The Three Rivers Consortium offers the following supporting information in the form of questions and answers.
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1) What are the aims of the conference?
The aims of the North East Regional L&T Conference are to:
- develop the regional understanding of key issues in Learning & Teaching in Higher Education
- share effective learning and teaching practices
- draw new people into our Learning & Teaching support networks and providing a networking opportunity
Through the conference we encourage all staff involved in teaching and/ or supporting learning in their institutions to explore opportunities to develop their teaching practice and contribute to a range of discussions. This event also welcomes others involved in L&T related research projects in their institutions, such as postgraduate researchers and undergraduate students.
2) What areas of my work can I present at the conference?
You are invited to submit an abstract proposal for the conference in any of the conference themes.
You could include
- your approaches to teaching, learning and assessment;
- policy formation,
- quality assurance and enhancement;
- leadership and management;
- developing the students’ experience,
- working with students as partners or producers.
3) What criteria will be used for assessing my abstract?
Your abstract will be assessed by the consortium based on the following criteria:
- The clarity and coherence of the proposal.
- The level of relevance of the proposed session to the conference title and theme.
- The level of interest they feel that the audience will have in the workshop.
Your abstract will be assessed by the consortium and ranked according to institution with the aim of encouraging equal representation from across all 5 institutions. You will find the submission form link on the Home Page.
4) What can I do to show the level of relevance of my work?
Use an appropriate title and contents to reflect the conference title and theme. Explicitly tell the review panel and conference delegates how your session will contribute to one of the themes. Describe the importance of your work in the context of the appropriate literature. You only have 250 words to get your points across, so use short paragraphs and support of your claims with references.
5) What can I do to have a clear and coherent proposal?
Write in a clear, concise, well-structured and signposted way that can be easily read by anyone.
Remember that you are writing for an educated audience who are from a range of subject disciplines. So, avoid discipline related jargon and abbreviations unless they are widely known across our academic community, or a central feature of your proposal which you explain fully in your abstract.
Focus the proposal on the aims of your session, rather than offering an insight into background reading.
Provide information on how your session will be run, what it will contain, and what you will achieve.
If you are presenting your research into learning and teaching, you could include the stage you are at – the literature review stage, conducting a pilot study, developing a theoretical framework, or mention that the work is complete. You could offer a brief insight into WHY you did what you did, WHAT you did, your FINDINGS, WHAT this means to you and your learners, and any FUTURE work.
Structure your writing to include well supported claims and be explicit. When you include a claim or key argument, it will be important to offer supporting information from your own findings or the literature.
6) How can I help the panel decide the level of interest to the delegates?
To help the panel make a well informed judgement of the value of your session to the teaching community in the region, include a statement on what the audience will do and learn in your session.
Although you are presenting information based on your own experience, your session will undoubtedly benefit others in the audience. So, tell the reader explicitly how teaching or enhancement principles discussed in your session could be useful on other occasions in the same type of context, or how they could be transferred into other learning and teaching contexts. Explain why your session will be of benefit to the wider teaching community.
7) Do I need to show my contribution to scholarship and/or enhancement to the student learning experience?
If relevant to your presentation, include any theories and principles you are translating into your practice and any theories you are developing from your practice.
Tell the reader how your session will inform the regional understanding of any of the conference themes.
Offer ‘evidence’ on the benefits/impact of your work on the student learning experience. This is an opportunity for you to include the student voice in your session. The committee will welcome applications where students are presenting this aspect, so please tell the panel if your presentation team is composed of students and include what they will be doing during the session.
Include in text citations. And, if there is room, a short list of critical references to published work with your submission.
8) When I submit an abstract proposal, what information do I need to include?
Please include the following information:
- Your higher education institution/organisation
- Contact Details – please indicate who is the ‘corresponding author’. This must be a member of staff from one of the participating institutions
- Email address
- Names and contact details of additional presenters (we encourage co-presentations with students)
- Your subject area/department/discipline
- If the presentation is to be delivered as a collaboration between staff and students
- Title of your abstract proposal
- A one sentence summary to appear on the short programme
- Abstract Proposal – up to 250 words
- The conference theme to which your proposal corresponds – please select no more than 2 subthemes
- Preferred format for your presentation – 15 minute presentation or 5 minute lightning talk
- If you consent to your presentation being recorded
9) What guidance can you offer me on delivering a conference paper?
A conference paper is the presentation of research findings, generally followed by the opportunity for questions and answers. The aim is for delegates to have the benefit of your thoughts, experiences and findings in order to learn from you. When you deliver your paper, delegates will shape their understanding using your experiences, consider how this could work in their teaching context, and evaluate some of the possible risks and benefits of using your approach.
You are advised to produce a handout to ensure maximum accessibility for all, which can be a Microsoft Word document, PowerPoint presentation, or pdf document.
There will be a Chair for your session. The role of the Chair is to help you in relation to your live stream presentation, and remind you what time is left at various points in your presentation. They will also chair questions during the session.
The organisers would like you to upload information you use in your session to a publicly accessible webpage for the delegates to view and download at a future date – we will ask you to email your handouts to us in advance. Please also make sure you have copyright clearance for any images or diagrams you include in your presentation. By taking part in the conference you are taking responsibility for the information you disseminate at the conference.
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The North East Three Rivers Consortium 