SoTL Grants Program
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Research Program for Innovation and Collaborative Inquiry
The Mokakiis Centre for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is pleased to support SoTL research within MRU through our grants program.
There are two opportunities to apply for a SoTL grant during an academic year. All applications need to be submitted through the ROMEO system by the deadline.
Apply through the ROMEO research portal here.
| Deadline for application* | Application process opens | Funding begins | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall call for SoTL grant applications | November 30 | No later than October 31 | January 1 |
| Spring call for SoTL grant applications | May 31 | No later than April 30 | July 1 |
*If the deadline falls on a weekend, applications are accepted until the first Monday after.
We currently have the following grant opportunities. A brief description of each grant is provided below. Please click on the links to find out more detailed information.
| Grant | Criteria for grant | Maximum amount funded | Typical length of grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grant | Intended for smaller projects, this grant supports projects such as investigations of innovative pedagogies, student learning, or other aspects of teaching and learning in a single class or related courses. | $5,000 | One-year |
| Mokakiiks Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Collaborate Grant | Intended for larger scale, collaborative projects, this grant supports projects such as investigations of innovative pedagogies, student learning, or other aspects of teaching and learning beyond a single class or context, and are intended for larger scope projects involving a team. | $10,000 | One or Two-years |
| Marshall Family Foundation Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Literacy Grant | This grant is specifically for supporting SoTL projects that investigate literacy learning and teaching practice across the spectrum of education, and/or literacy issues pertaining to specific groups of learners. | $9,000 | One-year |
| Mokakiiks Undergraduate Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Dissemination Grant | Supports student researchers to join their faculty supervisor at a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) or disciplinary education conference to present their SoTL findings. | $1,500 | One-time |
We encourage and support faculty to work with students as partners in SoTL at MRU. Working in this way provides opportunities for students to meaningfully contribute, when possible, to all stages of the research project (research design, data collection, and analysis, presentations, and publications), drawing on their knowledge and insights as learners. If you would like to discuss how to build partnership opportunities into any of the grants offered by the Mokakiiks Centre for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, please contact Cherie Woolmer (cwoolmer@mtroyal.ca). If you would like guidance about your project, or the criteria, please contact the Mokakiiks Centre (mokakiiks@mtroyal.ca) to explore possibilities.
The Mokakiiks Perspective on SoTL Research
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is inclusive and unified by its potential to have impact in the classroom and to deepen our understanding of student learning, but diverse in discipline, theory, methodology, and method. Eligible projects must propose a robust research proposal of teaching and learning and meet principles of good practice in SoTL (Felten, 2013), which means they are:
- focused on student learning in higher education,
- situated in the existing literature and grounded in a teaching-learning context,
- methodologically sound,
- conducted in partnership with students, and
- appropriately public.
General information about the grants
The following provides general information about the application process, evaluation of applications, funding and eligible expenses for grants, and reporting requirements. Please refer to the specific information about the grant you are interested in applying to.
Please note that the Mokakiiks Undergraduate Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Dissemination Grant has different criteria than listed below.
SoTL grant applications include a description of the researcher(s) experience with SoTL research, a complete research proposal, and a detailed budget with justification.
The research proposal uploaded to ROMEO includes both a project summary, and a detailed description of the project. The detailed description needs to include a literature review, research question(s), methodology, data collection, data analysis, and dissemination plans. (If your proposed work does not align well with this structure, please include a clear statement of theory and methods that are aligned with the proposed project.)
For the budget justification, include both rationale for expenses and a clear indication of how the amount of the expenditure was arrived at.
ROMEO includes details of the application. The major components as described above have the following character limits:
-
Project summary: max 1500 characters (or ~300 words)
-
Detailed Project Description: max 7500 characters (or ~1500 words)
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Budget Justification: max 2500 characters (or ~500 words)
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Project Dissemination Plan: max 1750 characters (or ~400 words)
There are limited funds and the application process is competitive. To increase chances of funding, please review the criteria provided and ensure that you have provided all necessary and relevant information in the grant application. The only documentation that is reviewed in the evaluation process is the application itself.
Project proposals will be evaluated by the Mokakiiks Scholarship Review Committee based on three main criteria: quality of the project (including budget rationale); likelihood of impact beyond the research group; and experience of the research group, as demonstrated by the submitted application and CVs.
*For the Mokakiiks Undergraduate Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Dissemination Grant, please see the detailed information for specific grant criteria.
Project Quality (60% of overall evaluation):
- alignment with chosen grant’s criteria,
- explicit focus on teaching and learning in post-secondary education,
- clear goals and rationale supported by literature review,
- quality, rationale, and specificity of the methodology (e.g., data collection, data analysis),
- alignment between the focus, the goals and the methodology,
- suitability of proposed strategies and timelines,
- detailed justification of proposed budget as it relates to the project with a clear breakdown of costs. For example, for research assistants, include an outline of topics/tasks with hour allocation.
Likelihood of impact beyond the research group (30% of overall evaluation):
- potential for impact on teaching and learning,
- potential to contribute to existing literature,
- training, mentoring, and dissemination opportunities provided to students,
- dissemination plan, including venues for appropriate dissemination within and beyond Mount Royal.
Experience (10% of overall evaluation):
- quality and significance of previous and current scholarship activity within the research group, particularly related to teaching and learning, or clear plans to develop that experience,
- suitability of the research team including evidence of methodological expertise and capability to undertake the project.
All proposals will be required to be rated “acceptable” by the Centre’s Scholarship Review Committee on each of the three main criteria, in order to be funded.
The maximum allowable budget for each grant depends on the size of the project (number of co-investigators, number of classes being investigated, number of years of study, etc.). Two-year projects may be supported but, in these cases, proposed budgets must be broken down by year (January 1 - December 31). Two-year projects include not only studies where data is collected over multiple years, but also studies where so much data is collected in one year that another year would be required to complete the data analysis and/or disseminate findings.
All proposed budgets must fall within the following constraints:
- Acceptable expenses include research (data collection and analysis) undergraduate student research assistant compensation, transcription, photocopying, etc. as well as travel between institutions for multi-institutional collaborations. Note that research expenses do NOT include the purchase or development of teaching resources or equipment (e.g., classroom technology), which must be secured elsewhere.
- Expenses related to hardware (e.g., laptop, recording equipment) need to be thoroughly justified including why these resources cannot be secured elsewhere (e.g., rented from library), how they will be used, and what happens to them after the research project is complete.
- Dissemination expenses to a maximum of 40% of the total grant requested. Please note that grant holders may also apply for the Mokakiiks Undergraduate Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Dissemination Grant to permit student research assistants to attend conferences they are presenting at.
- If applications exceed the budgeted amount for any given year or if the proposed budget is not adequately justified, partial funding may be awarded.
Note that while ethics clearance is not required before an application is approved, funds cannot be released until clearance has been given by the Mount Royal University Human Research Ethics Board. For multi-institutional studies, the PI is responsible to ensure that appropriate ethical clearance is also attained at all applicable institutions.
Please note that this grant is intended for research on teaching and learning, rather than curriculum development (though we recognize the outputs of this research may inform future curriculum development work).
All successful grant applicants are required to complete an annual report, due on November 15th (grant given in the Fall call) and May 15th (grant given in the Spring call) during the approved project term, which includes notification of all dissemination activities, a description of progress made in data collection, analysis, etc. with requests for any change to the proposed research or budget. An annual report also serves as a funding extension request for the following year if required.
A final report is also required of all projects at the end of the proposed research timeline and is required to be completed in the ROMEO system.
Faculty will not be considered for subsequent research grants unless their reporting obligations (e.g., final/annual report) are up to date.