Internal Grants

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grants

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• Overview
• Deadlines and Submission
• Eligibility
• Funding Guidelines
• Review Process
• Requirements
• Templates
• Submission Form
• Grant Recipients

Overview

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) requests proposals for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Grant Program during the early fall of each academic year. The primary goal of the program is to provide funding support (up to $2,500) to any faculty or instructional staff member at DePaul University who pursue rigorous investigation on teaching and learning and make public their findings in suitable peer-reviewed outlets.

In January of 2014, the University Faculty Council endorsed the following definition of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning:

“[SoTL is] the rigorous investigation of student learning, with the purpose of developing novel teaching methodologies and practices that can lead to the measurable enhancement of student learning. The results of the investigation are made public through quality scholarly outlets and widely-accepted conferences and general or discipline-specific journals.”

This definition makes it clear that SoTL in its own right aligns naturally with DePaul’s mission. In fact, one of the central purposes stated by DePaul University mission regards research broadly:

“Research is supported both for its intrinsic merit and for the practical benefits it offers to faculty, students, and society. Broadly conceived, research at the university entails not only the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge but also the creation and interpretation of artistic works, application of expertise to enduring societal issues, and development of methodologies that improve inquiry, teaching and professional practice.”

Moreover, the definition explicitly requires that any SoTL work lead to measurable improvement of student learning—not just students’ perceptions of learning. Because the focus is on student learning, the definition allows for research in any discipline and the use of a diverse array of methodologies. SoTL research, thus, may be quantitative or qualitative in nature and may focus on class, course, program, department, cross-department, and co-curricular levels. Finally, SoTL work is expected to be made public and peer reviewed in some way.

Deadlines and Submission

Proposals are due to the Center for Teaching and Learning by Friday, September 16th, 2022 and should be submitted online below. Award recipients will be notified by Friday, October 14th, 2022. Selected recipients will need to submit a final report for the grant project to CTL by September 1st, 2023.

Eligibility

• Project Eligibility: Any new SoTL research project that contributes to our knowledge of the scholarship of teaching of learning will be eligible for funding. SoTL projects continuing work already in progress and projects that focus only on dissemination of prior research are not eligible for funding.
• PI Eligibility:  All faculty and staff with teaching/learning responsibilities at DePaul are eligible to apply, with the exception of CTL staff members and SoTL grant proposal reviewers.

Funding Guidelines

Eligible expenses may include:

• Materials and supplies.
• Stipends for student research assistants. Note that funding may not be used to pay nor provide incentives to any faculty or staff member.
• Travel and registration fees for teaching seminars or workshops directly related to the research question being addressed in the project.
• Travel to promote collaboration on the project.
• Travel and registration fees to disseminate, in appropriate conferences, the outcomes or final results of the research project.
• Publication cost of the outcomes or final results of the research project in quality scholarly outlets such as peer-reviewed general or discipline-specific journals.
• Participant incentives limited to 30% of the approved funding.

Review Process

Research proposals will be peer reviewed by a selection committee which will include several members of the Society of Vincent DePaul Professors. Given the limited award money available, the review committee has the difficult task of approving funding for only a few of the best research proposals based upon whether or not the proposals align with definition of SoTL endorsed by the University Faculty Council, and then on the level at which the proposals meet the following SoTL criteria:

Requirements

All SoTL funded proposals are expected to meet the requirements listed below. Failure to meet these requirements may result in ineligibility for future funding.

• Evidence of having applied for IRB approval or exemption.
• Evidence of IRB approval, when applicable, before any granted funding can be made available.
• A final narrative including a summary of palpable and reportable results of the funded SoTL project, and a final expense report must be submitted to the CTL by September 1st, 2023. The report may be published on the CTL website or Teaching Commons.
• A blog entry to disseminate findings or lessons learned from the research project. The entry will be published on the Center for Teaching and Learning's Instructional Design and Development Blog.
• Presentation of the funded SoTL research project (in progress or completed) within DePaul or outside DePaul by June 30th, 2023. One possible avenue would be the DePaul Teaching and Learning Conference in spring quarter.
• Explicit recognition of this funding source in all presentations or publications of the project.

Downloads

• Proposal Template
• CV Template
• Grant Closure Report Template (to be used at end of grant cycle)

Submit Completed Proposal

Submit Proposal

Grant Recipients

Grant recipients submit final reports documenting their projects. If you are a grant recipient, please download a grant closure report template to be used for your final report.

View Recipients​​