O'Brien's SoTL Compass focuses on four questions central to SoTL research:
"What do my students need to learn and why is it worth learning? Who are my students and how will they learn effectively? What can I do to support my students to learn effectively? How do I know if my teaching and my students' learning have been effective?"
(O'Brien, "Navigating the SoTL Landscape: A Compass, Map, and Some Tools for Getting Started")