Instructions for submitting Innovations abstracts

This category represents innovative educational research, curricular interventions (pilot, initial implementation, multiple implementations), and quality improvement projects transferable beyond the institution where implemented. Research studies should be grounded in a theoretical framework and present study results. Curricular innovations should be soundly based on learning principles and be designed to meet a specific local or national need. Innovations typically have program evaluation data at more than one level (reaction, learning, behavior, impact). The abstract must include data to show the effectiveness (or lack of effectiveness) of the innovation.

Examples of highly-rated abstracts can be found under “Oral Presentations” in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Conference Proceedings at sites.usc.edu/ime-conference/past-proceedings.

Student submissions are welcome. The author list must include a faculty mentor as directed below.

Most Innovations will be presented at a virtual poster session; however, the top abstracts (based on the evaluation criteria) will be offered the opportunity to be presented in an oral presentation session.

All Innovations abstracts must include the following sections:

• Presenting Author Contact information and Biosketches (up to two authors who will be presenting at the conference – name, institution, city/state, email, status: faculty, student, or other) (1500-character maximum per biosketch, including spaces)
• Primary Contact Information (name, email, phone number, mailing address)
• Select Type, Primary Focus, and Learners/Subjects of Project (click HERE to view IME 2024 sample choices for type, focus, and learners)
• Abstract Title (100-character maximum including spaces)
• Complete List of ALL Authors and Affiliations for the published proceedings (must include presenting authors and faculty mentors)
• Abstract Details (your abstract for both the review process and to be published in the online conference proceedings)
  • Problem Statement (150-character maximum including spaces)
  • Rationale (1000-character maximum including spaces)
  • Methods (section should include number and description of target learners, goal and content of project, length, timing, and location of project, and a description of the data collection tools, plans, and analysis) (1500-character maximum including spaces)
  • Results (1500-character maximum including spaces)
  • Potential Impact or Lessons Learned (350-character maximum including spaces)
  • References (1-3 required)

Please make sure you have ALL sections ready before you begin the submission process, including all parts of the final proposal and biosketches. You will not be able to save an incomplete submission. All submissions are final. If you need to make changes to your already submitted proposal, you may do so by starting a new submission process. If multiple submissions are made under the same abstract title, we will take the most recent one as the submission to be reviewed.

Although you may type your abstract directly into the online submission form, it is strongly recommended that you copy and paste it from a word processing document. IMPORTANT: Make sure you count characters including spaces before you copy and paste into the submission form text boxes. If you paste too many characters, the text will be cut off mid-word at the character maximum.