For Presenters
This is our first in-person conference for three years and we are deliberately setting out to offer a very conversational and interactive conference to make the most of being together again in-person.
The overarching theme for the conference is Personal Tutoring: Enhancing Outcomes for All Students. We are inviting contributions which consider how we engage students with personal tutoring, different approaches for diverse student cohorts, addressing attainment gaps, improving employability, and the acquisition of graduate attributes. We welcome a broad and innovative range of other perspectives on what Enhancing Outcomes for All Students might mean. We would like presenters to propose sessions based on topics which focus on the ways in which they believe that personal tutoring can help students address current and future challenges and achieve better outcomes for all students.
We have suggested some familiar session formats that proposers may wish to follow as well as some new ones. We are also open to proposers suggesting entirely new formats that we have not tried before but which makes the most of delegates being together in-person. And we’re doing the same with our keynote session which involves interactive theatre.
The Conference Committee will focus on proposals which address contemporary issues and practices in personal tutoring. Contributions based on experiences, effective practices, research studies or which promote discussion between delegates on hot topics are particularly welcomed, as are proposals which involve an element of co-creation with students.
Conference Session Formats
Presentation [50 minutes]
Individual, a pair or a small team of presenters, present in depth for 50 minutes on an area in which they have significant experience/expertise, and which will be of interest to and have impact for the audience. Time should be allocated for a few questions.
Interactive Workshop [50 minutes]
A participatory interactive workshop should enable delegates to work actively towards learning something new in relation to a specific topic. It should include discussion and collaborative activities which enable reflection on delegates’ own and others experience and sharing and analysis of knowledge.
Lightning Talk [15 minutes]
10-15 minute presentations grouped on a common theme managed by a facilitator within a 50 minute session (three Lightning Talks per session). Each presentation is on a single topic, issue, experience, research area, or innovative practice. Maximum of 5 slides per talk. Any questions to be asked at the end of all the talks. Where possible we will attempt to make time and space available immediately after the session for informal discussions to continue between presenters and delegates.
Roundtable [50 minutes]
50 minute open discussion session on a single issue or question. The chairperson directs people to the issue/question and relevant context. Delegates work to explore the issue/question and produce outcomes, facilitated by the Chairperson. The proposal must identify the question/issue, the context, and no more than two concrete outcomes for the session. It is expected that outcomes will be relevant to others beyond those who attended the session, so the proposal should include details of how the outcomes will be disseminated. As an example, an outcome could be a summary document of the discussions, or an infographic summarising the topic, the challenges discussed and the solutions proposed.
Problem Solving Session (Action Learning Set) [105 minutes]
An in-depth session in which all participants work collaboratively to arrive at potential solutions to a specific personal tutoring problem, based on an Action Learning Set approach. Some examples of problems that might be considered include how to accurately reflect personal tutoring in institutional workload models, and how to increase student attendance at personal tutor meetings. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of Action Learning Sets, more details can be found in this guide to Action Learning: Principles and Issues in Practice. The length of the session will be negotiated with the proposers depending on the nature of the problem to be address and will be either 50 minutes or 105 minutes.
A proposal for a problem-solving session should include a detailed description of the problem to be solved, why this is an issue worthy of consideration, and the name and a short biography of the person who will act as facilitator for the session.
Discussion Panel [50 minutes]
50 minute discussion focused on a specific topic by a panel of experts. The facilitator and/or audience ask questions of the panel pertinent to the topic and the panellists each give their expert perspective on the questions. The proposal must identify the topic for the session, the name of the facilitator and the names and brief biographical details of the experts who will constitute the panel. Note that including the names of the experts in the proposal does not commit them to participating at this stage, it simply provides useful information to reviewers on likely panellists and their depth and breadth of experience
The Call for Proposals is now closed. Proposers who have had proposals accepted can manage their submission using the Online Submission System.