The Unconference Returns in 2025!

[ProfessorBeyrer]

When: Friday, July 29 from 8:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Where: Davenport Grand

At this year’s InstructureCon the tradition of the Unconference will continue. All InstructureCon attendees are invited to join together on Friday before we leave Spokane to connect with others in a minimally structured, participant-driven series of conversations. We’ll gather to share our InstructureCon experiences, begin processing the awesome insights and tips and tricks we’ve learned over the prior few days, and continue building the connections we have made with other attendees.

“Minimally structured” means we don’t have scheduled sessions or keynotes but instead locales where folks with similar interests can converse. Want to find others to explore teaching and learning? There will be a place for you. Is there a question about settings you want to run by other Canvas admins? There will be a place for you. And no gathering about education and technology these days would be complete without a space for artificial intelligence. There will be places also for instructional design, developers, user group meetups, and the other awesome topics that emerge during the conference.

“Participant driven” means that the specific topics will be determined by the people who show up. The Unconference hosts will collect ideas from attendees throughout InstructureCon, and we’ll prep each of the locales with those suggestions. Undoubtedly there will be questions and topics that arise during the various breakout and keynote sessions, and the Unconference will be the perfect opportunity to take the next steps in those conversations. Your thoughts and beginning plans will be enriched by talking them through with others who heard and saw the same sessions.

“Building the connections” means finding support from others with similar challenges and questions, regardless of how or where they serve students or who those students are. Each of us comes to InstructureCon to learn about the tools and techniques that support learning in a particular context. At the Unconference, we can tap into the other contexts where Canvas and other Instructure products help people achieve their educational and training goals.

While the new product releases are promising and the breakout sessions are impressive, it is the chance to connect and meet people from all over the Instructure world that is the best part of InstructureCon. Having time and space provided to chat with other attendees is what makes the Unconference a great use of our time.

I have loved the Unconference since the first one I attended in 2019. Please respond with your questions and comments, especially if you have attended the Unconference at previous InstructureCons. I look forward to seeing you there!

Gregory Beyrer
Distance Education Coordinator and Adjunct Professor of History
Cosumnes River College