The central theme of this year's Institute is transformation. Transformation is expressed throughout several facets of our work this year, from the continued progress in our SENCER, SENCER-ISE and Engaging Mathematics projects to our pursuit of opportunities emerging from new partnerships and initiatives, and our organization being profiled in a recent USC monograph by Adrianna Kezar and Sean Gehrke as a Community of Transformation in STEM reform. The major aims for this year's program include conversations about the STEM reform ecosystem, examples of SENCER work on campus and of the SENCER approach in real-world problems, and assessment of SENCER work. Other topics that will be covered in this year's program include: Civic Intersections of STEM and Humanities Communities of Transformation: Maximizing Impact Public Engagement with Science Foregrounding Quantitative Literacy in Civic Life Science and Technology for Social Good Leading Change: Aligning Institutional and Personal Priorities

If you're serious about teaching and want to learn how to stay sharp, effective, and confident, you'll be joining the ranks at The Teaching Professor Conference. This three-day conference, June 3-5, 2016, offers hands-on workshops, plenary sessions with captivating keynote presenters, dozens of concurrent sessions, and emerging research poster presentations. More than that, this conference gives you the opportunity to interact with your peers from around the country (and world) who are facing the same challenges and wrestling with the same issues that you know well. It brings like-minded, teaching-focused instructors and academic staff members together in a positive, supportive environment that generates optimism and enthusiasm. It doesn't matter what you teach. It doesn't matter if your classroom is on campus or online. It doesn't matter if you just wrapped up your first year on the faculty or if you've been a fixture for decades. The Teaching Professor Conference generates insights and spurs inspiration that can invigorate your teaching and generate greater learning for your students.

If you are a graduate student, instructor, or university staff member interested in SoTL research, this program is designed for you to: Evaluate SoTL research articles Complete a facilitated SoTL research project Engage in reflective practice Present research findings at a teaching and learning conference The program begins May 10, 2016 and includes in-class and online course delivery. All applications are due April 1, 2016. Apply today!

Action Research Network of the Americas  We invite you to join us in Knoxville, Tennessee where our conference theme, MAKING A DIFFERENCE: ACTION RESEARCH FOR A CHANGE, will draw inspiration from the history of Highlander Education and Research Center, and the legacy of change that it has spawned. The epigraph from Myles Horton above refers to his founding of the Highlander Folk School, but also speaks to unique contexts and a focus on interaction that are broadly understood elements of the of diverse field of action research. As with Action Research, this will not be your typical conference. This will be a platform for Inter-Action. Dialogue will be our primary form of interaction with skilled facilitators encouraging participants to join the action and to think together collaboratively. Presentations are limited to short time frames so conference attendees can be actively involved in facilitated dialogue in each session. Poster presentations will be displayed during a boxed lunch session so participants will have time to mingle and network with presenters. Also, new this year this year, we will have Pecha Kucha presentations. These presenters will show 20 slides, for 20 seconds each, and talk for a total of approximately 6.5 minutes with 45 minutes allotted for dialogue following. For further information on pecha kucha visitwww.pechakucha.org and examples HERE and HERE. With four conference tracks, there will be something for everyone. Conference tracks are; Action Research for Social Change, Action Research for Pedagogical Change, Action Research for Change in helping Professions, and Action Research for Change… in Action!

Teaching and Learning Dialogues: Practice, Share, Publish Share your ideas about classroom practices. Work on a draft paper. Give and receive peer feedback and get tips to get your paper published.

The inquire Certificate is a non-degree certificate program that has been developed for you to enhance your ability and competency in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). With attention to the authentic experience of conducting SoTL, the inquire Certificate is designed to be collaborative and inquiry based.  Upon successful completion of the program, you can expect to leave with the following: Non-degree program certificate in The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, offered by Open Learning and Educational Support (OpenEd) at the University of Guelph Named award in Enhancing Research Practice, accredited by the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) Peer-reviewed conference presentation

The Master Online Teacher (MOT) certificate The MOT is a comprehensive faculty development program utilizing the MVCR series. This program certifies participants who achieve a demonstrated knowledge related to online course design, online instruction, and other issues related to online teaching and learning. These competencies make a master online teacher.

The Teaching Professor Technology Conference will examine the technologies that are changing the way teachers teach and students learn while giving special emphasis to the pedagogically effective ways you can harness these new technologies in your courses and on your campus. The three-day conference will bring together faculty, instructional designers, faculty developers, educational technology leaders, and other higher education professionals interested in learning more about how technology is altering the learning environment.

This International Summer Institute is one of the first to be held on the topic of 'students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education'. It has several key features which make it distinctive: Key features The overall aim of the International Summer Institute is to build the capacity and understanding of faculty, staff and students to develop, design and implement initiatives to promote the practice of students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. Faculty, staff and students in higher education are invited to come to McMaster University, about 45 minutes south of Toronto International Airport, for two, three or four days from 2-5 May 2016. Faculty and staff are encouraged where possible to bring a student with them, or students should bring a member of faculty/staff with them, to participate in either one or two consecutive two day highly interactive workshops. Alternatively teams of 4-6 faculty/staff and students (at least two of each) from an institution may apply to join a three day 'Change Institute' where they will be supported to plan the implementation of a Students as Partners initiative. Inter-institutional teams are also welcome. The Summer Institute will be facilitated by highly experienced faculty, staff and students including Peter Felten (Elon, US), Mick Healey (Healey HE Consultants, UK), Beth Marquis (McMaster, Canada) and Kelly Matthews (Queensland, Australia) The McMaster International Summer Institute has students threaded throughout every aspect of the work - from the planning to the facilitating to the participating teams.

The Certificate in Blended and Online teaching is made up of 11 blended and online modules, which can be completed as a whole or as stand-alone resources. The modules contain facilitator guides for online or face-to-face instruction, PowerPoint slides for face-to-face instruction, videos, handouts and SCORM packages.

This workshop will give college teachers from any campus the opportunity to learn about these ideas, apply them to one of their own courses, and receive feedback on their new course design. This is a "Doing" workshop, NOT a "talking heads" seminar. Participants will spend over 50% of the workshop time "doing" course design: re-designing their courses, sharing their design with others, and getting feedback on their design.

"This retreat is for faculty in higher education. It is based on the philosophy that well facilitated shoptalk is one of the highest forms of professional development. No individual "expert" can match the collective knowledge, experience, wisdom, creativity, and genius of 30-40 teachers who are actively involved in their profession. The participants themselves are the experts at the retreat! You will meet with other teachers from different disciplines and institutions, engage in highly interactive discussions, share successful teaching strategies and innovations, seek solutions to your own teaching problems and challenges, and much more (see instructions for Prior Preparation about what to bring to the retreat). The retreat facilitators will provide structure and guidelines to help assure effective use of retreat time, but you and the other participants will decide which issues are most important and relevant to discuss. Together, we will pursue a quest for the ideal of the "great teacher." The Red Rock Great Teaching Retreat is based on the seminar model of the National Great Teachers Movement, founded in 1969 by David Gottshall. This movement continues to grow with workshops, retreats, and seminars held across the United States, Canada, and other parts of the world."

In distance education, keeping up means staying far ahead. At the Distance Teaching & Learning Conference you will discover innovative ways to teach and support online learners. Choose from more than 140 sessions to build the skills you need and learn best strategies, practices, and solutions. Connect with experts in online education and engage with eLearning colleagues from around the world.

Opportunity or Burden? The Department Chair's Role in Leading Academic Change "The department chair position is the most critical role in the university...80% of university decisions are made at the department level...yet only 3 percent of chairs receive training in leadership." (Gmelch and Miskin, Department Chair Leadership Skills, 2011) This meeting will bring together both new and veteran department and division chairs for a two-day workshop designed to address some of the most pressing challenges facing the Department Chair.

The three-day conference is packed with learning opportunities designed to enrich your teaching practice. There are preconference workshops that provide hands-on learning, plenary sessions keynoted by nationally-recognized experts, carefully selected concurrent sessions on a range of relevant topics, poster presentations highlighting the latest research, and all sorts of occasions for informal interaction.

Making Academic Change Happen  MACH is an experience, a philosophy, and an approach. Most simply, MACH is a three day workshop during which change agents learn the skills they need to implement changes on their campuses. This approach harnesses the lessons of the research literature in institutional change and translates them into actionable skills any faculty member can learn and utilize.

A unique one-year Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) accredited, non-degree certificate program, inquire is designed for graduate students and instructors looking to engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). The inquire certificate includes face-to-face sessions and online course delivery, providing participants studying from a distance with the flexibility to conduct their own disciplinary studies while simultaneously enhancing their abilities in the scholarship of teaching and learning. A blended learning, inquiry-based program, the inquire certificate can be achieved by completing the following three successive courses: Foundations and Frameworks in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conducting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Communicating Findings in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program participants can expect to ethically and collaboratively identify, investigate, and answer a question related to teaching and learning. The inquire non-degree program certificate will use an inquiry-based learning approach to enable students to develop and apply pedagogical knowledge and skills by collaboratively researching a self-identified question related to teaching and learning. Two mandatory face-to-face sessions occur throughout the certificate. The first face-to-face session is a four-day Action Institute running at the beginning of the first course (May 5-8, 2015). The second face-to-face session occurs at the end of the certificate during the 2016 Teaching and Learning Innovations Conference at the University of Guelph. All other components of the certificate will be offered online.

The Open Education Global Conference is the annual opportunity for researchers, practitioners, policy makers and educators to deeply explore open education and its impact on global education. Conference participants will hear from thought leaders in open education and have the opportunity to share ideas, practices and discuss issues important to the future of education worldwide.  Sessions cover new developments in open education, research results, innovative technology, policy development and implementation, and practical solutions to challenges facing education around the world. The theme for Open Education Global 2015 is Entrepreneurship and Innovation, emphasizing the exciting directions and developments in open education around the world.

Moving Beyond "One-Size-Fits-All" by Targeting Three Strategic and Transformative Approaches: Evidence-Based Learning; Personalized Learning and Holistic Outcomes Assessment

The 2015 National Forum on Active Learning Classrooms (NF-ALC) at the University of Minnesota focuses on advancing practice and research on active learning classroom spaces. The NF-ALC will feature new session formats (see the Submission Guidelines) designed to provide opportunities for participants to demonstrate innovative practices and research that leverage the advantages of technology-enhanced learning spaces and active learning pedagogies. Our expectation is that participants from a wide variety of institutions will attend the NF-ALC to a) examine common issues affecting the effective use of these spaces and chart a path for their resolution; b) share successful practices that have enriched the student and faculty experience in active learning classrooms; and c) build and deepen networks with colleagues in order to advance their campus efforts. The forum is framed by the alignment between the use of new learning spaces and achieving the academic priorities of many universities and colleges, such as increased retention, improved graduation rates, student engagement, emerging technologies, and global learning. Since these priorities are of broad interest to all working in higher education, international participation is most welcome.