SoTL Snapshots

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SoTL Snapshots are brief summaries of a single research study on a topic related to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). The purpose of SoTL Snapshots is to provide faculty and instructors with evidence-based teaching strategies that can be used in the classroom. As clear language summaries, the Snapshots are not intended to be cited in a literature review or research paper; we recommend that you access the original articles (cited at the end of the SoTL Snapshot) for more information. Instead, Snapshots provide a brief overview of current teaching and learning research and are intended to provide inspiration to incorporate new strategies into your teaching practice. To learn more about the organization and purpose of these SoTL Snapshots, watch our short educational video that provides valuable insight into the SoTL Snapshot project.

SoTL Snapshot Description Video Transcript

Interested in contributing to OTL's SoTL Snapshot Project? We invite authors to write and publish new SoTL Snapshots to add to our growing collection. Anyone can be an author! We welcome students, educational developers, staff, and instructors from UofG and other institutions.

Want to Author a SoTL Snapshot? Start here

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Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies

These Snapshots describe research-based teaching strategies related to active learning, student engagement, and motivation.
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Assessment of Student Learning

These Snapshots describe innovative assignments to assess student learning.
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Academic Policies & Procedures

These Snapshots detail changes to classroom policies and procedures that can improve student learning.
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Pedagogical Wellness

These Snapshots describe teaching strategies that can improve or benefit students' mental health and well-being. 
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Digital Pedagogy

These Snapshots describe teaching, learning, and assessment techniques that incorporate & integrate technology.
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Teaching and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

These Snapshots describe teaching practices and investigate how AI is used within the classroom. 
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Accessibility & Universal Design 

These Snapshots describe accessible and universally-designed teaching practices so all students can succeed. 
 
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Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion in Teaching

These Snapshots describe the implementation and creation of welcoming and safe teaching environments for students of all backgrounds. 
 
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Indigenizing & Decolonializing the Curriculum

These Snapshots describe teaching policies and practice that integrate or prioritize Indigenous perspectives, content, or ways of knowing into a course or program. 

More Information About SoTL Snapshots

The SoTL Snapshot project draws on the expertise of many members of the OTL team. Undergraduate co-op and work study students contributed to the design of the PDF template and webpages. Educational Developers carefully select articles to summarize based on criteria including relevance of the results to the University of Guelph teaching community.

Undergraduate and co-op students, Graduate Educational Developers, and other members of the OTL team write SoTL Snapshots. Students in UNIV*6800 also write SoTL Snapshots as a course assessment and are invited to add their Snapshot to the collection after the course ends. All writers are trained in clear language writing and Educational Developers in OTL review all SoTL Snapshots for accuracy and clarity.

The SoTL Snapshot project was inspired by similar clear language summary collections designed to mobilize research evidence. The SoTL Snapshot template is adapted with permission from Research Impact Canada. SoTL Snapshots can also compliment the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Annotated Literature Database, a large database of 100-word summaries of SoTL literature.

SoTL Snapshots are licensed under the CC-BY Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Canada License. This license allows you to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, as long as you cite the Office of Teaching and Learning as the creator of the Snapshot.

To cite SoTL Snapshots, we recommend the following citation format:

Snapshot author last name, first initial. (Snapshot publication date). Snapshot title. [Summary of Article author last name, First name. (Year). Journal article title). SoTL Snapshots. Website URL.

e.g., Saharan, S. (2020). Positive self-talk reduces public speaking anxiety. [Summary of Shadinger et al. (2019) The impact of a positive, self-talk statement on public speaking anxiety.] SoTL Snapshots. https://otl.uoguelph.ca/teaching-practice-pedagogy/sotl-snapshots/assessment/positive-self-talk-reduces-public-speaking

For more information about the SoTL Snapshot project or to suggest an article to be summarized, please contact Jennifer Reniers (jreniers@uoguelph.ca) or the Office of Teaching and Learning (otl@uoguelph.ca).

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E-mail the Office of Teaching and Learning (otl@uoguelph.ca) with any questions related to your teaching and learning needs.

SoTL Snapshots