The Fast Track to Success Conference consists of presentations, panels, and lightning talks on innovation in higher education. This conference will provide a forum for sharing lessons-learned, strategies, outlooks, data, and elements of competency-based education and other innovative models at all levels of instruction and learning in higher education. The theme of this conference is Connect, Share, Innovate!

Tracks

Course Development/Program Design

What does competency-based education or alternative learning actually look like in practice as seen through the delivery of programs to its target audiences?

Tech Tools for New Learning Paradigms

What new technologies, applications, and tools have been shown to be effective in supporting competency-based education and other innovations in higher education?

Faculty/Staff Development and Support

How can we provide professional development to faculty and other stakeholders on designing, developing, and evaluating competency-based and other innovative programs, with the goal of empowering these constituents towards self-sufficiency as well as mentorship?

Student Support Services

What are ways to include Student Services as team members in the change management process when launching competency-based and other innovative and disruptive programs?

Assessment, Evaluation, and Metrics

In competency-based and other approaches to learning, how do we:

  1. assess students’ learning in these programs;
  2. evaluate whether and when these programs are working; and
  3. incorporate this gained knowledge into iterative improvement?
Financial Aid and Institutional Systems

What issues, constraints, and strategies surrounding innovations such as competency-based education may disrupt financial aid, SIS, IT, and Instructional Technology systems, and what processes can be put into place to deal with these?

On the Horizon

Given the fast-changing nature of higher education, how might new approaches to learning in the next decade evolve?

Formats

Presentations

Presentations describe but are not limited to, a current competency-based education or innovation project, research project, classroom experience, teaching techniques, curricular design, evidence of student success, and engagement with innovative academic projects. Each presentation will be a maximum of 60 minutes in length, including Q&A.
The submission for a presentation will include a maximum 250-word summary that includes the title, objective, significance, and description of the session.

Panels

The purpose of the panel is to present diverse views and multiple perspectives on a specific topic. An effective panel is one with four participants including the moderator. Each panel session will be a maximum of 60 minutes in length, including Q&A. The panelists could be faculty, administrators, support staff, ed-tech companies, or students. Panel submission will include the names and institutional affiliations of the panelists along with a maximum three-sentence position statement from each panelist. In addition, the panel submission will include a maximum 250-word overview of the panel including the topic, objective, significance, and description of the session.

Lightning Talks

Lightning talks are short 6-8 minute presentations that describe an idea, a research project, a project design, or a project implementation. Lightning talks are great ways to present your projects and get feedback from the audience. In addition, they are an excellent platform to find collaborators and evaluators for your projects.