AERA Provides Demonstrations of Interactive Presentation Gallery for 2020 Annual Meeting Authors


September  2020

Extended Deadline for Creating Presentations: November 18

To introduce the new AERA Interactive Presentation Gallery and help 2020 Annual Meeting authors take full advantage of the features of participating in the gallery, AERA held two live demonstrations of the iPoster platform on September 15 and 22. These Zoom sessions provided an overview of the gallery and demonstrated how to create a presentation within the system. ASL and closed captioning were provided. Video recordings of these two live demonstrations are posted on the AERA website.

AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine opened both sessions, welcoming attendees and providing the association’s vision for how the gallery will enhance the ways in which scholarly research is shared broadly with diverse communities of scholars and how the gallery also offers virtual space for discussion, networking, and exchange about paper presentations.

“The AERA Interactive Presentation Gallery is new to the Association this year, but will be used for the 2021 Annual Meeting, future Annual Meetings, and other forms of research presentation initiatives moving forward. This product provides scholars with innovative, interactive opportunities to present their work and to engage with others,” said Levine. “Through audio narratives, videos, scheduled live chats, and virtual meetings, this platform helps to bring research to life and enables it to live on into the future.”

AERA has extended the deadline for authors to create presentations for the gallery to November 18. During this period, all papers accepted for the 2020 Annual Meeting, whether for paper sessions, symposia, roundtables, or poster sessions, are eligible for the creation of presentations.

During the two demonstrations, Rick Pedolsky, CEO of iPoster, reviewed key features of the platform and demonstrated the process of creating an interactive presentation. He was then joined by Levine and AERA Director of Meetings Robert Smith to answer questions from attendees.

The first authors of papers for paper sessions, roundtables, or poster sessions accepted for presentation at the 2020 Annual Meeting will receive a reminder during the next several days to create an account if they have not done so already. Once first authors have an account, they may turn over the creation of an interactive poster to another author. First authors of more than one paper receive unique log-in information for each paper.

Complementing AERA’s Online Paper Repository, the purpose of the Interactive Presentation Gallery is to share presentations from meetings. As noted, AERA is launching the gallery this year with a focus on papers that were accepted for the cancelled 2020 AERA Annual Meeting. Like the Online Paper Repository, the gallery will be maintained from year to year. There will be a link between the gallery and the repository for authors who place their papers in the repository and their presentations in the gallery, with unique citations to each.

The gallery will launch with open access to all presentations on November 20, allowing users from around the world to enter the platform without fee. Users will also be able to engage in live chat sessions, participate in virtual meetings, or communicate through a Q&A function with authors who schedule such sessions through the end of January 2021. Contact information to reach authors is a permanent feature of the gallery.

A Facts and Opportunities sheet provides additional details. For further information, contact the AERA meetings team at annualmtg@aera.net.