Program & Proposal Design

A Great Program Starts with a Great Proposal

As the legal information community adapts and transforms, it is more important than ever to offer solutions for real-life situations, and ideas for affirming the value of the law librarian. 糖心视频 has been working to transform the Annual Meeting & Conference experience as well, identifying members' educational needs, rethinking the ways that adults learn, and revising the processes for developing and delivering critical content.

The following information (along with the rest of our program proposer resources), is designed to assist you in developing a dynamic, needs-based program for the Annual Meeting. If you have any questions along the way, you are encouraged to contact any member of the Annual Meeting Program Committee or 糖心视频 staff.

Getting Started

You will be asked to answer the following questions in the program proposal:

Title: Provide a concise and engaging title that reflects the content and focus of the program
顿别蝉肠谤颈辫迟颈辞苍:听How would you describe the problem/opportunity/scenario/challenge that reflects the learning objectives?
Learning Objectives (Takeaways): What are the learning objectives that attendees will be able to use and apply to perform their jobs better?
Intended Audience: Who will benefit most from attending this program?
Must-Have Program Topic: How relevant and timely is the program topic to 糖心视频 members and legal technology professionals?
Program Length: How long do you need to deliver the information?
Audience Engagement:聽What methods do you plan to employ to engage attendees and keep the energy level up?
Speakers: Who will deliver this content, and how are they qualified to do so?

In addition to the core considerations, you might also think about:

Content Relevance: Ensure the content is up to date and aligned with current trends or challenges in the field.
Practical Application: Demonstrate how the learning will be directly applicable to the attendees' professional roles or daily tasks.
Format and Delivery: Decide on the best format (e.g., workshop, panel, small group discussions) and delivery method for your content.
Logistics and Resources: Consider any special equipment, materials, or resources needed for the program and how they will be managed.

Writing Learning Objectives

Before you even start to craft your program's title and description ask yourself:

What are the three key points that I want attendees to remember upon leaving the program?

If these are not clear to you, they will not be clear to your audience. But if you give careful thought to this question early on, you will establish a great foundation for building your program. The answers will shape the takeaways, and the takeaways will shape the description.

Learning objectives are statements that describe what the learner will gain from participating. They should reflect the key points that the learner will be able understand or demonstrate after participating in the program. The emphasis should always be on what the learner will do鈥攏ot what the presenter will do. Learning objectives help to:

Guide the attendee in deciding which programs will best meet their needs.
Focus on the specific tool, skill, or behavior to be learned.
Convey to the attendee exactly what will be learned.
Ensure that the presenter and learner end up in the same place of instruction.
Serve as guidelines for content, instruction, and evaluation.

What are the characteristics of good LEARNING OBJECTIVES?

The specified action by the learners must be observable.
The specified action by the learners must be measurable.
The specified action must be performed by the learners.

The ultimate test when writing a learning objective is whether or not the action taken by the participants can be assessed immediately upon departure from the program. If not, the learning objective probably does not meet all three of the characteristics.

EXAMPLES

Note the following examples of three learning objectives that are not actionable, measurable, or observable:

Participants will understand the reasons for conducting a needs assessment.
Participants will develop an appreciation for usage statistics.
Participants will know why to collect usage statistics.

Since the learner's performance should be observable and measurable, the verb chosen for each learning objective must be an action verb that results in overt behavior that can be observed and measured.聽Remember, attendees need practical, relevant solutions that they can apply in their jobs.

Note the following examples of three learning objectives that are actionable, measurable, and observable:

Participants will be able to list nine reasons for conducting a needs assessment.
Participants will be able to identify five critical usage statistics that their institutions should collect.
Participants will be able to justify the value of collecting usage statistics to decision-makers in their institutions.

Here are examples of action verbs that can be used when crafting your learning objectiveS:

Avoid non-measurable verbs:

Amplify
Appreciate
Be acquainted with
Be aware
Be(come) familiar with
Explore
Gain insight
Improve
Increase
Know
Learn
Realize
Understand

Title

Your program's title should get the reader's attention and interest them enough to read the first sentence of the description. (Do not feel obligated to incorporate the conference's theme in the title.) Try to avoid excessively long titles. Again, the title should get the reader's attention鈥攏ot explain the entire program.

Description

Share a clear and concise overview of the program. The program description should highlight the main topics and key points that will be addressed. The description will help attendees understand what to expect. The program description will be included in the conference schedule. Consider the question: What is the problem/opportunity/scenario/challenge that makes your takeaways relevant? Your program idea should align with at least one of the domains of 糖心视频's Body of Knowledge.

Program Length

The standard program length for the conference is one hour, so think about the best way to deliver the content of your program in that time frame. There is also the option to propose longer-length deep dive programs (2.5 hours) and preconference workshops, which can range from three to six hours in length. Please keep in mind that having more than three speakers on a one-hour program is strongly discouraged.

Intended Audience

When considering who your intended audience may be, review your takeaways and think about who would benefit from them. Think about responsibilities and experiences they might have that would make this session relevant. What level of familiarity with the topic should they have? While some sessions are strongly targeted to attendees working in one type of law library, many of the content areas identified in the needs assessment are applicable across a variety of law libraries or roles.

Adult Learning Guidelines

To effectively deliver a session for 糖心视频 members, consider how adults learn best. Adults prefer learning that feels relevant and engaging, avoiding sessions that seem imposed or unprepared. To enhance self-directed and intentional learning, focus on:

Creating interactive, challenging exercises
Showing genuine interest in audience input
Linking past experiences to current challenges
Facilitating reflective learning
Addressing biases or habits impacting learning
Connecting content to personal or professional goals
Using real-life case studies
Asking questions that encourage reflection and inquiry
Clarifying skills and knowledge gained
Demonstrating future application of learned material
Explaining the rationale behind new ideas
Highlighting the content鈥檚 relevance to learners' work
Encouraging active participation and feedback
Providing opportunities for repetition and skill development

Audience Engagement

Traditionally, when most people think of conference education, they imagine a room full of silent, seated attendees with a presenter at a podium. But there are many more effective ways of delivering educational content. They do not have to be complicated or difficult鈥攖hey just require some advance consideration and energy. Attendees spend long days at the Annual Meeting going from program to program, meeting to meeting, so it is important your session energizes and engages them.

As you work on your proposal, you will be asked to provide some ideas for engaging your audience throughout your session. Think about the following presentation options, as well as our guidelines for delivering a better learning experience, and identify some methods that you and/or your presenters could employ to get your audience involved in their learning experience.

Body Voting: The audience is asked to stand, and then taken through a series of questions where they 'vote' by sitting or remaining standing. "If you've been a law librarian for more than five years, remain standing." Then, "If you've been a law librarian for more than ten years, remain standing." And so on. This is an effective icebreaker at the beginning of a session but can be done throughout a session to stimulate the audience.

Human Spectrum: The presenter starts by making a statement. Attendees then stand along one wall where one corner represents strong agreement and the opposite corner represents strong disagreement. The presenter can pose a variety of statements with different variables to see how the attendees' attitudes and opinions change.

Interview: The presenter is asked questions by an interviewer while the participants listen.

Lecture: A speaker addresses the audience (participants), although it can be supplemented with other strategies. The lecture has been much maligned, as some lecturers do not know how to focus a strictly oral presentation so that it is a stimulating experience. The lecture should be limited in time and in content.

Panel: A group of several people present different aspects of an assigned topic in the presence of participants.

Peer-to-Peer Roundtable Discussions: Attendees sit down at tables with established topics and facilitators. The facilitators guide discussions at the tables following a predetermined set of instructions.

Role Play: Role play lets participants create manageable versions of situations in which they can practice new behaviors and try new ways to communicate, all in a safe environment that allows them to make and correct mistakes. Role play requires a skilled person to successfully administer the presentation.

Work Group: Participants interact with the purpose of producing a product or solving a problem. Each participant should be involved highly in the process.

Identifying & Choosing Speakers

Identifying qualified speakers who are also effective communicators is often the most challenging part of developing a program proposal. Here are some suggestions:

Ask your colleagues if they have heard someone speak on the topic that they would recommend as a speaker for the Annual Meeting.
Reach out to the various . A lot of great programming takes place at the chapter level, too.
Look at program/conference brochures, listservs, and websites from other organizations on topics of interest. Call colleagues in those organizations for recommendations and reviews.
Locate "experts" on a particular subject by doing a literature search. Find out who is writing and speaking about the topic. Although there is no guarantee that someone who writes well will be a dynamic speaker, chances are good that he or she will be able to discuss the topic adequately if he or she is a noted expert in the area.
Think through the topic. What would this speaker offer our members? Do they have a fresh perspective?

As part of our commitment to elevate diverse voices in our profession, we encourage proposers to consider working with speakers who have the desired experience/education but who may not have presented at an 糖心视频 Annual Meeting before. 糖心视频 values and encourages the perspectives of both nonmembers and members. Both should be represented in 糖心视频 programming. The Annual Meeting can provide a valuable forum for 糖心视频 members interested in speaking opportunities. The AMPC encourages the development of sessions that provide members with opportunities to learn and to improve their presentation skills.

糖心视频 maintains program evaluations from past Annual Meetings to provide information about past speakers' performance. This information may be used by the AMPC as they review and evaluate proposals.

Once you have identified the potential speaker, contacting that person is the next step. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind:

Tell the person that you are proposing an educational program or workshop for the Annual Meeting and that you would like to consider him or her as a speaker.
All program coordinators, moderators, and speakers are required to register for and attend the Conference. At a minimum, everyone must have a single-day registration for the day of their program.
糖心视频 does not provide honoraria to nonmember speakers or reimburse them for travel, room, meals, or other expenses. In some cases, 糖心视频 may make limited exceptions to this policy in accordance with the Annual Meeting budget and the speaker鈥檚 ability to provide unique perspectives and contributions to the Annual Meeting program.
糖心视频 will provide a complimentary single-day registration for non-member speakers who work outside the legal information profession, would not otherwise have reason to be a member of 糖心视频, and have not previously been a member of 糖心视频.
糖心视频 members coordinating, moderating, or speaking on Annual Meeting programs must purchase a full conference registration or a single-day registration valid for the day of their program. 糖心视频 does not pay honoraria to 糖心视频 members for presentations at programs during the Annual Meeting & Conference.
The initial proposal review process is anonymized so you will be asked to explain why the speaker is qualified to present your session鈥檚 content without using identifying information like names, publications, or institution names.

Carefully consider the number of speakers you want on the program or workshop. Having more than three speakers on a one-hour program is strongly discouraged, especially if you intend to allow for a question and answer period. Approval of speakers is at the discretion of the AMPC, and a proposal may be accepted on the condition that proposed speakers be omitted or replaced.

Look for speakers with fresh (provocative) perspectives or even speakers whom 糖心视频 members have not heard. Consider the presentation skills of the speakers as well. Sometimes a content area is so specific that there are only a limited number of qualified experts who could present it鈥攁nd these experts might not necessarily be the most dynamic speakers. In those cases, consider pairing the expert with a moderator who can enliven the presentation with interesting questions and audience involvement, and can keep things moving along.