All submissions are made via the ALT Online Submission Form

ALT Annual Conference, 3-5 September 2019, Edinburgh, UK 

We are particularly keen to look at the big picture across sectors and find common challenges, promote closer scrutiny of evidence and theory, and a stronger commitment to values that we share. Values that include creativity, community, social good, openness, and more democratic access to knowledge and learning. We invite you to submit proposals in response to one of the conference themes: 

1. Student data and learning analytics: Critically exploring the intersections between learning technology practice, policy and projects and student data, learning analytics, and evidence relating to engagement. Where do we need to strengthen these intersections, in order to make more critical and effective use of student data and analytics in enhancing policy and practice? What are the ethical dimensions to data and learning analytics we need to better understand and respond to?
2. Creativity across the curriculum: Nurturing the development of curiosity, open-mindedness, problem solving and imagination. How can digital learning and teaching across the curriculum foster creativity skills? What benefits can this bring? What can educators working across the schools, further and higher education curricula learn from each other?
3. Critical frames of reference: To what extent are established concepts, models and frameworks relating to digital education still relevant to emerging practices and possibilities? What are the concepts and theoretical frames of reference that can support further critical research and reflection, and inform more critically grounded digital education practices going forward?
4. Learning Technology for wider impact: using Learning Technology to enable learning which is distributed across formal and informal communities, that supports more inclusive curricula and promotes accessibility, transcends established digital silos and institutional boundaries, creates digital ‘third spaces’ to enable learning amongst those who would otherwise not meet,  or which locates opportunities for learning within contexts and communities where there is disadvantage, disenfranchisement or a lack of opportunity to engage. Work which has a high impact on lifelong learning, in democratising access to socially valuable knowledge, and in addressing wider societal needs.
5. Wildcard: if your work doesn’t relate directly to any of the conference themes, then we encourage you to select the wildcard theme when submitting your learning technology research, practice or policy work from any sector including further and higher education, schools, vocational learning and training, lifelong learning and work-based learning.

How to submit a proposal

We look for session proposals that will make an innovative contribution to the conference programme and be of value to other participants. 

All submissions are made via the ALT Online Submission Form. 

You can only submit 1 proposal as lead author/presenter. You can add additional contributors to your proposal and be a contributor to other proposals. 

All rooms will have a projector or screen and laptop as standard.

As there are up to 6 parallel sessions running at any time, you need to ensure that your session can work well with 10-50 participants.

Your proposal

You will need to select what kind of session you would like to run from the following options:

• GASTA talk (5 min, concise, punchy talk, usually in the main auditorium)
• Poster & GASTA talk (digital/print poster + 5 min lightning talk, usually in the main auditorium)
• Research or practice presentation (20 min, with min.5 minutes for Q&A)
• Reflective session (30 min, usually interactive and seeking feedback from participants)
• Workshop, panels or demonstration (1 hour, usually BYOD for participants)

You will need to include a session title, description and further supporting information. You should not submit proposals that have been published, presented or submitted elsewhere.

What we are looking for

We review all submissions to ensure that we maintain the highest quality and include the broad range of learning technology research, practice and policy of interest to our participants. 

Each proposal will be reviewed by two members of the conference committee. We ask that you remove any information from your proposal that will identify you as the author, so that the review is conducted impartially. Proposals are reviewed against the following criteria:

• Does it explain how the session relates to the chosen conference theme?
• Is it clearly written (i.e. acronyms are explained, and language appropriate for an international audience and from participants from different sectors)?
• Does it state what participants will gain from the session and why they should attend?
• Does it include details of what the session is based on, such as a particular project or initiative or practice? Does it critically reflect on this and evaluate it (i.e. state how many learners/staff are involved, what feedback was collected and how transferable your experience/findings/tools are)?
• If it is a commercial proposal, we ask that it meets all the above criteria and clearly states what products are being demonstrated or discussed and acknowledges the role of the company in the session.

Increasing impact and professional recognition

If you are seeking to increase the impact of your work or looking to disseminate your work beyond the conference, we encourage you to make a submission to the Research in Learning Technology journal. The journal is a Gold Open Access journal and we do not levy any charges to ensure researchers can disseminate new work in learning technology as widely as possible. 

We also invite you to consider entering the ALT Awards which are now open for entries from individuals, teams and research project, with winners announced at the conference.

Registration for presenters

At least one presenter for each proposal needs to register for the conference. We offer a special early bird discount for presenters and we also offer a discounted rate for presenters who are members of ALT or members of the conference committee. 

Lead presenters need to attend in conference in person, but can facilitate contributions from virtually attending presenters.

Is this conference for you?

We invite proposals from learning technology professionals and learners from all sectors in the UK and internationally. The Association for learning technology (ALT) represents individual and organisational members from all sectors and parts of the UK. Our membership includes practitioners, researchers and policy makers with an interest in learning technology. Our community grows more diverse as learning technology has become recognised as a fundamental part of learning, teaching and assessment.

What to expect?

This is the 26th ALT Annual Conference. We will welcome 400-500 participants in Edinburgh over three days with a packed programme and social activities. We design our conference to be welcoming and friendly, with specific activities for first time participants. During the conference ALT members organise meetings and sessions such as annual meet ups of local Member Groups, meetings of Special Interest Groups and information sessions to offer ways to get involved and showcase what’s going on across the community. 

We look forward to welcoming you in September and wish you good luck with your submission!

You can also view this Call for Proposals as a Google Doc or download a PDF.