Assessing Knowledge and Skills: The Student, the Tutor and the Instructor
Camrose, Alberta
Organization: Augustana Campus
ACURIT CALL FOR ABSTRACTS:
“Assessing Knowledge and Skills: The Student, the Tutor and the Instructor”
9th Annual (with a two-year interruption in 2020 & 21)
Augustana Conference on Undergraduate Research and Innovative Teaching (ACURIT)
Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta in Camrose, AB (in person only)
May 9 & 10, 2024
DEADLINE - Abstracts due Friday March 15, 2024
Submit via the link at: https://www.ualberta.ca/augustana/research/acurit
How do you know what your students know? As educators our goal is for our students to learn both the content but also broader core academic skills, such as becoming thinkers, researchers, communicators and collaborators. How as instructors can we tell if our students are retaining knowledge and developing their skills? The pandemic, Artificial Intelligence (AI), new technologies, or simply the desire to adapt to the ever-changing university context are encouraging instructors to imagine new ways to assess. This includes assessing if students acquire essential knowledge, but also if they are developing the core skills we want them to have when they graduate so that they can be global citizens.
Have you designed an original assignment to assess specific skills of your students? What did you learn from this experience? We want to hear from you! We also encourage instructors to invite their students to present the results of the assignment and reflect on their experience with the type of assessment(s) that you are using in your classrooms. We are also interested in you sharing your use of reflective assignments. As instructors, do you find students internalize the stated learning objectives consciously working to achieve them? For instance, how do students react to self-reflections? How do instructors stimulate deeper thinking? As a student, how do you approach self-reflections? What role do tutors play in helping develop the skills of your students and in assessing them? What are the benefits that tutors see in tutoring? At this year’s conference, we would love to foster dialogue between students, tutors and instructors on their experiences with assessment.
We want to share in your discoveries, your challenges, and the excitement of trying something new. We will also welcome presentations that don’t fully align with our annual conference theme.
ACURIT is a small, collegial international conference in Camrose, AB (one hour southeast of Edmonton). The conference provides a place for people engaged in undergraduate education to meet, learn, and discuss ways to improve teaching and the student experience. There are no concurrent sessions and in-person registrations are limited in order to preserve the quality of the experience. This year we are looking to have varied types of presentation formats, that extend beyond traditional types of presentations. The conference will be offered solely in person, If you have any questions about the conference, please contact the organizers at acurit@ualberta.ca
University instructors and undergraduate students are invited to submit an abstract for one of the following types of presentations:
Teaching Tricks in 5 minutes: A 5 minute presentation on a creative way that you engage in the classroom in a session that will include time for questions (beyond the 5 minutes).
Kitchen Table Sessions: Presenters will lead short, intense conversations on a particular topic or technique for 20 minutes to a small group. When the bell rings, attendees move to a new presentation in the room and it starts again. These sessions aim to provide opportunities for intense conversation in a small group and allow participants the opportunity to choose the topics that are most relevant. These may be successes or they may be areas where you have been struggling in the classroom and looking for ways to do things differently.
Poster - that displays undergraduate research and reflects on the experience of doing the research
Exhibit or display, for example of a student work or a performance (this will be restricted to student presenters)
Traditional (or not so traditional perhaps?) paper presentations of 20 minutes on a topic related to the theme (including time for questions).
Workshops where the presenters engage participants in a more in-depth and active exploration of their topic or practice (indicate the preferred length of your workshop in your abstract submission - maximum of 90 minutes and consider how it can be conducted with both in-person and remote attendees).
Panel Discussion of 45-60 minutes that focuses on a particular topic related to teaching and learning, featuring pre-assembled speakers. The panel includes the opportunity for each panelist to speak as well as time for attendee Q and A.
Choose your own presentation: Step away from the traditional length or format of the presentation - share in your abstract what type of presentation you have in mind - and be sure to indicate the desired length of your presentation too.
Elements to be submitted via the abstract submission form:
? Authors and their affiliations
? Title of proposed session
? Type of presentation
? Abstract of maximum 300 words outlining the content and its contribution to the conference and the theme
? Brief description of how the presentation will engage the audience
? Short biography of main presenter (maximum 100 words)
Abstracts are subject to a peer-review process. Applicants will be notified of submission decisions in late March/early April 2024.
https://www.ualberta.ca/augustana/research/acurit/index.html
MELANIE METHOT