Inclusion Possibilities

When I earned my master’s degree in instructional technology twenty years ago, I was excited about the possibilities for teaching and learning with technology. I envisioned a classroom of the future where students would be the agents of their own personalized learning, choosing how they would meet instructional standards with the guidance of their teachers. I anticipated continuing my own professional learning through the anytime, anywhere availability of the internet, connecting with experts around the world. We have not quite arrived yet, but the pandemic did a lot to move us in that direction.

I attended a national research conference on educational technology in 2020 when it was moved into a fully virtual format due to the COVID-19 lockdown. This was my introduction to the association, and I felt like I had found my home. I volunteered to facilitate sessions and was impressed with the organization of the volunteers, documentation, and communication. I made sure to participate in the first-timers session and complete the scavenger hunt in order to expand my network and learn more about the organization. I played music in the Zoom rooms I hosted before the sessions to put people at ease and encouraged informal chatter during the downtime. I have always found it to be awkward to stand in a line at the front of a session to meet the presenter in a live conference. In Zoom, I simply posted questions in chat and was able to unmute to have a conversation with people whose research I had been citing. I was even able to schedule some follow-up Zoom calls with some of these researchers. By 2020, I had attended several virtual professional development events, and I thought that the organization did a fabulous job of pulling off its first foray into supporting an online convention.

I was thrilled when the 2021 association conference planners decided to host a hybrid event that would allow in-person and remote participation simultaneously. Of course, there were some hiccups with technical glitches and the audio and video quality was not always great in every conference room, but I genuinely felt as if I was a part of the community. I was able to engage with others in interesting conversations through chat during the sessions, meet many professionals, attend excellent presentations, and discuss research and theory in breakout rooms. I also presented my own research and was asked to present this again at another event by an attendee. I received great advice from several experts in a Socratic seminar. My network continued to expand, I took on more roles within the organization, and my knowledge of research and theory in the field grew.

I am unable to travel, so I was grateful that the most recent conference was also hosted in a hybrid format. Because the event is planned by a different team each year, some of the institutional knowledge around effective practices in facilitating a hybrid convening were probably lost. There were far more hiccups, one of my presentation rooms closed before I could finish speaking, and several of the sessions I tried to attend were not connected to the room at the physical location. Still, I was able to engage deeply with the presentations and fellow attendees through chat.

What do I like about attending research conferences remotely? For a number of reasons, traveling to a conference is extremely difficult for me, so I appreciate the opportunity to participate from my own home. I save a lot of my own money on travel expenses as I do not have sponsored funds to cover professional development or presentations. I have a sensory processing disorder and ADHD, which make it difficult for me to focus and hear speakers in large venues with lots of people. When hybrid event planners place presenters by the microphone and all of the visual stimuli is constrained to my laptop screen, I find it much easier for me to process what I am seeing and hearing. Somehow, people seem much more approachable in a virtual environment, so I have been able to make many new connections at events I attend.

I see remote participation at research conferences as an issue of equity. There are many financial, logistic, physical, and social barriers to attending these events in person, particularly for people with disabilities, those who live overseas, and members of marginalized populations. The experience of in-person attendees should not be privileged at the expense of remote attendees, as was often the case in the early days of interactive television (ITV) courses (Wynia, 2000). I want to be more than just a fly on the wall. I want an equitable experience.

Many seasoned academics may still have a picture of the “traditional” graduate student in mind, but the demographics of this population have changed, and virtual options are necessary to meet their needs. There has been a small but steady increase in the enrollment of students over the age of 40 in graduate programs over the past twenty years (National Center for Education Statistics, 2021a), with the majority now being part-time and female (de Brey et al., 2022). In fact, the majority of part-time graduate students are over the age of 30 and nearly a third are over 40 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2021b). Moreover, female graduate students are increasingly likely to be mothers of young children (Kuperberg, 2009), making travel even more difficult.

I urge conference and convention organizers to consider the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) when planning a hybrid or virtual event: multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression (Gronseth & Hutchins, 2020). Instead of designing an experience for the “average” or “typical” conference attendee, consider all of the assets and needs that a participant might bring with them. Creating an equitable experience for all attendees will require careful planning and attention to detail. Designing an event that benefits any person improves the experience for every person.

For graduate students who are new to professional research organizations, I highly recommend attending an annual meeting. There are many great sessions that help you stay up to date with the latest research in instructional technology and design, you can make many new connections among fellow graduate students who will help you through your academic journey, and you are sure to find at least one new mentor amongst the ranks of research professionals who will gladly take graduate students under their wings. If you cannot make it in person, I may just see you online!