Case Study of a Shoe-String SoTL Center

Authors

Philip T. Dunwoody, Juniata CollegeFollow
Kathryn Westcott, Juniata CollegeFollow
David Drews, Juniata CollegeFollow
Jay Hosler, Juniata CollegeFollow

Abstract

This paper provides a case study of a faculty-driven, cost-effective center focused on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) at a small private liberal arts college. Prior work on teaching and learning centers has focused on large institutions. Our case study shows that a “teaching commons” (Huber & Hutchings, 2006) can be created at a small college (approximately 1600 students) with relatively little expense. Thanks to a grant from the Teagle Foundation, we were able to establish a SoTL center focused on the dissemination and production of SoTL. The center sponsors a biweekly lunch series (with 25% of the faculty attending each session), learning communities, and a summer grant program. Participation in SoTL activities has been excellent with 69% of faculty attending at least one SoTL event during the 2010-2011 academic year. The SoTL center has been instrumental in building assessment oriented skills and structural support for teaching effectiveness.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Dunwoody, Philip T.; Westcott, Kathryn; Drews, David; and Hosler, Jay (2012) "Case Study of a Shoe-String SoTL Center," International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 6: No. 1, Article 21.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2012.060121