Independent Learning: Building on experience, seeking new perspectives

Proposals are invited for papers, workshops and posters in the following areas:

• assessment in self-directed learning
• autonomy and teacher education
• autonomy in the classroom
• developing life-long learners
• e-learning initiatives
• learner and teacher experiences
• managing independent learning centres
• self-directed and self-access learning

Papers

Paper presenters are asked to restrict their presentations to 30 minutes; 10 minutes will be allocated for questions. Each session will therefore have a total duration of 40 minutes.

Workshops

Workshop sessions must include active audience participation through experiencing and discussing tasks provided by the workshop facilitator. Workshop sessions will generally be 40 minutes but, with detailed justification, can be allocated a double session with a total duration of 100 minutes.

Posters and e-posters

Posters and e-posters are invited in any of the areas listed above. Posters may be any size up to 92 cm wide x 112 cm height or equivalent made up of separate sheets. E-posters can be in the following formats, up to a maximum size of 10MB:

1.	Windows OS Microsoft Powerpoint or Word 2003 files PDF files jpeg, wmv, Flash or QuickTime files
2.	Web-based using sites such as http://www.flickr.com/, http://www.vcasmo.com/, http://www.slideshare.net/ or http://docs.google.com/.

Presenters of posters will need to submit an abstract indicating the topic area, the likely structure of the poster and type (i.e. poster or e-poster, including format). Electronic versions of accepted posters may be posted on the ILA website for 12 months following the conference.

Submitting abstracts

Abstracts of papers, workshops and posters should be 150-200 words in length, include a title not exceeding 10 words and state the area (see list above) into which the submission falls.
Abstracts of papers and workshops should be submitted via the online submission process which will require presenters to register for an ILAC 2009 Presenter account. Abstracts of posters and e-posters should be submitted via email to enquiries.ilac2009@elc.polyu.edu.hk. All abstracts should be submitted no later than 10 October, 2008.

Selection Process

All those submitting abstracts will be informed by 24 December, 2008 whether their abstracts have been accepted.

Criteria for Acceptance

All abstracts will be double blind reviewed. Relevance to the themes of the conference, originality and applicability to the conference audience are key considerations in the acceptance of papers, workshops and posters. The Conference Committee reserves the right to decline paper, workshop or poster proposals without assigning reasons.
Presenters of papers, workshops and posters will receive acceptance letters, thereby facilitating sponsorship from employers.

Equipment

As well as laptop computers (with Microsoft Windows XP and Office 2003) and data projectors in every room, audio and/or video equipment can be arranged if requested on the proposal form. Please confirm equipment request when registering for the conference (Presenters' deadline for registration: 1 March, 2009).

Conference publication

Selected full papers will be published in a special conference publication. This will be in the form of an edited book published by Hong Kong University Press. Details here.

Key Dates

• New closing date for receipt of abstracts is 10 October, 2008.
• Presenters will be informed whether their proposal has been accepted by 24 December, 2008.
• All presenters must register and pay for the conference by 1 March, 2009.
• Abstracts submitted by participants who have not registered by 1 March, 2009 will be removed from the programme.