Instructions for: Symposia

For each of the Symposium topics, a facilitator will provide the opportunity for each panel member to present a 5-minute overview of their Big Idea (which will already be available in the program binder).

After these overviews, there will be a lively 60-minute facilitated discussion among the panel members, with the goal of expanding understanding, challenging assumptions, and making new discoveries.

The Symposium topics are as follows:

Day Theme
Thursday 1.

Classroom Interventions for Struggling Students  [Kathy Burke]

Faculty see a wide variety of incoming capabilities in their students, often with 10 to 30% of their students struggling to keep up. This symposium focuses on practices that individual faculty have found that help these students succeed (thus improving pass rates, especially in difficult courses). Five different refereed papers will be shared in the program notebook where short presentations and facilitated discussion of participants will identify 20 principles that are used to increase student success in individual courses.
Friday 2.

Improving Completion Rates in Gatekeeper Courses [Steve Beyerlein]

Every college has initiatives in an effort to improve first year and second-year gatekeeper course completion rates. Additionally, organizations like NSF keep an eye on graduation rates and they are aware that the number of STEM degrees granted depends upon student performance in these core and required courses. The panel was carefully selected of success stories of significant improvement. The outcome of this session is to produce 15 key effective strategies and practices that can be used to improve any gatekeeper course at any college.
3.

Certifying Faculty in Teaching and Learning in Process Education [Wendy Duncan]

This panel will have leaders in Higher Education who have years of experience and expertise associated with helping faculty improve their performance in the facilitation of learning, the design of curriculum, the assessment and mentoring of learner development and the measurement and documentation of learning outcomes. Different approaches and systems for certification will be shared by different institutions and a discussion will lead to a collaborative approach for the certification of Process Educators.
Saturday 4.

Preparing students for College [Wade Ellis]

Over the last 25 years, colleges have instituted special programs for bringing in conditional admissions, for multiple reasons. This means that many schools have created programs to increase their first year and graduation success to match or exceed the current performance rates of the college. Five selected special programs will be highlighted and the overall discussion will identify the key reasons behind the success of these program and establish a set of performance criteria and potential measures for any program helping to prepare students for collegiate success.
  5.

Learning to Learn Camps [Wendy Wenner]

Among the participants there are individuals on the panel and within the room who have participated in more than 25 different Learning to Learn Camps. Learning more about these camps is an important goal of most participants at the conference. This plenary provides participants an opportunity to perform research and share their experiences. Each panel member will add to the discussion based upon their one-to-two page personal analysis of "Why the Learning to Learn Camp worked." These presentations are in the program notebook for participants to read. Each panel member will take 5 minutes to share key principles and/or questions for the panel and participants to discuss, as they work to figure out what it is that makes a Learning to Learn Camp work.

Your proposal should include an abstract of your Big Idea, which topic it relates to, and whether you intend it to be 1) a formal paper published in the program proceedings, or 2) a concept paper.

If accepted for inclusion as a panel member, you will need to submit your paper (formal or concept) by May 15 so it can be included in the proceedings and made available to other participants.

  • Paper Guidelines (both formal and concept)

    • Clarify and organize your work and ideas to ensure they fit into the context of one of the theme areas listed above

  • Formal Paper Guidelines

    • Write your paper using the template HERE

    • An example paper can be found HERE

  • Concept Paper Guidelines

    • Write 1 to 2 pages, sharing the essence of your Big Idea. Explain what it is, how it is or should be implemented, and any future expectations or additional information. 

  • Symposia Guidelines

    • Expect to...

      • ...introduce yourself to session the session moderator or few audience members, etc.

      • ...provide the audience and other panel members with a brief overview (no more than 5 minutes) of your Big Idea (do not read or reproduce parts of your paper for the audience)

      • ...invite fruitful discussion regarding certain elements of your Big Idea

      • ...engage in a lively discussion with all other members of the panel, as well as the symposium facilitator.

      • ...think on your feet, consider new ideas, share on-the-fly assessment feedback, and engage with humor and scholarly good will. 

    • Process Elements

      • Expect that your audience has already read your paper.