Active Learning Conference

This year’s conference interprets active learning as a journey, where staff, students, and institutions are all fellow travellers. As with any journey, we need to prepare, and ideally have an itinerary. We make stops on the way, and sometimes we encounter challenges. What can we do to make the journey into and through active learning a smooth sailing?

We are delighted to invite you to submit your proposals for sessions during the annual Active Learning conference. The deadline for submissions is the 9th June 2023. When submitting your proposals, please consider the review criteria below:

• Connection to the overall conference theme – The active learning journey, and the selected conference sub-theme.
• Level of innovation and relevance of the proposal for a wide audience.
• Consider that the content of proposal can be successfully delivered during the allocated time for the selected session type.
• Interactive aspect(s) to engage audience.

Registration for the conference will be available in the coming weeks.

A full programme and abstracts will be available in the coming weeks.

The themes for this year’s conference are as follows:

• Bringing staff on board – Active learning presents opportunities – but also challenges – in terms of staff rethinking their approach to teaching, and methods of delivery. How can we encourage staff new to active learning – some of whom might be reluctant to change their existing practice – into active learning?
• Bringing students on board – Many students will not have had opportunities to develop the independent, self-directed and/or collaborative learning skills required for active learning. How do we support students’ transition to active learning?
• All aboard – We want active learning to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful to individual learners. How do we support neurodiverse students, those with disabilities, and learners with differing experiences and expectations?
• Steering the ship – Large student cohorts can be difficult to manage, in an active learning context. How do we manage and engage so many passengers, giving them freedom to explore the liner but also running a tight ship?
• The end of the line? – How do we align students’ experiences of active learning with assessments? Are our assessments meaningful? Do they appropriately reflect what – and how – students have been learning?
• Mystery tour – This is the wildcard category – please select this if your proposal does not fit into any of the other themes.

When submitting your proposals, please consider the review criteria below:

1. Connection to the overall conference theme – Moving forwards with confidence in active learning, and the selected conference subtheme.
2. Level of innovation and relevance of the proposal for a wide audience.
3. Consideration that the content of proposal can be successfully delivered during the allocated time for the selected session type.
4. Interactive aspect(s) to engage audience.

The proposals will be double peer-reviewed and a score of 1-4 will be allocated for each of the criteria.

This years conference session types aim to maximise audience engagement and interaction. We are therefore accepting proposals for one of the following types:

• Short presentation: For this type of session, you will deliver a 15 minutes presentation that will stimulate a 5 minute discussion to develop the ideas presented.
• Interactive workshops: For this type of session, you will actively engage the audience for 60 minutes and offer opportunities for collaboration, co-creation, or active learning.
• Provocations: For this type of sessions, we would like to invite the authors to recommend provocative quotes that will engage the audience in a lively discussion for 20 minutes. The authors would be responsible for facilitating the discussion. Example of provocations could be “All lectures must be banned” or “Every session has to be student-centred”.
• Lightning talks: You will deliver a short pecha kucha style presentation (up to 5 minutes) on an aspect of active learning practice or scholarship relevant to the theme and subtheme(s).