Retrospective Analysis of a Virtual Worldwide Conference for eLearning (original) (raw)
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Virtual conferences becoming a reality
Nature Chemistry, 2010
Traditional scientific conferences can be costly and time-consuming, and certainly aren't 'green', with participants travelling long distances to attend. Are there advantages to meetings held in the virtual world, and can they really offer equally satisfying -or even better -experiences compared with the real world?
Virtual vs. Live Conferences: Measuring the Participants Memorable Conference Experience
8th ERAZ Selected Papers (part of ERAZ conference collection)
Due to Croatian government measures to prevent the spread of COVID – 19, Croatian citizens have been in several lockdowns, which causally affected the normal function of society as a whole. One of the most common consequences of such restrictions was the reduction in social contacts and reliance on virtual contacts in the online environment. The scientific community and any other sphere of business had to change its processes, particularly in organizing conferences. Virtual conferences from “rescue solution” became “pleasant with the useful solution” for organizing committees but also for participants. The purpose of this study is to detect the differences in the memorable experiences of participants concerning different quality elements in virtual and online environments. Furthermore, the aim is to detect predictors of behavioural intentions for both virtual and live conferences. For the purpose of this research, the authors have created a questionnaire, which was distribut...
DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION OF A VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
2005
ABSTRACT This paper has the goals of presenting the system architecture behind an innovative virtual conference, an on-line conference, which took place in April 2005. The conference, innovative in several aspects, has been evaluated through a questionnaire survey performed in the end.
Frontiers in Communication, 2022
Frontiers in Communication frontiersin.org Cornell et al.. /fcomm.. unique views per poster, respectively. Eleven percent (N =) of attendees completed the post-conference survey. Thirty-six percent of these responders stated they were only able to attend because the conference was o ered virtually. Further, the quality of the conference had an average satisfaction rating of. out of (SD = .). Conclusion: Results of data analyses suggest the virtual platform allowed for those who were unable to attend to join virtually, produced moderate engagement throughout the conference, and that the majority of attendees were satisfied with the quality of the fully-virtual conference. Therefore, incorporating virtual aspects in future in-person conferences could enhance conference experience and participation.
This study examined four research questions: (1) Are virtual conferences a viable alternative to traditional academic conferences? (2) What are the perceived advantages to a virtual conference as opposed to a traditional academic conference? (3) What are the perceived disadvantages to a virtual conference as opposed to a traditional academic conference? and (4) Are there differences between member perceptions based on the mission of the organization (i.e., between a "soft" skill organization such as ABC and a technology based organization such as OSRA)? This study used a researcher created questionnaire to ascertain respondents' perceptions. Using random sampling, two groups were selected from ABC and two groups were selected from OSRA.* Analyses of the findings indicate that although virtual conferences are of interest to the membership in both organizations, neither is willing to allow them to replace traditional conferences. A favorable view of virtual conferences and a willingness to try one is present among both organizations' membership, however. OSRA and ABC members do see virtual conferences as an option to reduce out-of-pocket expenses for professional development. On the other hand, the respondents indicated professional isolation and the lack of human factors to be a distinct disadvantage to this type of professional development.
Online-Only International Conferences: Strategies for Maintaining Community
TechTrends
While many academic conferences are transitioning to online events, this article aims to share several strategies used by the organizers of a well-established online-only conference. The Teaching, Colleges, and Community (TCC) Worldwide Online Conference recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. After a brief review of TCC's history, four strategies that organizers have identified as helping conference goers feel oriented, welcomed, connected and engaged are described. These strategies include offering a "pre-conference" orientation, including regional keynote speakers, creating opportunities for informal exchange, and encouraging participation with digital credentials.
Conference demographics and footprint changed by virtual platforms
Nature Sustainability, 2021
onferences fulfil a range of needs by facilitating dissemination of ideas, initiating collaborative relationships and providing education, training and career opportunities. Traditional in-person conferences (IPCs) have filled this role for centuries 1 and these events cut across all sectors: academia, industry and government. However, this format has been criticized as outdated and detrimental to the environment 2-4. More recently, emerging evidence is also connecting this modality to social sustainability issues as well, notably poor retention of a diverse workforce. In this context, the two dominant contributors are the intrinsic power-imbalance in the workplace and an imbalance in home-life responsibilities 5,6. Over the past two decades, the creation and sustainment of a diverse, equitable and inclusive (DEI) work environment in the scientific and engineering community has not kept pace with many other fields. In part, this can be attributed to career expectations revolving around conference travel and participation. Participation in conferences can be cost prohibitive for many, as the cumulative expenses can be thousands of US dollars per person. International travel creates additional barriers 7 which are exacerbated by the frequent changes in document requirements and lengthy delays in obtaining visas. These financial and documentation barriers can also dissuade scientists that have difficulty securing funding to cover conference costs such as students, postdoctoral researchers or scientists from historically under-represented institutions. These factors can also exclude participants from countries that do not have very high research activity, such as nations that are not in the top ten research countries as defined by the Nature Index (NI; ref. 8), NI > 10. However, even for those researchers who are able to travel, the time away from home necessitated by work-related travel is intrinsically exclusionary to care-givers, who are primarily women 3,7,9. Yet, given how important conference attendance is to career advancement, this community is frequently faced with the decision of choosing between work and family. Lastly, despite conference organizers' attempts to solve accessibility concerns of the disabled community, many conferences still fall short of providing an equitable experience. The recent surge in virtual events is forcing the scientific community to re-evaluate its long-held position against virtual conferences (VCs). The initial anecdotal evidence indicated that VCs enabled a more diverse population to participate. But a quantitative analysis of the impact on DEI challenges has yet to be performed. Such analysis is critical to make decisions regarding the format of future events, potentially resulting in a paradigm shift in the field. Here, we evaluate several metrics, including cost, carbon footprint, impact of conference format and attendee demographics. We collected historical data from three IPCs based in the United States, of varying sizes and disciplines within science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). These results were compared to the same three conferences after they transitioned to a VC format in 2020. These scientific conferences were among the early conferences to transition online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and were chosen to investigate the impact of an abrupt transition from historically IPCs to a new virtual format. The historically IPCs-turned-VCs analysed here are the annual International Conferences on Learning Representations (ICLR), the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and the North American Membrane Society (NAMS) conferences. Also analysed here are several conference series that were originally designed for the VC environment, including the
Report on the Future of Conferences
arXiv (Cornell University), 2023
In 2020, virtual conferences became almost the only alternative to cancellation. Now that the pandemic is subsiding, the pros and cons of virtual conferences need to be reevaluated. In this report, we scrutinize the dynamics and economics of conferences and highlight the history of successful virtual meetings in industry. We also report on the attitudes of conference attendees from an informal survey we ran in spring 2022.