Call for ICWG24 Group Participants
This year marks the 20th anniversary of ISSOTL. The 2024 cohort of International Collaborative Writing Groups (ICWG) will focus on the conference theme of “Reflecting and Reinvigorating: The Past, Present, and Future of ISSOTL” and invites participants to explore who we are as a Society, how we came to be, what has worked, what is missing, what could be, and how ISSOTL fits into the broader history of SoTL.
ISSOTL has selected Jennifer Friberg, Claire Saunders, and Mandy Frake as the Co-Leaders for this ICWG cohort, and applications for group facilitators have resulted in four exciting projects (below), each responding to the theme in different ways.
ICWG24 Group Projects
Click each title below to read its overview, facilitators, and modality.
Overview
The goal of this project is to investigate the information landscapes that have shaped the ISSOTL conference over 20 years, specifically considering how conference presenters bring their disciplinary information practices to bear on their SoTL work. Using past conference programs, the group will identify disciplines represented at ISSOTL to create an initial data set. Then, follow-up interviews will be conducted with members of the represented disciplines to look at the paths those individuals took to become involved in SoTL and how their disciplinary expertise impacts their SoTL work. Through this project, we hope to form a clearer (or perhaps varied and complex) picture of the information landscape of ISSOTL. Possible outcomes of this group’s work include podcasts, infographics, and/or data maps. This group will meet in-person at ISSOTL24.
Facilitators
Lauren Hays (University of Central Missouri) and Lindsay McNiff (Dalhousie University)
Modality
Correction: This group will meet in a hybrid format at ISSOTL24, as some participants will attend the pre-conference meeting in person and some will attend via Zoom.
Overview
This project will investigate the professional experiences that motivated individuals to join ISSOTL including disciplinary background, engagement with teaching and learning, and institutional support. We will also investigate the personal experiences that have either encouraged or challenged individuals’ interest in, or ability to pursue, SoTL work and membership in ISSOTL. This project is particularly interested in diversity and equity within the ISSOTL community, and interrogates the inclusivity of the “big tent.” Our investigation will explore the concept of belonging within ISSOTL: how members have found belonging in the past and how we might foster belonging in the future. Outcomes of this group’s work are imagined as an interactive webpage within the ISSOTL website that explores member identity and sense of belonging, and shares the words of our participants through video interviews, infographics, and interactive narrative tools.
Facilitator
Devon Stillwell (McMaster University)
Modality
This group will meet in-person at ISSOTL24 in Indiana.
Overview
This project will reflect upon those whose voices are marginalised in our SoTL communities, exploring ways in which inclusion in and exclusion from important scholarly conversations about teaching and learning has impacted SoTL scholars and ISSOTL, at large. The planned outcome of this group’s work is a multi-modal digital storytelling project that features artefacts including artistic expressions of experiences in SoTL that transcend linguistic barriers.
Facilitator
Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier (Université de l’Ontario français)
Modality
This group will meet in a hybrid format at ISSOTL24, as some participants will attend the pre-conference meeting in person and some will attend via Zoom.
Overview
*If you are not able to view the colors, the list above presents the concepts in order of their appearance, from top left to bottom right.
This project will seek to represent key moments, ideas, and/or people from the past, present, and future of ISSOTL using a range of visual tools and methods. Together, participants will map (literally and figuratively) the development of this lively community and its position within both institutions and organizations of higher education. The group’s approach will integrate arts-based scholarship, digital humanities, and the emerging science of data visualization— but please note that no prior background in any of these areas is required.
Facilitator
Laura Cruz (Pennsylvania State University)
Modality
This group will meet in-person at ISSOTL24 in Indiana.
Applications for ICWG24 Group Participants
We now invite applications from all ISSOTL members (faculty, staff, students, administrators, etc.) who are interested in joining one of the four ICWGs described above. We especially encourage students to apply since the goal is to have one student member in each group. Applicants will be asked to provide the following:
- Group: Top 2 choices, ranked (and if Project 3 is one of your choices, your modality of participation)
- Contribution: What you believe you can contribute to the group through your background expertise, prior writing experience, other relevant skills, and/or personal interests and values
- Benefit: How you hope to benefit from the ICWG24 experience
Applications are due April 15. (See the full ICWG24 timeline below.) After receiving all applications, we will form groups of six to eight members, including the facilitators. A key strength of the ICWG Initiative is the diversity of each group’s membership, so we will strive to form each group based on applicants’ preferred topic and the following goals:
- A wide international coverage
- A mixture of junior and senior faculty and at least one student
- A range of disciplines
To avoid confusion later, we ask that applicants make sure they’re aware of the goals, costs and commitments, and timeline for this ICWG before applying to participate. See below, and please contact Mandy Frake (mfmistak@yorku.ca) with any questions before applying.
To apply, click here or the button below. Applications are due April 15.
ICWG24 Goals
The aims of ISSOTL’s 2024 ICWG cohort are the following:
- build the capacity of participants to innovate and work effectively in international collaborative groups,
- capture the collective historical knowledge into a set of products that live on beyond the individual,
- document ISSOTL’s collective history (i.e., explore who we are, how we came to be, what has worked, what is missing, what could be, and how ISSOTL fits into the broader history of SoTL), and
- foster creativity in identifying the best product(s) for the work of the group.
Costs and Commitments
All participants in this ICWG24 cohort will convene on October 27-28, immediately prior to the ISSOTL24 conference in French Lick, Indiana, USA (October 28-31, 2024).
- All ICWG leaders, group facilitators, and participants selected for in-person groups are expected to attend the pre-conference working session in-person, and to register for and attend in-person the ISSOTL24 conference.
- Participants selected for the hybrid group are expected to attend the pre-conference working session virtually or in-person.
Before and after the conference, all groups will work together online to complete their projects no later than October 2025.
ICWG registration costs are as follows: $200 for student participants, $375 for non-student participants. Registration costs include participation in all ICWG sessions and activities, breakfast (October 27 & 28), lunch (October 27 & 28), and dinner (October 27), as well as a social event the afternoon of October 27. Participants will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation fees and arrangements.
- ISSOTL Travel link: Travel and Accommodation – International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL)
- French Lick travel info: How To Get To French Lick Resort | French Lick Resort
ICWG24 Timeline
Once established, the groups will refine their topic and begin work on their projects according to the timeline below.
| Formation of the ICWGs | |
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Co-Leaders selected (January 2024)
Group Facilitators
Participants
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| ICWGs Work at a Distance | |
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| ….. | ICWGs Work Together Preceding ISSOTL24 Conference |
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| ISSOTL24 Conference | |
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| ICWGs Work at a Distance | |
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Please send any queries about the ICWG24s to Mandy Frake (mfmistak@yorku.ca).
Tag:ICWG
