Collaborative Partner Event Sessions

Innovations in Teaching & Learning

Collaborative Partner Event Sessions 

Session Details: 

The goal of these collaborative sessions is to leverage the large audience reach of ITL to draw attention to (and hopefully participation in) featured university-wide teaching-related initiatives or programs.  They are listed as sessions in the ITL Conference Schedule, but they are also open to others in the Mason community that have not registered for the conference.  Typically, the office or program team leading the session has their own invitation process or participant recruitment campaign for these events (in addition to being advertised as a session at the conference).    

Successful sessions in the past have utilized a session plan that either follows a facilitated panel discussion with active participant Q&A model or involves participants working individually and in small teams to produce a shared document or product related to the university-wide initiative.  


Preparing for Your Session: 

  1. We will be offering presenter preparation sessions in July, August, and SeptemberPast presenters who prefer an asynchronous refresher of the most important details for the conference will have the option of watching a video instead. Please check your email for details.    
  2. Please connect with your assigned session host/tech host at least once prior to the conference–share with them your session plan, how you would like to be introduced, and what kind of help you want with Zoom tools. You may wish to schedule a time with them prior to the event to practice or provide them with additional introduction material or session support instructions. We will send you the name of your assigned session/tech host(s) via email in August/September. 
  3. If you wish to publish any supplementary materials (links, handouts, videos, etc.) to be available pre- and/or post-conference via the ITL Conference Proceedings site, please follow the instructions under “Submitting Conference Materials” on the For Presenters page. All submissions are due by August 30, 2021.  
  4. You may also find these resources helpful: 

Day of Session: 

Please plan to log in your session 20-30 minutes before the start of your session time (no later than 15 minutes before the session start time) to ensure your connection is working, to touch base with the session host introducing you, and to address any last-minute setup concerns. 

There will be some ITL conference slides open at the start of your session to visually welcome participants.  Session hosts will open the session for you with a general ITL welcome statement, explain the format and logistics of the session, and introduce you.  During the session, they will help by keeping time and monitoring the chat box for your session. You will also have a Stearns Center tech host who will schedule the Zoom meeting for you, monitor the waiting room, manage muting or removing disruptive participants, help with Zoom features like breakout groups, etc.  The session host will wrap up the session by thanking you and the participants and sharing a few ITL conference announcements (including evaluation). 


After Your Session: 

After a great deal of consideration of the conference goals and community feedback, we have decided that live sessions will NOT be recorded.  We encourage live presenters to contribute resources to share on the ITL Conference Proceedings site after the event for both session attendees and non-attendees in lieu of a session recording–think of this as a 1-page summary of the key take-aways and ideas that were shared by participants (names removed).   

Need Zoom help?

Zoom tutorial videos and resources

Zoom Session Tips