Developing Institutional Faculty Communities to Review and Assess SOTL Work

This workshop explores theoretical questions and practical strategies for how to develop faculty peer reviewers for SOTL work. After reading a set of faculty case-study files that include varying forms of SOTL work, participants will engage in guided discussion about reviewing and assessing such work and about developing faculty communities equipped to do such work. Presenter(s) also will seek feedback on guidelines that they have developed for external reviewers of SOTL work. Many teaching efforts have focused primarily on engaging faculty to participate in SOTL initiatives, with little attention to creating mechanisms for evaluating and assessing the work resulting from this participation. In other words, while many institutions are creating communities of teachers engaged in SOTL work, they have not equally nurtured communities of faculty readers who are equipped to assess and value this work. This workshop session addresses this “next stage” for SOTL scholarship by focusing on theoretical questions and practical strategies for building larger communities of faculty readers with the expertise to review, evaluate, and reward SOTL work. By the end of the session, participants will have had the opportunity to 1) discuss and reflect upon the challenges of reviewing and assessing SOTL work; 2) review and suggest revisions for guidelines on how to review SOTL work, and 3) share strategies for how they have developed faculty communities who can read SOTL work fairly and productively