Current Book

Summer 2025 Office of Teaching and Learning Book Club

During Summer 2025, the OTL Book Club will discuss Becoming a SoTL Scholar (Miller-Young & Chick, Eds., 2024). Book club discussions are open to all University of Guelph faculty and instructional staff (including sessionals and teaching assistants). At each meeting, book club members will take part in a facilitated discussion of one or two chapters in the book and discuss thoughts, questions or share experiences.   

About Becoming a SoTL Scholar:

The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), a multidisciplinary field that focuses on systematic investigation in teaching and learning, is now over 30 years old. No longer just a grassroots movement of individual faculty committed to taking teaching and learning seriously, SoTL has become professionalized. Becoming a SoTL Scholar maps out what it looks like to be a SoTL scholar and how to get there by design. 

Becoming a SoTL scholar involves reckoning with one’s academic identity, since SoTL occupies a kind of “borderland” or liminal space outside of traditional disciplines. This book illustrates the different entry points offered by SoTL and provides inspiring narratives, practical advice, and aspirational proposals for the different aspects of being a SoTL scholar. 

For faculty members who become interested in SoTL, this new space is typically disorienting at first, as the scholar grows from these initial moments to ultimately finding a place in the SoTL community. This book explores what happens after that phase, after one has come to embrace the identity of a SoTL scholar. It describes the traits that determine one’s credibility and expertise as a SoTL scholar, and delves into the ongoing collaborations, research groups, and networks that form much of that necessary SoTL community. The book also explores the possibilities for students and early-career colleagues who choose SoTL as their primary career path. Additionally, at the other end of the spectrum, our book also addresses how mid- and later-career SoTL scholars might maintain meaningful engagement and make lasting contributions to the field. 

(Adapted from the publisher’s description Elon University Center for Engaged Learning)  

Book Club Schedule 

Book Club members will meet during Summer 2025 on six Fridays from 1:00-2:20pm, virtually on Microsoft Teams. Book Club members can also participate asynchronously through discussions and sharing resources on the Teams site.

Accessing the Book 

Becoming a SoTL Scholar is available as an Open Access PDF.  

Register for the Book Club  

Book club meetings will take place virtually on Microsoft Teams. Registration is limited to allow for effective discussions. Registrants will receive an invitation to the Teams meetings in advance of the meetings. Register below for the Becoming a SoTL Scholar Book Club by June 11, 2025. Space is limited.

Register Here