The present work describes the 100% virtual ATIDES (Avances en Tecnologías, Innovación
y Desafíos de la Educación Superior) conference that was held between October 15 and
31, 2018, sponsored by Universitat Jaume I (UJI), Spain. Online conferences like this
have been the subject of some controversy in the field of education over the last
decade. Indeed, we have found a few texts that are against them. One of these is [1],
whose authors claim that “interaction is not enough” to ensure efficient simulation
of face-to-face contact. However, the Canadian academic community (for instance, the
Centre for Distance Education at Athabasca University) is a strong advocate of online
conferences (see [2,3]). Among other advantages, this kind of conference is “family-friendly,”
i.e., they break barriers for researchers with family obligations [4], in particular
many women [5]. In addition, these conferences overcome the drawback of parallel sessions
at face-to-face conferences, at which participants must choose certain talks and miss
others. Anderson and Anderson [6] even put forward environmental and economic arguments:
“Transportation is a major contributor of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.” On the
other hand, Abdullah [7] and Kear, Chetwynd, and Jefferis [8] look at the matter from
another point of view that is also important: Social presence at online conferences.
Gichora and colleagues [9] propose 10 rules for organizing a virtual conference, but
they only focus on real-time virtual conferences. Real-time virtual conferences emulate
the structure of well-known on-site conferences, with the use of video-conferencing
tools for connecting the participants in a virtual meeting. We, on the other hand,
focus on non–real-time web conferences. In this kind of conference, a web platform
connects the participants, but the event does not take place live. Communication can
be made through posts on a forum, which can sometimes take hours or even days.
Non–real-time web conferences share many of the advantages of real-time virtual conferences,
such as being family friendly and allowing the involvement of participants with a
low budget for traveling, which makes this kind of conference more participative and
inclusive. However, non–real-time web conferences have other advantages that real-time
web conferences do not. Asynchronous interaction allows the attendees to have more
time for reflection before they put forward their questions and comments, and, likewise,
the speaker has enough time to prepare an appropriate answer. This makes up for the
lack of face-to-face social interaction in this type of conference. In fact, numerous
interactions occur via forums and are, in many cases, numerous and more informal and
flexible than at classical scientific meetings [10]. Forums give rise to stimulating
discussions like those that can occur at unconferences [11]. Furthermore, this asynchrony
allows participants from all over the world to take part without worrying about time
zone differences.
Another advantage is that it is not so greatly dependent on technology, unlike real-time
web conferences: video-conferencing software is not necessary nor is a stable internet
connection. In fact, we do not have to worry about the bandwidth like we do at real-time
conferences. So, people in places that might not have very good or reliable internet
connectivity can also participate.
Therefore, the cost of organizing a non–real-time web conferences is lower than for
other scientific events. This means that the registration fees can be made very cheap
(the registration fee for ATIDES 2018 was €35). This makes these conferences more
affordable for everyone.
Furthermore, these conferences are more accessible since communications in non–real-time
web conferences are text based. Although the conference can have an official language,
language is not a barrier since Google Chrome can translate the text, so the content
is accessible in any language without having to hire translation and interpreting
services. Not only that, the content is also accessible for people with auditory disabilities.
In this paper, we describe the most notable data that have arisen from the event.
Furthermore, we detail the steps taken previously during the planning stage as well
as an evaluation of the results obtained. This conference was developed 100% virtually
from beginning to end: The call for papers, the paper-selection process, the preparation
and announcement of the proceedings, the process of presentations, discussions in
forums, and issuance of the corresponding attendance and authorship certificates.
The following Ten Simple Rules are the result of the experience obtained from organizing
the two editions of the 100% virtual ATIDES conference.
Rule 1: Set up an organizing and scientific committee that is engaged with information
and communications technologies
Effective committees are essential for the success of every kind of conference. In
particular, a web conference also requires its organizers to have computer skills
or, at least, have some knowledge of the computer tools that exist nowadays. As we
will explain here, we had to handle web-hosting platforms and conference-management
tools, and moreover, we created our own website. Therefore, an experienced organizing
committee (supported by an expert information technology [IT] team, see Rule 3) makes
this task easier. Regarding the scientific committee, its members should, at least,
be aware of and somewhat familiar with information and communications technologies
(ICTs), since they will have to interact by computer during the paper-selection process.
In our case, the ATIDES 2018 organizing committee was formed by researchers and teachers
who were committed to the theme of the conference and willing to work as a team with
ICT tools. They were also part of the scientific committee to ensure efficient coordination.
The scientific committee consisted of 39 renowned researchers in teaching innovation
from some of the universities listed in Table 1.
10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007667.t001
Table 1
Acronyms of participants’ institutions.
CNCIVIRTUAL: Universidad Centro Nacional de Capacitación Intensiva, Mexico.
ITSON: Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora, Mexico.
UAB: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.
UACO: Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral, Argentina.
UANL: Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, México.
UAUSTRAL: Universidad Austral, Argentina.
UCAVILA: Universidad Católica de Ávila, Spain.
UCLM: Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, Spain.
UCM: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.
UCO: Universidad de Córdoba, Spain.
UCOMILLAS: Universidad de Comillas, Spain.
UHU: Universidad de Huelva, Spain.
UJI: Universitat Jaume I, Spain.
ULPGC: Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
UNAHUR: Universidad Nacional de Hurlingham, Argentina.
UNED: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain.
UNEX: Universidad de Extremadura, Spain.
UNILEON: Universidad de León, Spain.
UNIOVI: Universidad de Oviedo, Spain.
UNIRIOJA: Universidad de La Rioja, Spain.
UNIZAR: Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain.
UNLP: Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina.
UPM: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.
UPOLI: Universidad Politécnica de Nicaragua, Nicaragua.
UPV: Universitat Politècnica de ValènciaSpain.
URJC: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain.
US: Universidad de Sevilla, Spain.
USAL: Universidad de Salamanca, Spain.
USFQ: Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador.
UTPL: Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Ecuador.
UV: Universitat de València, Spain.
UVG: Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Guatemala.
UVIC: Universitat de Vic, Spain.
UVIGO: Universidad de Vigo, Spain.
Rule 2: Correct timing of the conference
Exchanges in a non–real-time conference generally take much longer than in real-time
conferences. This is particularly the case when participants belong to different time
zones. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to establish a length of at least one
or, preferably, two weeks for the whole conference. Moreover, it is very important
to choose the right dates on which to hold the conference. Overlaps with similar conferences
should be avoided to obtain maximum attention from potential participants. It is also
necessary to consider periods that are not occupied by other activities (lectures,
holidays, etc.). Nevertheless, even in the worst case, a non–real-time conference
can fit in well with such other events thanks to the choice of a sufficiently long
period.
The ATIDES conference took place during the last two weeks of October 2018, and it
included participants mainly from Europe and South America, with a time difference
of around eight hours. One week earlier, the inaugural speech was filmed. The institutional
and academic authorities of UJI gave strong support for the event and showed a positive
and warm attitude towards the participants.
At the very beginning of the conference, all attendees received a welcome message
with a link to the virtual conference space. This message, which was sent to the general
forum of the conference room, encouraged the participants to view the inaugural speech.
Rule 3: Have an expert IT team to assist with web hosting and digital tasks
Efficient management of the ICT tools used is essential when carrying out an event
like this. It is therefore necessary to have a team of expert technicians in this
field who can help the organizers solve any technical problems that may occur as well
as provide advice on the design and management of the virtual environment to be used.
Online communication before, during, and after the conference (even in a non–real-time
event) is the basis for effective interaction between all participants (organizers,
speakers, and attendees), and this depends largely on the available computer support.
At the ATIDES 2018 conference, our IT team created the virtual conference space and
had to react after a computer-server breakdown occurred during the course of the conference.
Rule 4: Identify a good, visible hosting platform
Among the plethora of free and paid hosting services available, a clear and friendly
website is absolutely necessary to encourage participation and increase the visibility
of the conference. It is advisable to use a short and easy-to-remember web domain.
The expert IT team can help with the best choice.
In our case, for the sake of greater freedom, affordability, and an elegant front
end, we used a third-party free web design (https://www.weebly.com) for our first
contact website.
Rule 5: Develop the website and the virtual conference space
The website must contain all the usual key elements of a conference, such as "general
information," "committees," "topics," "registration," and "access to the virtual conference
space". In addition to the list of specific topics, it should also include keywords
such as "web conference" and "asynchronous" (or "non–real-time") in order to ensure
it is placed among the top internet search results of people seeking this kind of
events.
Regarding the virtual conference space, it must be hosted on servers managed by the
IT team. The IT team is responsible for installing, customizing, and maintaining a
solid learning management system (LMS) program for managing the development of the
conference. This software must be flexible and open, have a friendly interface, and
facilitate asynchronous communication (interaction between participants can be promoted
through open-forum spaces) and, optionally, synchronous communication (we offer a
non–real-time event where real-time interaction is also welcome but not compulsory).
The mature open-source Moodle or the more recent Blackboard Open LMS are two important
examples. The constant availability of the servers is important (since authors and
attendees may connect at any time of the day) but not as critical as for real-time
web conferences. In the event of malfunction during the conference, the IT team must
react quickly to restore connectivity.
We used our own space, which had been structured using a Moodle course to facilitate
the development of the conference with a minimum hierarchical structure to organize
participation in discussions.
Rule 6: Have a good publicity campaign
Although publicity is important for any conference or event in general, in this case
it can be considered a very important task to which we must pay special attention.
The mechanism and development of non–real-time online conferences should be explained
in the publicity campaign. In fact, a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section on
the website is recommended.
Because our contact is exclusively online, the conference must be announced well in
advance, and periodic calls should be made to encourage participation as speakers.
The amount of notices and news should be greater than for a face-to-face conference.
In this regard, it is important not to tire people with excessive information if they
are not interested; they should be given the option to unsubscribe from the conference
mailings.
Perhaps the place or the organizing institutions are little known, or, even if they
are well known, it would offer added value to raise their profile and highlight the
most attractive aspects.
Adequate diffusion of the accepted papers can help encourage participation. For example,
indexing of the publication in the Conference Proceedings Citation Index by Clarivate
Analytics could be requested.
In addition, in the call for papers it is important to be very clear regarding all
details related to the format of the presentations, while submission deadlines must
be perfectly explained on the website. As in face-to-face conferences, a call for
papers was created, containing the purpose of the conference and the submission guidelines,
together with important dates such as the submission deadline and the decision notification
date.
Rule 7: Specific actions for a virtual paper-selection process
Thirty years ago, works were sent by postal mail to be reviewed before being presented
at a conference. Twenty years ago, these works were sent by email. But over the last
decade, the use of web platforms for submission and peer review has been gaining popularity
(see [12]). Thus, several conference-management tools have appeared, two of the most
popular being the EasyChair conference system (see [13]) and the HotCRP conference-management
system (see [14]). For more details, readers who are interested may consult Kanav,
Lammich, and Popescu [15]. We cite, as alternative free platforms, ConfTool [16] and
OpenConf [17]. Parallel to this, there has also been an increase in concern about
verifying documentation submitted online in a confidential manner. Thus, for this
new scenario the use of information security applications is necessary (see [18]).
These tools are not exclusive to online conferences, but it is useful to mention them
here since their use is necessary in virtual conferences.
In order to carry out the submission and review process considering the above requirements,
we used the free version of the aforementioned EasyChair platform. This option allows
us to handle all submissions with no restriction on the total size of uploaded files,
except for a 20 Mb limit on the size of each individual file uploaded.
The platform allows us to set the parameters for the review process (e.g., reviewer
assignations, reviewer forms for assessing papers, dates for opening the submission
process, etc). The scientific committee, which includes all the reviewers, was entered
on the platform, and invitation emails were automatically sent to all of them. Once
the authors had submitted their work, two referees reviewed them. The referees assessed
the contributions, and a subcommittee of the scientific committee made a decision
and provided their comments and scores. The possible outcomes were rejected, resubmit
with major changes, resubmit with minor changes, and accepted. The platform allows
personalized emails to be sent to the authors or corresponding authors with the decision
and comments from the reviewers. Those with the “resubmission” decision were given
two weeks to make the changes indicated by the referees, and the subcommittee of the
scientific committee then checked that those changes had been made. The format of
the final accepted version was also reviewed in the EasyChair platform.
Although the scientific committee members are not required to be experts on ICTs,
it is essential that they are active and willing to review the proposed papers in
the aforementioned online platforms. In online conferences, papers can be more extensive
than in face-to-face conferences. This is positive because papers can be more complete
and detailed, but, on the other hand, the reviewers (in our case, the members of the
scientific committee) have to make an extra effort.
A selection of the accepted papers for ATIDES 2018 was compiled in an electronic book
with an international standard book number (ISBN). After a final review of the format
of the selected publications, the proceedings book was edited with the help of our
university editorial team. Moreover, although the papers were written in Spanish,
we required the title, abstract, and keywords to be included in English too, since
these proceedings were to be submitted for indexing in the Conference Proceedings
Citation Index (Web of Science, Clarivate Analytics; see https://clarivate.com).
Rule 8: Take actions to ensure the smooth running of the conference
Before starting the conference sessions, once the virtual conference environment is
created, several necessary actions should be carried out to ensure that the conference
runs smoothly. Most of all, it is important to create good quality and up-to-date
content, both on the website and in the Moodle environment, to engage and continuously
provide access to the audience.
We recommend regular communication with speakers whose contributions have been accepted
and periodic announcements about the conference on general news forums and social
media.
Although it is important to maintain constant communication to keep the participants
interested in all kinds of conferences, in this case it is essential. In order to
ensure a fluent participation of the attendees and authors and their exchanges and
to avoid misunderstandings in discussions, we recommend the following actions be taken
in the virtual conference space:
Structure the conference space in clear blocks under the name of each topic within
the conference.
Create a separate forum for each contribution, named with the title of the paper and
containing, as an attachment, the PDF document of the full text of the paper.
Subscribe each author to his/her corresponding forum, and encourage him/her to post
an introductory message on the opening day of the conference.
Let the attendees choose their subscription to forums. Initially, they should not
be subscribed to any forums, or they will receive many unwanted email notifications.
Automatically subscribe each participant to a forum when he/she has posted a comment.
In this way, he/she will receive an email notification when an author or other attendee
posts an answer to his/her comment.
Condition the certification of attendance to participation in a prescribed number
of forum and/or posts.
Condition the certification of authorship to authors of contributions whose forums
have all participants' comments answered (by any of the authors).
One way to maintain interest and encourage participation is to propose the recording
of short videos where the authors present their talks (following the rules explained
in Lortie [19]). In the ATIDES conference, the video presentation of each paper had
to have an image quality between 480 and 720 pixels and be accessible on YouTube.
The PechaKucha [20] format is based on the fact that you have limited time to convey
the fundamental idea of a proposal, since the recipient soon loses attention at an
event where many speakers are involved. The idea is simple: 20 slides lasting 20 seconds
each, i.e., a total duration of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The authors who opted for
this modality achieved a specific participation certificate.
Rule 9: Make the content accessible in different languages
Many scientific events have only one official language, usually English (although
in ATIDES 2018 the official language was Spanish). Hiring professional interpreters
for simultaneous interpreting is not so common at scientific events. However, in non–real-time
web conferences, machine translation can be exploited to increase the number of participants
with different languages. The content of the website, papers, and forums is written,
so the translation tool in Google Chrome can break down language barriers with a single
click. Although Google’s take on an online interpreter will never be as good as a
human translator, it can be a very good starting point.
As regards the videos of PechaKucha presentations, since they are on YouTube, its
auto-caption feature can be used. Although YouTube’s automatic captions are not perfect
and gender and dialect bias can be found [21], they can help to overcome language
barriers.
Furthermore, it is possible to ensure website accessibility, for people with disabilities,
people with slow internet connection, or users of different devices (e.g., from desktop
or laptop computers to smartphones).
Rule 10: Analyze data and obtain feedback to learn valuable lessons
All experiences must be evaluated to objectify reality and learn lessons that can
be applied to future actions, which should be designed taking the available evidence
into account. It is important to know and analyze the degree to which the initial
objectives have been achieved so that we can design priorities and objectives that
are consistent with reality. In our case, the indicators considered were the number
of participants, the number of interventions in debates, the ease of handling the
virtual environment, and the opinions of the actors involved during all stages of
the conference (technicians, committees, participants, and speakers). Based on this
evaluation, we may decide to continue with, modify, or discard the activity.
Lessons learned from the ATIDES 2018 conference
Our non–real-time web conference, ATIDES 2018, included 242 participants and 56 papers
signed by 110 authors. Fifteen of them gave a video presentation of their talk. While
80% of the papers led to at least 19 interventions, 50% of them exceeded 33 exchanges,
and one of them even obtained 134 comments.
For the sake of clarity, we list the abbreviations or acronyms of the participating
institutions in Table 1.
Fig 1 shows the details of the participants by country of origin (left) and affiliation
(right).
10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007667.g001
Fig 1
Left: Participants by country.
OTHERS include participants from Venezuela, Brazil, Denmark, and South Africa. Right:
Participants by institution. OTHERS includes UACO, UANL, UPOLI, UVIC, ITSON, UAUSTRAL,
UCAVILA, UCO, UCOMILLAS, ULPGC, UNAHUR, UNED, UNEX, UNIOVI, UNIRIOJA, UNLP, UPCT,
UPV, URJC, USAL, USFQ, and UVIGO. ITSON, Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora; UAB, Universitat
Autònoma de Barcelona; UACO, Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral; UANL, Universidad
Autónoma de Nuevo León; UAUSTRAL, Universidad Austral; UCAVILA, Universidad Católica
de Ávila; UCLM, Universidad de Castilla La Mancha; UCM, Universidad Complutense de
Madrid; UCO, Universidad de Córdoba; UCOMILLAS, Universidad de Comillas; UHU, Universidad
de Huelva; UJI, Universitat Jaume I; ULPGC, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria;
UNAHUR, Universidad Nacional de Hurlingham; UNED, Universidad Nacional de Educación
a Distancia; UNEX, Universidad de Extremadura; UNILEON, Universidad de León; UNIOVI,
Universidad de Oviedo; UNIRIOJA, Universidad de La Rioja; UNLP, Universidad Nacional
de La Plata; UNIZAR, Universidad de Zaragoza; UPCT, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena;
UPM, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; UPOLI, Universidad Politécnica de Nicaragua;
UPV, Universitat Politècnica de València; URJC, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos; US, Universidad
de Sevilla; USAL, Universidad de Salamanca; USFQ, Universidad San Francisco de Quito;
UTPL, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja; UV, Universitat de València; UVG, Universidad
del Valle de Guatemala; UVIC, Universitat de Vic; UVIGO, Universidad de Vigo.
Fig 2 shows the number of participants who subscribed to (i.e., attended) the debate
for a given paper and the number of interventions (questions, comments, etc.) in that
particular debate. The data shown in this figure are surprisingly positive. It is
rare to have more than 10 interventions in a face-to-face talk, but it was usual in
this conference, with even more than 100 in some cases. This shows that in online
conferences, asynchronous communication allows for deeper reflection when posing questions
and also when answering them: Participants and authors can prepare their interventions
more carefully.
10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007667.g002
Fig 2
Participants subscribed to the debates and number of interventions per paper.
Fig 3 shows the papers ordered by number of interventions. It is clearly observed
that the minimum number of interventions made in 80% of the presentations was 19,
while the minimum number of interventions made in approximately half of the presentations
was 33. These figures are difficult to achieve in face-to-face conferences.
10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007667.g003
Fig 3
Papers ordered by number of interventions.
The attendee satisfaction data are shown in Fig 4. More than 90% of the attendees
were satisfied or very satisfied with regard to access and ease of participation in
the debates on the presentations and were willing to participate in future conferences
of this type. In terms of satisfaction with the answers and their usefulness, the
percentage was slightly higher than 80%, although this figure is still very positive.
10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007667.g004
Fig 4
Attendee satisfaction results.
The speaker satisfaction data are shown in Fig 5. Approximately 60% of the speakers
were satisfied or very satisfied with the number of interventions and their usefulness;
this percentage exceeds 60% in terms of the ease of responding to the issues raised.
More than 50% think that online participation is more profitable than face-to-face
participation, and almost 60% will probably present a paper in future online conferences.
Even though these data are positive, they indicate that there is still room for improvement
in the preparation and development of online conferences. One aspect that needs to
be improved is to promote closer, more personal interactions in a synchronous manner.
10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007667.g005
Fig 5
Speaker satisfaction results.
Regarding the satisfaction of the scientific committee, it is worth mentioning that
more than 70% stated (see Fig 6) that they had participated in virtual congresses
before. This shows a substantial change in the trend of conference development and
the enormous impact that it will have in the coming decade in terms of the use of
ICT in the field of education. Nearly 100% of the respondents said they were satisfied
or very satisfied with the review process. Regarding the quality of the papers, the
committee considered that approximately 10% were very good quality and about 60% were
good quality. Considering that one of the objectives of the conference was to be accessible
to new researchers with few resources, the quality data can be considered satisfactory.
10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007667.g006
Fig 6
Scientific committee satisfaction results.
PC, program committee.
It is important to mention that online conferences are accessible to anyone who is
interested in the subject. All that is needed to participate is an internet connection,
so the participants’ geographical location does not matter. In addition, accommodation
and travel expenses are not required, and the registration fees are very low. They
are even family friendly and respectful to the environment.
Our proceedings were published by the Communication and Publications Service of UJI.
This is an editorial member of the Union of Spanish University Publishers (UNE), which
guarantees the dissemination and marketing of this work nationally and internationally.
The publication, with ISBN: 978-84-17429-54-6, can be found in volume 19 of the Educational
Innovation collection (see [22]) and can be downloaded freely in print version and
to electronic devices.
Although we initially proposed 10 thematic areas to the authors, in this edition the
works were finally grouped into four main thematic areas:
Virtual environments: distance education, e-Learning, b-Learning, massive open online
course (MOOC), etc.
Skills assessment and planning: skills assessment, improvement of quality, planning
of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), gender, legal and economic aspects
of education, etc.
Innovative experiences in education: methodologies, content, assessment, etc.
New technologies in education: videos, apps, tablets, telephony, social networks,
blogs, etc.
Readers who are interested in educational innovation and new ICTs applied to education
can also check the proceedings from the first and second editions of the conference,
held in 2016 (see [23]) and 2018 (see [22]), respectively.
In summary, in view of the quantitative and qualitative results, the experience has
been very positive and rewarding. The satisfaction surveys also show that it was well
received.
The success of a virtual conference depends on many factors. One of the most important
factors is the planning: Committee meetings, creation of the virtual environment,
and announcements on forums and social media. In addition, the choice of an online
conference-management system, such as EasyChair, speeds up the workflow and was satisfactory
for authors and committee members. The structure of the conference website with a
different forum for each talk provided quick and easy access to the discussions. Moreover,
constant interaction between the participants increased their satisfaction.
Finally, as future work, we believe it is necessary to achieve better emulation of
face-to-face contact in a synchronous way, as happens at face-to-face conferences.
On this occasion, we launched a direct YouTube connection in the form of a coffee
lounge, but the reality is that participation was limited.
We think that enhancing this connection through constant encouragement by a host in
charge of this task throughout the conference could be effective.