UPCEA is proud to present the 2027 Digital Teaching & Learning (DT&L) Conference, a virtual gathering designed for the professionals shaping the future of teaching, learning, and learner success in digital environments.
DT&L brings together instructional designers, instructors, academic technologists, learning experience designers, faculty members, researchers, student success professionals, digital learning leaders, and innovators from across higher education. The conference serves as a collaborative space where practitioners share ideas, test assumptions, examine emerging trends, and explore new approaches to creating meaningful learning experiences.
As digital learning continues to evolve, institutions are challenged to support increasingly diverse learners, integrate emerging technologies responsibly, design engaging and accessible educational experiences, and prepare learners for rapidly changing workforce and societal needs. DT&L provides a forum for the higher education community to explore these challenges together while highlighting practical strategies, research, innovations, and lessons learned.
Especially encouraged are presentations that demonstrate collaboration across departments or institutions, engage participants actively in the virtual environment, and offer approaches that can be adapted across diverse institutional contexts, learner populations, and educational settings.
DT&L centers on the design, delivery, improvement, and study of teaching and learning in digital environments. We welcome proposals that explore how educational experiences are created, facilitated, evaluated, and transformed to better serve learners.
Proposals Due September 30
Proposals may address, but are not limited to, the following areas:
Innovative approaches to digital, online, hybrid, and blended teaching
Strategies that promote learner engagement and persistence
Active learning and community-building in digital environments
Assessment, feedback, and authentic evaluation practices
Instructor perspectives and teaching innovations
Student success initiatives connected to learning experiences
Instructional design and learning experience design practices
Human-centered and learner-centered design approaches
Course and program redesign initiatives
Quality assurance and continuous improvement processes
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Accessibility and inclusive design practices
Open educational practices and affordable learning initiatives
Multimedia and immersive learning experiences
Responsible and ethical uses of generative AI
AI-enhanced teaching, learning, and learner support
Learning analytics and data-informed improvement
Adaptive and personalized learning environments
Emerging technologies and immersive experiences
Digital fluency and AI literacy development
Technology innovations that improve learning outcomes
Faculty development programs and partnerships
Building institutional capacity for digital learning innovation
Communities of practice and collaborative models
Supporting instructional innovation at scale
Change management related to teaching and learning
Cross-functional collaboration among instructors, designers, technologists, and student support teams
Research findings related to digital learning
Scholarship of teaching and learning
Emerging trends and future-focused explorations
Evaluations of new practices, technologies, and interventions
Lessons learned from experimentation and innovation
Controversial or challenging topics that advance dialogue within the field
Skills-focused and workforce-aligned learning experiences
Digital learning in professional, continuing, and lifelong education
Employer-informed curriculum design
Competency development and assessment
New models connecting learning and workforce outcomes
Strong proposals will:
Address a significant challenge, opportunity, or emerging issue in digital teaching and learning
Share practical strategies, research findings, innovations, or lessons learned
Demonstrate measurable impact, evidence, or reflective practice
Engage participants through discussion, interaction, or collaborative learning
Offer approaches that can be adapted by institutions of varying types and sizes
Contribute to advancing learner success, educational quality, accessibility, or innovation
Particularly valued are proposals that illustrate how institutions are creating learning experiences that are innovative, inclusive, evidence-based, and responsive to evolving learner and workforce needs.
Proposals are expected to highlight a deeply relevant topic and explore trends and developments in our field, share innovative solutions, disseminate research, explore emerging or best practices, and/or examine controversial ideas which evoke debate and discussion.
Proposals will offer learning outcomes/goals and a clear plan to engage the audience, and will denote a particular presentation format as well as content “level” (i.e., foundational, applied, or strategic).
Proposals should include the names of all speakers at the time of submission.
Presenters are expected to have knowledge and significant experience in online learning and must include complete contact information for all presenters.
Proposals by corporate members must include a current UPCEA institutional member as co-presenter. Information about UPCEA membership is found on our Membership page.
Proposals which do not meet the above elements will be considered incomplete and will not be reviewed. View the UPCEA Member-Curated Resources For Submitting Proposals for more guidance.
Selected presenters are responsible for any expenses incurred in conjunction with the event, including registration.
The proposal system cannot path questions based on responses so all users will see specific questions on workshop and research sessions regardless of their selections.
There will be approximately 5 workshops (60-minutes) and 15-20 concurrent sessions (50-minutes). Digital copies of presentation materials will be collected from presenters in advance of the conference for dissemination via the event platform.
Conference organizers reserve the right to revise presentation titles, designate a conference track, combine sessions, or edit the description of selected presentations for promotional and program publications.
Proposals will be selected to ensure the event offers a comprehensive, noncommercial, objective, and diverse program. Attention will be given to the diversity of institutions, presenters, and geographic location.
All proposals will be peer-reviewed and evaluated on these criteria:
Practical methods and techniques that others can use and apply
Clear learning goals and key takeaways
Relevance to the field of digital education and online learning
Depth of knowledge conveyed related to digital teaching, learning, and training
Inclusion of evaluation data and/or established theoretical models
Evidence of successful outcomes or lessons learned
If your proposal is accepted, you agree:
to attend a training session the week of December 8.
to register for the conference by December 10.
to provide electronic versions of presentations, materials/handouts for attendees by January 15, 2026
that if stated deadlines are not met, the conference organizers reserve the right to select an alternate presentation in its place.
July 29: Request for Proposals announced
September 30: Proposals due
Week of November 2: Selected proposals notified
General Sessions - 60-minute panel/presentations followed by location-specific activities (45-minutes) and community share (highlighting/sharing the location-specific activities for 15-minutes).
Workshops - 60-minute sessions that provide a high-quality, interactive, and practical experience to develop participants’ knowledge and skills in a specific area. Workshops are deep dives, wherein participants are actively, tangibly engaged in their learning, via collaboration and hands-on interaction. Workshop presenters generally spend less than half of the session sharing their ideas and information, followed by a planned activity that promotes interaction and discussion, generally ending with a takeaway for participants.
Concurrent Sessions - 50-minute presentations, panels, or case studies. Regardless of content format, speakers should plan no more than 30-35 minutes for their content and allocate 10-15 minutes to discussion and Q&A. Further, speakers should strive to present information geared towards an experienced, bordering on expert, audience. Background or foundational concepts should be included in a “resources or a ‘learn more about…’” slide at the end of the presentation.
Lightning Talks & Industry Insights - 10-minute focused presentations grouped by theme (presenters will speak once for their allotted time within the session block). During one, 45-minute concurrent session, presenters will present in sequence, organized around a common theme or issue identified in their initial conference proposal. Lightning talks are designed to elevate important topics, opportunities, and solutions attendees may be wrestling with at their institutions. Lightning sessions will have a moderator who will welcome attendees, introduce each speaker, and watch the time, ensuring presenters stick to their allotted time to allow all scheduled presenters to do so. This session format allows attendees to engage with up to five different topics/presenters in one session..
Poster Presentations & Speed Demos (corporate) - 3 to 5-minute pre-recorded or asynchronous interactive content available in a virtual gallery available before, after, and during each day’s events. Presenters will be provided a slide template of up to five slides, uploaded to the platform with attendees stopping in and accessing the recordings at their time permits. Each recording will center around a hot topic, best practice, or technological innovation.
Please contact our team at pd@upcea.edu.