Guided by MomentUM: Leading Change Together, UM is committed to empowering learners through dynamic learning experiences that meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body. Investing in SoTL enables instructors and faculty members to examine their teaching practices, incorporate evidence-based findings, and ultimately, improve student success.

The 2025 SoTL Support Fund has awarded five Seed projects, a stream within the scaffolded-funding program which supports time-limited and innovative new teaching and learning research ideas with a budget of up to $6000. These projects span a range of disciplines, each offering an innovative approach to advancing research-based teaching and learning at UM.

Empowering Statistical Minds: Data Exploration for Student Engagement

Project lead: Hina Shaheen, Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science

Bridging the gap between theoretical statistical concepts and real-world applications can be challenging for many Statistics students. Traditional lecture-based approaches often encourage rote memorization of formulas rather than deep understanding. This project will introduce small-group, collaborative experiments using real-world databases, promoting active learning through data exploration and statistical decision-making. The hands-on problem-solving activities aim to strengthen students’ analytical reasoning, decision-making, and statistical interpretation skills. Analysis of students’ behavioural, emotional, and social engagement outcomes will inform and support ongoing initiatives aimed at enhancing student success and career readiness.

Live Podcasting in Teacher Education: Amplifying Engagement, Dialogue, and Multimodal Literacies

Project lead: Amir Michalovich, Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Education

This project examines the extent to which live podcasting in class can cultivate engaging, dialogic, and multimodal classroom discussions for students in teacher education. Given the rapid advancement of generative AI, it is increasingly important to explore classroom-based assignments involving students co-developing and demonstrating their knowledge. While some research has explored the use of pre-recorded or edited podcasts in post-secondary education, it has rarely examined digital multimodal assignments conducted live in class. This study addresses that gap by exploring how these tools can impact student engagement with course content, participation in dialogic learning, and development of communicative skills across multimodal literacies (e.g., speaking, listening, writing, viewing, and representing). 

Team-based collaborative learning from the head to the toes to better health for all

Project lead: Dr. Laura MacDonald, Dental Hygiene, Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences

This project pilots an interprofessional team-based collaborative experiential learning program aimed at facilitating the integration of oral health within comprehensive health care. It will examine students’ perspectives of a novel interprofessional education (IPE) initiative delivered in a dental clinic setting. Both existing research and the outcomes of a recent Rady Faculty of Health Sciences interprofessional simulation indicate a persistent gap in incorporating oral health within comprehensive health-care practice. Situating this intervention within a dental clinic is intended to help health professional students connect oral health with overall health and roles and responsibilities to ensure comprehensive health care. Findings will offer curriculum IPE developers valuable insights into the key traits students believe support interprofessional collaboration competencies, specifically relationship-focused care, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and collaborative leadership.

Case-Based Learning in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design

Project co-leads: Yuhao Lu, Department of Landscape Architecture and Mark Meagher, Environmental Design Program

In landscape architecture and design education, students often struggle to build and apply an accurate vocabulary for describing spatial patterns. Relying solely on memorized definitions limits students’ abilities to recognize or articulate design intensions in new contexts. Applying case-based learning principles, which emphasize that deeper understanding emerges from exposure to concrete examples, this project will give students access to real-world cases in the form of project drawings and photographs. A curated collection of design patterns and vocabulary will be developed from an extensive database of precedents and enhanced through state-of-the-art machine learning. Students will submit their own sketches, which the system will analyze to generate key vocabulary terms to describe the patterns and examples of related patterns across multiple design disciplines. Pre- and post-project surveys will assess the tool’s impact on students’ design literacy, pattern recognition, and communicative competence.

Collaborative Proof Writing: Enhancing Mathematical Understanding and Communication Skills Through Group-Based Learning

Project lead: Jamie de Jong, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science

Writing mathematical proofs can be a significant challenge for undergraduate students, who must shift from the computational problem-solving emphasized in high school to the formal reasoning required in university mathematics. This project will evaluate the effectiveness of targeted in-class group activities designed to strengthen both mathematical understanding and communication. The activities will focus on analyzing and writing mathematical proofs, with opportunities for immediate feedback from both instructors and peers. While peer feedback is well-established in writing-intensive fields, its application in proof-based mathematics is limited. Surveys and assessments of student performance will be used to measure the effectiveness of this teaching approach.

Learn more about how UM is supporting teaching excellence.

Sponsored by the Provost and Vice-President (Academic) and hosted by The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, this annual interdisciplinary event celebrates the impactful research of SoTL Support Fund recipients, highlighting innovative approaches to improve student learning.

Why attend?

Whether you’re just beginning to explore the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning or looking to refresh your teaching practice, the SoTL Symposium has something for you.

The event showcases the teaching and learning research findings of SoTL Support Fund recipients – colleagues who are using scholarly inquiry to improve their teaching and elevate student success.

Join us on May 29 to hear their insights, exchange ideas, and connect with a vibrant community of educators and researchers dedicated to transforming learning experiences at UM!

Keynote presentation

This year’s symposium will feature Dr. Andrea Webb from the University of British Columbia as the keynote. Dr. Webb is currently co-directing a multinational SSHRC-funded project, Narrative Art and Visual Storytelling in Holocaust and Human Rights Education. As Chair of SoTL Canada, she plays a key role in shaping national conversations on scholarly teaching and in supporting a vibrant community of educators committed to enhancing student learning through reflective and research-informed approaches. Dr. Webb worked as a high school teacher for ten years before transitioning to a teacher educator in post-secondary education. Her research interests include Threshold Concepts, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and Social Sciences Teacher Education.

Event details and registration

Date: Thursday, May 29

Time: 9 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Location: Marshall McLuhan Hall, Room 204 UMSU University Centre, Fort Garry Campus

Light breakfast, lunch refreshments will be served.

Register now for the 2025 SoTL Symposium

Applications are currently being accepted for two funding streams:

SoTL Seed Project: Up to ten projects will be funded to a maximum of $6,000 each to explore various aspects of teaching and learning as they relate to student outcomes. The SoTL project must be completed within one year.

SoTL Major Project: A maximum of $25,000 is available for up to three large-scale interdisciplinary SoTL research initiatives. Priority will be given to applicants who previously received SoTL Seed funding. The SoTL project must be completed within 18 months and supported with matching or in-kind funds from the principal investigator’s department or faculty.

The application deadline for both funding streams is March 31, 2025.

Interested applicants should check with their department or faculty to find out whether there is an earlier internal deadline for their unit. During the application preparation, applicants are encouraged to connect with the SoTL Team at The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning.

Find the full call for applications and application form on the Provost’s intranet site.

Learn about the 2024 SoTL recipients and projects funded in this UM Today story.

This year, six awards of $6,000 and one major award of $25,000 were awarded.

2024 Major Project recipient:

Dr. Jason Peeler, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences

Project title: Improving Clinical Skills Training in the Area of Musculoskeletal Medicine

Despite musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries being among the most common reasons why a patient will see a doctor, research shows that a majority of physicians lack adequate knowledge, confidence and clinical skills when treating MSK conditions. Over the past decade, Peeler has sought to change that.

Peeler is an associate professor in the department of human anatomy and cell science and the pre-clerkship course director for MSK medicine. Recognized for excellence in teaching, he is dedicated to his students’ success and facilitating a high-quality interactive learning experience. Since the introduction of a new MSK curriculum in 2015, he has been focused on examining how MSK learning and knowledge retention can be enhanced among physicians graduating from the UM medical program.

Supported by the SoTL Support Fund, Peeler’s current research project will involve the assessment of three specific training models to teach MSK clinical skills: a case-based asynchronous learning module, an interdisciplinary peer-assisted training course, and extracurricular “hands-on” learning sessions. Each educational strategy will be piloted in the classroom and analyzed against key objectives. The findings are expected to improve medical student engagement and satisfaction with MSK clinical skills training and also fill a significant knowledge gap regarding the efficacy of current MSK clinical skill education.

“A critical element of this research is to provide students with more learning opportunities which require them to put theory into practice, and enhance their hands-on skills when practicing MSK medicine,” Peeler says.

2024 Seed Award recipients:

Kamni Gill and Frits van Loon, from the department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Architecture

• Project title: Seeing shades of blue: Stimulating a hydrological imagination in undergraduate landscape architecture students through experiential learning

Yuhao Lu and Frits van Loon, from the department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Architecture

• Project title: Landscape Pattern Cards (LaPAC): develop a catalogue of spatial patterns and vocabulary for landscape architectural students

Olesya Fedoryak, department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science

• Project title: Enhancing Student Engagement and Learning in Large General Chemistry Courses

Madison Wright, department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science

• Project title: Culturing Your Pet Bacteria Together: Integrating collaboration into a first year microbiology laboratory course project

Xihui Liang, department of Mechanical Engineering, Price Faculty of Engineering

• Project title: Enhancing understanding of mechanics of materials through hands-on finite element analysis

Jennifer Hedges, Faculty of Social Work

• Project title: Required readings: Moving beyond compliance to reading engagement for transformative learning in social work education

UM offers many opportunities to engage in SoTL research and learning.

Applications are currently open for the SoTL Support Fund – Teaching Scholar. Successful recipients can choose to commit 40 per cent release time in one term or 20 per cent release time over two terms to complete their SoTL research project. The recipient’s home unit will receive funding for a course replacement instructor(s).

The SoTL Development Fund is for scholars who are new to SoTL, featuring the opportunity to attend the 2024 Symposium for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning on November 7-9 in Banff, Alberta.

The deadline for both programs is Sept. 16, 2024.

“As educators, many of us wonder if our teaching is effective. By carrying out a (SoTL) research project, we can gain many valuable insights. Designing the project gives us the opportunity to reflect carefully on our teaching methods, and partnering with a collaborator from another disciplinary background can open up new and valuable perspectives.” Wang worked with Brenda Stoesz, Research Lead – Science of Teaching and Learning at the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, to study the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in student learning of mathematical proofs.

As Wang explained, the ability to read, write and understand mathematical proofs are essential to the study of mathematics, yet students often struggle to grasp foundational mathematical concepts and appropriately use mathematical symbols and language. As the use of generative AI becomes more popular, it is important to understand its benefits and limitations in education. Their research project focused on (1) whether generative AI tools can support students’ learning of mathematical proofs, and (2) whether these tools could increase engagement in the classroom.

Conducting the study

As a SoTL Teaching Scholar, Wang committed 40 per cent of one term to complete the project while the Faculty of Science received funding for a course replacement instructor.

Over the duration of the term, Wang introduced biweekly assignments to her class which involved revising a flawed mathematical proof generated by ChatGPT, followed by group discussion and review. By the end of the course, their analysis showed that students were able to develop the skills required to use the tools effectively and identify errors appropriately. Student responses were collected, by survey and interviews, to assess student engagement with the activities.

Overall, the study led to significant learnings for Wang on how to incorporate AI tools to support student learning.

What is SoTL?

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is the systematic study of teaching and learning to improve student outcomes and optimize educational experiences in post-secondary environments.

“The SoTL Support Fund supports innovative research that seeks to understand and enhance teaching and learning practices. The results have a meaningful impact on the learning experience of UM students and contribute to a growing field of study in post-secondary education.” says Mark Torchia, Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning). “I encourage those who are eligible to consider how you can engage in this scholarship.”

Apply for the SoTL Support Fund – Teaching Scholar award

The SoTL Support Fund – Teaching Scholar award provides opportunities for professors, instructors and librarians to develop their portfolios related to educational leadership and teaching innovation. Successful applicants receive support to pursue a SoTL project and develop their teaching expertise through working with faculty and staff at the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning.

Successful recipients can choose to commit 40 per cent release time in one term or 20 per cent release time over two terms to complete their SoTL research project. The recipient’s home unit will receive funding for a course replacement instructor(s).

Applications are open now for the SoTL Support Fund – Teaching Scholar, with a deadline of September 16, 2024.

New to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning?

The University of Manitoba offers a variety of resources to support your SoTL journey. The SoTL Development Fund is for scholars who are new to SoTL, featuring an opportunity to attend the 2024 Symposium for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in November in Banff, Alberta.

Find the full program criteria on the SoTL Development Fund intranet webpage. The application deadline is also September 16, 2024.

Applicants to the fund outlined a SoTL topic that they were interested in studying, such as a particular teaching and learning area within their teaching practice or a new innovative teaching methodology. Successful recipients to the fund were notified in late September.

In addition to one-on-one support from SoTL Developers at UM, the successful recipients received funding to attend the November 23-25 Symposium for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Canmore, Alberta. Hosted by the Mokakiiks Centre for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at Mount Royal University, the conference brings together faculty, students, educational developers, and administrators to share existing knowledge and developing research in the systemic inquiry of teaching and learning. 

Jennifer Protudjer from the Max Rady College of Medicine was one of the recipients of the 2023 SoTL development fund. She expressed her enthusiasm about the opportunity, saying “I learned about ongoing work, and novel teaching strategies, happening in Canada and beyond. One of the values of a smaller conference is the opportunity to connect with presenters and other delegates. Indeed, some of these conversations have already led to a new collaboration!”

Protudjer is the director of the new Pediatric Graduate Program in the department of Pediatrics and Child Health, which offers students a customizable and multi-disciplinary graduate degree with four different areas or “pillars” of medical research. Protudjer applied to the fund to examine student experiences in the new program through a mixed method lens, and hopes to gain valuable insight on how to further enhance multidisciplinary experiences of learning.

Another fund recipient was Kaleigh Warden, from the School of Dental Hygiene, Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry. Warden says she applied to the fund because she felt the conference was a great opportunity to gain exposure to developing teaching and learning research, and she was also keen to connect with a SoTL research mentor for support and guidance.

One of Warden’s courses is on pain management in which dentistry students learn about anesthesia through both pre-clinical simulation and hands-on clinical experiences. She noted that sometimes students have anxiety about administering local anesthesia as a novice practitioner, so she is exploring how the use of Virtual Reality can be incorporated into the course. “I am always looking for ways to enhance and diversify the learning experience for our students, which is really at the core of what we all do as educators. I am eager to learn about VR technology as a potential tool to bring innovative and meaningful learning opportunities to my students,” says Warden.

Award recipients return to UM with a greater understanding of innovative scholarship about teaching and learning practice in higher education, informed by practitioners’ insights from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds.  Mark Torchia, Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning) says “I commend these dedicated faculty members for their desire to enhance pedagogy and scholarly inquiry into their own teaching practice, which further advances the teaching and learning mission at the university as a whole.”

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2023 SoTL Development Fund:

Madison Wright – Faculty of Science

Trisha Scribbans – Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management

Jennifer Hedges – Faculty of Social Work

Stephanie Hladik – Price Faculty of Engineering

Jennifer Protudjer – Max Rady College of Medicine

Kaleigh Warden – Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry

Nasem Badreldin – Faculty of Agricultural and Food Science

Learn more about SoTL opportunities at UM, including the upcoming call for nominations for the SoTL Support Fund.

Advanced Knowledge Transfer in the Health Sciences

Date: Thursday, November 2, 2023

Successful knowledge transfer and application ensures that students apply knowledge acquired in the classroom to their clinical practice both in their academic years and after graduation when they enter their respective fields. This workshop will provide techniques to support this crucial part of learning, including best practices for improving knowledge transfer and tools for measuring knowledge application for clinical reasoning and clinical decision-making in ways that are efficient, effective, and flexible.  

Register for advanced knowledge transfer

Faculty Attitudes, Motivation, and Strategies for Teaching Writing

Date: Thursday, November 2, 2023

Dr. Kim Mitchell from the College of Nursing and Dr. Christine Stewart from Women’s & Gender Studies will discuss the findings from a recent Canada-wide survey assessing individual and collective self-efficacy for teaching writing. The survey included many University of Manitoba faculty and gives a sense of the struggles and triumphs faculty face when teaching writing to undergraduate students.

This presentation will also discuss strategies for reaching students and inspiring their thinking as they tackle writing at the university level. Time for discussion will be scheduled which will allow attendees to ask questions and share their successful writing instructional moments as we learn together from our collective experience.

Register for the teaching writing presentation

This presentation is a hybrid event. Registrants can choose to attend in person or online.

Enhance participation and collaboration in the classroom with Peerceptiv peer assessment tool Workshop

Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2023

In this workshop, participants will learn how to set up and manage Peerceptiv assignments in a UM Learn course. A Peerceptiv assignment allows students to provide anonymous peer assessments of other students’ submitted work, while also allowing students who received feedback to evaluate the inputs that were given. By implementing Peerceptiv, the instructor can enhance engagement, participation and critical thinking among students who work on their assignments.

Register for the Peerceptiv peer assessment tool workshop

Accessible Design for Assessment

Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Assessment is the key to evaluating the success of teaching strategies. If we do not utilize diverse assessment methods that account for the abilities of the learner population in courses, we will not be able to effectively assess the efficacy of teaching strategies being employed. This course will aid Faculty and Instructors in developing diverse assessment tools that remove barriers to the expression of learning, facilitate dynamic and engaging learning environments, and develop accessible spaces for all learners.

Register for Accessible Design for Assessment

Open Educational Resources – What, How, Why (Part 2)

Date: Wednesday, November 8, 2023

The term open educational resources (OER) describes a wide range of materials in teaching and learning that are available for public use with an open license or in the public domain. Examples of OER include full courses, course modules, syllabi, textbooks, lectures, assessments, and datasets.
In this workshop, participants will learn why OER are valuable, how to locate them, how to evaluate them using a rubric, and how to adapt and create them. The workshop does not assume prior experience with these topics.

Register for OER Part 2

Creating Connections in SoTL: Conducting Ethical SoTL Research

Date: Thursday, November 9, 2023

This workshop will focus on conducting ethical SoTL research, including how and when to consult with the research ethics office and planning for and justifying primary or secondary use of data in an ethics submission. Together we will explore ethical considerations in SoTL research and how to address these concerns when planning projects. Going beyond considerations of informed consent and confidentiality, we will examine how SoTL research can be conducted in a way that educates and treats students with respect and acknowledges their contributions.

Register for Conducting Ethical SoTL Research

Better Together

Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2023 and Wednesday, November 15,2023

Better Together is a new approach to building entrepreneurial thinking skills. Over two incredible days, you’ll have the opportunity to learn with other students, faculty, and staff about an entrepreneurial mindset. And expect it to get hands on! Together, we’ll apply our new skills to develop solutions to challenges we face here at UM. All challenges will be linked to one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. There’s more! Meet those who are using entrepreneurial thinking skills to make an impact in our community. And finally, participate in a supportive networking event to celebrate our developing skills 

What’s in it for students?

• Learn, practice and be inspired about how to apply an entrepreneurial mindset
• Develop solutions to challenges at UM
• Receive a $100 giftcard to UMSU businesses (GPA’s, Degrees, IQ’s, etc.)
• Update Experience Record
• Meet new people
• Enjoy free food!

What’s in it for faculty and staff?

• Learn, practice and be inspired about how to apply an entrepreneurial mindset
• Develop solutions to challenges at UM
• Meaningfully connect with students
• Receive a gift valued at approximately $10 from a Manitoba entrepreneur
• Meet new people
• Enjoy free food!

Register for Better Together

Visit www.umanitoba.ca/better-together for more details.

The Experiential Learning Gathering – Mapping Experiential Learning at the UM

Date: Thursday, November 16, 2023

Experiential Learning is a strategic priority for the UM. But what exactly does experiential learning look like at our institution? Who are the people involved and what motivates them? What are the places where EL happens and doesn’t happen? What supports and resources have been set up for EL, and which ones are still lacking?

Mapping EL at the UM will help us identify strengths and gaps in our EL environment as we think collectively about the future we want for EL at our institution.

At this upcoming Gathering, participants will engage in a collaborative, hands-on activity to map out the UM’s EL landscape. Join us for a morning of great conversation and creativity. Registration is required. Coffee, tea and light refreshments will be served.

Register for the Experiential Learning Gathering

What’s Working, What’s Not? Examining Classroom Teaching and Learning

Date: Tuesday, November 21, 2023

All instructors identify problems in their courses. Whether it’s students’ struggles to master a key concept or a teaching practice that may not be meeting its purpose, how do we explore “what’s working and what’s not” in our courses?

In this workshop we will explore “juicy” problems that are ripe for investigation, consider possible solutions, and develop a plan to evaluate the impact of intervention strategies. To participate fully, please bring a smartphone, tablet, or laptop.

Register for what’s working

Decolonizing Classrooms: Unpacking and Overcoming Barriers to Decolonizing Processes – Part 2

Date: Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Over the past several years, an important discussion of how we can Indigenize and decolonize the academy has been occurring. This new Decolonizing Classrooms workshop series aims to give participants the context and tools necessary to meaningfully engage with decolonizing processes as they relate to education. 

Unpacking and Overcoming Barriers to Engagement and Decolonizing Processes explores the barriers that exist for instructors and students, which prevent them from enacting decolonizing processes in educational contexts. This workshop also discusses the colonial barriers that prevent students from engaging fully in classrooms. Strategies for overcoming these barriers are considered, and participants are supported as they begin to learn how to utilize these strategies to support decolonizing processes in their classrooms

Register for Part 2

Conducting Fair Appeal Hearings

Date: Monday, November 27, 2023

This workshop is for academic administrators, academic staff and students who are current members of faculty or university level student appeal committees. This would also be of interest to support staff who provide administrative support to committees. This interactive workshop will provide participants with practical information necessary to properly conduct appeal hearings according to University policies and procedures, as well as to ensure that students are treated fairly throughout the appeal process. This workshop will include considerations for the pre-hearing stage (i.e., notice to students), the hearing itself, and post-hearing matters (i.e., decisions).

Register for the Conducting Fair Appeal Hearings workshop

UM Learn Grades & User Progress

Date: Tuesday, November 28, 2023

In this workshop, participants will receive technical guidance through the process of building a gradebook in UM Learn and then utilizing the user progress tool to track students’ progress in the course. Using the gradebook in UM Learn allows instructors to share feedback and assessments with students in a secure and confidential manner.

Register for the UM Learn Grades & User Progress Workshop

Experientially Speaking Session 3: Experiential Learning in The Time of Crisis Workshop

Date: Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Climate disaster, Covid-19, financial crises, the rise of fascism, international conflict, forced migration. These are some of the crises facing our students today. How can experiential learning help students develop the skills, knowledge and experiences required to thrive in today’s rapidly changing world?  How might traditional approaches to experiential learning need to change to adapt to this new reality? 

Register for the Experiential Learning in The Time of Crisis Session

Using classroom polling tools to increase students’ engagement and participation in class Workshop

Date: Wednesday, November 29, 2023

In this workshop, participants will learn how to use classroom polling tools – Mentimeter and iClicker – to engage students in class. This session discusses how to setup and access the polling tools accounts, use them in the classroom to conduct polls and engage students. It also talks about the similarities and differences between the tools and scenarios when these tools are best utilized.

Note: Participants will need to install iClicker Cloud on their own computer in advance of the workshop.

Register for the classroom polling tools workshop

This year, eight awards of $6K and one major award of $25K were awarded, as well as one scholar award which provides teaching replacement support over one semester.

2023 Major Project recipients:

This year, the SoTL Major Project was awarded to Dr. Marnie Kramer and Dr. Kim Mitchell, professors in the College of Nursing. Their project will examine the threshold concepts of three courses in the College of Nursing program curriculum in order to better understand its impact on student learning.

Threshold concept theory in the study of higher education focuses on a core concept that is difficult for students to grasp; it argues that once understood, that concept will dramatically impact the students’ understanding of the larger subject matter. The challenging concept is more than just struggling with course content, but often includes course material that is troublesome or transformative in nature.

Dr. Kramer and Dr. Mitchell’s study will explore student and faculty perspectives about the troublesome nature of learning concepts of health and illness and use that knowledge to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching and learning strategies employed within specific Nursing courses.

This study builds upon a previous SoTL seed grant, received in 2021, which focused on metacognitive learning strategies of a nursing pathophysiology class. Their findings highlighted the need for further study on students’ conceptual understandings and experiences when studying pathophysiology.

Dr. Marnie Kramer says, “Research on the effectiveness of conceptual learning in health and illness is very limited. We hope that this study will contribute to better understanding of how concepts in these courses act as portals to the students’ development of professional nursing identity.”

“Are we engaging in concepts that students would themselves identify as critical to their learning? Are all concepts necessary to successfully develop nursing practice? These are some of the questions that we know will be of great value for informing our concept-based curriculum,” adds Dr. Kim Mitchell.

2023 Seed Award recipients:

Dr. Monique Dumontet, Director, Academic Learning Centre

• Project title:  Teaching and learning in plagiarism cases: The Cite Right model

Dr. Kevin Scott and Ms. Cassandra Debets, Faculty of Science

• Project title:  Does peer review in an introductory biology laboratory improve student learning gains and narrow the performance gap for underrepresented students?

Dr. Aleksandra Glogowska, Max Rady College of Medicine and Dr. Chrysi Stavropoulou, College of Dentistry

• Project title:  Cadaveric surgical simulation training as novel teaching and learning strategy for the development of surgical skills in dental clinical graduate programs: A new collaboration between Dentistry and Anatomy

Dr. Terry Li, Max Rady College of Medicine

• Project title:  Ultrasound-Guided Procedures with Augmented Reality by a Head-Mounted Display: The Educational Perspective

Dr. Snehil Dua, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences

• Project title:  Understanding and Addressing Challenges in Work-Integrated Learning: A Comparative Study of Domestic and International Students

Ms. Kristin Hildahl-Shawn, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences

• Project title:  Measuring students’ engagement and its relationship with students’ performance in the course in both face to face (f2f) and distance learning modalities

2023 Scholar recipient:

Dr. Xinli Wang, Department of Mathematics

• Project title:  Investigating whether artificial intelligence systems can help math students in learning mathematical proofs more effectively

There are four funding streams within the SoTL Support Fund:

Teaching and Learning Seed Project: This program is available to all full-time tenure track/tenured faculty and probationary/continuing instructors and librarians. Funds up to a maximum of $6000 per project. Up to ten (10) projects are funded each year.

Teaching and Learning Major Project: This program is available to all full-time tenure track/tenured faculty and probationary/continuing instructors and librarians. Funds up to a maximum of $25,000 per project with matching/in-kind contributions from the unit(s). Up to three (3) are funded each year.

Teaching Scholars: This program is offered to a maximum of three (3) tenure-track faculty members and probationary/continuing instructors and librarians. Scholars will spend 40% of their time focused on SOTL and will be situated in CATL. Funding will be provided for a course replacement instructor to the unit. (Priority may be given to those individuals who have completed the Teaching and Learning Certificate Program.)

Teaching Fellow: This program will support one (1) tenured faculty member per year. The successful applicant will dedicate between 40-50% of their time for a two-year term. The program will provide funds for a course release instructor(s), as well as a project funding up to $25,000 over the duration of the fellowship and units will provide matching funds.

The call for proposals for the 2024 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Support Fund begins in January 2024. Find the guidelines and applications here on the Provost website.

The new SoTL Development Fund was created for those who are new to SoTL to provide opportunities to develop research skills in pedagogy and learning, and to engage with the SoTL community at UM and across Canada.

Up to $5,000 in funding is available to attend the 2023 Symposium for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, in Canmore, Alberta, hosted by the Mokakiiks Centre for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at Mount Royal University (November 23-25, 2023), participate in UM’s Creating Connections in SoTL series, and receive one-on-one support from a SoTL Developer in preparation for the next SoTL Support Fund competition. Additionally, contingent upon successful award of a SoTL Support Fund project proposal, the funding includes a return trip to attend the 2024 or 2025 Symposium for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning hosted by the Mokakiiks Centre for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at Mount Royal University, to disseminate the project findings.

Applications are open now, and due by September 22, 2023.  To learn more about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Development Fund, read the full guidelines and application form on the Provost website.