Online sessions will allow speakers to present 15-minute snapshots of their research
New Zealand’s universities have created an online symposium to share research papers scheduled to be presented at international academic conferences that have been cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The NZ initiative, called Cancelled Conference Conversations, has been developed by associate deans of research at universities across the country.
It was launched on 7 April with an online presentation and discussion by Stuart McNaughton from the University of Auckland’s faculty of education and social work. He shared insights about a project with the university’s Woolf Fisher research centre on the impacts of digital learning on children’s cognitive and social development.
Aaron Wilson, the university’s associate dean of research, said the online conferences aimed to share academic expertise and research data through the video and audio conferencing platform Zoom.
He said the idea built on a programme developed in 2019 by NZ universities to promote and coordinate educational research projects.
“Under the leadership of Bronwen Cowie from the University of Waikato, we decided that one practical thing we could do at this time was provide a forum for academics to present and discuss papers they had worked hard to prepare for conferences that had since been cancelled,” McNaughton said in a university statement.
“After much discussion to find the cheesiest and most alliterative title, Cancelled Conference Conversations was created.”
Each online session will run for an hour and involve several speakers presenting 15-minute snapshots of their research. Five areas will be covered by the digital research symposium, and each will be hosted by an associate dean or professor of research.
The five streams are: teaching and learning in digital environments (Aaron Wilson, University of Auckland); governance and collaboration (Annelies Kamp, University of Canterbury); policy and theory (Leon Benade, Auckland University of Technology); assessment (Bronwen Cowie, University of Waikato); and wellbeing (Joanna Higgins, Victoria University of Wellington).
The group is seeking expressions of interest from potential speakers as well as suggestions for more research streams to expand the virtual symposium.