We recently participated in a Digital Learning Summit convened by the University of Notre Dame.
This was a conveying of 60 practitioners and leaders of digital learning initiatives gathered from 18 universities. Coming out of the Summit, we believe that there is much that can be learned for how to effectively host an in-person academic meeting. The seven things that Notre Dame got right about the Summit, and might profitably be thought of as a template for future academic gatherings, are as follows:
1 - Convene On a Campus
We get that large disciplinary conferences or higher education professional meetings are too big to run on a university campus. These meetings require convention spaces and large hotels. Fine.
The Digital Learning Summit convened by Notre Dame offered a different sort of model of academic gathering. One focussed on bringing together peers and colleagues leading digital learning initiatives. For more tightly focused gatherings of academics, the places that we want to come together are on our campuses.
There is something about meetings with peers at other institutions that take place on a host campus that is just better. Maybe it is the opportunity to walk around the campus during breaks. Or perhaps it is the energy of having students, faculty, and staff attend the keynote, along with the conference participants. The energy and the vibe are just good when the destination is another university.
2 - Build the Gathering Around a Theme
The theme of the Digital Learning Summit was access, equity, and inclusion. The keynote, presentations, panels, and conversations all revolved around this theme.
First, it is unusual for a convening of digital learning people to have the opportunity to spend a couple of solid days sharing insights and advice around access, equity, and inclusion. That theme is certainly present in other meetings and conferences in which participants of the Summit tend to gather, but it is a topic among many.
The discipline and constraints that a theme imposes enable deeper thinking and conversations. Choosing a single area of discussion to build an academic convening around does come with trade-offs. That choice of meeting design can only work in a smaller academic gathering but is perhaps another reason why our academic gatherings should be small.
3 - Curate A List of Diverse and Connected Attendees
The number of participants that Notre Dame invited to the Digital Learning Summit was about 60. This was a good number, large enough to bring some range of institutional and demographic backgrounds, but small enough to enable reasonably intimate conversations with everyone attending.
The organizers of the Summit were clear that the small size and method of sending out invitations through existing networks did limit the diversity of institution types and attendees. In future summits (this first one was billed as a “beta”), the hope is to invite more participants from community colleges, HBCUs, HSIs, and other groups less well-represented at the first gathering.
4 - Invite an Inspiring Keynote Speaker from Academia
The keynote speaker at the Digital Learning Summit at Notre Dame was Harvard professor Anthony A. Jack, author of the acclaimed 2019 book The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students. The keynote, “Pink Slips (for Some): How Class, Culture, and Closures Shapes Student Access to University Resources,” was based on the research that Dr. Jack conducted for his next book.
The choice of Professor Jack to keynote the Digital Learning Summit was inspired. Not only did the topic of the talk perfectly align with themes of equity, access, and inclusion of the Summit - Dr. Jack was highly engaged with and accessible following his keynote. The lesson is for small conferences and convenings, the goal should be to find a keynote speaker that is relevant to the theme of the event, inspiring for the conversations ahead, and oriented towards collegial connecting with attendees of the gathering.
5 - Avoid the Temptation to Split Into Tracks
The Digital Learning Summit at Notre Dame was small enough that all the sessions, panels, and conversations were for everyone attending. There were no tracks or splitting of the group into different talks at the same time. The impact of this decision meant that there was always a critical mass of people in the room for good conversation, without anybody feeling the necessity to attend every session.
It may be that 60 attendees is the sweet spot for this type of single-room gathering. The fact that there were usually not 60 in the room ensured that the numbers were good for session-related conversations. At the same time, having everyone together created a shared understanding of the experience of the Summit among attendees.
6 - Design Plenty of Informal Time for Conversation Into the Schedule
For many attendees of this Digital Learning Summit at Notre Dame, including us, the most productive and impactful times of the gathering were not during sessions, panels, and talks (although many were brilliant), but during unstructured conversations. Fortunately, the organizers of the Summit left plenty of space for informal talking. Even better, those spaces were most often well-stocked with healthy food and coffee.
What the organizers of The Digital Learning Summit at Notre Dame did really well was to take a relaxed approach to the convening. Folks were able to design and create their own experience, from more consistent participation in sessions to more time spent informally talking. It helps that Summit took place on the amazing Notre Dame campus, an ideal setting for walking meetings.
7 - Close On a High Note
The final session of the Digital Learning Summit was a leadership roundtable facilitated by Trinity College’s Kristen Eshleman. The panel included Amy Collier (Middlebury College), Evie Cummings (University of Florida), Romy Ruukel (Boston University), and Rebecca Stein (University of Pennsylvania). Structurally and thematically, the closing panel discussion provided a powerful bookend to the gathering. These five academic leaders are inspirations to all of us in higher education.
Our hope is that future Digital Learning Summits follow a similar formula for success, retaining the seven ingredients that we think make for productive, relaxed, and energizing academic convenings.
Post-Covid, as we are all desperate to get off Zoom and get together in one place, the inaugural Digital Learning Summit at Notre Dame may be a template in which to build future academic meetings.
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