Concentrations

Select the concentration headings below to see descriptions.

• Approaches to Equity

  Equity in education means ensuring that everyone at an institution has fair and equal access to quality education. How are you tackling the challenging issues around equity and inclusion? Share how you — or your institution — are addressing one or more of the following:

  • Accessibility
  • Universal Design for Learners
  • Culturally responsive or trauma informed teaching
  • Technology access 

  • Before and after scenarios of addressing equity
  • Providing access to more opportunities to more students 
  • Humanity in teaching and learning
  • Understanding and addressing the hidden struggles of learners

   

• Advancing Innovation Through Design and Strategy 

  This concentration focuses on ideas that are creative and new. How are you advancing the learning experience for students? What strategies are working? Where are you going next in design and strategies?

  • Experiential Learning Outside of the Virtual Classroom
  • Integrating quality assurance into the course design process 
  • Quality Assurance within courses or programs
  • Encouraging innovation in teaching
  • Encouraging innovation in course design

  • Competency-Based learning
  • Badging and micro-credentials
  • Finding, selecting, quality control of OER
  • AI in teaching and learning
  • Assessments, grading, and feedback
• Quality Assurance Across the Institution

  Shine the spotlight on the practices you are using to optimize the online learning experience for students. How do you approach learning design? And what new strategies are you incorporating into the process? From the basics to more advanced ideas, proposals should focus on topics such as:

  • Effectiveness — including and beyond accreditation
  • QA at institutional level
  • Managing QA
  • Program QA
  • Program Certification

  • Ways to define and measure institutional effectiveness
  • Best practices, design process
  • Mentoring IDs
  • How QM is aligned with the accreditation process
• Student Support

  Student persistence through graduation, a key outcome of engagement and belonging, remains low: only two thirds of students at four-year institutions and one third at two-year institutions graduate. Proposals in this concentration should focus on improving persistence. How can the ways we support students help them succeed?

  • Ways to prioritize student wellness in course design
  • Providing access to clubs and organizations to online students 
  • High-impact practices to support student success and satisfaction
  • Career preparation and advising for online students

  • Building community outside the classroom
  • Methods of supporting non-traditional students
  • Creating connection in a tech-enabled environment
• Celebrating Success

  Shine the spotlight on accomplishments. Proposals in this concentration should focus on success stories — how you or your institution are marking milestones and improving the student learning experience. Ideas to share include:

  • How your QA journey has progressed
  • The certification process
  • Professional development

  • Faculty/instructor involvement
  • How quality assurance is being promoted at your institution
  • Collaborative adventures
• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

  Lee Shulman, the President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, describes the process of teaching as embodied by at least five elements: vision, design, interactions, outcomes, and analysis. Shulman also says scholarship “should manifest at least three key characteristics: It should be public, susceptible to critical review and evaluation, and accessible for exchange and use by other members of one’s scholarly community." What are some of the ways that we can investigate and analyze the complexities of teaching and learning?

  • Analysis of how quality assurance has improved teaching and learning
  • Future directions for quality assurance and SoTL research
  • Structuring SoTL efforts with the QM rubric 

  • Seeking collaborative research partners
  • Looking at teaching from the perspective of learning
  • Problems in teaching and learning that are worth pursuing

Presentation Formats

Select the format name to see the definition.

Evaluation Criteria