Rotating Conference

Speaker at symposium

                   This year´s conference will be held November 22nd 2024

One of the Teaching Academy’s main projects is a rotating conference that travels between the faculties of the public universities in Iceland. The conference creates an opportunity for each unit to contribute to the discussion on teaching. 

See the agenda here. The conference was held in Icelandic but some abstracts and talks were in English  

The host of this year’s conference is the School of Social Sciences at the University of Iceland. The theme of the conference is how to bridge the gap between secondary schools and universities and reflect on how to accommodate modern students in universities. 

Last year the conference was held on Friday 26 May at Veröld – House of Vigdís, at 10:00-16:00, in collaboration with the School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, University of Iceland.

The conference is held in Icelandic.

    Suitable topics include both research which teachers have conducted on their own teaching and descriptions of innovations, adaptations and challenges that teachers have pursued in their own teaching and how they dealt with them.

    More information about 2024 conference and abstracts can be found here. 

     Here is a template for abstracts (in Icelandic). 

    Abstracts should include clear answers to the following questions:

    • What was the problem?
    • What was a possible solution?
    • What was the outcome?

    The abstracts can be 800-1000 words long and those accepted will be published on the website after the conference.

    Here you can see a template for an abstract. 

    Abstracts can be submitted through the Academy ‘s email (kennsluakademia@hi.is).

    participants at a seminarThe conference ‘s seminars covered three topics: Learner-centered teaching, Flipped teaching and independent study, and Teaching after COVID.

    Following were the keynote lectures:

    • Student networking during COVID, Anna Helga Jónsdóttir, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Iceland.
    • Teaching during COVID – teacher ‘s experience at the Faculties of Social Sciences and Humanities, Matthew Whelpton, Director of Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Humanities, Professor in English Linguistics, Faculty of Languages and Cultures, Univeristy of Iceland. 
    • Student ‘s experience of distance learning, Salvör Káradóttir, distance student in biotechnology B.Sc. at the University of Akureyri.
    Keynote speakers took part in a panel discussion, along with Isabel Alejandra Díaz, president of the Student Council, and Guðrún Geirsdóttir, Associate Professor of Education and Head of the Centre for Teaching and Learning, University of Iceland. Sean Michael Scully, Adjunct at the Faculty of Natural Resource Sciences, University of Akureyri, mediated the discussions.

    Following were the workshops offered: 

    • Group based learning – Tómas Philip Rúnarsson, Professor, Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, Univeristy of Iceland.
    • Activating students during lectures – Margrét Sigrún Sigurðardóttir, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Iceland. 
    • Activating students during distance learning – Eva Marín Hlynsdóttir, Professor, Faculty of Political Science, University of Iceland.