Your research project should focus on a higher education teaching and/or learning issue of interest or concern to you, and should cite no more than 10 scholarly references, with the majority being from academic journals.
Broad sample topic areas for the research project include the following:
- Academic integrity
- Classroom feedback techniques
- Cooperative learning
- Course design principles
- Course outlines
- Developing writing skills
- Course evaluations
- Group work
- Classroom disruptions
- Interactive lecturing
- Learning styles
- Lecture design
- Discussion-based teaching
- Motivating students
- Problem-based learning
- Teaching higher-order thinking skills
- Using instructional technologies
- Visual displays of quantitative information
- Experiential learning
- Inquiry-based teaching
- Service learning
You will need to identify a specific issue within your topic area; these are only broad categories. Projects may focus on a review of the theory from the current literature plus your ideas about how to apply the theory. You may also wish to conduct a small-scale study via interviews or questionnaires for discussion in your paper. If you do a study, you will likely need approval from the Office of Research Ethics (ORE). Centre for Teaching Excellence staff can serve as the faculty supervisor for such a study, in which case you will be required to meet with the Associate Director to review your project content and ORE application.
Research project process
You start by attending a workshop where you will learn about research and referencing skills specific to higher education. Once you have attended this workshop you need to choose the type of project you will do.
There are two options to choose from for your research project. Both options include a written and oral component, but vary in the requirements for those components.
- Option 1 involves a 10-minute oral presentation followed by a 10-minute discussion period with the audience, and a 20-page (including cover page, table of contents, references, and appendices), double-spaced (12-point font), written research paper, which incorporates feedback from the oral presentation.
- Option 2 involves the delivery of a 45-minute mini-workshop that includes a 15-minute discussion (or alternate active learning activity) with the audience, and the submission of a 20-page, double-spaced (12-point font) annotated workshop-plan that must be accepted before the workshop delivery.
Following is a brief description of the process for each option. For more details, click on the heading to follow the link. Please read them carefully before deciding which option to choose.
| Option 1: Research paper | Option 2: Mini-workshop |
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Course details:
Research project
Option 1: Research presentation and paper
Option 2: Mini-workshop and supporting documentation
Scheduling and format of oral components
Teaching dossier