Deadline

Poster videos: Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Presentation slides: Monday, October 2, 2023

Please use WeTransfer, a free file transfer service, to send your video files to av@highedweb.org.

In-person presentations

Here are some more specifics about how each type of presentation format will work during the conference.

45-minute track session

The 45-minute track sessions are your standard conference fare. Presentations are limited to 45 minutes, but they usually run about 30–40 minutes, with a live Q&A to follow.

Lightning talks

Lightning talks are like a series of mini-keynotes: Each year, five of our community members give a high-energy presentation to all of our attendees. These presentations are 8–10 minutes long, with no audience Q&A. HighEdWeb provides an emcee to handle transitions between lightning talks.

Workshops

HighEdWeb holds pre- and post-conference workshops on Sunday and Wednesday afternoons. These workshops are a chance to immerse yourself in a topic for three and a half hours. These deep dives are carefully crafted presentations, with significant hands-on elements. Presenters and attendees will be given scheduled breaks.

Rooms and technical equipment

We ask that you bring your own laptop to run your presentation, or consult with your track chairs to make other arrangements. Each track room offers HDMI and USB-C cables for you to connect to the projector. If your device uses unusual or other connectors (or if you have needed other adapters for past presentations), please bring those adapters.

Poster presentations

Since we had such positive feedback for online posters, we’re keeping them! Poster presentations will be available online in the week leading up to the conference, with poster presenters online to chat for an hourlong session (tentatively scheduled for noon–1 p.m. CDT Tuesday, Oct. 4). That means we're asking all poster presenters to prepare a pre-recorded video of their presentation. Each session video should feature your presentation slides and also yourself speaking as you deliver your presentation. Think side-by-side or picture-in-picture.

Technical specifications (for poster presentation videos)

  • Poster videos should be 3–5 minutes long.
  • Your video should be recorded in high-definition, at least 720p. Most current laptop webcams can record in 720p.
  • Videos should be recorded in a horizontal, 16x9 aspect ratio (1920x1080 preferred). Be sure to check your display settings and the settings on your presentation software.
  • Leave an area at the bottom of your slides clear of important content. There will be captions that appear along the bottom of your video, and leaving some space clear on your presentation slides will help make your presentation and the captions easier to follow.
  • Acceptable file formats: MP4, MOV, MWV.
  • Using an external microphone is ideal and will provide a higher quality recording. Keep the microphone close to you while recording, but out of camera view, if possible. A headset is OK to wear if necessary.
  • Record in a quiet location.
  • Speak slowly and clearly. Do your best to speak normally and conversationally as if presenting live to an active audience. Speaking slowly helps to keep you calm and focused as a presenter, and also helps attendees to follow along with your ideas.
  • If you include any graphics or visual information in your slides — graphs and charts, screenshots, even funny gifs or memes — try to remember to briefly describe the visuals on your slides. This helps to make your presentation more accessible to all attendees.

Creating your poster presentation videos: Some step-by-steps

There are several tools you can use to record your presentation video. Here are some step-by-steps for some of the most popular. If you have access to other technologies that will allow you to create the type of presentation video we need, that's also fine.

  1. Open your Zoom desktop client.
  2. Click on the gear icon in the top corner below your profile to access your settings.
  3. From the left-hand menu, choose "Recordings."
  4. Check the box for the option "Record video during screen sharing."
  5. For a split screen where your webcam recording is next to your slides, check the box for the option "Place video next to the shared screen in the recording." If you prefer to have your webcam video slightly larger and overlapping the top right corner, leave this option unchecked.
  6. Click "New meeting" to start a new meeting.
  7. Join with computer audio and video.
  8. Open your presentation file in a new window.
  9. Back in Zoom, click on "Share Screen" from the bottom toolbar.
  10. Choose the window that contains your presentation file.
  11. Begin your presentation in full-screen mode.
  12. Hover over the top "You are screen sharing" menu in Zoom and click on the "More…" icon.
  13. Select "Record" from the "More" dropdown.
  14. The red Record icon will appear in the "You are screen sharing" menu.
  15. Deliver your presentation.
  16. When you are finished, hover over the "You are screen sharing" menu again and click "Stop Recording" under the "More" dropdown.
  17. Click "Stop Share."
  18. Click "End Meeting."
  19. After you end the meeting you should see a "Convert meeting recording" message and progress bar.
  20. Your recording is converted to an MP4 and is saved locally to the location in your Zoom settings under "Recordings."

If you are using PowerPoint 365, you can record your presentation along with your webcam directly in PowerPoint. This excellent video tutorial walks you through the steps.

  1. Open your PowerPoint presentation.
  2. Choose the "Record Slide Show" option under the "Slide Show" menu.
  3. If you have a webcam, PowerPoint should automatically detect it.
  4. Use the "Settings" menu in the top right corner to choose your audio and video sources.
  5. Click the "Record" icon in the top left corner to begin your recording.
  6. Deliver your presentation.
  7. When you are finished, click "Stop."
  8. Press Esc to return to your presentation file.
  9. On each slide, you can position or crop your webcam video within the slide using the "Video Format" tools, or dragging and dropping.
  10. When you are finished, click on "File" and choose "Export" then select "Create Video."

For Mac users, it's possible to create a recording in Quicktime player that captures both your Keynote slides on your screen and your webcam. See this video tutorial for a step-by-step.

If you are using Google Slides or other browser-based presentation software, you can use screen capture extensions in Google Chrome — like Screencastify or Awesome Screenshot or Screencast-o-matic — to create videos of your presentation that also capture your webcam video. To record longer videos, you need to upgrade from the free versions of these tools; costs range from $2 to $4 a month or $50 a year.

Tips for looking good on video

When it comes time to record yourself giving your presentation, here are a few tips for looking and sounding good.

  • Sit in a well-lit area, with natural light sources preferred over artificial light.
  • Keep the light source in front of you, and not behind or above you.
  • Position your computer so that you are just barely an arm's length away from the screen.
  • Position your computer so that your webcam is at eye level, rather than having to look up or down at the camera. You may try taping notes or the photo of a loved one/pet by the webcam to help with eye contact.
  • Check out this tutorial for more tips about self-recorded video.

Equipment

Sometimes the mic built into your webcam/PC just doesn't cut it. Consider these:

Accessibility

Please consider these accessibility best practices when designing your presentation slides and recording your videos.

  • Check your type and background colors for a nice contrast. Choose bold over subtle. Use this color contrast checker to verify your color sections.
  • Make sure your font size is large, and be aware of the amount of type you are placing on a single slide. Choose simple, short and large type size over complex, long and small type size. Fonts like Calibri and Calibri Light (defaults) are easier to read than more elaborate fonts.
  • When using images on your slides to illustrate your point, include a reference to or description of the image while you are speaking, so those with low vision or those who aren't able to view your slides will still understand the substance of your point.

More resources on accessible conference presentations

Inclusive language

Words are powerful. They're how we tell stories, entrust each other with knowledge, reach out and let our feelings be felt, and are touched by those of other people in turn. Even at the best of times, with the best of intentions, it's possible to heavily impact others harmfully with our choices in words.

There is a lot of harmful language ingrained in the way we speak. Popular terms and phrases may have an origin or make a reference that you are unaware of. HighEdWeb promotes inclusion and kindly asks that you be mindful of the words you use during your presentation. Language that may not seem harmful to you, can be to others. Harmful language can be perceived as harassment, which is a code of conduct violation. Please work to avoid language that is harmful to people with disabilities, language of a sexual nature, language that leverages racism or gendered language.

When creating your presentation slides and delivering your presentation, look for examples of language that may exclude folks, and then look for a more inclusive alternative.

  • "…so that we couldn't just ask the web guy to do it…" versus "…so we couldn't just ask the web person to do it…"
  • "…we were going into the project totally blind…" versus "…we were going into the project with no information whatsoever…"
  • "…our first designs were so lame…" versus "…our first designs were really awful…"

Industry jargon and technical acronyms are often appropriate and necessary in a HighEdWeb presentation, but be sure to include an opportunity to quickly explain or describe the term for those in the audience who are not already familiar.

Keep in mind that during the conference, attendees will be participating from all over the world. Be careful not to assume knowledge of United States or North American laws, or to assume that everyone is in the same time zone.

It's fine to include an in-joke or pop culture reference in your presentation, but think about the folks in the audience who are not in on the joke. Let those who get the reference have a laugh, but also include an explanation or some context to bring new people in, rather than leave them feeling left out.

Language both reflects and reinforces our assumptions, biases and stereotypes. We will all make mistakes sometimes. If someone calls your attention to some language choices in your presentation, take a moment to thank them for letting you know and to think about how you could improve your presentation style or content going forward in a way that may remove those barriers.

More resources on inclusive language and conference presentations