Moderator Responsibilities
Moderators are responsible for introducing and facilitating the session. Moderators provide instructions for participants, and monitor the chat for questions related to the content of the session. The tech hosts will have a brief introductory slide with the speaker and presentation title information.
Moderators are not responsible for technical concerns, including chat messages about feedback surveys, links to the slides, etc. Each session will have a tech host who will manage the recording, managing participants video/audio, adding co-hosts, and any breakout rooms.
Please note that you should communicate with the speakers about how they want to run their session, preferably before the day of the event (May 16). Speakers are being asked what technical support they will need, but it is helpful for you to connect with the speakers to ensure a smooth session. The GAAD planning committee will connect you with your speaker/s in April to start this conversation.
You will also need to attend the tech run to on April 25 at 10:00 AM ensure that all everyone on the back end (speakers, moderators, tech hosts, captionists, etc.) are on the same page.
Moderator pre-GAAD tasks
- Register for GAAD.
- Connect with speaker(s) before the event to determine who will share screens, if anyone, what the moderator should say to introduce the speakers or topic, and verify how to pronounce names.
- Review our community agreement.
- Attend GAAD tech run on April 25 at 10:00 AM.
Moderator Session Timeline
Before the session
- Join 10 minutes before the event to meet tech host and speaker
- 1 minute before, say “we’re getting started soon. We’ll wait another minute or two for more people to arrive.”
During the session
- Introduce the speaker with this sample script:
- "Hello everyone and welcome. Thank you for being here today. I am [insert name and title] and I am this session’s moderator. All of today’s events are being recorded and will be made available on the GAAD website after they are captioned. We have a captionist providing real-time captioning. To access those, use the CC icon in the Zoom window. We also have an ASL interpreter for this session. To access the ASL interpretation, click on the Interpretation icon in the zoom window and select the channel you want to watch.
If you have additional access needs, send a message to the hosts and panelists. The speaker will present for the first 30 minutes, and then we will have a 15 minute discussion time around this topic. Visit our event website at z.umn.edu/gaad to review access measures, our community agreement, and check out our virtual swag bag. Thank you to all of our speakers today, for being here and sharing your knowledge with us. With that, I will hand it over."
- "Hello everyone and welcome. Thank you for being here today. I am [insert name and title] and I am this session’s moderator. All of today’s events are being recorded and will be made available on the GAAD website after they are captioned. We have a captionist providing real-time captioning. To access those, use the CC icon in the Zoom window. We also have an ASL interpreter for this session. To access the ASL interpretation, click on the Interpretation icon in the zoom window and select the channel you want to watch.
- Monitor the chat/Q&A for questions, and relay to the speaker when appropriate.
- After the speaker is done, read this sample closing script:
- "Thank you to our presenters and for all the questions. Again, you can find captioned recordings of these sessions on the event website at z.umn.edu/gaad. Please provide feedback on this session through the brief survey at z.umn.edu/gaad-feedback."