4th Annual SoTL Conference to Be Held at USask

[social_share/] [social-bio] I am extremely pleased to promote and encourage participation in the 4th annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) symposium.  The day will be strengthened by a diversity of perspectives so we welcome all who would like to attend, no experience of undertaking SoTL is necessary.

The event will be held on the 1st and 2nd of May on the University of Saskatchewan campus. In addition to plenary presentations, there will be various opportunities to present your SoTL work or ideas. We invite participation from those interested in dipping a toe in the SoTL waters, those part way through a SoTL project, as well as those experienced with and wishing to present results of their SoTL research. We hope the event will be a chance to gather and learn from colleagues interested in improving teaching and learning at the University and beyond.

In an effort to open up the event to individuals at all points in their exploration of SoTL, we have created 4 different types of presentations:

1. Watercooler chats – these sessions will be appropriate for those wanting to discuss a new area of teaching and learning research. This is an opportunity to share ideas in a more informal way with a small group of colleagues, discuss options, and get feedback from fellow participants.
2. World Café – these sessions will be appropriate for those with an interest in sharing and discussing approaches or issues with their SoTL work with colleagues at the conference. The World Café begins with a short (5 to 10 minute) presentation on your topic to the whole group followed by table-based small group discussions with colleagues who wish to hear more and discuss your project, approach or issue in more detail.
3. Poster session – these are appropriate for presentation about a completed SoTL project they would like to share via virtual poster with colleagues. There will be time during the symposium for attendees to view and ask questions about each poster.
4. Research Presentation – these sessions will be appropriate for sharing completed SoTL projects with results. We would welcome participants presenting research to include a few minutes spent sharing lessons learned in undertaking the research.

This year we have added a writing retreat to the end of the SoTL symposium.  We invite you to join us for this part of the event at Boffins on Friday afternoon.  The retreat will provide some time to share your writing project and aspirations for it with colleagues and, most importantly, give you time to work on your project in a supportive and comfortable environment.

To register or submit a proposal please visit http://fluidsurveys.usask.ca/s/2014_SoTL_Symposium/.  The submission deadline is 14th April.

I look forward to seeing you and learning with you on May 1 and 2nd.