Conference Reviews
Personal Observations of Online
Conferences vs. Face-to-faceConferences
Steven Taro Suzuki
Waseda University, Faculty of Science and Engineering
The pandemic we have experienced over the past couple years forced educators tochange their methodology of teaching. At the beginning of the pandemic, I recall
a period of panic as schools frantically tried to shift education to online classes,
updating their learning management systems (LMS), providing workshops toteachers on how to use their LMSs, and online meeting programs such as Zoomand Webex. Teachers, especially those who were still operating in analog (paperbased materials and submissions) found the transition to online/on-demandcourses challenging. In some cases, the difficulties forced some into retirement
or unemployment. However, most teachers managed to make the transition withthe help of their educational institutions as well as support groups like Online
Teaching Japan (https://www.facebook.com/groups/603548090241536).
The last face-to-face conference I attended was JALT2019 in Nagoya. I
presented at the conference with a one-hour research-oriented presentation in
the area of corpus linguistics (Suzuki, 2019). Three months later, the pandemic
hit, and I have not been to a face-to-face conference since. After becoming
more comfortable with online education, I decided to attend my first online
conference on May 29, 2021. It was the Research Center for Instructional
Systems (RCiS) International Webinar 2021, hosted by Kumamoto University.
It was a different experience for me, and I will summarize the presentations andcompare the webinar with face-to-face conferences based on my experiences.
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Online Conferences vs. Face-to-face Conferences, OnCUE 14(1), pages 169-191

The main purpose of the RCiS International Webinar 2021 was to explore
the alternatives and implications of using digital technology in language
teaching. The webinar also aimed to outline the opportunities and challenges
of incorporating technology-enhanced language learning. There were threespeakers, Dr. Yoshiko Goto, Dr. Fei Victor Lim, and Dr. Willy Renandya. Dr.
Goto discussed ways to integrate theory, practice, and technology for language
learning through case studies (Goto, personal communication, May 29, 2021).
Dr. Lim shared considerations in using digital technologies and how they shapeteacher-student interactions (Lim, personal communication, May 29, 2021).
Dr. Renandya covered key language learning principles and how to apply themin technologically-mediated lessons to enrich students’ learning experiences(Renandya, personal communication, May 29, 2021). The webinar was 2 hours
long (10:30-12:30), and at its peak, comprised 135 participants.
I will now compare/contrast face-to-face with online conferences in termsof my view of the advantages and disadvantages of both. The main advantageof the webinar for me was convenience. I did not have to spend time or money
to travel to Kumamoto. I simply clicked on the link to join the Zoom meeting.
I could also just turn off my camera when I had to use the restroom or whensomething came up that required my immediate attention without disrupting
the presentations. Although I attended the entire webinar, I noticed some people
coming and going during the presentation. In general, the webinar allowed
educators from all over the world to attend and leave with ease. I surmise that
if the conference were held on campus face-to-face, the number of participants
would have been much smaller.
The main disadvantage of the webinar was the inability to interact freely
with other webinar participants. I noticed a friend who also attended thewebinar and direct-messaged him through the Zoom chat box, but it was not thesame as would have been experienced in a face-to-face setting. In fact, for me, themain attractive point of face-to-face conferences is being able to meet and catch
up with friends who live far from me in different prefectures. Of course, giving
presentations and participating in others is meant to enhance my professional
acumen, but my favorite part of conferences is catching up with friends, meeting189

Suzukinew people, and developing and maintaining relationships.
One other disadvantage was the limited time for Q&A, where I could see
a number of hands going up, but only one or two people having the chance to
ask a question. I imagine that this is a common problem in online conferences,
so I will offer some plausible solutions. One could be to have participants write
questions in the chat box during the presentations so that the presenter can startdealing with them at the end of their presentation. The presenter could announce
beforehand that they will answer X number of questions and will choose whichquestions to answer by prioritizing relevance and content. Of course, anothersolution would be for presenters to finish at or before the time limit, which
unfortunately was not the case at this webinar, hence the limited Q&A time.
Building on the aforementioned disadvantage, the primary advantage offace-to-face conferences is the human element. When sitting in an actual room,
one can look around to see who the other participants are and get a better feelfor the presenter by observing body language, gestures, and eye contact. If one
is unable to ask a question to the presenter during Q&A, then there is still achance to ask questions after the presentation, or later during the conference, orat some social events in the evening. Another aspect of face-to-face conferences
is exposing oneself to a variety of contexts. For example, one thing I enjoyed at
the JALT international conferences is the various institutes which display goods
and services to the academic community. Being able to look at, touch, and feelteaching materials can never be experienced in an online conference.
However, there are some limitations to face-to-face conferences. For me, themain ones are time and money. Sometimes there are conferences I really want toattend but are held at inconvenient times when considering travel. With online
conferences, a considerable amount of time is saved without the commute. In
addition to the conference fee, transportation, food, and expenses can take bigchunks out of an educational budget. A recent support grant that I received
barely covered just the transportation to and from the conference.
Here, I shared some of my experiences from attending an online webinarand compared it to face-to-face conferences. Of course, there are many otheraspects in terms of advantages and disadvantages of each, but I only focused on190

Online Conferences vs. Face-to-face Conferences, OnCUE 14(1), pages 169-191

the main ones for me. If I were hard-pressed to choose between the two, I would
be in favor of face-to-face. However, ideally for me would be attending smaller
conferences online while attending the larger ones face-to-face. This idea would
be good for both conference planners and participants. For smaller conferences,
it could maximize attendance and exposure due to the pure convenience ofonline meetings. For larger conferences, it could increase participation as there
could be a buildup of enthusiasm by participants who are waiting to finallysee people face-to-face. Moving in a similar direction as with the education
system itself, I foresee a mixture of both online and face-to-face even when thispandemic is far away in the rearview mirror.

References

Goto, Y. (2021, May 29). Technology-enhanced language learning:
Challenges and opportunities. https://www.gsis.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/en/announcements/20210529/
Lim, F. V. (2021, May 29). Designing learning with technology. https://www.
gsis.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/en/announcements/20210529/
Renandya, W. (2021, May 29). Technology-enhanced language learning:
challenges and opportunities. https://www.gsis.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/en/announcements/20210529/
Suzuki, S. T. (2019, November 3). Corpora analysis to help students publish
research [paper presentation]. JALT2019: Teacher Efficacy, Learner Agency,
WINC AICHI, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.

Author bio:

Steven Taro Suzuki is a recipient of the CUE Support Grant. He has presented atseveral CUE conferences, co-chaired three CUE symposia, and has served as a CUE
guest editor. He currently teaches at Waseda University, Keio University, and theMinistry of Foreign Affairs. His current research interests involve corpus linguistics
and genre analysis. suzukitaro@hotmail.com
Received: March 7, 2022
Accepted: February 27, 2022
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