The Great Ideas Summit is an annual opportunity for educators across campus to gather in community to focus on a timely topic in teaching and learning. The planning for this year’s event is a collaboration between The Center for Teaching and Learning, University Foundations, and the eCampus Center. The 2025 Great Ideas for Teaching and Learning Summit will take place on March 28th, 2025, and the theme is “Real Talk: Embracing the Challenges of Teaching and Learning”.
We will start the day with an opening keynote by Dr. Jessamyn Neuhaus on “Real Talk about Teaching: Normalizing Educators’ Setbacks, Struggles, and Snafus”. Dr. Neuhaus will discuss the myths and misconceptions that contribute to the popular and the scholarly discourse depicting the idea of the perfect professor and of teaching as something that can never be perfect. She shows why we urgently need to normalize the ongoing challenges of effective teaching. She argues that one specific, proven way we can normalize mistakes as both individuals, as well as institutions, is by talking more about teaching.
This year’s Great Ideas Summit will be held in person, with ways provided for participants to engage remotely as well. The day will include Lightning Talk presentations from educators across campus on the topic of “Real Talk about Student Success: Normalizing setbacks and snafus.” (submit a proposal by March 3rd, 2025), lunch with teaching award ceremonies, a workshop facilitated by Dr. Neuhaus, on “Supporting Student Success with ‘Productive Error’ Course Design”, and roundtable discussions led by CTL Student Partners. For more information about the day’s agenda visit the Great Ideas Summit Website. You can register for the event via Campus Groups.