Guidelines for proposals

The T&L 2024 ENLIGHT target groups are:

• Academics: Teachers, educational leaders, learning design specialists and researchers, with particular emphasis on those designing educational courses and programmes.

• Students & alumni: The ENLIGHT conference strives to involve students as presenters, attendees, or both, to balance viewpoints between teaching and learning counterparts and stimulate a constructive dialogue.

• Educational developers: Those responsible for disseminating teaching practices in their own universities will benefit from, and add significant value to, this event and good pedagogical practices.

• Administrative & support staff: For instance, staff from International Offices, IT departments, library personnel, student services, campus development services, career services.

T&L CONFERENCE SUBMISSION PAPERS

The ENLIGHT Teaching and Learning Conference seeks to engage participants in open, international and interdisciplinary discussions. To this end, applicants are requested to select one of the following formats for their contribution: 

• Oral presentations: This format is intended for participants who wish to share new ideas, experiences, and findings about the development of learning and teaching in HE in line with the conference theme. As a contributor, you seek to facilitate a lively discussion about a specific topic with the audience. Contributions should include a 10-minute input followed by 20 minutes of structured dialogue with the participants. A session chair will facilitate the discussion; presenters are invited to prepare guiding questions. The students’ perspective in the presentations is recommended. 
• Poster presentation sessions: Poster sessions invite participants to visually present innovations in learning and teaching. Each presenter is given three minutes for a short oral presentation, followed by an in-depth discussion with the audience. Presenters are expected to submit a digital poster. Both on-site and online presentations are welcome.
• Interactive and/or co-creative workshops: The workshops aim to enable colleagues to learn from each other's experiences. As a contributor, you actively encourage participants to work together with your ideas and learn from each other's experiences. Workshops will last 50 or 75 minutes and may include short inputs (e.g. a debrief or a short introduction), but they are designed as interactive sessions in which the participants can collaborate or even co-create to achieve the workshop outcomes (e.g. working in small groups and/formats like the world café, etc.). 
• Roundtables allow interactive discussions in small groups to explore innovative ideas about learning and teaching. Informal presentations are encouraged. Roundtable presenters introduce the ideas and experiences described in their proposal at a specific table. Attendees rotate between tables to discuss the topic presented at this table. The expected duration of roundtables is, therefore, 5 minutes for presentation + 15 minutes for questions/discussion (20 minutes total per presentation); this is repeated three times during the session. 

The proposal has two parts: a brief abstract of max 40 words + an extended abstract of 600 words.   

In the brief abstract, the main topic and purpose of the submission are outlined. 

The extended abstract includes the importance of the topic to teaching and learning, appropriate literature, and learning outcomes of the session. Workshop proposals must include a description of element(s) of engagement.  

Extended abstract:  

• relates to the conference theme,  
• aims at improved teaching and student learning (in a specific or in a wide sense), 
• builds on and makes use of relevant literature,  
• has the potential to spark conversations among conference participants and the ENLIGHT community,
• has a clear focus and structure,
• mentions how the audience will be engaged,   
• indicates in which format the participant wishes to present,
• reflects the willingness to participate in a hybrid session. 

REVIEW PROCESS CRITERIA  

All abstracts are reviewed following a double-blind review process. Please ensure that author information is not provided in the abstract field. The notification about acceptance/rejection will be sent only to the corresponding author.

All applications will be assessed using the following selection criteria:  

• Relevance of proposed topic: How does the proposed topic align with the conference theme? What insight or benefit does the proposed topic provide to session participants regarding the theme or the challenge it addresses?   
• Session format and planned outcomes: How does the proposed contribution align with the available session formats, and does it include a proposed strategy for delivery? What are the intended outcomes and do these align with the overall conference theme of active participant engagement? Is the plan for how participants engage and interact during the session feasible? Is it congruent with the format of the session?  
• Clarity and coherence of the session agenda: Is the focus of the session clear according to the main purpose? Does the session have a logical flow?
• Student/learner perspective: Does the proposed contribution include the perspectives of learners? Will learner representatives be involved in the development and delivery of the contribution?
• Link with ENLIGHT: To what extent can the innovative teaching practices presented be integrated into involving ENLIGHT teachers?  

The above criteria help to define how the submitted proposals align with the conference theme, as well as with other contributions. The selection criteria will also assist ENLIGHT reviewers in identifying aspects of particular relevance, missing information or needs for clarification. 

Following the review process, the scientific committee and the organising team may suggest a change in the format of the presentation. 

Please submit your contribution via this form: https://onlineexpo.com/en/enlight-2024/call-for-papers/  from 1 to 30 April 2024.

If you have any questions on the conference or the call for proposals, please contact us at: enlight2024tartu@ut.ee.