FoTL 2020 Call for Proposals

The Festival of Teaching and Learning is an annual event where all members of the UofA community can share, demonstrate, explore, and debate diverse approaches to the craft and scholarship of teaching, with the goal of enhancing the teaching and learning environment across the institution.

Proposals are encouraged from faculty, students, administrators, and community members who are wanting to share their experiences, best practices, and research results related to understanding and improving teaching and learning at the University of Alberta. We encourage presenters to be explicit about ways their experiences and findings will be of interest to a broad, multi-disciplinary audience of instructors. Both individual and group submissions are welcome.

All submissions are due by 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 2, 2020 and will go through a blind, peer review process.

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Types of Presentations

Format
There will be two formats of presentations in the program, oral and poster. Oral presentations will be given 30-minute time slots, with 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for questions; students may co-present. At least one poster presenter must be present for a 60-minute poster session; students do not require an instructor co-author to submit poster proposals.

Type
Both teaching strategy presentations and scholarship of teaching and learning presentations will be accepted. Both types require reference to current practice and literature relevant to the presentation and some reflection on the efficacy of the teaching strategy being presented. In addition, scholarship presentations require the presentation, analysis, and reflection on some form(s) of evidence of student learning or engagement, generated from the teaching context. Submissions which do not reference any literature will not be accepted.

All submissions must be made online, following the guidelines listed below. Notices of acceptance will be sent via email. Please be aware that the Adjudication Committee reserves the right to select the final presentation format in order to meet the needs of conference planning.

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Proposal Requirements

Proposals for all presentations must include:

• A title
• A 300 - 500 word abstract for the program which includes:
  • A brief description of your teaching and learning context and goals
  • Your innovative teaching, learning, or assessment strategy
  • A brief description of current best practices or research in this area
  • A brief description of any evidence that supports the effectiveness of the strategy in your context and why it might be useful for others
• An anonymized version of the abstract for review
• Up to 4 references

If you would like feedback before submitting a proposal for the Festival of Teaching and Learning, request a consultation from CTL.

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Review Process

Each proposal will be reviewed by at least two members of a blind review committee. The committee reserves the right to request revisions and resubmission before final decisions are made. Results will be returned to prospective presenters by March 23, 2020.

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Review Criteria

Reviewers will use the following questions to guide their review of proposals:

Teaching Strategy Presentations

• Goals. Are the presentation's goals clear?
• Content. Does the proposal describe and/or demonstrate innovative and effective teaching, learning, or assessment strategies appropriate to the teaching context and goals? Does the proposal include reflection on the efficacy of the strategy?
• Relevant literature. Does the proposal describe current best practices or research in this area?
• Relevance. Is the proposal relevant to a broad UofA audience?

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Presentations

• Goals. Are the presentation's goals clear?
• Content. Does the proposal describe systematic efforts to study or evaluate the effectiveness of a teaching, learning, or assessment strategy, and analysis of evidence?
• Relevant literature. Is the proposal supported with relevant literature?
• Relevance. Is the proposal relevant to a broad UofA audience?