Guidance for Speakers : ALTC Conference 2022

This page was last updated on Thursday 25th August.

Format

Speaker pre-conference checklist

Scholarship Support

Guidance for in person sessions

Guideline for live online sessions

Guidance for pre-recorded online sessions

Useful information for all Speakers

Format

altc22 will be a hybrid event. We are planning to hold the conference in the following format:

Pre-conference	31st August – 5th September	Online.
Day 1	6th September	AM online. PM Manchester, UK.
Day 2	7th September	Online and in Manchester, UK.
Day 3	8th September	AM Manchester, UK. PM Online.

Check the length and format of your session on the published programme.

In-person session formats

Reflective practice or research presentations

Reflective practice presentations offer a contribution towards the practice of open education, e.g. case studies, descriptive accounts, etc., but with a reflective and critical component. Time: 25 minutes (typically 20-minute presentation, 5 minutes Q+A).

Workshops

Workshops may follow a variety of formats, but all are virtually hands-on, engaged and interactive. Due to the high demand for these sessions, we have to limit the number of workshop proposals to those who clearly demonstrate how participants will engage. Time: 60 minutes.

Short session

Short sessions can be any format, e.g. demos, Pecha Kucha, spoken word, TED-style talk, multimodal presentations, performance, improvisation, screening a digital story, web content, etc. This format asks you to be creative, to share an idea in a way that speaks to hearts and minds. Time: 10 minutes.

GASTA

GASTAs are short and snappy 5 min talks that should focus on a creative, or community based topic. All GASTA sessions take place in one session hosted by a GASTA Master and involve a lot of audience interaction. If you are not familiar with this format, have a look at GASTA goes global to get a feel for this format.

Discussion Panel

Facilitate spaces for people to engage in emerging conversations. We invite experienced facilitators to create a space for participants to interact and engage with issues during the conference. Please provide as much information as possible regarding suggested topic/question, format, anticipated time requirements, anticipated number of participants, how participants will engage, etc. Time: 30 minutes.

Online Session formats

Reflective practice or research presentations

Pre-Recorded Video Poster

Pre-recorded video posters are scheduled within the programme and involve synchronous discussion with participants chat. Videos will be uploaded to ALT’s YouTube Channel for inclusion in the programme and should be suitable for this in format and content.

Pre-Recorded Short Session

Pre-recorded short sessions are scheduled within the programme and involve synchronous discussion with participants chat. Short sessions can be any format, e.g. demos, Pecha Kucha, spoken word, TED-style talk, multimodal presentations, performance, improvisation, screening a digital story, web content, etc. This format asks you to be creative, to share an idea in a way that speaks to hearts and minds. Time: 10 minutes.

Scholarship support

The conference will be a paid for event and authors, regardless of membership status, can register at the member discounted rate or apply for free scholarship places.

Speaker pre-conference checklist

Register: If you haven’t already registered for the conference, please register as a speaker.
Check the Conference Programme for session timings.
Look out for an invite emailed to you which contains information about your session and the link for speakers to join.
Attend a Speaker Orientation Session in Streamyard and Discord.
Promote your session to the community and encourage colleagues to register to participate, you can use the hashtag #altc22.

Guidance for in person sessions

The venue for in person sessions consists of the Main Hall and four seminar rooms. Only keynotes in the Main Hall will be live streamed and recorded.

In seminar rooms 1.218, 1.219, 2.218, 2.220 and 3.204 you will find the following:

A computer,
A projector,
VGA and HDMI connections.

In the Main Hall (Theatre B) you will find the following:

A computer with wireless presenter mouse,
An additional laptop to support PowerPoint presenter view,
A projector,
VGA and HDMI connections,
and depending on your session, 1 fixed lectern microphone, up to 6 table microphones and 2 lapel microphones.
Vevox: Vevox will be running throughout the entire conference from the main hall. Both in person and online event attendees will be able to participate live throughout the conference, through asking questions within our Q&A feature, and through responding to polls. Vevox is a hybrid suitable tool, and there will be no difference in user experience for in-person and remote attendees.

You are welcome to bring your slides on an external USB storage device and use the computer in the room or use your own laptop plugged in via the VGA or HDMI connections. For laptops without those connections, please ensure you bring any adapters that you need with you.

We recommend speakers ensure they have multiple ways to access and share their presentation (e.g. USB, online via Google Drive, Dropbox etc).

If you have any questions about the equipment available to you, please email conferences@alt.ac.uk and will do our best to assist you.

COVID-19 measures for staying safe

altc22 will be in person for the first time in two years and we are so excited to see you all again. However, we understand the anxiety associated with travelling and meeting in person. With participation from many different countries, we want to make all of our delegates feel as safe as possible. Find out about the safety measures we have put in place.

Guidance for live online sessions

All live online sessions will be hosted on StreamYard and broadcast to YouTube Live. We recommend all speakers attend a Speaker Orientation Session to check their equipment works and to become familiar with the platform.

Even if you have used this web conferencing platform before, please take a chance to familiarise yourself with any new updates prior to delivering your session, as well as checking how the platform functions on your current setup and internet connection.

We are using Streamyard for all live sessions and you will be asked to share your screen. You will not need to upload your presentation.

Getting started with StreamYard.

Speaker Orientation Sessions

We run multiple orientation sessions for speakers and we look forward to helping you test your setup and presentation. Ahead of the test session, please read these StreamYard joining instructions.

We can only help 10 speakers at the same time, so if you click to join a session which is full, please wait a few minutes and try again. Here are some useful links to help you get set up:

Browsers

Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera all work with StreamYard. Unfortunately, other browsers, like Safari, do not support our technology yet. We recommend Chrome for the best experience.

Accessing your live broadcast session

To join your session, click on the custom StreamYard link that has been sent to you as part of the speaker invite email.

Once you have joined your StreamYard broadcast, the host will be informed that you’ve arrived. You will remain “backstage”, the host will not be able to hear you but they will be able to see you and any other guests will not be able to see or hear you. The host will add you to the broadcast and the page will update to let you know when you’ve been added. Then everyone will be able to see and hear you.

If you need to communicate with any other presenters or the Session host, please use the StreamYard “Private chat” window. This space will be private to the host and guests of the StreamYard broadcast. It will not be visible to viewers on YouTube Live.

All Q&A from conference attendees will be sent through the YouTube Live stream.

The host and session chair will arrive 15 mins before the session begins to be available for live help.

We ask presenters to log in no less than 10 mins before the session begins to check everything is working, prepare relevant materials, set-up screen-share, etc.

Guidance for pre-recorded online sessions

All pre-recorded sessions will be played and scheduled within the conference programme. Sessions will automatically play on the conference site, but will also be accessible from the altc22 YouTube playlist. Because sessions are pre-recorded, after the event schedule completes each day, sessions will continue to play on a loop so participants in different time zones can attend.

Live Q & A

The live Q&A will take place in Discord. If you are available when your session is scheduled to start, post a thread in Discord. There is a category for each day and a dedicated channel for pre-recordings. Delegates will post in the channel to ask questions or comment on your session. To help start the conversation and make it easier for delegates to talk to you, post a starting message:

“Hello, I/we are presenting [title] at [time]. Ask me/us a question or post a comment here.”

Video and Audio Formatting

We recommend recording .mp4 videos in the highest definition possible, however, our minimum recommendations are that videos should be recorded with 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1280×720. Please refer to YouTube’s guidance on video and audio format for more detailed guidance.

Uploading your pre-recorded online session

Once you have recorded your video, please send it to conferences@alt.ac.uk so that it can be uploaded to the platform in good time. If your recording is too large to be sent by email, upload it to a file sharing platform and provide us with a link to download it.

Please email your recordings/links to conferences@alt.ac.uk no later than 23:59 BST Sunday 21st August 2022.

Leading up to the session

Speakers are encouraged to speak in present/future tense when referring to their sessions. For example, you may want to tweet, “I’m so excited to chat about/share X during the #altc22 conference!”

Engaging with attendees

Speakers of pre-recorded sessions are asked to please be available for questions during the slot that your session is scheduled to play. The questions for these sessions will be coming from Discord. A Beginner’s Guide to Discord.

Useful information for all Speakers

Accessibility

We are committed to ensuring that our events are accessible to all delegates and expect a diverse audience.

All online sessions will have automatic live captioning. Please keep in mind that the captions can cover text that is placed at the bottom of a presentation so we advise placing any text you wish to be displayed higher up on your presentation slides.

As a speaker you should consider how to make your contribution as accessible as possible. If you are not sure how to start, have a look at these tips and resources:

Before the session

Prepare to share materials online so that participants can access them and make any adjustments required,
When preparing materials use clear screen optimised fonts such as Arial,
Reduce the use of coloured backgrounds such as red and where possible use black text,
Try and incorporate different presentation styles into your presentation e.g. diagrams and verbal explanations.

Photographs and screenshots

Participants to your session have been advised in our netiquette that:

“permission is understood to be granted to share photos or screenshots of slides unless the presenter explicitly states/indicates that content should not be shared”.

As attendees may arrive during your presentation we recommend that any content that should not be photographed is clearly marked.

During a session

Speak loudly and clearly,Describe pertinent visuals,Explain acronyms,Give the audience time to digest the information,Repeat questions back to the audience to ensure they all heard.

After a session

If appropriate, share contact details so that delegates can get in touch if they have questions / need clarification.If not already provided, provide delegates with copies of the materials covered via the dedicated Discord channel.

Engaging with your audience using Vevox

Vevox will be running throughout the entire conference from the main hall. Both in person and online event attendees will be able to participate live throughout the conference, through asking questions within our Q&A feature, and through responding to polls. Vevox is a hybrid suitable tool, and there will be no difference in user experience for in-person and remote attendees.

There will be a member of the Vevox team on site to support you during the day as well as the technical team from ALT!

Participants will be able to join the Vevox session at the event via vevox.app on any device or can alternatively download the mobile application through the app store (android and IOS). They will access the session with a nine-digit code or scan a QR code, which will be displayed in multiple locations, including on banners and flyers in the main hall and shared regularly on the online communications platform. For this event the code will be: 113-812-368

The Vevox team will happily add any polls you would like to pose to the audience during your session into the dashboard, please contact education@vevox.com with the content you’d like to add, and it will be ready for you on the day.

Session Recordings

Recordings from sessions will only be available to registered delegates during the event, and published openly after the event. This is part of our commitment to the Open COVID for Education Pledge. Please notify us if you would like your session recording to be removed for any reason.

Increasing impact and widening dissemination

Resources and recordings from the event will be made available openly to all post-conference. If you are seeking to increase the impact of your work or looking to disseminate research beyond the conference, we encourage you to make a submission to the Research in Learning Technology journal. The journal is a Gold Open Access journal and we do not levy any charges to ensure researchers can disseminate new work in learning technology as widely as possible.

Code of conduct and netiquette

ALT events are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment in any form and we ask you to be courteous and considerate to your fellow users. We appreciate you may not agree with the ideas or views expressed by others and whilst we encourage debate we remind you that these discussions should remain civilised. Users violating any of these rules will be removed.

Equality and diversity are at the very heart of the values of ALT which inform all aspects of our activities and services, especially our events. We aim to be open, transparent, inclusive, democratic, fair and free from discrimination in order to best meet the needs of all our members, ALT staff and the wider community. We are committed to promoting and developing equality of opportunity in all its functions and will seek to do this by:

communicating our commitment to equality and diversity to all members of the ALT community;
communicating where responsibility lies for equality issues i.e. with the Trustees;
providing appropriate training and briefings for Trustees and staff;
actively promoting equality and diversity;
challenging discrimination based on age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity;
ensuring that legislation and policy requirements are implemented into all our working practices.

Netiquette – a guide for social media sharing

We welcome social media use at ALT events, including live tweeting. If sharing photos/screenshots the following conditions apply:

Permission is understood to be granted to share photos or screenshots of slides unless the presenter explicitly states/indicates that content should not be shared.
Do not capture or share photos or screenshots that contain personal information. Examples include, but are not limited to, screenshots that contain personally identifiable information such as names, email addresses or chat logs.

Our netiquette has been adapted from the American Geophysical Union’s Meetings Guidelines on Photography and Social Media and reused with permission.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.