Call for Proposals

Proposal Submission for the 2025 Conference

Conference Review Platform (Oxford Abstracts)

SoTL Commons uses Oxford Abstracts to manage the proposal submission and review process. Oxford Abstracts will ask you to create an account and confirm the account through email. Remember to retain your assigned Submission ID number for future reference.

Proposal Types

Advancing SoTL: Empirical Investigations and Reflective Analyses of SoTL	For research proposals presenting data from systematic inquiries into student learning in higher education, as well as reflective pieces that analyze, synthesize, and discuss the nature, role, and meaning of SoTL.
Professional Development. Enhancing Teaching: Practical Pedagogical Tools and Strategies for Faculty and Student Success	For proposals that demonstrate or teach specific pedagogical techniques, curricula, educational resources, or administrative strategies to engage students or support faculty development.

Proposal Tracks

Starting this year, SoTL Commons is using the five SoTL Grand Challenges developed by ISSOTL to scaffold the conference program. It is simply to help the conference organizers group accepted presentations into sessions. We encourage you to explore the “Read More” links as they include fleshed out descriptions and additional, related concepts that might help you determine the best fit for your proposal.

Read more on the integration of Five Grand Challenges of SoTL in SoTL Commons Programming.

1. How to develop critical and creative thinkers? Critical and creative thinkers recognize and use reliable, relevant information and synthesize ideas in new ways to better understand and imagine ways to address complex phenomena and problems. Read more about developing critical and creative thinkers.
2. How to encourage students to be engaged in learning? Engaged learners are motivated to value how, why, and what they learn and to continue evolving as learners. Read more about encouraging students to be engaged in learning.
3. The complex processes of learning. Learning is a holistic experience involving cognitive, affective, social, and cultural processes and influences, and is facilitated by understanding existing scholarship on learning and the individual experiences of learners. Read More about the complex processes of learning.
4. How identities affect both teaching and learning. People bring who they are and what they’ve experienced into educational contexts, informing both their own and others’ perceptions and experiences. Read more about how identities affects T&L.
5. The practice, use, and growth of SoTL. SoTL practitioners explore, share, and translate the knowledge generated by its diverse research approaches in order to improve teaching, learning, and higher education more broadly. Read more about the practice, use and growth of SoTL.
6. Other. This proposal relates to an important question(s) or issue(s) in SoTL, but does not directly align with any of the Five Grand Challenges for SoTL.

Presentation Formats

Poster (2 hours; Thursday and Friday, 8am-10am)	This format is ideal for showcasing both completed and in-progress projects, providing an excellent opportunity for interactive engagement with other attendees in an informal setting. At least one author must be present during the poster sessions to facilitate discussion and answer questions. Presenters are encouraged to provide relevant resources in both print and online formats to enhance accessibility and impact. An easel, foam board and tacks are provided. See poster presentations guidelines at Poster Guidlines
Oral presentation (45 minutes; Thursday and Friday)	This format is designed for sharing completed research projects, reflective SoTL pieces or professional development proposals.The focus will be on discussing specific ideas and strategies that attendees can apply in their own teaching and/or research contexts. Oral presentations should actively engage the audience. Each presentation will be allocated a maximum of 30 minutes, followed by a 15-minute Q&A session. A laptop, projector, screen and slide advancer are provided.
Mini session (20 minutes; Thursday and Friday)	This format is well suited for completed or in-progress projects and will highlight key aspects of a project. Mini sessions are limited to 15 minutes each, with an additional 5 minutes allocated for questions and discussion.Three to four mini sessions will be combined by the conference chair into a thematic session. A laptop, projector, screen and slide advancer are provided.
Conference workshop (90 minutes; Wednesday 12pm-5pm)	These 90 minute sessions offer the opportunity for a deep dive into a SoTL related topic. Workshops should be highly interactive, have clear participant outcomes and appeal to a diverse audience. A laptop, projector, screen and slide advancer are provided.

The final presentation format assignment may be different based on reviewers’ comments and/or to fit the conference schedule and will be reflected in the acceptance letter. Please consult ISSOTL conference pedagogy for further guidance on scholarly, engaged, inclusive, accessible, and collegial approaches to your presentation. 

Evaluation Criteria

SoTL Commons proposals are evaluated on the basis of authentic scholarship adapted from Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the Professoriate by Glassick, Huber and Maeroff (1997). Reviewers will consider the general criteria below and rate proposals using the following rubric.

Criteria	Very Well	Well	Poor - Needs Improvement	Not at All
Clarity of Goals How well does the proposal state the basic purposes of the work? How well does the proposal identify important questions in SoTL and/or clearly link their identified Grand Challenges for SoTL?
Adequate Preparation How well does the proposal place the work in an appropriate context such as existing scholarship in the field (i.e., cite appropriate literature)?
Appropriate Methods How well does the proposal use methods appropriate to the goals?
Meaningful Contribution How well does the proposal provide new knowledge or otherwise advance the scholarship of teaching and learning?
Effective Presentation How well does the proposal explain a suitable style and effective organization to present the work in the format submitted? (i.e., describes how to engage the audience for oral presentations)
Appeal to a varied audience How well does the proposal explain relevance to a transdisciplinary audience?

Reviewers

We recommend the following reading, “Dear Author”: A Transparent SoTL Peer Review” (Chick, 2024), to any new and returning reviewers.

Journal Submission

The Faculty Center at Georgia Southern University hosts the SoTL Commons Conference and the International Journal of SoTL (ijSoTL). SoTL Commons presenters are strongly encouraged to also submit their work to ijSoTL. SoTL Commons proposals are evaluated using evaluation criteria adapted from ijSoTL criteria to reflect differences between the Commons conference and a Scholarly journal. Please note that the ijSoTL evaluation process and acceptance can vary from the SoTL Commons conference due to the differences between a Commons conference and a Scholarly journal. 

The ijSoTL can be found at International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The ijSoTL submission portal can be found at Submit an Article/ ijSoTL.

Last updated: 12/17/2024