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Scholarship of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education (SoTL) Incubator

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.

SoTL Incubator Interest Form

 

Projects

The incubator program has supported projects by the following UT faculty, staff, and graduate students:

  • Jedediah Blanton; Rachel Williams, Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, & Sports Studies
  • Anne Ho; Joan Lind, Department of Mathematics
  • Ryan Windeknecht, Department of Philosophy
    • IRB approved
  • Sally C. Harris, Department of English
    • Manuscript under review at The Journal for Centers of Teaching and Learning
  • Michelle Violanti, Associate Professor, School of Communication Studies
    • IRB approved
  • Daiane Santana Alves, Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology
    • Case study exams decreased test anxiety in a general biology class. [Conference presentation].  Innovative Teaching & Learning Conference, Online.
  • Laura Trujillo-Mejía, World Languages and Cultures
    • IRB approved, project complete.
  • Phyllis Thompson, College of Social Work
    • IRB approved
  • Millie Gimmel, Associate Professor, Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures
    • IRB approved
  • Lisa Davenport; Meghan Parson, College of Nursing
    • IRB approved
  • Jennifer Weisent; Becky DeBolt; Alexis Niceley; Jaime Norris, Small Animal Clinical Sciences; College of Veterinary Medicine
  • Caroline Wienhold, Division of Biology; Randall Small, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; Patrick Biddix, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies; Virginia Stormer, Division of Student Success
    • Manuscript accepted at To Improve the Academy
  • Amber Giffin, University of Illinois, Chicago
    • IRB approved.
  • Sean Lindsay, Physics & Astronomy
    • IRB approved.
  • Qi Sun, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies; Amber Giffin, University of Illinois, Chicago
    • IRB approved
  • Madeline Sutton, Duke University Thompson Writing Program; Sean Morey, Department of English; Virginia Stormer, Division of Student Success; Megan von Bergen, Murray State University
    • IRB approved
  • Adam Ibrahim, Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies
    • IRB approved
  • Robert Jacobsen, Earth & Planetary Sciences; Lauren Pinkard, 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; Victoria Beasley; Blake Colclasure, Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication
  • Claire Mayo, College of Arts & Sciences
    • IRB approved
  • Joe Witt, Religious Studies, UTK, Victoria Machado, Rollins College, Lucas Johnston, Wake Forest University, Chris Crews, Denison University, & Dominic Wilkins, Colorado College.
    • IRB approved
  • Kathryn Zirkle; Cameron Carr, College of Nursing
    • IRB approved
  • Grace Therrell; Erin Whitaker, UTK Libraries
    • IRB approved
  • Christopher Mayer, Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
    • IRB approved
  • Erin Darby; Rachelle Scott, Religious Studies; Virginia Stormer, Division of Student Success
  • Anna Snyder, Student; Emily Roberts, Graduate Student; Amy Robinson, Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
    • Poster presentation completed
  • Kirsten Benson, Director, Judith Anderson Herbert Writing Center
    • IRB approved
  • Napatsawan Nugent, College of Nursing
  • Ji Yoo; Casey Norris, College of Nursing
    • IRB approved
  • Jessica Pyle, Microbiology; Caroline Wienhold, Division of Biology
    • IRB approved
  • Michael Naparstek, Religious Studies
    • IRB approved
  • Anton Schultz, Graduate Teaching Associate, Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies
    • AI in Sport Marketing: Understanding Students’ Perceptions. (2025). With Irina Berry, Ilina Arsova, Chris Mayer, Landon Huffman, & Jeffrey Graham. [Research Presentation]. Annual Sport Marketing Association Conference, Glendale, AZ, October.
  • Nau Pokhrel, Physics and Astronomy
  • Michelle Childs; Sejin Ha, Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management
    • IRB approved
  • Katie Bevins; Tori Sanders, World Languages & Cultures
    • IRB approved
  • Fatima Zahra, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies
  • Ashley Pennell, College of Social Work
    • IRB approved

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