Online Mingling: Supporting Ad Hoc, Private Conversations at Virtual Conferences

Song, Jaeyoon; Riedl, Christoph; Malone, Thomas W.

doi:10.1145/3411764.3445776

Cited by 19 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Yet, as more events transition to the online sphere [1,8]-for reasons of health, climate, and the economy [5,7,10]-the necessity emerges for organisers to discover new ways of engaging audiences [12][13][14]16]. As the primary purposes of online scientific conferences are knowledge exchange [9] and networking [15], audience disengagement can become a major issue. The aims of this study are to explore online events more deeply and to offer guidance on the provision of remote experiences that are as engaging as in-person events by utilising the new possibilities offered by the virtual world.…”

Section: Rationalementioning

confidence: 99%

How to Organise Engaging Online Conferences and Escape the Zoom Rectangle

Kowalski

Skorupska

Kopacz

et al. 2023

Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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As an increasing number of academic conferences transition to the online sphere, new event paradigms must be explored and developed to better utilise the unique multimedia opportunities offered by the virtual world. With this in mind, we conducted indepth interviews with researchers, performed a SWOT analysis of remote conferences, and developed experimental conference functionalities. We implemented these during the 9th edition of a two-day international scientific IT conference, which was attended by over 277 participants on the first day and 199 on the second. In this article, we describe how these innovative functionalities met the participants' needs based on qualitative and quantitative data. We present how the experiences of remote and in-person events differ, and offer recommendations on organising remote Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s).

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Section: Rationalementioning

confidence: 99%

How to Organise Engaging Online Conferences and Escape the Zoom Rectangle

Kowalski

Skorupska

Kopacz

et al. 2023

Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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“…These studies have noted that students are often reluctant to turn on their cameras and participate in video interactions. This reluctance is often attributed to privacy concerns, discomfort with displaying their appearance at home, and the desire to perform other activities during class, such as eating or taking notes [8][9][10][11][12][13]. Having a messy appearance, wearing pajamas, and eating food are top reasons for students not turning on their camera.…”

Section: Interaction Formatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring an Affective and Responsive Virtual Environment to Improve Remote Learning

Tang

Zhu

2023

Virtual Worlds

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Online classes are typically conducted by using video conferencing software such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. Research has identified drawbacks of online learning, such as “Zoom fatigue”, characterized by distractions and lack of engagement. This study presents the CUNY Affective and Responsive Virtual Environment (CARVE) Hub, a novel virtual reality hub that uses a facial emotion classification model to generate emojis for affective and informal responsive interaction in a 3D virtual classroom setting. A web-based machine learning model is employed for facial emotion classification, enabling students to communicate four basic emotions live through automated web camera capture in a virtual classroom without activating their cameras. The experiment is conducted in undergraduate classes on both Zoom and CARVE, and the results of a survey indicate that students have a positive perception of interactions in the proposed virtual classroom compared with Zoom. Correlations between automated emojis and interactions are also observed. This study discusses potential explanations for the improved interactions, including a decrease in pressure on students when they are not showing faces. In addition, video panels in traditional remote classrooms may be useful for communication but not for interaction. Students favor features in virtual reality, such as spatial audio and the ability to move around, with collaboration being identified as the most helpful feature.

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“…Our community already has great structures and networks in place, which have been built over the past years and from which ECRs can now benefit (e.g., there are many local networks, events, and conferences, albeit with large geographical inequalities). Thanks to recent technological developments as well as conference organizers’ creativity, several formats have emerged that address perceived shortcomings of current virtual conferences ( Song et al, 2021 ; see https://thefutureofmeetings.wordpress.com/tools/ for a list of tools for virtual communication). One particularly noteworthy recent example of such formats is a mentoring program that paired junior researchers with senior researchers based on their interests, aiming to have informal virtual chats throughout the conference to network ( Sips Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science [SIPS], 2021 ).…”

Section: How International Conference Travel Practices Can Be Changedmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Need for Sustainability, Equity, and International Exchange: Perspectives of Early Career Environmental Psychologists on the Future of Conferences

et al. 2022

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At the 2019 and 2021 International Conference on Environmental Psychology, discussions were held on the future of conferences in light of the enormous greenhouse gas emissions and inequities associated with conference travel. In this manuscript, we provide an early career researcher (ECR) perspective on this discussion. We argue that travel-intensive conference practices damage both the environment and our credibility as a discipline, conflict with the intrinsic values and motivations of our discipline, and are inequitable. As such, they must change. This change can be achieved by moving toward virtual and hybrid conferences, which can reduce researchers’ carbon footprints and promote equity, if employed carefully and with informal exchange as a priority. By acting collectively and with the support of institutional change, we can adapt conference travel norms in our field. To investigate whether our arguments correspond to views in the wider community of ECRs within environmental psychology, we conducted a community case study. By leveraging our professional networks and directly contacting researchers in countries underrepresented in those networks, we recruited 117 ECRs in 32 countries for an online survey in February 2022. The surveyed ECRs supported a change in conference travel practices, including flying less, and perceived the number of researchers wanting to reduce their travel emissions to be growing. Thirteen percent of respondents had even considered leaving academia due to travel requirements. Concerning alternative conference formats, a mixed picture emerged. Overall, participants had slightly negative evaluations of virtual conferences, but expected them to improve within the next 5 years. However, ECRs with health issues, facing visa challenges, on low funding, living in remote areas, with caretaking obligations or facing travel restrictions due to COVID-19 expected a switch toward virtual or hybrid conferences to positively affect their groups. Participants were divided about their ability to build professional relationships in virtual settings, but believed that maintaining relationships virtually is possible. We conclude by arguing that the concerns of ECRs in environmental psychology about current and alternative conference practices must be taken seriously. We call on our community to work on collective solutions and less travel-intensive conference designs using participatory methods.

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Online Mingling: Supporting Ad Hoc, Private Conversations at Virtual Conferences

Cited by 19 publications

References 17 publications

How to Organise Engaging Online Conferences and Escape the Zoom Rectangle

How to Organise Engaging Online Conferences and Escape the Zoom Rectangle

Exploring an Affective and Responsive Virtual Environment to Improve Remote Learning

The Need for Sustainability, Equity, and International Exchange: Perspectives of Early Career Environmental Psychologists on the Future of Conferences

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