An online conference consists of live, interactive sessions with individuals or groups of speakers and worldwide participants who share information with each other. A recent value-added aspect to such conferences are digital poster sessions.
Poster sessions in typical conferences are static materials presented in a graphical and textual way to share discipline-related information. The topics for poster sessions may align along a particular theme. However, most of these are contents related to the conference but which may not have been central enough to fit on the main agenda (which may be very competitive).
Some themes of this conference are Technology Tools; New Models in Instructional Design; Privacy, Authenticity and Identity; The Missing Literacies; Green Education / Initiatives; Student Affairs & Technology; Managing Growth; and others.
Searchable poster sessions
Poster sessions need to be easily searchable for as wide a use as possible. They have to be clearly described (using metadata) to represent contents for user access. Below is a screenshot of the poster sessions list for this conference.
People may subscribe to an RSS feed for the particular poster session area to see what new information is updated and what comments are made. This presentation is searchable. This also allows the humanizing of the presenters with the headshots.
Typical features of digital poster sessions
Digital poster sessions tend to be stand-alone and self-explanatory. They are designed for perusing for self-discovery learners. As such, these may be slideshows, lecture captures, screen captures, videos, websites, games, and even that staple, articles. Many now involve interactivity — such as games that may be played or light assignments that may be done by the participants. Poster sessions may involve communications, with chains of posted messages by participants. Many digital items (tours of websites, slideshows, videos, and screen captures) are narrated, with a very humanizing voice element.
Some types of digital poster sessions
Digital poster sessions may take pretty much any form that digital information is presented in. In the recent International Online Conference (www.internationalonlineconference.org) presented earlier this year, the poster sessions involved a range of topics and were uploaded even prior to the launch of the live conference itself. The contents will be archived and available for on-demand viewing for at least half a year after the conference’s close.
Digital poster sessions have included the following:
- Slideshows (both narrated and un-narrated)
- Photo albums
- Audio files
- Video files
- Screen captures (narrated and un-narrated)
- Short games
The following shows a narrated slideshow.
An overview of the poster sessions is available to the public, but to access these, people must subscribe and have their own account. The digital poster sessions may be accessed at www.internationalonlineconference.org/2010/category/poster-session .
During the live conference, the presenters point to the poster sessions to encourage use.
The following shows Heidi Willard’s “Using Academic Scrapbooking to Assist Students to be Motivated and Retain the Curriculum,” for an example of an interface for a poster session.
Value-added poster sessions
Poster sessions do not just involve the actual presentation materials. Many include additional downloadables like slides and handouts.
Another interactive element of a poster session involves the ability to interact around the information presented using textual messages. (This is a common feature in web logs or blogs.)
The screenshots of this conference were provided with permission by the conference organizers, the International Online Conference, which is based out of Chicago, Ill. The conference was produced by LearningTimes, a leading producer of online conferences for education and training.
