Submission Guidelines

THEME: Rowing in the Same Direction: Aligning Change Efforts Across Higher Education

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PDF of the Submission Form (Acrobat (PDF) 1.3MB Dec12 24)

Key Dates:

• Presentation Proposal Deadline: Friday, January 31, 2025, 11:59 PM EST
• Review Period: Monday, February 3 - Friday, February 21, 2025
• Notification of Acceptance: Friday, March 7, 2025
• Poster Proposal Deadline: Thursday, May 1, 2025

Intentions and Processes

The Conference will provide a diversity of presentation formats that address important topics in institutional change and transformation. During the conference, we will:

• connect researchers, change agents, administrators, and policymakers to focus on transforming undergraduate education;
• create a space wherein people can see the ways in which their work interacts and overlaps across disciplines;
• identify and discuss key questions regarding change in higher education;
• highlight early and mature projects touching on outcomes, processes, and contexts of change, among other themes;
• encourage team formation and development while considering levels of power and buy-in as needed for change.

Categories

Systemic change efforts encompass a wide range of topics, institutional types, levels of change, and stakeholder considerations. We understand that presentations may discuss many of these categories within a single session, and encourage authors to select all categories that relate to their presentation.

• Change Topics
  • Connecting Change Theory and Practice
  • Evaluating and/or Measuring Change
  • Change Leadership
  • Promoting Access, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Aligning Faculty Incentives with Systemic Change
  • Learning Spaces
• Institution Type
  • Two-Year Colleges
  • Minority-Serving Institutions
  • Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities
  • Comprehensive/Regional Universities
  • Emerging Research Institutions
  • Research-Focused Universities
• Level of Change
  • Department-Level Change
  • Institution-Level Change
  • National/Multi-institutional Change
• Stakeholder Considerations
  • Engaging Multiple Stakeholders in the Change Process
  • Partnerships Beyond Academia
  • Role of Centers/Faculty Development in Promoting Institutional Change
  • Scaling and Sustaining Change

Review Criteria:

This information is intended to help you and your team as you craft your proposal. All proposals will be evaluated by a team of reviewers using a Likert scale. They will consider:

• Is the proposed session appropriate for this conference in terms of theme and focus?
• Is the proposed session grounded in and informed by research and theory?
• Does the proposal provide a sufficient overview of the topic or question that will be explored?
• Is the proposal complete, with appropriately detailed responses to all questions?
• To what extent will the proposal provide an opportunity for cross-disciplinary interaction or discussion?
• What is the potential for the proposed session to have a broader impact by advancing our understanding of systemic change in higher education?

Submission Requirements:

Presenting authors must register for and attend the conference. Additional authors can be listed and are not required to attend the conference.

Each presentation submission requires:

• Presentation Title
• Presentation Authors
• Presentation Abstract (300 words)
• How will your presentation address the Intention and Processes for this conference? (300 words)
• Which of the conference categories will your presentation pertain to?

Workshop sessions require an additional question:

• How will your workshop promote audience engagement, reflection, and discussion? What is the tentative format/program of your workshop? Please indicate how you intend to use the time you selected (including content, outline, etc.). (750 words)

Session Formats:

5-minute Lightning Rounds

These rapid-format presentations occur during plenary sessions and offer concise overviews of innovative projects and resources of interest to the community. Presenters must adhere strictly to the 5-minute time limit. Presentations should include 3-5 slides maximum.

15-minute Oral Presentation

These sessions are intended for individuals or teams who wish to present their work in a short presentation. You may decide how best to use the 15 minutes allotted; a typical format would be a 10-minute presentation followed by 5 minutes for questions. However, you may choose to structure your time differently.

45-minute Oral Presentation

Each selected proposal will have 45 minutes for presentation and Q&A and can include up to 4 presenters. Organizers may decide how best to use the 45 minutes allotted. A typical format will be 30 minutes total of presentation and 15 minutes of discussion, questions, and audience engagement. Audience engagement and sufficient Q & A time are strongly recommended.

45-minute Poster Presentation

Posters provide opportunities for engagement in deep conversations about projects. We encourage posters on any of the topics listed above. Poster projects can be research-driven or focused on a program or activity implemented as part of a change process.

90-minute Workshop

These workshops will allow participants to engage deeply in a given topic and are expected to be highly interactive. For these submissions, we require information on the structure of the workshop, audience engagement, and learning outcomes.

Special Interest Group/Birds of a Feather

Do you have a topic of interest that you want to discuss with colleagues? We plan to host Special Interest Group/Birds of a Feather sessions on member-generated topics such as STEM education initiatives, engaging administration, potential collaborative research proposals, or gatherings of Emerging Research Institutions and Minority Serving Institutions. You may submit topic suggestions regardless of other proposal submissions.

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Questions?

If you have any questions about the proposal submission process, please contact Kacy Redd (kredd@aplu.org).