With the Incubator program, Teaching and Learning Innovation helps facilitate and advance faculty projects involving scholarship on teaching and learning (SoTL) in the courses they teach at the University of Tennessee. This program is designed to help faculty members carry out new studies related to teaching and learning methods and disseminate their insights to the wider higher-education community. It is open to all instructional faculty members and to graduate teaching assistants/associates with faculty advisor support.
Goals:
- Assist faculty members in carrying out new SoTL studies in higher education at UT
- Assist faculty members in disseminating results (journal articles, conference presentations, etc.)
- Help advance faculty members’ career goals
- Contribute to SoTL literature and TLI data-driven, evidence-based practices
SoTL Incubator provides a framework for effective research design, IRB application, and implementation. It consists of a series of meetings, structured by workflow documents and facilitated by TLI staff. Faculty members participating in the program may choose only specific options from this list or may initiate the entire process. At present, there is plenty of capacity for new projects, but as more get underway, there may be limits to how many we can accommodate at the same time—this website will be updated accordingly.
Program Overview & Meeting Schedule
With the assistance and support of TLI staff, faculty members sketch out the overall plan for the project, including some initial decisions about its scope and purpose.
TLI staff, as well as any collaborators identified during the first meeting, will assist and support faculty members in developing a plan for the literature review process and can assist in identifying and curating a file of available articles on the chosen intervention or project. Depending on the nature of the project, timing, and availability, some staff may also be able to assist in evaluating the existing literature and coauthoring parts of the lit review.
TLI staff and faculty collaborators can assist in developing a research design that will produce useful and appropriate data (quantitative, qualitative, mixed, or observational) to fill the identified gaps in the literature, while maximizing efficiency. Please Note: TLI embraces a general workflow, reflected in the structure of this series of meetings, but our staff are open to many different methodologies and philosophies of SoTL work.
TLI staff can assist in planning for the Institutional Review Board (IRB) submission process and in developing documents regarding human-subjects research. We also recommend consultations with the IRB coordinators, who can provide specific advice.
TLI staff can assist in securing and tracking informed consent, collecting data, and preparing data for analysis in a variety of ways, depending on the nature of the project, timing, and availability.
TLI staff can assist in data analysis and/or locate and coordinate with collaborators who have requisite expertise, as needed depending on the nature of the project.
TLI staff can provide any level of assistance with the writing and publication process, from editing and formatting assistance to the drafting or composition of components.
Getting the Ball Rolling
If you are interested in beginning with an initial planning meeting, please complete the form below. If you have questions about the program, please contact TLI Director for the Scholarly Teaching & Special Initiatives, Dr. Chris Kilgore, at ckilgor4@utk.edu.
Projects
The incubator program has supported projects by the following UT faculty, staff, and graduate students:
- Jedediah Blanton, Assistant Professor of Practice & Rachel Williams, then Doctoral Student (now graduated!), Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, & Sports Studies
- Read their publication: Exploring College Student Experiences in a Kinesiology Course Using a Gamified Grading System
- Anne Ho, Lecturer & Joan Lind, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics
- Manuscript accepted for publication at PRIMUS
- Ryan Windeknecht, Senior Lecturer, Department of Philosophy
- IRB approved
- Sally C. Harris, Distinguished Lecturer, Department of English
- Manuscript under review at The Journal for Centers of Teaching and Learning
- Michelle Violanti, Associate Professor, School of Communication Studies
- Daiane Santana Alves, Lecturer, Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology
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Case study exams decreased test anxiety in a general biology class. [Conference presentation]. Innovative Teaching & Learning Conference, Online.
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- Laura Trujillo-Mejía, Distinguished Lecturer, World Languages and Cultures
- IRB approved, project complete.
- Phyllis Thompson, Clinical Associate Professor, College of Social Work
- IRB approved
- Millie Gimmel, Associate Professor, Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures
- IRB approved
- Lisa Davenport, Clinical Associate Professor, College of Nursing, & Meghan Parson, eTHRIVE Project Manager
- IRB approved
- Jennifer Weisent, Assistant Clinical Professor; Becky DeBolt, Clinical Assistant Professor; Alexis Niceley, Program Administrator, Small Animal Clinical Sciences; Jaime Norris, Cait Program Assistant, Small Animal Clinical Sciences; College of Veterinary Medicine
- Caroline Wienhold, Lecturer, Division of Biology; Randall Small, Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; Patrick Biddix, Professor of Higher Education; Virginia Stormer, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Division of Student Success
- Manuscript accepted at To Improve the Academy
- Amber Giffin, then Doctoral Student, Educational Psychology (now graduated!)
- IRB approved.
- Sean Lindsay, Senior Lecturer, Physics & Astronomy
- IRB approved.
- Qi Sun, Associate Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies; Amber Giffin, then Doctoral Student, Educational Psychology (now graduated!)
- IRB approved
- Madeline Crozier, Graduate Teaching Associate; Sean Morey, Associate Professor, Department of English; Virginia Stormer, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Division of Student Success; Megan von Bergen, Assistant Professor of English, Murray State University
- IRB approved
- Adam Ibrahim, Doctoral Candidate, Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies
- IRB approved
- Robert Jacobsen, Lecturer, Earth & Planetary Sciences; Lauren Pinkard, Undergraduate Student, Earth & Planetary Sciences
- Pinkard, L. E., & Jacobsen, R. E. (2023, September 12). The perceptions, expectations, and career interests of first-year students in Introductory Geoscience. [Research poster]. Discovery Day, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.
- Molly West, Lecturer; Victoria Beasley, Lecturer; Blake Colclasure, Senior Lecturer, Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication
- Claire Mayo, Research Development Manager, College of Arts & Sciences
- IRB approved
- Joe Witt, Associate Professor, Religious Studies, UTK, Victoria Machado, Rollins College, Lucas Johnston, Wake Forest University, Chris Crews, Denison University, & Dominic Wilkins, Colorado College.
- IRB approved
- Kathryn Zirkle, Clinical Assistant Professor, College of Nursing & Cameron Carr, Clinical Assistant Professor, College of Nursing
- IRB approved
- Grace Therrell, Assistant Professor, UTK Libraries & Erin Whitaker, Assistant Professor, UTK Libraries
- IRB approved
- Christopher Mayer, Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
- IRB approved
- Erin Darby, Professor, Rachelle Scott, Associate Professor, Religious Studies, & Virginia Stormer, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Division of Student Success
- Anna Snyder, Student; Emily Roberts, Graduate Student; Amy Robinson, Teaching Assistant Professor, Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
- Poster presentation completed
- Kirsten Benson, Director, Judith Anderson Herbert Writing Center
- IRB approved
- Napatsawan Nugent, Clinical Assistant Professor, College of Nursing
- Casey Norris, Clinical Associate Professor, College of Nursing
- IRB approved
- Jessica Pyle, Teaching Assistant Professor, Microbiology; Caroline Wienhold, Division of Biology
- IRB approved
- Michael Naparstek, Religious Studies
- IRB approved
- Anton Schultz, Graduate Teaching Associate, Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies
- IRB approved
- Nau Pokhrel, Physics and Astronomy