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Guidelines for Chairs & Discussants

Program / Guidelines for Chairs & Discussants

Guidelines for Chairs & Discussants

We have several formats of presentations: long paper sessions, short paper sessions (including technology innovation), poster sessions, symposia, and interactive-tools-and-demos sessions. None of these sessions will be live-streamed or recorded. Only keynotes, presidential session, welcome and closing sessions will be livestreamed and recorded. Virtual participants can access all sessions through WhoVa, where they may find materials that were uploaded by the participants and session chairs, as well as online discussions. Following are some guidelines for session Chairs and Discussants:

Guidelines for all Chairs

As a Chair, you can play a big role in making the session a success. Your main role is to introduce the session and the participants, help keep them on time and facilitate discussion. It is important that you familiarize yourself with your section’s structure by reading the Guidelines for presenters. Visit WhoVa and the sessions you will be chairing during the conference. Engage with the presenters in your session, explain the format and answer questions regarding time allocation and structure of the session.

Using Whova to create engagement in your session: As a Chair, this is what you can do in WhoVa in preparation to the session:

  • You can find out who are the presenting authors (this is not always clear from the list of authors)
  • You can encourage them to upload any files (e.g., the camera-ready copy of their papers) to Whova, so that virtual participants (who will not see the presentations) can access these.
  • You can start online discussions, that will engage the wider ISLS audience around topics in the session (this could be particularly helpful for symposia).
  • You can link out to other platforms, including Google Docs, Miro or Jamboard, for knowledge-building activities
  • You can communicate with your presenting authors about the structure of the session, how virtual participants may be supported, etc.

You can find a short guide on how to use WhoVa features: Whova Speaker Guide – Whova

Please, be in the room at least 10 minutes before the session starts to assist the presenters and clarify final details. Technical support prior to and during the session will be provided by the local organizing team.

If you have questions yourself, please contact the organizers at [email protected].

Guidelines for Chairs of Paper Sessions

As a Chair for a paper session, you will introduce the session and the participants and help keep them on time. In addition, you are to facilitate the discussion after the presentation. It will be useful to prepare a few questions for the speakers if there are none from the audience. In sessions that have a discussant, you will accommodate the way the discussant wishes to engage the presenters and the audience in the discussion.

Long paper sessions structure

All long paper sessions will be 90 minutes in duration.

ICLS sessions will include four long paper presentations and a discussion coordinated by a session chair. All ICLS long paper presentations will be 15 minutes in duration.

CSCL sessions will include three long paper presentations, a contribution by a discussant and a discussion coordinated by a session chair. All CSCL long paper presentations and the contribution by the discussant will be 15 minutes in duration.

Short paper sessions structure

All short paper sessions will be 90 minutes in duration.

ICLS sessions will include five short paper presentations and a discussion coordinated by a session chair. All ICLS short paper talks will be 12 minutes in duration.

CSCL sessions will include four short paper presentations and a discussion coordinated by a session chair. CSCL short paper talks will be 15 minutes in duration.

Guidelines for Chairs of Practitioner Sessions

As a Chair for a Practitioner session, you will introduce the session and the participants and help keep them on time. In addition, you are to facilitate the discussant in providing comments and discussion that will be after the commentary. It will be useful to prepare a few questions for the speakers if there are none from the audience.

Please, be in the room at least 10 minutes before the session starts to assist the presenters in either placing their posters on the boards or preparing to use their slides deck.

Practitioner sessions structure

All four Practitioner sessions will be 90 minutes in duration. The Practitioner sessions include six presentations and a discussion coordinated by you as a session chair. Practitioner sessions will be maximum of 10 minutes in duration, followed by a discussant contribution and a questions & answers round coordinated by a session chair. Presenters can choose to create a poster or a 6-slide deck to use in the presentation. We recommend that chairs communicate with authors as soon as possible if they wish to try any innovative formats that deviate from the default option (10-minute presentations plus discussion).

Guidelines for Chairs of Technology Innovation Papers Sessions

As a Chair for a Technology Innovation session, you will introduce the session and the participants and help keep them on time. In addition, you are to facilitate the different presentation formats presenters might choose. You will facilitate discussion and it will be useful to prepare a few questions for the speakers if there are none from the audience. Contact the presenters in WhoVa in advance to clarify their needs and the form of their presentation. Please, be in the room at least 10 minutes before the session starts to assist the presenters in preparing to use their slides deck.

Technology Innovation sessions structure

All three Technology Innovation sessions will be 90 minutes in duration. The Technology Innovation sessions will include four paper presentations (with one session including five papers) and a discussion coordinated by you as a session chair. We recommend authors to prepare a demo of their innovations to be shown during the session. All Technology Innovation paper presentations (ICLS and CSCL) will be 12 minutes in duration. Presenters can choose what they wish to emphasize in the presentations, as these are not regular short papers. We recommend that chairs communicate with authors as soon as possible if they wish to try any innovative formats that deviate from the default option (12-minute presentations plus discussion). One such innovative format would be to use most of the discussion time as a demo session.

Guidelines for Discussants

CSCL Long Paper sessions and the Practitioner papers sessions have assigned discussants. As a Discussant in paper sessions, you will provide a reflection based on the presented papers. A discussant contribution should be 10-15 minutes in duration. A discussant contribution typically contains two parts. In the first part, you should comment on the presented papers, their theoretical framework, methods, findings, and contribution to the field. A second part of your discussion should contain a meta-reflection, highlighting aspects of interest for the research field/practice, and ideas for future research and elaborations. It is also recommended to pose a number of open questions, which can be the departure point for discussion with the presenters and the audience.

Please, contact the presenters in Whova and ask for their full papers in advance so you have a chance to prepare your commentary. You can ask questions in the Whova chat prior to the conference, which is a great way to engage in longtail discussions.

You can find a short guide on how to use Whova features: Whova Speaker Guide – Whova

If you have questions yourself, please, contact the organizers at [email protected].