SoTL^2 : inquiring into the impact of inquiry

Mount Royal’s Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning has now operated the Nexen Scholars Program for 5 years. However, before now, the outcomes of the program have not been systematically investigated except to count the number of travel grants given and number of papers that program participants have produced. Therefore the purposes of this study were to investigate whether the program has helped faculty meet their own goals for participation, and how both their project and the program have influenced their teaching and scholarly activities. All Mount Royal faculty members who were accepted to the SoTL Scholars program in the years 2009-2013 were invited to participate in the study, which consisted of an online survey and follow-up interviews asking how much impact scholars’ projects and participation in the program had on their teaching, scholarship and career trajectory. A total of twenty-five scholars participated and after conducting seventeen interviews we concluded we had reached saturation as no further themes were emerging. A detailed description of the program, a summary of the survey results, and preliminary findings from open coding of the interviews are presented. Based on our results and some comparison with programs offered at other institutions, we conclude with a discussion of the strengths and potential limitations offered by different formats of teaching scholar support programs.