Fall Teaching Conference: Call for Proposals

Fall Conference on Teaching and Learning

Tuesday, August 20, 2019 | Marshall University, Huntington, WV

Deadline to submit proposals: May 22, 2019


2019 Theme:  Community Engagement: Impacts on Communities, Scholars, and Students

Community engagement is rapidly becoming an integral aspect of Marshall University’s identity. Indeed, one of Dr. Gilbert’s long-term goals is to expand outreach by increasing community engagement. Our new Strategic Plan includes community engagement as one of six major pillars. And recently, the institution applied for the 2020 Elective Community Engagement Classification from the Carnegie Foundation.

The Carnegie Foundation defines community engagement in this way:

Community engagement describes the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial creation and exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.

The purpose of community engagement is the partnership (of knowledge and resources) between colleges and universities and the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching, and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good.

Community engagement is a natural conductor for supporting teaching and learning; creative and scholarly endeavors; and, of course, service and citizenship. Vanderbilt University (https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/?p=5367) summarizes stakeholder benefits as shown below:

Benefits for Students

  • Learning Outcomes
    • Positive impact on students’ academic learning
    • Improves students’ ability to apply what they have learned in “the real world”
    • Positive impact on academic outcomes such as demonstrated complexity of understanding, problem analysis, problem-solving, critical thinking, and cognitive development
    • Improved ability to understand complexity and ambiguity
  • Personal Outcomes
    • Greater sense of personal efficacy, personal identity, spiritual growth, and moral development
    • Greater interpersonal development, particularly the ability to work well with others, and build leadership and communication skills
  • Social Outcomes
    • Reduced stereotypes and greater inter-cultural understanding
    • Improved social responsibility and citizenship skills
    • Greater involvement in community service after graduation
  • Career Development
    • Connections with professionals and community members for learning and career opportunities
    • Greater academic learning, leadership skills, and personal efficacy can lead to greater opportunity
  • Relationship with the Institution
    • Stronger relationships with faculty
    • Greater satisfaction with college
    • Improved graduation rates

Benefits for Faculty

  • Satisfaction with the quality of student learning
  • New avenues for research and publication via new relationships between faculty and community
  • Providing networking opportunities with engaged faculty in other disciplines or institutions
  • A stronger commitment to one’s research

Benefits for Institution

  • Improved institutional commitment to the curriculum
  • Improved student retention
  • Enhanced community relations

Benefits for Community

  • Satisfaction with student participation
  • Valuable human resources needed to achieve community goals
  • New energy, enthusiasm and perspectives applied to community work
  • Enhanced community-university relations

The theme of this year’s conference invites Marshall faculty to think deeply about the ways in which we can, and do, engage with our communities in ways that are “grounded in the concepts of reciprocity and mutual benefit.”

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to

  • Identifying and addressing important community issues
  • Using community voices to “enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching, and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good”
  • Measuring impacts for stakeholders
  • Novel approaches to community engagement
  • Innovative partnerships and projects
  • Community-based learning
  • Community-based research

Session Types/Proposal Submission

Proposal submissions are now closed.

To submit a proposal, click on the session type below to open the submission form for that type of session:

  • Interactive Presentation: 75 minutes; one or more facilitators; audience interaction
  • Panel Presentation: 75 minutes; three co-panelists for approximately 20 minutes each with Q&A
  • Workshop: 2 hours; one or more facilitators; participants work on some element of their own teaching practice (e.g., syllabus development, incorporating community engagement in teaching)
  • Teaching Clinic: 30-minute time slots for demonstrations of particularly fruitful teaching practices and brief discussion