FAQ
If you haven't attended an online conference before,
these frequently asked questions give some background to online
conferencing.
Where is the conference?
The conference is online, i.e. on the Internet. There is
no physical location for the conference. You do not need to go anywhere to
participate, except to an Internet-connected computer.
Who is the conference
for?
Practitioners, e-learning co-ordinators and managers in
further and higher education, researchers, staff developers and learning
technologists. The conference will also be of interest to participants from
countries other than the UK.
What is an online
conference?
Traditional conferences mean participants have to travel
and stay in a particular place. This takes time and is expensive. An online
conference uses the Internet as a conference 'venue'. This means
that participants can access the conference from anywhere in the world and
can do this at any time. Participants will be able to log on as little or
as much as they wish to - before, after or during office hours. They are
given a password to access the various conference and workshop discussions,
as well as live chat. Anyone with access to the Internet can participate
(so long as they have a login).
The conference will use discussion group software (like
a bulletin board), and is backed up by a web site with additional content.
Participants log in and read the messages and contributions from other
participants, facilitators and presenters. All discussions within the
conference will be asynchronous, meaning there will be no set time when
participants have to log in.
Why are there no live sessions, such as
a live web cast?
There are a number of reasons for this. These include:
-
Live sessions always create technical problems for some people,
particularly bandwidth related, e.g. loss of audio, etc.
-
With large numbers of participants, asynchronous communication is
generally better to get more people involved in discussions.
-
Live, text based chat is difficult to follow when there are a lot of
people contributing, with multiple threads, and contributions tend to be
rushed and typed (or spoken) quickly, whereas asynchronous postings allow
more time for depth and reflection.
-
Conference participants will be from many time zones, and this creates
problems with attendance and scheduling of live sessions.
Will I be able to
view the conference before the opening day?
Participants will have the opportunity to have a look at
the conference environment in advance of the conference to familiarise
themselves with the layout of the site, try out the conference software,
and, very importantly, download and view the papers and
presentations.
What will
happen during the conference?
Each keynote presentation will feature for two days and
participants will be able to read papers and view the presentations, and
have a discussion about the issues raised in which the presenters will
participate. Simultaneously, there will be a number of other workshops and
discussions (lasting two days), backed up with other papers and
presentations. There will also be a social area available for
participants.
Together with papers and presentations from the open
call, there will be wealth of useful material to download, view and
discuss.
What are the dates and
timing?
4th June: Conference opens for reading, 8.30 a.m. UK time.
Discussions (other than social area) are not yet open. This week is
important because it gives you the chance to view all the presentations and
read the papers before the discussions actually start.
11/12th June: Theme 1 opens 8.30 a.m. on the 11th. All the
discussions in this theme last for two days.
13/14 June: Theme 2 opens, 8.30 a.m. on the 13th. All the
discussions in this theme last for two days.
15th June: Conference discussions close 8.30 a.m. However,
the conference proceedings are available for a further month for reading,
so that participants can catch up on what they missed.
Do I need
any special equipment or software?
No. Just access to the Internet, and a browser. However,
some presentations will use, Flash, video, etc., so players for these will
be required.
How much time will I
have to spend at the conference?
Like any conference, if you don't go into the
conference room, you will miss out on information. The conference won't
stop just because you are not logged in, so checking in regularly will
allow you to keep up to date with what's going on. To participate fully
it is very important to set some time aside to log in and read and compose
postings. We would recommend that you spend at a minimum 2 – 3 hours a day
at the conference. This will allow you to keep up with debates and the
volume of messages coming in. You should also prepare for the
conference in the pre-conference reading week, using that time to view
presentations and read the papers for the sessions in which you are
interested. Be warned! There will be a lot of presentations at the session,
and you should concentrate on those in which you are most interested. The
post conference month for reading will allow you to catch up on anything
you miss.
What if I can’t log
in every day?
Although we recommend that you log in at
least once a day to read daily summaries, if you can't, please
don’t get overwhelmed with the number of messages that will be posted to
the conference. If you get behind, use the summaries which are posted each
day to catch up. The conference environment will be available 24
hours a day.
The conference proceedings will also be available for
reading only for a month after it closes for postings, to allow delegates
time to catch up on sessions they have missed.
If it is online, why
is there a delegate fee?
The £50 cost is far cheaper than an equivalent physical
conference - not least, because there is no travel or hotel accommodation
which you have to pay for (and so a much smaller carbon footprint!).
However, there are still costs - for example, the cost of the online
conferencing software; presenter fees; staff time to organise this. Even
though it's online, this takes a lot of organisation. The only
difference is, there is no need to hire a physical room. But other costs
associated with organising a conference still apply. Even when a conference
(physical or virtual) is free to delegates, there is still a
significant cost - it's just that that cost is absorbed by someone
else, rather than being recouped through delegate fees.
Can we share a login
between more than one person?
No. Each login is for a single person, not an
organisation. If you want to send two delegates to a physical conference,
you book two places. This is the same for an online conference.