CoTL Call for Proposals
Humans, Humanity, and the Humanities: Shaping Our Teaching and Learning Environments
A quick search of articles related to Gen AI in The Chronicle for Higher Education reveals a variety of reactions, solutions, and big questions about the future of higher education and our current students. Top hits from the article list include: "AI is Making the College Experience Lonelier" (September 22, 2025), "Can Generative AI Promote Student Success?" (September 26, 2025), and the tough question: "Can the Humanities Survive AI?" (January 23, 2025). The expansive use of AI is changing both how and what we teach. Is AI really the new calculator? Will it really boost our intelligence (Mollick, 2024)? As we wait for history to answer these questions, we, as humans, continue to be key in shaping our teaching and learning environments.
This year’s theme, Humans, Humanity, and the Humanities: Shaping Our Teaching and Learning Environments, invites participants to focus on the unique role of human thought, creativity, and moral reasoning, as AI changes the higher education landscape. We envision presentations that explore how we are maintaining the integral social learning environment in the age of AI and centralizing the importance of critical thinking, self-reflection, and the ethical application (and implications) of AI usage. We’ll consider:
- What do we mean by “Human in The Loop”?
- How can we design assignments in all disciplines that require meaningful human intervention, such as judgment, synthesis, creativity, ethical reasoning, rather than simple error-checking or low-stakes oversight?
- How do we preserve, sustain, maintain, and introduce humanity, caring, empathy into
our teaching and learning environments?
- What are the implications of AI for online learning? How can we combat online isolation and loneliness?
- What are the implications of AI for experiential learning - in clinical settings, in laboratory settings and workplace settings when working with other humans?
- What are the lessons of the humanities disciplines that we should keep in the forefront
as we navigate times of change?
- How are we modifying curricula to emphasize human connection, agency, and curiosity?
- How are we bringing a critical eye to assess textual, graphical and numerical information?
The South Alabama Conference on Teaching and Learning celebrates a strong partnership between USA, Spring Hill College, University of Mobile, Bishop State, Coastal Alabama, Columbia Southern, Mississippi Gulf Coast, and the United States Sports University. CoTL’s theme of Humans, Humanity, and the Humanities: Shaping Our Teaching and Learning Environments allows us to explore innovative uses of AI to support student academic success, within and beyond the classroom, with special emphasis on the role of humanity.
Through a variety of presentation formats including workshops, panels, roundtables, and research talks, we invite you to share your scholarly work in a welcoming and peer-reviewed conference tailored to the needs of instructors along the Gulf Coast.
Presentation Guidelines
Interactive sessions are designed to give the audience an opportunity to try out a technique, engage in group work around some interesting teaching and learning topic, or learn about and practice or technology.
The In-Person Interactive Workshop is 45 minutes of workshop time and 5 minutes of Q&A.
The Virtual Interactive Workshop is 40 minutes of workshop time and 5 minutes of Q&A.
Best Practices:
- Please design your workshop so that there is time for participants to ask questions and answers at the end.
- Include at least two engagement activities. These might include small group discussions, audience polling questions, think-pair-share activities, or other techniques that allow the audience to engage with your content.
- Be intentional about welcoming and including all participants. Design and facilitate activities in which all participants can participate.
Logistics: Each interactive workshop will have a moderator who will keep track of time. You will also have access to a computer and a projector.
The In-Person & Virtual Research Talks are designed to allow for a 15-minute presentation of a research study that is completed or in progress, with 5 minutes of question and answer.
We welcome studies that investigate a “teaching question,” a particular teaching practice that you have tried in your class, or another theme related to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. We also welcome studies related to student academic success, documented uses of a new tech tool, or an exploration of the student, faculty, or staff experience on an institutional or classroom level.
Best Practices:
- Please design your talk so that there is time for participants to ask questions and answers at the end. We recommend aiming for 5 to 10 minutes of questions.
- While this is a research talk, including one or two audience questions will increase engagement.
- Be intentional about welcoming and including all participants. Design questions in which all participants can participate.
Logistics: Each research talk will have a moderator who will keep track of time. You will also have access to a computer and a projector.
Panel discussions allow for multiple presenters to engage with each other and the audience. Panel discussions should include at least one moderator who poses questions following a main theme that each of the panel speakers have experienced.
The In-Person Panel is 50 minutes with Q&A built in throughout the discussion.
The Virtual Panel is slightly shorter to allow for online attention spans at 45 minutes.
Best Practices:
- Please make sure the audience has time to ask questions and interact with the panel members.
- Be intentional about welcoming and including all participants. Design questions in which all participants can participate.
Logistics: Each panel will have a room moderator who will keep track of time. Panels should identify a separate panel moderator. In person panels will have access to a computer and a projector.
The aim of a Roundtable Discussion is to explore a particular issue, event, question, program, or other topics related to the conference theme. Roundtables are particularly good settings for emerging topics. Facilitators will provide discussion prompts that may seek advice, feedback, or ask participants to share their experiences.
The In-Person Roundtable include a brief 5-10 minute overview of the target topics and 40-45 minutes of group discussion.
The Virtual Roundtable is slightly shorter to allow for online attention spans at 45 minutes.
Best Practices:
- Please aim for a brief 5-10 minute overview of the target topics and 40 to 35 minutes of group discussion.
- Be intentional about welcoming and including all participants. Design questions in which all participants can participate.
- Consider sharing community discussion norms
All proposals for presentation at CoTL are peer-reviewed by at least 2 reviewers. It is important to ensure that proposals are aligned with the conference theme and are likely to be of interest to the conference participants who are primarily faculty and instructional staff at regional institutions mentioned above.
We are weaving in-person and virtual options together on both days of the conference. When submitting a proposal, please indicate if you prefer to present in-person or online. Virtual presentations will be shared with our in-person and virtual audience via Zoom in one room in the student center. Virtual presenters and participants will be able to view other virtual presenters and the keynote speakers.
General Guidelines
All proposals must be submitted through the conference submission portal and will include:
-
Title of proposal (10 words or less)
-
Name of all presenters (all presenters must register to be included in the program)
-
Session Abstract (150 words or less):
Your session abstract will appear in the conference program. It should include a description of your topic, its alignment with the conference theme, and the general presentation plan, including your engagement activities and session outcomes/objectives. - Session Narrative (300 words or less):
In contrast to the abstract, your session narrative will provide conference reviewers deeper insight into the details of your proposed presentation. The narrative will not be shared in the conference program. Please include the following information:- the issue being addressed by the work presented and how it is unique and/or contributing to scholarship in this area
- how the proposal aligns with the conference theme
- an audience engagement plan (required for workshops, panels, and roundtables)
- how the proposal will be relevant to CoTL attendees from regional institutions of higher education
Evaluation criteria for all submissions include:
- Topic impacts Scholarship of Teaching and Learning or educational practices
- Topic aligns and supports the conference themes/goals
- Proposal includes an engagement plan