Conference Themes

The Institution: Providing Institutional Support and Incentives for the Scholarship of Outreach and Engagement — Locally and Globally

Leaders of engaged universities provide support for academic faculty members and students who connect their research and teaching, and learning to work with communities; and for outreach faculty members who involve students in their work in communities. They also encourage collaborations and partnerships across university units, and with organizations external to the university. This theme is for presentations that describe the nature of institutional support and incentives, and that provide evidence of impact on the institution as a whole, on faculty, on students, and on communities.

• How do institutions balance the tensions between the quest for higher institutional rankings and higher levels of research funding with critical community, state, national, and global needs? And, what has been the impact of efforts to balance these tensions?


• How do universities connect mission and goals for different systems of outreach within the institution (i.e. outreach and engagement in the disciplines, and in units that have outreach and engagement as their core mission)? What has been the impact of connections made?


• How do institutions support continuing education for the public — as a part of their institutional mission? And, what has been the impact of such support?

The Community: Building Strong Relationships between Communities and Universities: Access, Reciprocity, Sustainability — Locally and Globally

This theme is for discussion and analysis of how universities continue to be "engines of equality," rather than becoming "engines of inequality" in terms of access by students and the public to the institution.

• How do universities make themselves accessible to communities? What efforts are taken to ensure reciprocity in the relationship? How are partnerships with communities sustained?


• How do individual faculty members make themselves and their research accessible to communities? How do faculty members communicate their evidence-based data in a way that is accepted by the public? What efforts are taken to ensure reciprocity in the relationship? How do faculty members sustain partnerships with communities?


• How do individual faculty members involve their students and make student work accessible to communities? What steps do faculty members take to ensure that students understand that they learn as much from community members as the community members will learn from student engagement? How are partnerships with communities sustained when connected to specific courses that may not be taught on a regular basis?

The Faculty: Doing the Scholarship of Outreach and Engagement: Best Practices, Lessons Learned, and the Impact on Faculty Members from Interconnecting their Research, Teaching, and Outreach and Engagement Roles — Locally and Globally

This theme is for presenters to provide examples of faculty practice of the Scholarship of Outreach and Engagement with accompanying analysis of evidence based practices and their impact on the faculty member (related to publications, promotion, new research ideas, enhancements to teaching pedagogy, and the faculty member's relationship with the community).

• How do traditional academic faculty members "do" the Scholarship of Outreach and Engagement? What evidence-based practices has the faculty member discovered in the process of "doing" engaged scholarship? What has been the impact of doing engaged scholarship on the faculty member?


• How do Extension and Public Service faculty members involve university students in their work? Best practices; lessons learned?


• What types of support are provided to faculty members to support their scholarship of outreach and engagement efforts (e.g. seed grants, promotion and tenure guidelines, flexibility in assignments, awards, merit increases)? What has been the impact of such support on the faculty members professional development - intrinsically as well as extrinsically?

The Student: Contributing to Outreach and Engagement: Best Practices, Lessons Learned, and the Impact on Students from Connecting their Learning to Work in Communities — Locally and Globally

This theme has a two-fold purpose.

1. This theme provides an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students, professional students, as well as life-long learners (e.g. continuing education, community members) to present about their experiences from participating in local or global service-learning projects, internships, and field experiences. What evidence of impact has the student gathered related to the activity?
2. This theme also invites presentations on studies that have been done to evaluate the impact of local or global service-learning projects, internships, and field experiences on student
• academic learning;
• personal growth; and
• commitment to civic responsibility.

University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel.
Program questions? Email: melanie.baer@georgiacenter.uga.edu
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URL: www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/conferences/outreach_conference/themes.phtml
This page was last revised on Monday, June 1st, 2009