GIFTS Guidelines

The Great Ideas for Teaching, and Talking with, Students (GIFTS) papers are for authors wanting to share their best practice for teaching, advising and developing first year engineering talent.  Whether you are a long-time master teacher, a first-year educator, a program administrator, advisor, or someone in between, offer your great ideas to the researchers, educators and curriculum designers participating in the conference.

  • The author must submit: author’s name, paper title, author’s affiliation, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address.
  • The first sentence of the abstract should indicate that it is a GIFTS presentation.
  • Each abstract should be between 300 and 500 words in length, Times New Roman 24 pt. font for title, Times New Roman 12 pt. font for body. Use single column format for abstract with 1 inch margins.  
  • One author from each paper is expected to register for and attend the conference. The registered author can present more than one paper.
  • Final papers will be limited to one page.
  • See the Author Kit for font and spacing requirements.
  • GIFTS papers will be peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers. The purpose of the review will be to provide the author with feedback to consider in their ongoing research.

The paper submission is through ASEE’s monolith system:

All authors on a paper will be expected to participate in the review process. You do not need to be a member of ASEE to attend FYEE or submit a proposal or abstract. However, you do need to create an account by setting up your ASEE profile here.

Important Deadlines

  • Abstract submission deadline February 25, 2019.
  • Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection of their proposed paper by March 15, 2019.
  • If your submission is accepted, papers are due for peer review by April 8, 2019.
  • Authors will be notified of peer review results by May 3, 2019.
  • Modified papers will be due by July 8, 2019.

Content – Suggestions not Requirements

Great Ideas for Teaching, and Talking with, Students are class-tested activities, assignments, projects, games, simulations, assessment techniques, professional develop activities, advising methods that address a specific communication theory, concept, skill, or learning objective. The conference organizers encourage submissions from across the first year experience that reflect creative pedagogical ideas about teaching and advising  first year students in traditional classroom settings, teaching and advising outside of the classroom (e.g., in cross-curricular initiatives, consulting venues, community engagement initiatives, and engaged scholarship projects), teaching and advising first year students within non-traditional academic environments, or supporting students decision making and professional development.

Papers could share information about how a faculty member or group of faculty members are developing and/or implementing new practices explicitly based on research on engineering education and/or education. The paper should demonstrate transfer from research to practice. The work does not have to be completed but should be at a phase where meaningful information can be presented.