Roles, Rights and Responsibilities:
Negotiating Relationships
25 - 27 November 2009, Jury's Inn Hotel, Birmingham

Guidance for Contributors

There will be a number of invited keynote and 'Thinking Aloud' panel sessions during the conference and sessions from staff and students from across the social sciences and support departments in HE. We are looking for people - individuals or groups, staff and students - who are interested in leading a range of sessions. These sessions may be around things that are working for you, intriguing you, interesting you, or challenging you in relation to the main themes of the conference.

We would really like to encourage sessions which:

• involve students - (preferably bringing students with you);
• include 'interactivity' - 'bring-and-ask', panels, workshops, use of virtual learning environments;
• have session titles posed as a question – with the view to explore your issues with colleagues.

We welcome papers that address the above themes, please see the call for papers for more detail about each theme and types of sessions and presentations we are looking for.

Types of contribution

As a guide we are looking for contributions that would fall into one of the following themes:

• teaching and learning experiences;
• research and the student experience;
• curriculum development and change;
• administration and management issues around the conference themes;
• theory and its relevance to the conference themes;
• policy and its relevance to the conference themes.

Guidance on making proposals for contribution

This section offers guidance to help you write your proposal and support you in the delivery of your breakout session at the conference. Many of you will be already familiar with these suggestions.

• Workshops: These sessions may involve discussion and audience participation as a key part of the session. The purpose of the session could allow participants to learn and practice through problem-solving, hands-on guidance and involved participation. The outcome of the session could lead to a future activity, further action or a change in your practice.
• Discussion Forum: This can be an opportunity for you to exchange ideas, pose questions, offer answers and seek help on the relevant LTA development you have decided to discuss. Discussions can be recorded/delivered in a number of ways (e.g. audio, video) and could be opened up as part of a wider electronic discussion forum through C-SAP at a later date. Typically this could involve a limited mixture of formal presentation followed by one-to-one, group and open discussion.
• Seminars: This type of session might aim to enrich the skills of the participants. Some presentation of knowledge or skill in LTA development could be presented and using a combination of techniques including visual aids, active interaction with participants and problem solving, the purpose is to raise awareness and/or increase the participants' understanding of that area.
• Paper presentations: Typically a 20 minute presentation, followed by 10 minutes for questions and discussion. Presenters may use a range of media for delivering their talk (powerpoint, video and audio, web demonstration) or use other supporting materials. We would seek to capture each presentation as part of our resource collection. If you wish to make a contribution which you feel falls out of the above suggested breakout session types then please do discuss this with us.

Posters

In addition to the breakout sessions we are also interested in colleagues providing posters for display at the conference. Posters can be a visual representation of a piece of work which address any of the conference themes. This could be used as part of your session or as a standalone visual. We recommend that:

• posters are created by individuals or groups of staff and to use the photocopying services available to them;
• a minimum size of A3 is recommended;
• all contact details to be included on the poster.

Presenter requirements

We expect to be able to provide the facilities for PowerPoint presentations, web usage, audio and video, and for flip charts will also be available. If you have requirements beyond these facilities please let us know when you make your proposal for a contribution, preferably, and certainly no later than one month before the conference.

How to submit a proposal

Please submit your proposal using the proposal form, and return to Frances Worall by email to f.l.worrall@bham.ac.uk. You will receive an acknowledgment of your proposal within two weeks. All proposals will be considered by the conference organisers before you are notified of their decision on inclusion. If you are proposing a session we will also tell you when we plan to schedule your contribution.

Please note that the deadline for proposals will be 17 July 2009. We look forward to your contribution, if you wish to talk through your ideas before submitting a proposal, please contact Frances Worral in the first instance.

Conference Proceedings

We will also be producing a set of proceedings from the conference, if you would like to consider your paper for inclusion please see the proceedings information.