by Dr Matthew J. Williamson PFHEA, Director, Learning Enhancement and Academic Development Service (LEADS)

I am very pleased to be able to announce the call for proposals for presentations and workshop sessions at the 11th Annual University of Glasgow Learning and Teaching Conference. This year the conference has been extended and will be a two-day event. If the date is not already in your diary, the Conference will take place on Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 March 2018.

The title of this year’s Conference is ‘Learning Spaces’, with a focus on ‘Visualisation in Learning and Teaching’ on the first day. The university has embarked on probably the largest changes to the campus since the move to Gilmorehill and the spaces in which we teach and students learn will be changing significantly over the next few years. Colleagues from across the University support student learning in a variety of different spaces - from campus based, physical classrooms to self-directed learning environments; from virtual, online courses to work-related off campus learning experiences; from physical labs and field trips to uses of augmented and virtual reality to facilitate student learning. All bring different considerations with regard to accessibility and inclusion, and all challenge us to consider how best to enable students to engage with their learning environments.

We welcome proposals for presentations or interactive workshops which address the Conference theme and which focus on one or more of the Conference sub-themes. A further call for lightning talks will be sent out later in the year.

This year the Conference has six sub-themes which are:

• Visualisation in learning and teaching - novel use of digital technologies for visualisation. We welcome abstracts that show the application of digital technologies in visualisation related to learning, teaching and assessment. Particular areas of interest would be 3D applications, and the use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

• Learning in a virtual space - the modern web offers a plethora of opportunities for interaction and collaboration for today’s learners, and challenges educators to harness the power of these participatory tools and to use them meaningfully in order to enhance student learning. We invite submissions that outline innovative use of web 2.0 services for teaching, learning and assessment. Proposals describing more traditional types of virtual spaces, such as Moodle and other VLEs, are also very welcome.

• Promoting active learning in the classroom - whilst newer spaces can be developed for new ways of teaching, existing space can be used in different ways to promote active learning in the classroom. Disciplines can learn from each other about how space can be used to enhance student engagement during contact time and with increased focus on the time spent in a classroom, thinking about how to make the most of that time is becoming increasingly important. We welcome abstracts that showcase innovative and novel ways to engage students during contact time, including abstracts that show cross and inter-disciplinary implementation.

• Learning in practice - learning in Practice: learning through experiential and work-related opportunities beyond the traditional learning spaces provided on campus can prove invaluable for developing skills and knowledge, for supporting professional development, as well as for employability. We welcome abstracts that discuss approaches to creating effective learning opportunities off campus, with a focus on the application of knowledge and experience of real-world environments to develop professional competencies, attitudes and values.

• Independent learning - student learning happens both within and outwith the classroom, with the bulk of student work taking place independently. The promotion of independent learning skills and self-directed learning environments is a crucial element of students' university experience that feeds into: student work, assessment and engagement with feedback. We encourage abstracts that focus on promoting students' independence in learning.

• Inclusive and accessible spaces - how can we develop and support a culture of accessibility and inclusion that helps students to reach their full potential, while also enjoying their time at university? What types of teaching practices can help to support student mental health and wellbeing? We invite submissions describing strategies designed to help students build confidence and minimise the stress of making the transition to independent learning. We also welcome abstracts that outline adjustments that can be made to make it easier and more enjoyable for all students to engage with learning environments in an inclusive manner.

Call for abstracts:

The Conference will comprise a mixture of presentations (30 minutes – 20 minutes talk and 10 minutes questions), interactive workshops (60 minutes) and lightning talks; I invite you to submit abstracts (max 300 words) for presentations and workshops using the online tool at: http://learn.gla.ac.uk/abstracts/ . As mentioned above, a call for abstracts for lightning talks will be sent out later this year.

We wish to have as much engagement with students and student learning as possible through the Conference so we will be asking all presentation and workshop proposals to identify student engagement again this year – this may be in the form of having students as part of the presenting team, or students may have been involved in the development, running or evaluation of projects being submitted.

Selection will be based on the following criteria:

• The proposal aligns with the title and themes of the Conference.
• The work is sufficiently accessible and interesting to a wide audience.
• The proposal links to the University's Learning and Teaching Strategy [not for external contributions].
• The proposal demonstrates how students have been or will be engaged in preparing for or delivering the presentation or workshop, or in the development, running or evaluation of the project being presented.
• The work can be clearly and effectively presented in the allocated time.
• The authors of this work have thought about how they will engage participants.
• The outcomes proposed in the presentation/workshop/poster can be readily achieved.

Please submit your abstracts by Monday, 23 October, 9am. As with previous Conferences, successful abstracts will be published in the Proceedings booklet and online formats.

Registration:

Registration will open early in the New Year, when the full programme will be announced. Full details will also be published on the website:

www.gla.ac.uk/services/learningteaching/events/annuallearningandteachingconference/

Building on the success of previous Conferences, I look forward to your participation in what I am sure will prove to be, once again, a lively and engaging event.

All best

Matthew

Dr Matthew J. Williamson PFHEA
Director, Learning Enhancement and Academic Development Service (LEADS)

Direct Line: +44 (0)141 330 3890

Learning Enhancement and Academic Development Service
Southpark House
64 Southpark Avenue
University of Glasgow
G12 8LB

First published: 26 September 2017

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