acknowledgement on all relevant outputs: “This work was supported in part by the Institute for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISoTL) at the University of British Columbia”.

Project progress

Project scope

Our team is committed to helping you within the limited capacity we can provide. If your project needs more than 20 hours, we will be glad to accommodate this when possible.

Wrapping up your project

Once your project is completed, the ISoTL team will contact you and ask for feedback on the support you have received.

Giving back to the SoTL community at UBC

We encourage you to get involved with SoTL activities across campus. These may include:

Contact

Adriana Briseño-Garzón, Senior Manager, Research and Evaluation: adriana.briseno@ubc.ca

Trish Varao-Sousa, Evaluation and Research Consultant: trish.varao-sousa@ubc.ca

Natasha Pestonji-Dixon, Evaluation and Research Consultant: natasha.pestonji-dixon@ubc.ca