Virtual Conferencing Technical Guide

For many of us, this will be our first time virtual conferencing. To facilitate everyone’s participation in this event and to foster a convivial, accessible conference, we have compiled guidelines and step-by-step instructions to help you create and upload your digital presentations.

Virtual Conference Panel Format

Conference panels consist of pre-recorded presentations with a moderated discussion board. Speakers are required to record their own talks, which may take the form of:

  • A screen recording of a presentation, such as a PowerPoint, with the talk as a voiceover.
  • A video of the presenter, which could be filmed with a webcam or smartphone.
  • A hybrid of these two options, with speaker and presentation alternately or simultaneously onscreen.
  • An audio recording of them speaking, accompanied by a transcript.

Presentations must be pre-recorded and a maximum of 7-10 minutes in length. Audio recordings must be accompanied by a transcript. In order to keep our conference broadly accessible, all presenters must send an accompanying access-copy textual script (like you would hand out at an in-person conference). These will be placed in a password-protected shared folder accessible as read-only by conference-goers only and removed at the end of the conference.

Presentations will be posted to the conference website where they can be viewed at any time during the two-week conference timeframe. Participants and panelists can contribute to virtual Q&A sessions, which are similar to online forums, by posting and responding to written questions and comments on the moderated discussion boards.

To ensure each user’s control over their content and ease of upload for our webmaster, we ask participants to upload their own videos or sound files. This also enables participants to maintain control over their presentations and take down their file after the conference has concluded. Presentation URLs will be taken down from the conference website at the close of the conference viewing period on July 22nd. You may choose to leave your presentation available online at YouTube, Vimeo, or Soundcloud at which point you can password protect the file, but the file must remain public for the duration of the conference. If you want your presentation to stay connected to the conference website beyond the conference dates, then please insert the embed url in your abstract, which will remain visible after the end of the conference.

Send your presentation by June 24th to conference@alecc.ca. The email should include:

  • the embed url of the presentation
  • an updated abstract (50-200 words)
  • a short bio (including land acknowledgements, if desired) (50-150 words)
  • a read-only word or pdf file with an access-copy script (like you would hand out at an in-person conference).

Instructions for Creating and Uploading Your Conference Presentation

To record your presentation with a voice-over using PowerPoint, please see this helpful guide compiled by Microsoft Office. We have also compiled discussion forum best practices and accessibility guidelines for inserting image descriptions or alt text, adding short captions, and generating transcripts here.

To upload a presentation, participants should use one of the following platforms: Vimeo, YouTube, or SoundCloud.

Each platform has different benefits and drawbacks. If you are concerned about the encryption of your information, the conference organizers would recommend using Vimeo. YouTube offers an integrated closed-captioning service for wider accessibility. Both video platforms offer password protection and enable videos to be made private. SoundCloud can be used to embed audio presentations that feature no visual content.

Step-by-Step Instruction for Uploading Your Presentation

  1. At vimeo.com, click “Join” or “Log in” on the top left-hand corner of the browser window to create an account or log in.
  1. Click “+ New Video” in the top right-hand corner of the browser window.
  1. Select “Anyone can see this video” under “Privacy.” Alternatively, with a paid subscription you may select “Only people with the private link” if privacy is a concern for you.
  1. Drag and drop your video file or click “Or choose files” to select and upload your video file.

Be sure that your video is fewer than 500MB in size or reduce the quality of the video in order to meet that threshold.

  1. Once the video is uploaded, hover the cursor over “Manage videos,” then click “My videos” from the drop-down menu, and finally select your video to find your video’s URL link.
  1. Copy your video link by either directly copying and pasting the link or by clicking the link and then copying it from the browser address bar.
  1. Forward the link to your video to the conference organizers at: conference@alecc.ca. Be sure to include in your email your updated abstract (50-200 words), a short bio (including land acknowledgements, if desired) (50-150 words), and a read-only access-copy textual script of your video recording (or a written text of your presentation). Suggestions for creating an inclusive transcript can be found in our guide to accessibility.
  1. At the end of the conference, you may hide or take down your video. 
  1. You may also wish to include closed captions for your audiences, which are important when people need to see what's happening in your video and get the audio information in text at the same time to understand the message being conveyed. Guides for creating closed captioning for your visual media can be found here.
  1. At youtube.com, click “Sign in” in the top right-hand corner of the browser window to sign in or create an account.
  1. Click the “Create” icon, which looks like a camera, and then click “Upload video” from the dropdown menu.
  1. Drag and drop your video file or click “Or choose files” to select and upload your video file.
  1. Your video link will be generated immediately, so click the copy icon next to your link on the right-hand side of the window and save the link to forward to the appropriate conference organizer.
  1. Fill in your video details and click next as prompted by YouTube until you reach the “Visibility” section.
  1. Under “Save or publish,” select “Unlisted” if you prefer only people with the link (conference goers) to be able to view the video or select “Public” if you want your video to be openly accessed.
  1. Click “Save” in the bottom right-hand corner to save and publish your video.
  1. Forward the link to your video to the conference organizers at: conference@alecc.ca. Be sure to include in your email your updated abstract (50-200 words), a short bio (including land acknowledgements, if desired) (50-150 words), and a read-only  access-copy textual script of your video recording (or written text of your presentation). Suggestions for creating an inclusive transcript can be found in our guide to accessibility.
  1. At the end of the conference, you may hide or take down your video. 
  1. You may also wish to include closed captions for your audiences, which are important when people need to see what's happening in your video and get the audio information in text at the same time to understand the message being conveyed. Guides for creating closed captioning for your visual media can be found here.

N.B: Your video link can be accessed any time during the video upload process by clicking the “Copy video link” button on the right-hand side of the dialog box; immediately after clicking “Save” in the following dialog box; or by selecting your video later from “Your videos” under your account’s video channel.

  1. At soundcloud.com, click “Sign in” or “Create account” in the top right-hand corner of the browser window to sign in or create an account.
  1. Click “Upload” in the navigation bar at the top of the browser window.
  1. Select your privacy preference. Public tracks will be available to anyone while private tracks are only available to you and those you share a “secret link” with.
  1. Drag and drop your audio file or click “or choose files to upload” to upload your audio file.

(Note that SoundCloud refers to your audio file as a “track.”)

  1. Fill in the details for your audio file and click the copy icon next to your link on the right-hand side of the window and save the link to forward to the conference organizers.
  1. Click “Save” at the bottom right-hand side of the window to publish your audio file.
  1. Forward your audio link to the conference organizers at: conference@alecc.ca. Be sure to include in your email your updated abstract (50-200 words), a short bio (including land acknowledgements, if desired) (50-150 words), and a read-only transcript of your audio recording (or written text of your presentation). Suggestions for creating an inclusive transcript can be found in our guide to accessibility.
  1. At the end of the conference, you may hide or take down your track. 
  1. You may also wish to include closed captions for your audiences, which are helpful for both hard of hearing or non-native speakers and would like to listen yet also have the text to fill in what they can't hear or understand. Guides for creating closed captioning for your media can be found here.

N.B.: Your audio link can be accessed anytime during the audio file upload process by copying the URL address underneath your track’s title; immediately after clicking “Save;” or by selecting your audio file later from “Profile” or “Tracks” under your account’s drop-down menu, and then clicking the “Share” button to be provided a link.

How to include Closed Captioning and/or Subtitles in a Presentation

To create your own subtitle file for closed captioning using either Notepad (PC) or TextEdit (Mac), follow the instructions at MakeUseOf under the heading “Making Basic Subtitles in a Text Editor.” Save the file as an SRT file (.srt file extension) and follow Vimeo’s upload instruction at “Captions and subtitles.”

YouTube can automatically generate subtitles for closed captioning, but it will take time so you must upload early and ensure that subtitles have been generated. Additionally, these subtitles can be inaccurate; however, following the University of Boulder’s guide, you can edit the automatically generated subtitles for clarification.

Alternatively, to create your own subtitle file for closed captioning using either Notepad (PC) or TextEdit (Mac), follow the instructions at MakeUseOf under the heading “Making Basic Subtitles in a Text Editor.” Save the file as an SRT file (.srt file extension) and follow the University of Washington’s Adding Captions to YouTube Guide.

Because SoundCloud does not provide the means to upload subtitles or closed captioning for tracks, we encourage you to provide comments on your track that highlight, narrate, or summarize your content. To learn how to add comments to your track, see SoundCloud’s Writing or replying to a comment help guide.

Instructions for Using Zoom for Synchronous Conference Events

Instructions for Using Zoom for Synchronous Conference Events

Some headline talks and other artistic and literary events will be live-streamed via Zoom. To maintain speakers’ privacy, we will not post Zoom “meeting links” for live events online. Meeting invitations with links to join an event by computer will be sent to registered participants by email. If you have not yet registered for the conference, please do so through Eventbrite.

If you are unfamiliar with Zoom, you may wish to check out these helpful how-to guides:

We encourage you to read our Best Practices for Using Zoom in the culture and accessibility guide if you are attending any live Q&A sessions.

Discussion Forum Registration

Disqus

To keep our panel discussions respectful and  forums lively, participants must create an account through Disqus to comment. It is a quick and easy process requiring only your name and an email address.

Sign up for a disqus account here.