Individual Paper Guidelines

The goals of individual paper sessions are to share knowledge (particularly findings from completed SOTL projects) and to encourage critical dialogue among conference participants.

Timing, Room Set Up & Other Practicalities

• Paper presentations will be 30 minutes in length, including time for questions/answers and discussion. We strongly recommend no more than 20 minutes of presentation to allow adequate time for questions and discussion. Please be respectful of others’ time by staying within your 30 minutes.
• Papers have been grouped into sets of 2 or 3, and placed within sessions of 60 minutes (2 papers of 30 minutes each) or 90 minutes (3 papers of 30 minutes each) in total. We have made every effort to group papers that focus on similar topics or speak to one another in interesting ways; each set of 2 or 3 has been given a session title that begins to indicate some of the potential connections between the papers in that group.
• You should plan to arrive in your presentation room at least 10 minutes in advance of the start time of the first paper in your group in order to prepare, set up, and check any technology you plan to use. Volunteers will be circulating around the session rooms to assist as necessary.
• The lead presenter of the final paper in each group of 2 or 3 (as listed in the final program) has been designated the Session Chair. The Session Chair will introduce presenters by name, affiliation, and title of presentation and keep time throughout. Session Chairs will be instructed to intervene and cut each presentation off precisely at the 30 minute mark, to ensure that each paper in the session has adequate time.
• Most presentation rooms will be arranged with seminar seating – rows of tables and chairs. If you need to adjust the furniture, please leave time at the end of your session to return it to its original configuration.
• Please note that we will not be providing evaluation forms for individual sessions. Presenters who would like to collect feedback are welcome to develop evaluation forms and bring these with them for session attendees to complete.  Keep in mind that the time required to fill out feedback forms will need to be included within your 30 minutes.
• If you are providing a handout, we recommend bringing ~50 copies. Keep in mind, though, that most rooms seat 100+ people, so if you think your topic will be especially popular, you might want to bring additional copies.

Technology

• Each presentation room is equipped with a data projector and screen and wireless internet access.
• Presenters are responsible for bringing a computer and any necessary adaptors (rooms will be equipped with VGA cables only).
• If you plan to use the internet during your session, you should check your access well before your presentation time, including any firewalls that may prevent your access to files. We strongly recommend downloading files onto your computer for the most stable presentation experience.
• If you would like to use a presentation remote, you will need to bring your own.
• In order to minimize the turnaround time between papers in your block, you and your co-presenters are strongly encouraged to load all session presentations onto one laptop before the session begins. If you absolutely must use your own computer, please note that the required set up time will be included in your 30 minutes.

Paper Suggestions

• Papers should emphasize an important question related to the conference themes, or to SOTL more broadly. Sessions describing SOTL inquiries should be sure to indicate the literatures, methods, evidence and conclusions involved.
• Opportunities for active audience engagement should be provided wherever possible, including at least 10 minutes for questions/answers and discussion.
• Please remember that we are committed to making this conference accessible to all participants. You are strongly encouraged to consider physical, sensory and intellectual accessibility when crafting your presentation. For example, you might:
  • Use a font of at least 30pt for text on your presentation slides. Likewise, consider having large print copies of handouts available.
  • Use sans serif fonts (e.g., Arial, Calibri, Helvetica) wherever possible, and ensure that there is a strong contrast between text and background.
  • Take into account participants with motor disabilities when designing interactive session components.
  • Avoid unnecessary jargon or technical language.
  • Be prepared to describe aloud any images, charts, videos, etc. used in your presentation (unless they are strictly decorative).
  • Caption any film or video clips you use.