Thank you for your interest in presenting at Innovations 2020. The call for proposals is now closed.

Please contact Robin Piccirilli if you have questions.

Presentation Submission Criteria

In order to present at the Innovations Conference, you must

1. be employed by a community college or not-for-profit university, or
2. be a sponsor* at this event.

*Sponsor proposals must include at least one community college co-presenter to speak to the success of your partnership.

Benefits of Presenting

• Share your expertise with colleagues
• Receive recognition for your innovation
• Obtain feedback about your practice or program
• Play an important role in a leading international conference
• Expand your professional portfolio

Presenters

The Key Presenter is the principal contact and is responsible for coordinating all correspondence among co-presenters and the League, as well as managing and facilitating the presentation.

Presentation Types

• Forum
• Roundtable Discussion
• Poster Session

Conference Topics

• Learning and Teaching
• Leadership and Organization
• Workforce Preparation and Development
• Student Success
• Basic Skills and Developmental Education

Presentation Title

Presentation titles may include up to 10 words that will catch the attention of conference participants and accurately describe a session. Titles should not include periods, exclamation points, or all capitalized words (e.g., NOW) unless these elements are part of an official title or acronym.

Presentation Description

Presentation descriptions of up to 65 words are used in the conference program to succinctly, persuasively, and accurately tell participants what to expect from a session. Descriptions should be written in full sentences to help conference participants determine the scope and level of the session and its appropriateness to their needs. Descriptions should indicate who the session will particularly benefit, if appropriate, and what they will learn.

Presentation Plan

Presentation plans include a brief overview of proposed activities, visual aids, and handouts. Describe how you plan to ensure audience involvement. Traditional lecture-only presentations are strongly discouraged.

*The League reserves the right to make changes to proposed presentation titles and descriptions, to place sessions in alternative topic areas, and to encourage joint presentations if multiple proposals are submitted on similar topics.

The Innovations Conference incorporates ideas, initiatives, and inspirations from five vital topics into the broader conference goal of encouraging and facilitating student and organizational learning through innovation, experimentation, and institutional transformation. The conference features Special Sessions, Forums, Roundtable Discussions, and Poster Sessions for each topic, along with General Session Keynotes aimed at inspiring innovation and change in community college education.

Join the most energetic professionals in community colleges as they come together to showcase their model programs, share lessons learned, and look to the future by exploring innovations in (1) learning and teaching, (2) leadership and organization, (3) workforce preparation and development, (4) student success, and (5) basic skills and developmental education.

 STEM-RELATED PROPOSALS ARE INVITED FOR EVERY TOPIC.

Learning and Teaching

Community college professionals continue to develop new and innovative ways of approaching learning and teaching, many of which promote the learning-centered movement. This conference stream affords educators the opportunity to share their innovations with colleagues around the world. Classroom assessment and research, learning styles, learning communities, service learning, distance learning strategies, interactive computer-aided instruction, multimedia in the classroom, ethics in instruction, and critical-thinking skills development are only a few of the wide range of instructional strategies featured.

Leadership and Organization

Accountability mandates, fluctuating funding, demographic shifts, and the rapid pace of change continue to challenge community college administrators to explore innovative strategies for leadership and organization. Learning organizations, knowledge management, quality principles, liberation management, and leading from the soul are only a few of the techniques used today to meet community college leadership challenges. In this stream, the League invites colleagues committed to transforming their community colleges to share their leadership, organizational, and staff development programs, processes, and perspectives in an effort to help all community college leaders learn how to blend diverse innovations together to make a difference in community college education.

Workforce Preparation and Development

The League for Innovation's Workforce Initiative explores the many ways community colleges are meeting the workforce needs of their communities. In a continuing effort to further this initiative, this stream highlights the individual and collaborative work of community colleges, K-12 institutions, businesses, and government agencies in contract training, continuing education, tech-prep programs, school-to-work initiatives, work-based learning activities, business and industry training, integrated academic and technical learning models, college and career transitions, and community college and industry partnerships. Some of these initiatives include the exploration of e-learning in workforce training, as well as the certification of workplace skills.

Student Success

The diverse needs and backgrounds of community college students have challenged student services personnel to develop and implement some of the most innovative approaches to serving students in higher education. Exciting methods for tackling the challenges of recruiting, admissions, advising, assessment, accessibility, orientation, early warning systems, learning support systems, enrollment management, retention services, and counseling are featured in this stream. This stream also presents a wide array of student activity and leadership programs.

Basic Skills and Developmental Education

The increasing needs of community college students demand that basic skills educators develop new and innovative ways to help underprepared students become successful members of a community of learners. This stream showcases a variety of organizational and instructional strategies to improve basic skills and developmental education programs in community colleges, including placement testing, assertive advising, peer tutoring, targeted mentoring, support groups, technology tools, faculty training, and outcomes assessment. Innovations in high school equivalency programs, adult high school, developmental education, and other basic skills programs are also featured in this stream.

PLEASE NOTE: PRESENTERS WHO NEED A LAPTOP OR TABLET FOR THEIR SESSION(S) ARE REQUIRED TO BRING THEIR OWN. THE LEAGUE DOES NOT PROVIDE THIS EQUIPMENT OR ASSOCIATED ADAPTERS. (PRESENTERS WHO NEED TO RENT EQUIPMENT/ADAPTERS FROM THE AV COMPANY WILL BE CHARGED A FEE; AVAILABILITY IS NOT GUARANTEED.)

Forums

Forums are traditional one-hour breakout sessions that form the core of conference offerings. Forums are intended for an audience of approximately 50 people. Presenters are expected to use active learning techniques to engage audiences, to distribute materials, and to respond to follow-up requests for more information. Lecture-only presentations are strongly discouraged.

Sample Forum Descriptions

Dealing With Change: Creating Successful Project Teams 
Project teams learn about a five-phase model for creative problem solving, project creation, and implication, including assessment and refining. Participants discover ways to enhance individual and team performance.

Mathematics, Computation, and Modeling for the Life Sciences
Presenters discuss systems biology, bioinformatics, chance and stochastics in biological processes, models for describing biological events, and biological rhythms in the mathematics curriculum.

Roundtable Discussions

Roundtable Discussions afford a personal and interactive setting for exploration of key issues related to each conference topic. Roundtables are particularly well suited for exploratory topics and topics that require small group interchange. Roundtable presenters are expected to facilitate substantive discussions or small group activities and to distribute handouts. Roundtables are aimed at audiences of 10 and cannot accommodate equipment other than a laptop computer provided by the presenter(s).

Laptop computers will need to be battery operated, as Roundtables do not have access to power outlets. Roundtables also do not have access to an Internet connection.

Sample Roundtable Discussion Descriptions

The Road to Student Success: Blending Instruction and Support Services
San Jacinto College’s Student Success Center is a bridge between student services and instruction. Study the partnerships with faculty, staff, and administrators, and methods for blending instruction and support services.

NGA Study: Addressing Academic Weaknesses of Recent High School Graduates
This study examines methods to determine the need for developmental education and formulates strategies to address weaknesses before high school graduation. Review study results and progress on implementing recommendations.

Poster Sessions

Poster Sessions take the form of an exhibit and are delivered primarily through the use of graphs, diagrams, pictures, data, and narrative text on bulletin boards. Presenters must arrange for their own display materials. During their assigned time periods, participants informally discuss their presentations with conference participants by making brief remarks, sharing information, and answering questions about the presentation topic. Conference participants are free to move from one presentation to another during the Poster Session. Presenters are encouraged to have ample handout materials available for participants. The conference will provide a table and two chairs for each accepted Poster Session presentation.

No electrical support or Internet connections are available in the Poster Session area.

Sample Poster Session Descriptions

Customer Service in Higher Education: Is This an Oxymoron?
Columbus State Community College implemented a higher quality of service for its students and community members by combining high touch and low tech in a college call center environment.  

The Learning Organization as a Model for Lifelong Learning
Discover the five principles of the learning organization in Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline. Participants explore how students use the principles for continued lifelong professional learning.