2026 University Teaching & Learning Symposium
Save the date! The next University Teaching and Learning Symposium is Wednesday, January 7, 2026 at the Bone Student Center.
Call for Proposals
The Center for Integrated Professional Development invites faculty, staff, and graduate students to submit proposals for the upcoming 2026 University Teaching and Learning Symposium. The event will be held at the Bone Student Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2026.
While all proposals related to scholarly approaches to teaching and learning are welcome, we especially encourage proposals that address the symposium theme, Emergent Technologies, Enduring Values: Reimagining Teaching for a New Era.
The theme will focus on ways to navigate a rapidly evolving technology landscape. Our goal is to explore how we, as a campus community, can thoughtfully integrate emergent technologies, as aligned with the mission of the newly launched Adaptive Edge Institute, while staying grounded in our core values of inclusive, ethical, and student-centered education. We welcome proposals that highlight innovative classroom practices and scholarly approaches to teaching and learning.
Scholarly teaching is an intellectual, rather than an instinctual act, with evidence-informed practices that support student learning at the heart of all course design and delivery efforts. Scholarly approaches to teaching can be used in developing course learning outcomes content, applying high-impact practices to a learning context, designing equitable or innovative pedagogies, creating assessments that capture student learning, or communicating effectively with students.
We encourage proposals that:
- Showcase evidence-informed teaching practices that enhance student learning.
- Describe scholarly approaches to any aspect of teaching and learning (e.g., course content, student engagement, equity/diversity/inclusion, incorporating instructional technology).
- Demonstrate how research or data has informed your instructional design or delivery.
- Share insights from Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) projects.
- Align with the Framework for Inclusive Teaching Excellence (FITE), Illinois State University’s signature pedagogy.
Topics may include (but are not limited to):
- Integrating technology to support student engagement
- Designing equitable and inclusive learning environments
- Developing meaningful assessments of student learning
- Applying high-impact practices in diverse learning contexts
Proposal Formats
- Individual: A 30-minute presentation (maximum 2 presenters). Includes sharing of information and Q&A.
- Panel: A 50-minute presentation (minimum 3 presenters; more than 5 not recommended). The panel can structure the time as they see fit and also include time for Q&A.
- Poster: A 90-minute session that coincides with a reception. Posters will be produced by The Center at no charge, using your design.
We recommend that you compose the “session description” portion of your proposal outside the submission form and copy and paste your final version into the submission form, omitting all text formatting such as bullets, bold and italic fonts, etc. We also recommend that you save a copy of your proposal for your own records. Before you begin submitting your proposal, please have the following information ready:
- Session title, a 200-word abstract, and a 50-word website description. Descriptions are used for both selection purposes and as abstracts in the symposium program.
- Your complete contact information.
- The complete contact information for all your co-presenters.
- Details on any grants for which this proposal fills a requirement.
- Information on any technology you need to use as part of your presentation.
Submission Deadline – Sunday, October 5
Proposals must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, October 5. Detailed selection criteria and example submissions are also available online
Peer Review Process
All submissions are reviewed by a panel of teaching and learning experts using the posted rubric: Proposal Review Rubrics
It typically takes several weeks to review the submissions. You will be notified of your status by October 31, 2025.
Questions?
Contact Dr. Dana Karraker at dmkarra@ilstu.edu or (309) 438-5110.
View Past Symposia Themes.