Proposal Guidelines

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) (formerly the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative, or NLII) is seeking presentation proposals for its 2006 Annual Meeting, scheduled for January 29–31, 2006, at the Westin Horton Plaza Hotel in San Diego, CA. If you would like to conduct a session at the Annual Meeting, there are three options from which to choose:

• Presentation sessions
• Experience It! sessions (hands-on workshops with emerging technologies or practices, limited to 30 people per session)
• Poster sessions

All proposals will be reviewed. Proposals will be selected based on:

• Fit with the conference theme
• Proposal quality
• Overall balance among submissions in terms of proposed topics, institutional types, and presentation styles

Length of Sessions

All sessions are scheduled for 60 minutes, including question-and-answer periods. Poster sessions will take place in the same timeframes as the presentation and Experience It! sessions.

Team Presentations Encouraged

ELI encourages annual meeting presentation proposals that take a team approach to addressing a subject from multiple perspectives. This may involve, for example, presentations or activities that reflect multiple roles within an institution or that synthesize the experiences of multiple institutions with the same issue, technology, or practice. ELI will include as many quality team-based sessions as possible in the annual meeting.

Focus on Learners

In keeping with its strategic focus on learners and successful learning, ELI invites sessions that engage learners as presenters or contributors to session activities. ELI has a particular interest in sessions that explore teaching and learning with technology from the learner's perspective. ELI will make an effort to include sessions that involve and/or emphasize learners in the annual meeting.

Before you complete your proposal, please consider the following areas of interest that define the ELI agenda.

ELI Areas of Interest

Learners

Effective teaching and learning is, first and foremost, about the learner. The ELI's efforts begin with a consideration of the learner, whether that person is a Net Generation student, an adult learner, or a faculty member, staff member, or administrator seeking to use technology to improve student success.

Proposals for sessions focused on learners should address questions such as:

• Who are our learners? What are their characteristics, preferences, and expectations?
• How might different types of learners vary in how they learn, interact, and collaborate?
• What implications does the Net Generation (learners raised with technology) hold for higher education? How might the expectations of Net Generation students impact academic, administrative, and student services models? How are these expectations and impacts the same–or different–from those of adult learners?
• What principles and practices might help students, faculty, and administrators with different learning and technology backgrounds better understand each other?

Learning Principles and Practices

The ELI advocates learning principles and practices that are research-based and integrate the best of what multiple disciplines have to offer in support of successful learning. Discussions of learning principles and practices should highlight how different institutions can adapt them to their own unique circumstances.

Proposals for sessions on learning principles and practices should address questions such as:

• What teaching and learning activities lead to successful learning? How can we best implement them in classroom-based learning? Online learning? Hybrid approaches?
• What teaching and learning with technology strategies implemented at your institution have proven most effective?
• What criteria did the institution use to define effectiveness? How was it measured?
• Can you identify the principles implicit in those criteria and indicate how they might apply to other contexts?
• What implications do successful learning principles and practices hold for instructional support, technology support, and other institutional services?
• What policy issues arise when an institution adopts a given set of learning principles and practices?

Learning Technologies

The strategic use of technology enables the creation of learning environments never before possible–environments that can be individualized and customized to further enhance their effectiveness. The ELI pursues uses of technology that are replicable across institutions and disciplines so that investments are broadly leveraged. ELI members strive to stay on the leading edge of teaching and learning with technology, so the ELI also has a strong interest in identifying emerging technologies that lead to successful learning.

Proposals for learning technologies sessions should address questions such as:

• How should institutions evaluate the potential value of a specific technology?
• How can a given technology support successful learning?
• What measures should be used to assess the effectiveness of the technology in improving learning or service?
• What implementation issues should institutions weigh if they consider adopting a specific technology?

Conference Fees

Presenters are responsible for conference fees (if applicable), as well as travel and lodging expenses.

Important Dates

• Call for proposals begins: July 14, 2005
• Proposal deadline: September 12, 2005
• Proposal notifications: October 31, 2005
• Hotel registration deadline: January 6, 2006