Student Academic Conference (SAC)/Showcase - Guidelines for Instructors (Fall 2026 SAC currently provided)
The Fall 2026 Student Academic Conference will be held on Thursday, December 3, 2026.
The Winter 2026 Student Academic Conference will be on Thursday, April 8, 2027, and is part of the Augustana Showcase event.
Fall Registration deadline: Friday October 30, 2026
Fall Final title deadline: Friday November 20, 2026.
Winter Showcase Registration deadline: Friday February 25, 2027
Winter Final title deadline: Friday March 25, 2027
If you have any classes/directed studies/RAs that are participating in the student academic conference - please continue to read below!
Please customize the information based on your class that is shared below. At minimum - please share with your students that the Student Academic Conference registration deadline and that they need to register (one submission per team). A link to the registration form can be found on the SAC website here. In some cases, we have noticed that there are instructors who prefer to register their class participants themselves - if this is the case for your class - please email Anne McIntosh and Melissa Hande and we will work with you to collect the relevant information for your class (e.g., this has worked well with the AUIDS core courses in the past).
For those who are having their directed study students register directly - please be sure to tell students if you are considering nominating them for the OUR award (more information about that can be found here). We will follow up with instructors of directed study/reading students to see if you want to nominate them prior to the final deadline – as by then you might have a better idea of their final product and whether you still want to nominate them.
We also find that students tend to select a wide range of time slots for their presentation despite all being in one class - so it would helpful if you could also clarify with your students what box to check – and we also encourage shorter presentations as the scheduling is very challenging when we have longer presentations :
· Oral presentation (5 minutes)
· Oral presentation (15 minutes - ~12 min + 3 min for questions) - a good balance of time and length for many classes
· Oral presentation/Paper (20 minutes - ~15 min + 5 min for questions)
· Oral presentation/Paper (25-30 minutes)*these should be avoided if at all possible
· Poster (maximum width 36 inches) – we will follow up with more information about printing after initial registration closes
· Oral group panel presentation (45 minutes) -* instructors – if you are planning something that is more amenable to a panel – then email Melissa and Anne to coordinate scheduling this and your desired length for this session.
· Other:
Note: If you see a type of presentation length not captured - let Anne and Melissa know before you share this with your class and we can add it to the form to avoid confusion.
You can also share with your students the reminders - including to save the email from their registration that they can then make any changes to up until the final changes deadline (shared above)
Note new for the 2026/27 academic year we have removed the abstract as part of the submission process. [This became an onerous part of work with varied inclusion and quality with overall low viewing by attendees]
When filling out the registration form, please remind students to follow the instructions and make sure that everything is accurate and spelled correctly. The information in this form is used to create the program that will be provided on the Augustana website. Students should use the Edit Response button in their confirmation email to make any changes to their title after their initial submission.
Thanks for your help with getting your students to register! We are looking forward to the diverse presentations that will be part of the Student Academic Conference!