OLC Accelerate 2021 Presentation Categories

Please note the category of presentation to which you have been accepted, and read the description below for detailed information. The session types and other information will be helpful as you prepare your presentation.

As you prepare your presentation for OLC Accelerate, you may consider taking advantage of our OLC Presenter Services, including presenter guides, essentials videos, webinars, and coaching. OLC Presenter Services offers guidance on best practices in audience engagement strategies, slide design, and delivery skills necessary to ensure a successful conference session. OLC Accelerate 2021 is being planned as a two-part event. The first part will be a fully virtual conference week with virtual presenter-to-virtual audience sessions only, taking place September 20-24, 2021. The second portion will take place onsite in Washington, DC October 5-8, 2021. The presentation schedule will be finalized in July. These will be two unique programs; the onsite version will not be a repeat of the virtual program. During the claiming process, you will be asked again to indicate whether you wish to present virtually, onsite, or either. You will be scheduled accordingly. If you indicate you wish to present onsite but then find your institution will not allow you to travel, we will make every effort to find a slot for you in the virtual program.

Claiming Your Session | Session Types | Timeline | Presentation Uploads

Claiming Your Session

Please note: You MUST follow the steps as listed below no later than Wednesday, June 30 to notify us of your intention to present at the conference. If you do not actively follow these steps to accept to present, it will be assumed that you intend to withdraw your proposal. All affiliated presenters are notified, but only the lead presenter (typically the original author of the submission) is able to claim the session.

The schedule will be finalized in July. All presenters will be notified of the posting of the schedule via email.

Log in to your OLC user account from the OLC Conference Management System by selecting “Login” in the upper right. Please email conference@onlinelearning-c.org if you have any difficulty signing into your account.
Once logged in, you will be redirected back to the conference management system.
Click on “My Sessions” in the upper right hand corner.
Select the “Accept/Decline presentation offer” link for your session, and follow the prompts to accept or decline our offer to present. You will be asked to confirm several items of note in this process, including that you understand what your presentation type will be. You will also be asked again to indicate if you wish to present virtually, onsite, or either.

*Note if you accept our offer to present, you will also be asked to complete a streaming release form. The program is being planned in both virtual and onsite modalities, so we require that all presenters who accept to present their session also answer in the affirmative to the streaming release form.

If you plan to join us for OLC Innovate, your next steps should be:

Review your OLC conference user profile in the conference management system to make sure it is complete and up to date with your name, title, affiliation, photo and bio.
The deadline for presenters to register is August 11, 2021.
- Onsite presenters must register for the All Access Pass.
- Virtual presenters, including Discovery and Exposition Foundry asynchronous session presenters, may register for either the All Access (if they plan to also attend onsite as well) or Full Virtual Pass.
- Member/non-member rates will automatically be applied at check-out when you register.
The program schedule will be posted in July. Once the program is posted, please review your session listing on the conference website. If any of your co-presenters are missing, please notify us immediately at conference@onlinelearning-c.org. We will need their name, title, institution, and email address in order to be able to add them to your session.
Send any abstract edits (title, abstract, co-presenters, etc.) to conference@onlinelearning-c.org no later than August 11, 2021.
If you are presenting onsite, be sure to make your hotel reservation right away. The conference special rate is available for reservations made by September 13, 2021.
Plan to upload your presentation materials to your session page no later than September 15, 2021. Instructions and a session evaluation reminder slide will be emailed closer to the due date. Presenters are reminded to not only present interesting and compelling content on their topic, but to also include their session audience in interactive and engaging dialogue.
Review the Presenter FAQ page. This page will be updated with additional information as the conference approaches.

We also ask that as you prepare, please think of your title and abstract as a promise you are making to the participants that this is the content that you will be covering in your session. As you plan your presentation, consider how your ideas for engagement will align to your session description so that participants can see the intended goals for the presentation and deeply connect with the content.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to add conference@onlinelearning-c.org to your email safe-senders list to ensure you continue to receive logistical emails from the OLC Conference team as the conference approaches. One of the biggest issues presenters encounter is not receiving important email updates from us because of institution spam-filters. Don’t let this happen to you!

Session Types and Descriptions

Please claim your session using the process outlined above. Note that as lead presenter, you MUST claim your session by the stated deadline (June 30) in order to officially accept this offer to present. The schedule will be posted in July, at which time presenters will be notified to review their session information in the conference program/session listing and contact conference@onlinelearning-c.org with any requested updates no later than August 11.

The conference provides several session types:

1. Education Session

2. Express Workshop

3. Gamified Session

4. Discovery Session or Graduate Student Discovery Session (asynchronous only)

5. Workshop

6. Master Class

7. Lightning Talk (onsite only)

8. Featured Session

9. Industry Showcase

10. Exposition Foundry Asynchronous

11. Exposition Foundry Live (onsite only)

1. Education Session

The total time allotted for your Education Session is 45 minutes. Please allow 5-10 minutes of that time for questions, answers, and discussion with the audience.

Education Sessions provide an opportunity for presenters to share their work, innovations, or new opportunities to the OLC community. The presenters are responsible for driving the conversation and encouraging deep thinking about a topic, sharing practical applications of their work, or providing new and varying perspectives. There are two primary formats for this session type: presentations and panel sessions. Although these are more traditional formats, the presenters/panelists should strive to make the sessions as engaging as possible through polls, audience discussions, and other forms of interaction.

Note: Presenters are responsible for providing all materials. Instructions for uploading materials will be provided to all accepted presenters. Presenters are also responsible for ensuring all attendees can actively engage in the session. Please see the Presenter Services and/or our Equity & Inclusion web pages for more information.

*OLC Presenter Services will offer training webinars, tips, and coaching for both virtual-to-virtual and onsite presenters. An email invitation to the training sessions will be sent to all presenters. We encourage you to attend in order to maximize the impact of your session.

2. Express Workshop

The total time allotted for your Express Workshop is 45 minutes. Presenters must provide an opportunity for questions, answers, and/or whole or small group discussion within the course of the workshop.

These sessions are designed to provide the attendees with an opportunity to explore a new skill, strategy, or technology. By offering practical, hands-on learning activities, participants are fully engaged in the learning process. Facilitators provide both group and 1-1 guidance as necessary during the session. Attendees should walk away from the session feeling as though they have acquired a new skill, have developed an action plan, or have gained significant insight into a new technology. Workshops must include measurable outcomes and activities. These should not be considered standard lecture-type format sessions. It is important that Express Workshops are interactive and have take-aways for attendees.

3. Gamified Session

The total time allotted for your Gamified Session is 45 minutes. Gamified sessions should be highly interactive with an emphasis on competition and interactivity, and must include elements of game-based learning.

These sessions engage both the presenters and the attendees in a fun and unique OLC conference learning experience. Moving beyond traditional styles of presentations, attendees and presenters of this session type will have the ability to connect with the content and each other like never before. Presenters may draw upon well known games such as Jeopardy and Family Feud as example formats or inspiration. These sessions tend to draw large audiences, please be sure all attendees can be accommodated with the strategies used.

Note: Presenters are responsible for providing all materials. Instructions for uploading materials will be provided to all accepted presenters. Presenters are also responsible for ensuring all attendees can actively engage in the session. Please see the Presenter Services site for resources on making the session fully accessible.

4. Discovery Session or Graduate Student Discovery Session (asynchronous only)

Discovery Sessions for OLC Accelerate 2021 will be fully virtual, asynchronous presentations that allow presenters to share their work, ideas, and innovations in a virtual presenter-to-virtual audience format. These sessions allow for a greater exchange of ideas and in-depth asynchronous conversations about important topics to the OLC community. Discovery Sessions typically consist of 10-15 minutes of information shared by the presenter with a built-in asynchronous interaction via PlayPosit.

Note: Each presenter will prepare an asynchronous digital video presentation and upload the presentation to YouTube. The videos will be compiled in PlayPosit, where Interaction and engagement opportunities should be layered over your video. You will receive additional instructions from OLC after the presenter registration deadline of August 11.

5. Workshop

The total time allotted for your Workshop is 120 minutes. Onsite workshops will be presented in two 60-minute segments, with a scheduled conference break in the middle. Virtual workshops will be scheduled over two 45-minute segments with a 30-minute break between concurrent sessions. Virtual presenters should plan on a flexible break at some point in their 120 minutes. Presenters must provide an opportunity for questions, answers, and/or whole or small group discussion within the course of the workshop.

Workshops are designed with specific, identifiable learning outcomes with in-class opportunities to support collaborative and/or interactive group activities. Presenters will provide an opportunity for questions, answers, and/or whole group discussion within the course of the workshop and will describe how this element will be used to best engage participants. Workshops provide participants with tangible “take-away” information, models, and/or products and should be a more in-depth look into technological tools available in a shorter Information Session. Please develop a minimum of two to four learning objectives for your participants. These should be clear and measurable outcomes for the 120-minute workshop learning experience.

6. Master Class

The total time allotted for pre-conference Master Classes is three hours. Presenters must provide an opportunity for questions, answers, and/or whole or small group discussion within the course of the workshop.

Master Classes should be designed with two to four meaningful and measurable participant learning outcomes with opportunities for collaborative and/or interactive group activities that will be used during the session to achieve stated learning goals.

7. Lighting Talk

The total time allotted for your Lightning Talk is 15 minutes. Time allotments may vary but each session should include approximately 1-2 minutes for introductions, 7-8 minutes for the main presentation, and 5 minutes for questions.

These compressed, TED talk style 15 minute sessions provide an opportunity for presenters to inspire and engage participants in thinking through compelling concepts and findings in a short amount of time. Because of the focused length, these sessions are great for sharing a driving question or provocation that attendees can continue to reflect upon well beyond the talk. Presentation should be accompanied by a concise slide presentation (important for accessibility purposes).

8. Featured Session

Thank you for agreeing to be a Featured or Invited Presenter.

The total time allotted for your Featured Session is 45 minutes. Please allow 5-10 minutes of that time for questions, answers, and discussion with the audience.

9. Industry Showcase

The total time allotted for your Industry Showcase is 45 minutes. Please allow 5-10 minutes of that time for questions, answers, and discussion with the audience.

Design your presentation to be interactive and highlight how your company solves an issue that online and blended educators face.
Avoid an obvious sales pitch.
Solve a real-world problem – provide solutions or suggestions to common problems that educators or institutions face.

In order to best serve the diverse needs of our participants, presenters are reminded to design conference experiences to be as interactive and engaging as possible. Presentations will set the stage for interaction, but should not dominate the entire session time.

10. Exposition Foundry – Asynchronous

The Exposition Foundry is a new initiative for educators of all roles to come together to network, design and collaborate around critical issues and opportunities in our field. Sessions in the Exposition Foundry (or “The Foundry”) are designed by industry partners to bring together community members of ALL roles around topics related to innovation and change work in the field of online, blended, and digital learning.

Exposition Foundry sessions are interactive sessions, where facilitators and participants can share provocations via recorded video sessions hosted on PlayPosit. Like Discovery Sessions, these fully-online, asynchronous sessions are accessible during and beyond the conference, and attendees and community members will have the continued opportunity to comment, provide feedback, and further the conversation well past a typical 45 minute session.

10. Exposition Foundry – Live

The schedule will be finalized in July. All presenters will be notified of the posting of the schedule via email. Send any abstract edits (title, abstract, co-presenters, etc.) to conference@onlinelearning-c.org no later than August 11, 2021.

Exposition Foundry Live sessions are a new pilot program limited to Titanium and Diamond sponsors during the onsite conference portion of OLC Accelerate 2021. During these interactive sessions, facilitators and participants can share provocations. Attendees and community members will have the opportunity to comment, provide feedback, and further the conversation with you during this 45 minute interactive session.

*OLC Presenter Services will offer training webinars, tips, and coaching for both virtual-to-virtual and onsite presenters. An email invitation to the training sessions will be sent to all presenters

Timeline

June 30, 2021: Deadline for presenters to accept
July 21, 2021: Presentation schedule to be posted
August 11, 2021: Deadline for presenters to register
August 11, 2021: Final date for presenters to submit abstract edits
September 15, 2021: Final date for presenters to upload presentation files

Presentation Uploads

As an accepted presenter, you are responsible for uploading your presentation materials as a pdf, PowerPoint file, or link (Prezi, VoiceThread, etc.) to your session in the OLC Conference Management System by September 15, 2021. The contributions will remain online as part of the conference materials after the conference. You will be provided instructions at a later date by the conference management team. Session abstracts and information about the presenters also will be included in the resource.

IMPORTANT: In order to post your final presentation to your session page, you will need to log into your user account on the OLC Conference Management System. Presenters will be provided instructions on how to upload their presentation materials in February. Presenters are responsible for providing all materials. Presenters will also be provided a slide that we encourage them to insert at the beginning of their presentation to encourage attendees to provide evaluation feedback through the website for their presentation.

OLC does not require a specific conference PowerPoint template for your presentation. We encourage presenters to use their own template to build their personal or institutional brand. If you wish to use an OLC PowerPoint template, one can be downloaded from the Presenter Services page or the Presenter FAQ page closer to the conference.

Video tutorial – How to upload your presentation materials to your session page

OLC Accelerate 2021 Presentation Categories

Claiming Your Session

Session Types and Descriptions

Timeline

Presentation Uploads

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