APT (Academic Practice & Technology Conference)

APT is considered a key event for the academic community to focus on the relationship between digital technologies and educational practice, and attendees are invited from across the sector. In the last two decades, APT has seen significant and transformative shifts in technology in the higher education context, from the rise of now common processing and data-manipulation tools, computer modelling, the rise of the internet, teaching delivery modes and shifts into online education spaces, MOOCs, Virtual Learning Environments, Presentation and Interactive teaching software, VR and Augmented Reality possibilities, and now Generative AI.

Founded in 2003, APT was created in response to a growing gap between strategic ambition and lived reality in universities. At a time when most institutions were embedding ICT into policy and planning, the impact on teaching and learning often fell short of expectations. Practitioners were experimenting with new tools and approaches, but frequently without adequate infrastructure, training or support — and their work was often invisible beyond their own teams.

APT began as a one-day conference at the University of Greenwich, created to surface this grassroots innovation and to create meaningful dialogue between those implementing change and those responsible for resourcing it. From the outset, practitioners shared what they were actually doing in their teaching — the successes, the failures, and the complexities — alongside open panel discussions that invited senior leaders to respond directly to questions from staff.

What started as eLearning@Greenwich evolved into APT in 2015, expanding through partnerships with institutions including LSE, UCL and King’s. While the conference has travelled and grown, its founding purpose has remained consistent: to centre practitioner voice, build capacity across institutions, and hold the sector to account as technology reshapes higher education.

APT is built on the conviction that meaningful change comes from practice, not from strategy documents alone. The conference prioritises what happens in real classrooms, studios, laboratories and online spaces — with real students, real constraints and real institutional pressures.

Core principles that shape APT include:

Practitioner Voice
APT is led by practitioners and shaped by what colleagues genuinely want and need to discuss. The programme reflects lived experience rather than vendor agendas or abstract theory.

Honest Dialogue and Accountability
From its first conference, APT created space for difficult questions about infrastructure, support, workload, equity and institutional responsibility — not just individual innovation.

Inclusivity and Accessibility
APT welcomes colleagues regardless of role, seniority or technical expertise. Technology is everyone’s concern, not just specialists’.

Bottom-Up Sharing
Sessions emphasise peer learning, practical insight and reflective discussion — sharing both what works and what doesn’t.

Critical Engagement
APT takes a thoughtful and sometimes sceptical stance toward educational technology. It resists hype and techno-optimism, instead engaging seriously with ethics, inequality, uncertainty and unintended consequences.

What makes APT distinctive is its honesty. It remains a space where practitioners can speak openly about what works, what doesn’t, and what they are still trying to figure out - alongside peers who recognise the same pressures and constraints. By sustaining this dialogue over two decades, APT has helped the sector reflect on itself, challenge assumptions, and navigate change with greater care and criticality.

APT continues to bring institutions together not to compete, but to collaborate; sharing challenges, learning from different approaches, and shaping the future of academic practice collectively.

APT’s themes over the years tell the story of how higher education’s relationship with technology has matured. Early conferences focused on experimentation, peer learning and extending the classroom beyond physical walls. As practice developed, attention shifted toward learning design, student experience, personalisation and learning spaces.

More recently, the conversation has become more critical and reflective. Themes have explored institutional transformation, digital inequity, professional identity, uncertainty, disruption, and the ethical implications of emerging technologies such as generative AI. What began as “show and tell” has evolved into deeper interrogation of what technology does to education, to institutions and to academic work itself.

Across more than two decades, APT has built a collective memory for the sector — capturing how ideas, practices and assumptions have shifted over time.

APT is not a vendor showcase, a research conference, or a policy exercise. It is a practitioner-led space grounded in lived experience.

• Sessions focus on real practice rather than polished case studies.

• Failure, uncertainty and complexity are welcomed as part of learning.

• Conversations remain grounded in pedagogy, ethics and institutional realities.

• The programme is shaped by participant priorities and emerging challenges.

• Cross-institution collaboration creates space for honest exchange without competitive pressures.

APT creates a rare environment where colleagues can speak openly about what it actually takes to teach well in digitally complex systems.

APT is for anyone navigating the changing landscape of higher education — whether you teach, support learning, design curriculum, lead digital strategy or shape policy.

By attending APT, you will:

• Learn from peers facing similar challenges across institutions.

• Share practice in a supportive, practitioner-focused environment.

• Engage critically with emerging technologies and sector trends.

• Contribute to shaping future conversations in academic practice.

• Build networks grounded in trust, openness and collaboration.

Above all, APT offers a space to think carefully, collectively and honestly about how we teach, learn and work in a rapidly changing digital world.

GenAI and beyond: inventing and re-imagining Higher Education practice

The twenty-third Academic Practice and Technology (APT2025) conference took place on Tuesday 1^st July 2025 hosted at the Coin Street Conference Centre, Waterloo.

Conference Sub-Themes

The sub-themes invited participants to critically reflect and explore ways in which they are developing their practice in response to growing use of AI. Through a range of discussion and interactive formats, the event showcased and celebrated examples of academic practice that can inspire academic and professional services staff.

APT2025 showcased research papers/work in progress, case studies, and workshops that interpret the conference theme of ‘Implication of the use of Artificial Intelligence in teaching, learning and assessment’, aligned to one or more of the following sub-themes:

• Transforming assessment and feedback using Generative AI

Work submitted in this sub-theme may explore methods for evaluating the impact and effectiveness of AI in education, ensuring its alignment with learning outcomes and assessment criteria. Work could also explore the challenges and opportunities of using AI in assessment, marking and feedback, and the HE-policy landscape regarding the use of AI within assessment structures.

• Generative AI for inclusion and accessibility

Work within this sub-theme could demonstrate how AI can enhance inclusion and accessibility of education, and how to provide personalised and adaptive learning experiences for diverse learners. It may also explore how AI can support equity in education, and how to overcome the barriers and challenges of using AI for all learners. It may also consider questions of equity of access, both for students and educators.

• Responsible and ethical considerations of Generative AI in education

Work within this sub-theme may address the phenomenon of data-centricity and the kinds of knowledge it privileges. Mindful use of AI in higher education would be relevant for this category, particularly given its resource-intensity and considerations of ethical practice. This sub-theme may include ethical procurement in a growing and increasingly concentrated market, how ‘big tech’ is conceived and promoted as a solution to problems in higher education, and practitioners’ transparency in using tools with their students . As above, this sub-theme may also consider questions of equity of access.

• Generative AI in teaching practice

Work presented in this sub-theme may focus on individual initiatives or wider projects on activities, strategies, policies, or designed activities that have utilised AI. We welcome work that has utilised AI in applied ways, within new pedagogies, or that has involved teaching students how to use AI tools.

The evaluation of, and critical reflection on, such work should be emphasised. Work involving students in co-production or design of the teaching would also be particularly welcome.

• Academic technologies and digital pedagogies (non-AI)

The inclusion of this sub-theme would allow participants to submit for consideration work that may not fit within work related to AI, but is relevant to APT’s overarching aims to offer a platform for contributions to the broader discussions. This is to ensure that work on academic technologies and associated practices that are not related to AI can be highlighted and disseminated at this time.

In 2024, the 22nd APT Conference brought together experts and colleagues from various fields and disciplinary practices to discuss the "Dimensions, Reflections and Emerging Practices of Artificial: Intelligence in Higher Education Teaching, Learning and Assessment." The event included 16 sessions, ranging from discussions of research papers and cases studies, to roundtable talks, workshops and a closing panel with Q&A. The inclusion of networking opportunities during the day allowed our attendees to connect and collaborate on innovative solutions and the hands-on experiential approach to the presentations fostered skills development in emerging technologies.

The conference emphasised the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to tackle complex issues and highlighted the role of education in preparing future leaders in an AI landscape. Our APT panel discussions featured prominent speakers sharing insights on current challenges and future trends in AI. The APT 2024 Keynotes were Richard Watermeyer Professor of Higher Education Co-Director of the Centre for Higher Education Transformations (CHET) and Professor Lawrie Phipps Senior Research Lead at Jisc. In particular, they drew on the impact of generative AI (GAI) tools like ChatGPT in academia, focusing on agency and consent.

APT is hosted at King’s by King’s Academy, which leads the planning, delivery and ongoing development of the conference. King’s Academy is the hub for educational, professional and learning development, dedicated to supporting all staff in enhancing and developing the teaching and learning practices and environment across King's.

APT is guided by a cross-institution Steering Group made up of academic and professional colleagues from King’s College London, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University College London (UCL), London Metropolitan University, Brunel University London and Imperial College London. The Steering Group plays a central role in shaping the conference each year — contributing to theme development, reviewing submissions, chairing sessions, and ensuring the programme reflects the priorities and challenges facing practitioners across the sector.

The conference is co-led by:
Dr Christopher Ince, Senior Lecturer in Education, King’s College London
Darren Moon, Senior Learning Technologist, London School of Economics and Political Science

Together, the organisers and Steering Group ensure that APT remains practitioner-led, collaborative and responsive to the evolving landscape of higher education.