The Australasian Science Education Research Association’s (ASERA) annual conference, like most other large (or small) gatherings around the world, was not able to take place this year in a face-to-face manner in a physical location due to COVID-19. The online conference format was a first for ASERA, and in fact, is a relatively new idea in science education, and science, more broadly (Reshef et al., 2020). Thus, the aim of this paper is to share reflections from the organising committee of this year’s ASERA conference, comprising of the first and second authors and the president of the ASERA Board, the third author. The reflections focus on the initial decision to go online, the justification for the design of the online conference (including the decision to run it at no/little expense) and how it went on the day. These reflections will contribute to our understanding of running large online research-related events, an occurrence which might be more frequent or likely as we adapt to the ‘new norm’ post-pandemic.
REFERENCE
Reshef, O., Aharonovich, I., Armani, A. M., Gigan, S., Grange, R., Kats, M. A., and Sapienza, R. (2020). How to organize an online conference. Nature Reviews Material 5(4) 253-6
