The 2021 CLAS Virtual Undergraduate Symposium was a huge success by many standards and added a few new flavors to the virtual conference experience at Wayne State.
Some quick facts
- Hosted across three days, April 14 through 16
- Presentation Q&A was held via live chat
- Total students: 29
- Total chat participants: 1318
- Historical in-person attendance: 100-150
- Number of website visits (during the event): 7,289
- Number of website visits (as of May 3): 8,290
- Number of countries viewing: 18
- Total video views (as of May 3): 461
We looked at several models and platforms to replicate an in-person symposium, including break-out rooms via Zoom. Inspired by the University of Florida’s Virtual Research Symposium model (screenshot), we implemented our own version of this.
The setup
For each student, we created a standard full-width web page (24 in total) within our website that contained several interactive elements. Each of these elements was embedded into the page rather than linking off to produce a seamless experience.
Each of these pages was listed in directory style from the symposium landing page that included a welcome video from the dean, FAQs, and instructions for the event.
Intro videos
Each participant was asked to record a three minute or less video introducing themselves and their research. Many of the students went above and beyond with music, pictures, and graphics.
- We opted to host each presentation video on our university YouTube channel to ensure consistency, proper formatting (editorial style, tagging), accessibility (closed captioning), and to mitigate any access/technical issues
- We created a custom thumbnail for each presentation featuring the student’s picture(s) and research title for uniformity and to give the overall page a Wayne State feel
- By hosting the videos:
- We were able to capture all traffic on our channels during the event and perpetually as these videos will remain published
- This content can continue to be used for promotion, department websites, etc. (see research YouTube playlist)
- Students also have a public-facing piece of research connected to the university that they can share indefinitely and add to their body of work
Presentations
In place of physical poster boards, students reformatted their research into a dynamic slideshow, rather than a static PDF or image, that was embedded into each page.
We selected the presentation platform, SlideShare, over Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides in favor of offering the best accessibility. SlideShare is a part of the LinkedIn ecosystem and comes with it’s own community and social features such comments, like, etc.
Because SlideShare uses a personal LinkedIn account, we were not able to currently host each slideshow under a “university account.” Rather, each student hosted their presentation under their personal SlideShare/LinkedIn account.
Similar to the presentation videos, these slideshows will remain active on the web (at the student’s discretion) adding to their body of work and research.
Live chat
To facilitate discussion in real time, we embedded 24 chat rooms (one for each presentation page) where faculty, students, and the community could engage the presenters about their research.
While the chat was available during the entire three-day session for people to leave questions and comments, the presenters were only required to log on during the review window from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on the final day. The designated engagement window made the experience more manageable for students rather than trying to respond to comments in real time over a three-day period.
Star rating system
- To encourage feedback and healthy competition 😉, each presentation page included an embedded rating form similar to product or podcast reviews
- The judging faculty weighted the rating for each presentation in their evaluation to help select the winners
Initially, we explored several platforms for accomplishing this (Google Forms, Survey Monkey, etc.) but discovered our in-house Formy platform satisfied the requirements needed.
- To ensure against rating abuse, we restricted submissions to one per person/device (or by IP address) (see settings)
- The rating form was automatically scheduled to open/close on each page at the start/conclusion of the event, limiting responses to the event window only
These sometimes lesser known/used features of Formy are readily available within a form’s settings and didn’t incur us additional cost or third-party solutions.
Backstage
Taking a page from the Streamyard platform, we created a Microsoft Teams group for the participants as a “backstage area” for admin/tech support or to chat with each other rather than relying on email or text for the event.
Post-event follow-up
Social media announcements
Immediately following the event, we announced the winners across our social media platforms of interest (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook).
Emailed awards
The following week, our symposium coordinator emailed each of the participants a certificate of recognition.
Symposium home page update
We updated the home page to announce the winners and remove any time sensitive information. The presenter pages, named after each student will remain published and serve as an archive for potential future virtual symposiums.
Wrap-up
- This model of presentation uses existing university platforms and tools to create a unique blend of the virtual symposium experience
- We combined a variety of elements and formats to maximize exposure for the university and students during and after the event
- Future symposiums will likely feature a hybrid model of in-person hosting and virtual elements
Specials thanks to our Web Communications Team for their hard work and ongoing support to help us produce an excellent Wayne State experience.