Reflections on the POD 2024 conference and why you might want to go!

Writ­ten by Jen Wrye with the assis­tance of Gen­er­a­tive AI

I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to attend the 2024 Pro­fes­sion­al and Orga­ni­za­tion­al Devel­op­ers’ Net­work (POD) con­fer­ence in Chica­go, Illi­nois. This was my sec­ond time going to POD and it is sure to make as big an impact on my prac­tice this time as it did the last!

What is POD?  

POD is the largest edu­ca­tion­al devel­op­ment com­mu­ni­ty in North Amer­i­ca, with a focus on sup­port­ing the work of teach­ing and learn­ing cen­tres and good qual­i­ty stu­dent learn­ing and teach­ing in high­er edu­ca­tion more broad­ly. It does this by build­ing pro­fes­sion­al and schol­ar­ly capac­i­ty, includ­ing offer­ing train­ing, cre­at­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing resources, pub­lish­ing prac­tice- and research-based pieces, and host­ing events, includ­ing its annu­al con­fer­ence. The clos­est thing to POD in Cana­da is the Soci­ety for Teach­ing and Learn­ing in High­er Edu­ca­tion (STLHE).

Conference Themes and Highlights

I was struck by three impor­tant themes at the con­fer­ence that I’ll use in my work: AI and tech­no­log­i­cal change, inclu­siv­i­ty, and being reflec­tive and inten­tion­al.

Gen­er­a­tive AI: There were a lot of ses­sions on AI, which offered ideas for using the tech­nolo­gies to enhance our work as teach­ers in the the cre­ation of learn­ing mate­ri­als, includ­ing lessons, activ­i­ties, and assess­ments. Prac­ti­tion­ers were opti­mistic about the oppor­tu­ni­ties for inno­va­tion in learn­ing, but still stressed a strong need for eth­i­cal and thought­ful adop­tion. There were many break­outs to dive right into the tech use with col­leagues and to imag­ine pos­si­bil­i­ties with­in our own fields.

Inclu­siv­i­ty: POD has worked hard to make the net­work more inclu­sive and to acknowl­edge sys­temic exclu­sions and inequal­i­ties that exist in this orga­ni­za­tion, high­er edu­ca­tion, and soci­ety. Sev­er­al ses­sions addressed the ways that priv­i­leged peo­ple can act to advance more just learn­ing and work­ing envi­ron­ments. A ses­sion facil­i­tat­ed by Anna Don­nell, Alan­na Felts, Lil­lian Nave, Liz Norell focused on neu­ro­di­ver­si­ty among stu­dents and chal­lenged par­tic­i­pants to rethink the assump­tions they may make about neu­ro­di­ver­gence. They specif­i­cal­ly encour­aged us to reject a mind­set focused on deficits, peo­ple’s “chal­lenges,” and mak­ing eval­u­a­tions about oth­ers’ behav­iour. I found their advice to focus on descrip­tions (i.e. see­ing the ‘what’ some­body is doing) instead of judge­ments (what these behav­iours ‘mean’) to be most help­ful.

Reflec­tive Prac­tice: Sev­er­al ses­sions prompt­ed par­tic­i­pants to think care­ful­ly about some of the ‘tried and true’ things we know. Lau­ren Bar­beau & Clau­dia Corne­jo Happel’s work­shop on the crit­i­cal teach­ing behav­iours (CTB) frame­work for peer eval­u­a­tion empha­sized the val­ue doing obser­va­tion and giv­ing feed­back with­in a sup­port­ive struc­ture. They also stress the impor­tance of col­le­gial­i­ty and show­ing appre­ci­a­tion for dif­fer­ences in fac­ul­ty mem­bers’ approach­es to teach­ing. Oth­er ses­sions focused on ways to make our feed­back more action­able and help­ful for the recip­i­ents.

Over­all, I left POD think­ing more about how in my work I can build com­mu­ni­ty and an envi­ron­ment where stu­dents and col­leagues feel seen, val­ued and sup­port­ed. I am remind­ed of the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of edu­ca­tion. Many ses­sions rein­forced that what we do is not just or real­ly about con­tent deliv­ery, but also about fos­ter­ing mean­ing­ful con­nec­tions.

Three Reasons to Consider POD 2025

This is a great con­fer­ence where you can expect:

1. excel­lent qual­i­ty ses­sions that are well-designed and engag­ing;
2. learn­ing about top­ics that are time­ly and direct­ly relat­ed to the work most of us do.
3. prac­ti­cal take­aways to use right in your teach­ing and work straight away.

The ses­sions at POD are tight and infor­ma­tive. Their pac­ing, quan­ti­ty of infor­ma­tion, qual­i­ty of dia­logue, and every oth­er ele­ment, are bril­liant. The pre­sen­ters are active in the areas in which they’re pre­sent­ing, and often, some of the world’s most respect­ed experts in them. These pre­sen­ta­tions address the con­cerns or ques­tions we have right now. And best of all, par­tic­i­pants leave almost every ses­sion with resources or guide­lines they can use imme­di­ate­ly.

Can’t wait for POD in November 2025? 

If you’re look­ing to fill a hole in your PD this year, there are many great teach­ing con­fer­ences before Novem­ber 2025. Check out this list here. My rec­om­men­da­tions for teach­ing and learn­ing are STLHE, Improv­ing Uni­ver­si­ty Teach­ing, or any of the region­al Lil­ly con­fer­ences. You might also have some­thing great spe­cif­ic to your dis­ci­pline!

Hope to see you in San Diego next Novem­ber!