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- 1. Direct Learn OnlineConferencing Presenter: Geoff Minshull Direct Learn Online Conferencing 2 nd August 2004
- 2. Overview What isonline conferencing? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Where is it appropriate to use it? What is the role of the conference organiser/moderator?
- 3. What is onlineconferencing? Communicate and collaborate Web casts Bulletin boards Conference tools Email lists Video conferencing Voice/tele conferencing
- 4. What is onlineconferencing? Communicate and collaborate Web casts Bulletin boards Conference tools Email lists Video conferencing Voice/tele conferencing Synchronous Asynchronous
- 5. Typical features (WebCrossing) Discussion forums (asynch). File upload and download. Papers, presentations, etc. Email notification of new messages. Live chat (synch). Easily include graphics, web pages, etc. Different access rights. Blogs, polls, instant messaging, etc. Totally configurable in functionality, look and feel.
- 6. Physical versus onlineBoth Papers and presentations available Workshops Social area
- 7. Physical versus onlinePhysical Both Located in a particular place No distractions Synchronous Expensive (even if free!) Papers and presentations available Workshops Social area
- 8. Physical versus onlinePhysical Online Both Located in a particular place No distractions Synchronous Expensive (even if free!) Located on the net Easy to get sidetracked Asynchronous Cheap (even if delegate fee!) Papers and presentations available Workshops Social area
- 9. Advantages of aphysical conference Informal: Bars Meals Lounge etc. Lots of Interaction between participants
- 10. Advantages of aphysical conference Informal: Bars Meals Lounge etc. Lots of Interaction between participants Formal: Workshops Key notes Plenaries etc. Little Interaction between participants
- 11. Advantages of aphysical conference
- 12. Advantages of anonline conference Cost
- 13. Advantages of anonline conference Cost Convenience
- 14. Advantages of anonline conference Cost Convenience 24/7
- 15. Advantages of anonline conference Cost Convenience 24/7 More participation by participants
- 16. Advantages of anonline conference Cost Convenience 24/7 More participation by participants Wider spread of participants
- 17. Advantages of anonline conference Cost Convenience 24/7 More participation by participants Wider spread of participants Accessibility (of venue, medium etc.)
- 18. Advantages of anonline conference Cost Convenience 24/7 More participation by participants Wider spread of participants Accessibility (of venue, medium etc.) Permanent record of proceedings
- 19. Disadvantages of anonline conference Easy to underestimate time required
- 20. Disadvantages of anonline conference Easy to underestimate time required. Easy to be distracted.
- 21. Example: Supporting DeafPeople 2004 Aimed at professionals such as Sign Language interpreters who work with Deaf people. 230 delegates. 19 countries. Two major themes over 8 days. With keynote presenters and numerous supporting papers.
- 22. Example: Supporting DeafPeople 2001 I did find the conference very stimulating, and a great way of sharing info and making contacts. Delegate feedback The discussions get so interesting it is hard to stop. I have had a wonderful time during my first online conference. I have learned so much. I would do this again in a heartbeat. The level of the discussion and supportive, respectful tone of the comments set it way above many live forums (or online, too) that I have been in. Excellent in terms of cost, excellent in terms of flexibility and access. I would have real problems attending a 'normal' conference due to childcare issues. It also enabled people from much further away to participate.
- 23. Example: VLEs –Beyond the fringe This conference looked at the use of Virtual Learning Environments, and ways to embed them into the teaching and learning practices of colleges and universities. Eight days 260 delegates from all sectors of education. 18 workshops, 17 papers and presentations. 1400 postings.
- 24. Example: VLEs –Beyond the fringe Delegate feedback Absolutely wonderful - can't praise it enough in quality of keynote papers and responses. I was inspired whilst sitting at my desk on a Friday afternoon! I thought it was excellent but demanding. There was a great deal to read and consider in between teaching and other commitments. It was better than I expected. The conference worked extremely well I think and there was some excellent detailed and critical reflections. Although I had limited time to participate I did follow the discussions and found these useful and stimulating. I enjoyed being at a conference on-line because it allowed me to catch up on what I had missed when I was free to do so. Also meant that I could reflect before responding to debates.
- 25. Role of organiserWorkshops: finding presenters, commissioning papers; editing them, writing guidance for presenters and workshop facilitators, etc. Delegates: advertising the conference, processing delegates, writing their user guide, etc. Environment: configuring the conference environment, ensuring papers, etc. are uploaded, etc. During the conference: changing access rights (to allow/disallow postings), generally monitoring the environment, posting daily email updates to all delegates, etc.
- 26. Role of facilitatorsKnow how to use the environment. Introduce the presenter. Ensure the discussion stays on topic. Write summaries of the discussions. Deal with “problem delegates” (extremely rare!). Generally, act as the workshop chair.
- 27. Conclusions Online conferencingwill become more and more widespread. They do have major advantages, particularly as users become more accustomed to this way of learning and participating. But there’s still a role for physical conferences – if only to visit the bar at the end of the day!
- 28. Demonstration conference Demoand guided tour: http://www.online-conference.net
Editor's Notes
- #2 Hello, and welcome to this presentation about online conferencing. My name is Geoff Minshull, from Direct Learn Training, and I’m going to briefly run through some of the main features of online conferencing, to try to show you how it can benefit organisations, especially in areas such as staff development. There is a text transcription of the audio available in the notes view within PowerPoint.
- #3 So, these are the points I hope to cover in the presentation.
- #4 First, though, online conferencing is a very wide term, covering a lot of similar technologies, some of which are described in the slide. At the most basic level, you could argue that email lists are a form of online conference, and we run a couple of very successful ones for UK further and higher education. Within these, we’ve had time limited themed discussions, which certainly are a conference in one sense, especially if linked to a specific paper or web site. We’ve also run some web casts, using a product called HorizonLive. These are live PowerPoint presentations delivered over the web, and allowing some degree of interactivity – for example, the audience can ask questions, either through text or voice during the presentation. Other technologies include voice and video conferencing, bulletin boards, etc. Although the lines are blurred sometimes, we are differentiating conferencing from collaborative technologies. The latter are essentially products which enable meetings to be held between remote participants, and allow document sharing, live interaction, diaries, meeting scheduling, etc. As in the physical world, there’s a clear difference between a conference and a meeting.
- #5 So, these are typical technologies, loosely split here into synchronous (real time, e.g. a phone conversation) and asynchronous (not in real time, e.g. a letter). The technology we are concerned with here is that loosely described as “conference tools” in the slide. Equally, we could have called it “Bulletin boards plus…..” because the asynchronous conference tools have at their core a bulletin board or forum, with lots of added functionality, which is described in the next slide.
- #6 Not all conferencing tools with have these features, but the one we use, Web Crossing, does. So, at the heart of our online conferencing environment are the discussion forums. In our conferences, the forums are usually built around a particular paper or presentation given by the workshop presenter, and have a facilitator, who acts as the workshop chair. It’s also possible to set it up so that participants are notified by email if there is a new posting to a particular discussion, so they don’t have to keep logging in just to check. Posts can include file upload and download too (i.e. attachments) if required. This also means that the conference can incorporate multi media files. There’s also a live (text) chat available, which is particularly useful for a social area, but can also be good for small group sessions. It’s possible to include graphics, web pages, etc., in the conference, so it can look much better than just a list of discussions. The access rights of groups and individuals are entirely configurable, so that, for example, a discussion can be set to read only, or made completely inaccessible, if after a certain time it needs to be closed to new postings. Users can be given the right to add new discussions, or restricted just to using the ones the organisers create. It’s also possible to completely hide parts of the conference to some users. Basically, access rights can be set up more or less as you wish. Other functionality is also available, e.g. web logs, polls, instant messaging, etc. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the environment is totally configurable – so functionality can be added or removed, the look and feel can be totally changed, etc.
- #7 So, let’s look at the differences between physical and online conferences. But we’ll start by seeing what they have in common. Both have papers and presentations, both have workshops, both have social areas.
- #8 The physical conference is, of course, located in a particular place, usually one building. And because of this, there are fewer distractions – your (non-attending) colleagues don’t drop in on you unexpectedly, the only people you see are the other delegates. By definition, it’s synchronous, real time, everybody is there at the same time. Usually, they are expensive. Even if there is no fee to attend, there is the cost of travel, of time spent travelling, accommodation, etc.
- #9 Online conferences are different. They are located on the net, and therefore accessible from anywhere. More often than not, this means from the office or from home, where there are many other distractions, such as colleagues, family, etc. It’s very easy to get sidetracked! The type of conference under discussion here is asynchronous, because we feel that does have many advantages over real time conferences. And they are cheap – even if there’s a delegate fee, there are no travel or accommodation costs, and it’s certainly a much more efficient use of time. In the following slides, we look in more detail at the advantages of both types of conference.
- #10 First, physical conferences. The overwhelming advantage of a physical conference is simply that it allows better interaction OUTSIDE the conference proceedings themselves. Delegates can interact in bars, over meals, in the coffee lounge, etc. The INFORMAL part of the conference is usually much better (i.e. more interactive) than the informal part of an online conference. This is a very important point.
- #11 But, we would strongly argue, that there is much less interaction during the FORMAL proceedings of a physical conference, than in an online conference. Why? Partly because there is less time, and partly because people are much less inclined to contribute in a face to face session, than they are online.
- #12 The other chief advantage of a physical conference, is that once you are there, there are fewer distractions. There’s a brick wall between you and the rest of the world, no one can barge in! You don’t get interrupted by people who aren’t conference delegates; you can’t really answer your email whilst sitting in a workshop; you can’t easily get up and walk out! But all these things are possible in an online conference, where it is all too easy to be distracted. But this really is a question of your own time organisation – an online conference is not a soft option, which doesn’t take much time, it’s a “real” conference which demands a substantial time commitment.
- #13 So, let’s look in more detail at the advantages of an online conference. Cost savings, which we’ve hinted at already, are very significant indeed. There can be huge savings in terms of travel costs, time, replacement staff if cover needed, etc. Also, delegate fees are usually substantially less, because there is no need for a physical venue, accommodation, etc.
- #14 It’s also convenient because the conference is available from any internet connected computer; and can often be fitted around other commitments. But, having said this, it’s important not to underestimate the time commitment a successful, busy online conference will require!
- #15 Because it’s asynchronous, on the web, the conference environment can be open 24/7. This is particularly useful when delegates come from more than one time zone, and can, if there is an international spread of delegates, mean that the conference area is always busy.
- #16 In general, as we said before, people participate much more than at physical conferences. Many more people will contribute during an online workshop, than during a physical workshop.
- #17 Online conferences make it possible for many more people to attend a conference than would be the case physically. There are some quotes later which illustrate this.
- #18 Related to this point is that online conferences are particularly accessible. They are wheelchair friendly, it’s easy to provide audio or text transcriptions of presentations, screen readers will make the discussions accessible, etc. This is a major benefit.
- #19 Finally, the conference can be permanent. Even if the conference itself only lasts a few days, the proceedings, particularly the discussions, can be left available indefinitely, so giving people time to read through discussions again, catch up on what they missed, reflect on what happened, etc. This is a really significant advantage of online conferences over physical.
- #20 There are some disadvantages (other than the social we’ve already mentioned). Chief amongst these is that participants, particularly first timers, underestimate the time commitment required. However much you say that it’s a real conference, requiring a real commitment to get the most out of it, people do assume that it’s possible to participate with only a few minutes a day. Plainly, it is not – and, whilst an online conference may not be a full time commitment, our conferences typically require two or three hours a day to get the most out of them (taking into account reading papers, viewing presentations, taking part in discussions etc.). Still, it’s a far more efficient use of time than, for example, the travelling required by a physical conference. And we do find that with experience, users are much better able to handle the work involved in the conference, and, crucially, know what to expect if they’ve participated in previous online conferences.
- #21 This was mentioned previously, and does require some discipline to overcome. Whilst you’re in the conference, colleagues or kids might come in the room; the phone might ring; you might check your email; an urgent piece of work might come up. There are many distractions. On the other hand, the nature of an asynchronous conference means that you can always come back later, but it is important, again, to understand that an online conference does require making space to attend it.
- #22 Let’s look at a couple of recent examples of conferences, and see the feedback they received. In 2004, we ran the second in our series of conferences aimed at professionals who work in one capacity or another with Deaf people (this does, of course, include many people who are themselves hearing impaired, and the primarily text basis of this conference made it very accessible to them). A particularly noteworthy aspect of this was the international nature of the conference, with participants from 19 countries. Let’s look at some of the feedback.
- #23 These are all genuine quotes from delegates. I’ll pause for a minute or two to give you time to read them. In particular, the bottom two comments illustrate how an online conference enables people to attend who could not attend a physical conference; and that the quality of the discussions is nearly always higher than in a physical conference.
- #24 Here’s a second example. This was a really successful conference, run early in 2004. A very large number of delegates (fee paying, as are most of the conference we run) came together to discuss Virtual Learning Environments, a software tool which facilitates online learning. The conference generated a huge amount of participation, and resulted in a lot of extremely high quality discussions and papers. Let’s look at the feedback.
- #25 Again, take a few minutes to read these quotes. They highlight the overall value of the conference, but also show that people do need to make a time commitment to get the most out of the conference. They also illustrate, again, that the quality of the debate is higher than in a physical conference, not least because there is time for reflection before responding to postings.
- #26 These conferences do require organisation, like any physical conference. However, in many ways the organisational burden is significantly less, since it is almost all done electronically. These are just some examples of the tasks. Mostly, this slide is just to emphasize that an online conference requires organising too!
- #27 Our conference workshops invariable have facilitators, a crucial role. Typically, these are the jobs which they would have to carry out. Delegates have found summaries of the discussions particularly useful, especially where because of time constraints they are unable to read through all the postings in a particular topic. “ Problem delegates” is a tricky one, but also quite rare. An example might be where a particular delegate is simply hogging the forum, and making so many postings they are overwhelming the other participants – in which case, the facilitator might have a quiet word (or email) asking them to slow down a little – much as would happen in a physical conference.
- #28 So, this has been a quick overview of online conferencing – in fact, of a particular way we implement online conferencing. We firmly believe it will become more and more popular and widespread, and that a well organised (and we stress that!) online conference provides major benefits to delegates. They will not replace physical conference, but they – as so often happens with technology – will provide major new opportunities for communication and collaboration.
- #29 Finally, screen shots don’t do justice to a conference environment, so best to look at a demo. At the URL on the slide, there’s a link to a demonstration conference people can log in too; and a walk through tour of the environment. Thanks for listening to this presentation!