Transforming Assessment speaker prep notes

Quick login

Login for practice and for real session = http://taw.fi/join

(just enter your name in the box when promoted - there is no password.)

** Overview - The Audience **

The ASCILITE Transforming Assessment webinar series has a theme around 'assessment' and 'technology enhanced assessment' or 'e-assessment' in higher education.

The audience is typically a mix of coal face university academics/teachers and faculty support staff such as education designers and education technology people, we have a minority audience from other sectors (VET, private, health etc) and some L&T leadership roles.

We tend to get from 100 to 300 RSVPs per session but just under half tend to show up on the day. The remainder often to watch the session recording.

Our direct membership list is approximately 5,000 people from Australasia, Asia, Europe and the UK. The greatest numbers are from Australia and the UK. Individual sessions may also be promoted via 3rd party lists and sites as suited to the specific session topic e.g. JISC, eAA, AHE, POD, SOTL, ASCILITE, and HERDSA. Total reach through these 3rd party lists with approx 30K people. We also promote via online social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Groups on social media have much smaller numbers and tend to get lower response rates. We also have a Linkedin group with just over 1200 members with about half overlapping the direct list.

Sessions are 1 hour. We tend to schedule sessions at 0700 universal time (5 or 6pm Australian Eastern time) to suit the audience spread, on the first Wednesday of the month during the Australian academic year (roughly March to November).

** Timeline for Webinar Presenter **.

The overall process will be:

1. Run practice session - use the same computer, internet connection as per the real session and a headset...(more advice below)

2. Prepare your slides - more advice below!

3. Do the real webinar.

4. Receive feedback - we run a post-session audience survey - see http://taw.fi/feedback.



Please provide:

1) presenter's name and job post/organisation name,

2) a short title and one or two sentence description of your presentation to describe what you will cover in the session.

3) A set of Powerpoint slides - send to Mathew 24 hours BEFORE the session via email (you can reply to the invite email).

** Preparing your session (all session types) **

It is recommended that you view one of our recent webinar sessions to see how we run these sessions. see

http://transformingassessment.com/events_past.php

We like to encourage interactive sessions rather than straight lectures.

Typical session plans:

a) In a single presenter webinar session (1 speaker - 1 hour session):

i. intro by host.

ii present approx. 40-45 minutes - interspersed with audience check-ins.

iii Q&A at the end.



OR



b) In a panel style webinar session (multiple speakers - 1 hour session):

i. intro by host(s).

ii presenters x ?. Each presenter will have about 5-10 minutes (depending on number of speakers)

iii Q&A at the end.

Webinar platform:

We use 'Class Collaborate' (Was Blackboard) as the webinar environment - It does not require any software install - it all happens via your browser. Firefox or Chrome tends to work best.

Login for practice and for real session = http://taw.fi/join

More trouble help/shooting info: https://transformingassessment.com/events_help.php

Prepare your slides:

Use 16:9 slide size.

Fancy transitions and animations in PowerPoint will NOT work as slides are converted to static images/PDF when uploaded to the online system.

Add relevant images/diagrams/charts/screen shots to the slides because this add visual interest.

Use large, clear fonts with good contrast between text and backgrounds (this helps compensate for small windows on the audience end).

Please stick to standard/common fonts such as Ariel and Times New Roman because other fonts tend to cause incompatibilities/formatting issues when slides are uploaded.

If applicable - consider live demos because the audience love these (less suited to panel sessions). You can use the 'screen share' function in the virtual classroom to demonstrate/show step-by-step actions in software or websites. However to cater for unexpected technical difficulties on the day it is best to include a short series of 'screen shots' into your slide set as a backup. If all goes smoothly on the day you will be able to skip over these slides easily.

If you want to include a video, these are best placed online (e.g. vimeo or youtube) and a link provided to audience via the text chat. they can then click the link and view the video directly.

If possible, provide practical examples, cases, results of studies, problems encountered, outcomes.

If possible, it is a good idea to plan for some interaction / questions with the audience. This will make for a more lively and effective session. There is a text chat function. The text chat tends to get used a lot and serves as an interactive 'back channel'.

If you can have a colleague in the room with you then they can help intercept questions via the text chat too.

Note: in panel sessions the Q&A will be planned for the end of the session.

Send your slides to us

*** Please kindly provide your powerpoint slide set at least 24 hours prior to the session.

Send your PPTX file to Mathew visa email (you can reply to the invite email and attach your file).

Note: The TA host will need to check slide compatibility and combine with TA title slides. The TA host may make minor formatting adjustments as a result. You will be consulted for any major changes.

The TA host will upload slides on the day of the webinar. 

Your slides will also be provided on the session recording page after the session.

** Equipment set-up/testing **

Please test the computer you intend on using for the session as follows with our Class Collaborate system.

Ensure you have the necessary hardware - broadband internet, *headset* (earphones + mic), but a web cam is optional. 

Please avoid using desktop microphones or laptop built-in microphones as these generally produce muddy speech in the webinar system. The audio quality is the most common problem, but is the main communication channel from you to the audience. Poor audio results in a poor audience experience therefore it is important we get this right. As such a headset best used.

Extra tips

On windows: it is best to use Chrome or Firefox browser to give yourself the best chance that sound will work.

On Mac: if you encounter sound issues in the webinar system and have used Zoom recently you many need to *restart* the computer to be able to hear inside the webinar system (Zoom has been known to mess up sound settings on some systems - although less common nowadays).

You can see an overview of the login steps at 

http://transformingassessment.com/events_help.php#overview

** The practice / technical test run **

About 15-20 mins should be sufficient - may take longer for with multiple speakers.

Be sure to use the same set of equipment (computer, headset, internet connection) as you plan to use for the real webinar.

We will advise the practice date and time.

Your slides are not required for the practice run (we will provde).

Login for practice and for real session = http://taw.fi/join

(just enter your name in the box when promoted - there is no password.)

Thank you again for agreeing to present a webinar in our Transforming Assessment series.