Conference Report: TEALfest 2021 (Technology Enhanced Active Learning), University of Warwick, May 2021

TEALfest was a week-long “online festival for sharing technology enhanced active learning practice, research, ideas and experiences”, organised and facilitated by the University of Warwick’s Learning Design Consultancy Unit in May 2021 (University of Warwick, 2021). The festival consisted of a series of 41 events led by colleagues and guest speakers, focused on the theme of ‘Beyond the bubble’. The organisers aimed to expand their horizons and look for inspiration outside their own practice, disciplines, university and indeed beyond the UK. The conference was free to attend and was hosted almost exclusively in MS Teams. I attended 11 sessions during the week, and I have collated my key learning points and ‘lightbulb moments’ from those sessions, with the aim of sharing best, flexible, and innovative practice in the online higher education learning space. I will do this by drawing out some of the key themes from the conference and reflecting upon my experience of attending a purely online conference.