TESS 2018: Call for Presentations

The Technology and Education Seminar and Showcase (TESS) is eCampusOntario’s annual conference where we celebrate our members’ achievements in online and technology enabled teaching and learning.

TESS18 will take place at The Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto, on November 12-13, 2018.

The framework for TESS18 is the Empowered Educator. This theme is inspired by the six attributes of the Ontario Extend framework first described by Simon Bates in 2014. Ontario Extend is a series of professional development modules, grounded in the belief that the impact on learning should be the primary motivator for creating online and technology-enabled learning experiences. Extend aims to empower educators to explore a range of emerging technologies and pedagogical practices for effective online and technology-enabled teaching and learning.

The TESS18 program will explore the skills, knowledge, and attributes required to extend and transform teaching and learning practices through collaboration and connections with colleagues from colleges and universities across Ontario.

This year, eCampusOntario is pleased to invite individuals from member institutions to submit presentation ideas for TESS18. Sessions will be 30 minutes in length with opportunities for audience questions and interaction. Proposals must align with one or more of the seven conference tracks below.  Presentation ideas are due by July 17, 2018.  

Submit a Presentation Here

1. Experimenter Track:

Presentations will demonstrate an openness to try, reflect and learn from new approaches, pedagogies and technologies related to learner-support or teaching and learning practice.

Example Session Topics

• Playing with open source tools
• How to build an effective course trailer
• Augmented or virtual reality

2. Teacher For Learning Track:

Presentations will share research, project work, and activities which are grounded in research-based principles of learning.

Example Session Topics

• Rethinking Assessment
• Renewable, Sustainable Assignment Strategies
• Universal Design for Learning

3. Curator Track:

Presentations will share tools and techniques which approach curation from a learner’s perspective with the goal to create engaging, interactive and open course materials.

Example Session Topics

• Copyright, Creative Commons and Open Educational Resources (OER)
• Curation for Learning
• Partnering with librarians to explore institutional collections

4. Technologist Track:

Presentations will share ideas or experiences gained through the use of technology or tools which address specific learning challenges.

Example Session Topics

• Digital literacies for teaching
• Design thinking in educational technology
• Incorporating technology into curriculum

5. Scholar Track:

Presentations will explore opportunities to use your classroom  as a research lab. How might that experience improve teaching practice and positively affect student outcomes and satisfaction?

Example Session Topics

• Open pedagogy and open practice
• Design your own: a SoTL project for your classroom
• Teaching with emergent technology

6. Collaborator Track:

Presentations will reflect on the impact of collaboration in building digital capacity for teaching and will explore tools, technologies or techniques to cultivate Personal Learning Networks (PLNs).

Example Session Topics

• Why collaborate?
• How to grow your Personal Learning Network (PLN)
• Multi-Author Adaptation or Creation of Open Educational Resources (OER)

7. Showcase Track

This year, eCampusOntario is rethinking the Showcase portion of our annual event. A dedicated Showcase track will feature stories from eCampusOntario funded projects and teams. Project Leads are invited to submit a proposal to present describing the work their institution has recently completed, or is currently undertaking.

Session Formats

eCampusOntario is open to different presentation styles. We encourage facilitators to plan sessions that include interactive elements and audience participation. Presentation sessions will be limited to 30 minutes.  All proposals will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

Criteria for Selection

• Alignment: proposal is aligned to the theme of one or more tracks identified. Proposal demonstrates understanding of the attribute or area to be explored
• Engagement: presentation has high potential to attract participants
• Relevance: proposal addresses a question or area of inquiry which is current and applicable to technology-enabled post-secondary education

Sharing what we do

• All artifacts from TESS18  are openly licensed according to the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/]. This includes photographs, audio and video recordings created during TESS18. We encourage all presenters to make a copy of their slides available with a CC license.
• Facilitators and participants are encouraged to share their work online and through social media.