Impact of a regional community of practice for academic developers engaged in institution-level support for SoTL

Presenting a theory of change for cultivating institutional‐level SoTL cultures through a cross‐institutional community of practice

“…To combat them, we joined with others to develop a Community of Practice (CoP) focused on SoTL support planning and implementation to facilitate SoTL production and culture change at our institutions. In previous analyses, we found this cross-institutional CoP Model for change enhanced our individual-level SoTL knowledge, our sense of motivation, and our confidence in leading SoTL programming (Lukes et al, 2023). We extend that work here to explore how regional, cross-institutional communities of practice models may support and sustain larger institutional changes related to SoTL culture and support programming.…”

“…In this reflective and forward-thinking process, we developed two tools to further support our planning: a SoTL Program Taxonomy and a SoTL Strategic Planning worksheet (described in more detail below). Working on shared outputs is a best practice of CoP models (Wenger, 1998), and we found our regular collaboration in developing, piloting, and revising these tools enhanced our respective SoTL programming work in addition to our collective efforts (Lukes et al, 2023). Finally, as we developed and shared program ideas and SoTL strategic plans, we offered one another constructive feedback on those drafts.…”

“…Our CoP was made up of members from Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) representing six different institutions in Virginia. Through the individual and collaborative reflective activities of the CoP, members shared opportunities for strategic planning and feedback with peers, which resulted in increased confidence, changed practice, and new cross-institutional collaborative endeavors (Lukes et al, 2023). Because of this active planning and feedback model, we called our CoP the "SoTL Collaboratory" (referred to from here on as "SoTL-C").…”

“…Those notes also allowed us to track our progress toward the SoTL goals we set for our institutions. By sharing those goals and our progress in regular meetings, we felt motivated to continue pushing through cultural or institutional barriers, as well as being accountable to and supported by one another (Lukes et al, 2023).…”

“…We have documented many of the outcomes associated with the formation and work of our CoP in two published articles (Lukes et al, 2023;Lukes et al, in press). The first publication outlines the theoretical premise and structure of the SoTL-C and presents its impact on and value for participants through a case study methodology.…”