The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning invites you to join its 17th annual conference, which will be hosted virtually from Perth, Western Australia from October 26 to 29, 2021. International scholars and educators will come together in the online space to share recent work and to discuss how our collective SoTL efforts can ensure that the practices and cultures that we value at our universities, and in wider society, can be sustained into the future. The conference will feature distinguished international and local plenary speakers, panel discussions, individual paper and poster presentations, concurrent workshops, and ISSOTL’s signature Conference Commons for informal idea-sharing and networking online.
Conference theme
The theme of ISSOTL21 is Sustainable Education through SoTL: Practices and Cultures, selected to call our attention to SoTL’s contribution to developing and maintaining practices and cultures that are diverse and productive, and foster wellbeing within our universities and wider society. Read the full description of this theme here.
The conference organizers welcome proposals which address the sustainability theme across any of its aspects as they relate to SoTL and higher education. We offer the following broad categories to help frame where your scholarship may fit with the overarching theme. Please specify one of the categories below when you submit your proposal:
Categories:
- SoTL Leadership and Advocacy
- Justice and Equity in and through SoTL
- Academic Development for SoTL
- Sustaining First-Year Experience and Transition/Student Retention through SoTL
- Students as Partners in SoTL
- SoTL and Graduate Employability
- SoTL and Technology-Enhanced Learning
Important dates
- Proposal submissions portal opens — March 15
- Registration opens — Early May
- Proposal submission deadline — June 30
- Notification sent to proposal submitters — August 20
- Participation confirmation due for all accepted proposals — September 10
- Early bird registration deadline — September 15
- ISSOTL21 Conference – October 26 – 29
Conference pedagogy
ISSOTL encourages a scholarly, engaged, inclusive, and collegial approach to knowledge-sharing at the conference, what we call ISSOTL’s “conference pedagogy.” We support the diversity that our conference participants bring by being inclusive, making our work accessible, and providing a variety of ways for people to engage. Please read the full ISSOTL Conference Pedagogy statement.
Virtual Presentation formats
Virtual Panel Discussions
Panel discussions are particularly appropriate for topics that benefit from multiple perspectives, including disciplinary, institutional, and national perspectives. These sessions will be one hour. The goal for panel discussions is to provide panelists and audience members the opportunity to exchange insights, engage in discussion, and learn from each other’s experiences, so panel sessions will include at least 20 minutes for discussion among panelists and audience members.
Virtual Papers
Single paper presentations are ideal for presentations on completed SoTL projects but also include topics about or related to SoTL itself. The goal of paper presentations is to provide presenters the opportunity to share knowledge and facilitate critical dialogue with conference participants. Single paper presentations will be combined into groups of three, and the final presenter will serve as session chair. Each paper will last a maximum of 30 minutes, including 10 minutes for questions and discussion.
Virtual Concurrent Workshops
These workshops offer an opportunity for hands-on work on a SoTL question, research method, or topic during the concurrent sessions of the conference. Workshops are one hour long, highly interactive and demonstrate effective practices in both SoTL and workshop pedagogy.
Virtual Posters
Posters present preliminary SoTL work, completed projects, or considerations of the field of SoTL in general. To inspire detailed dialogue and critical engagement, at least one author will attend the poster session to present and discuss the work with other conference participants. The poster session has become a central and lively component of ISSOTL conferences.
Proposals will include information about all presenters, presentation format, conference theme category (if relevant), title of presentation, and two abstracts:
- a longer abstract (up to 500 words), anonymized for peer review, and
- a shorter abstract (up to 100 words) for publication in the conference program, if accepted.
The longer abstract for peer review should address the following:
- Content of Panel, Paper, Workshop, or Poster
- Demonstrates an understanding of SoTL issues and/or existing scholarship in the field (A brief bibliography may be provided at the end of the proposal.)
- Identifies and explains how the content relates to important question(s) related to SoTL, the conference theme, and/or the conference threads
- Describes how the work contributes to the understanding or practice of SoTL
- How the Work Will Be Shared
- Explains how presenter(s) will apply ISSOTL’s conference pedagogy to ensure scholarly, engaged, inclusive, and collegial knowledge-sharing
- Significance of the Work
- Advances SoTL through new or novel knowledge or practice, and/or extends and builds-upon current knowledge or practice
Because ISSOTL21 is a virtual conference, presenters should be explicit about how they will adapt their typically face-to-face format to the online environment and an online audience.
Proposals which fail to do this will not be accepted.
