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Call for panels

CompEd Panels – A NEW PROCESS

Panel sessions provide an opportunity for community members to present their views and experience on a specific topic and then to discuss these views among themselves and with the audience. A panel session starts with a brief introduction of the panel topic and the participants, followed by short presentations by the panelists giving their views. Panels are scheduled in standard conference spaces and include opportunity for an interactive question and answer period involving the panelists and the audience.

At many conferences, including past CompEd meetings, a panel proposal includes a description of the topic along with the names, expertise, and views of each of the panelists on the topic. We are doing something different for CompEd 2025 – the goal of this change is to broaden participation in panels. Instead of recruiting and organizing panelists, panel leaders will only propose the panel topic. They must explain why this topic would be of interest to CompEd attendees and outline what sort of panelists or views one might expect to be represented. They should also outline their own experience with the topic they are proposing. Panel leaders do not recruit the other participants for the panels that they are proposing, although they may, of course, encourage individuals to apply to be panelists.

A small panel committee will review the topic proposals and then accepted panels will be advertised broadly to the community. At this point, individuals will be encouraged to apply to be a participant on the accepted panels. The panel committee (perhaps in discussion with the leaders) will select presenters for the panels. Once the panel membership has been announced, the leaders together with the selected presenters will create the two-page document that will be published in the ACM digital library. (This final document will be editorially reviewed by panel chair.)

Proposing a Panel Topic

Panels will be proposed through an online form administered through EasyChair. There is no separate PDF document to upload for the initial proposal.

EasyChair questions are:

  • What is the title? (catchy, interesting, max 10 words)
  • What is the topic? (max 30 words).
  • Why is this topic of interest to the CompEd community, and what different viewpoints might one expect to see? (max 100 words)
  • Name and experience of proposer
  • Would you like to be a panelist or a moderator? (hint: if you think you’ve got something interesting to say yourself, then we suggest a panelist).

Applying to be a Panel Presenter

Once the panel topics are announced, members of the community are encouraged to apply to present their experience as part of a panel. More details will appear here in April 2025.

Formatting and Submitting the Final Panel Document

The final document is limited to two pages and must adhere to ACM’s publication guidelines. For more details, see Formatting requirements.

The following modifications and exceptions apply:

  • When providing author information, indicate which of the panelists is the moderator by placing the word “Moderator” in parentheses after their name.
  • Do not include an abstract. Instead, the first section should be headed Summary and should provide a summary of the panel as written by the moderator.
  • Subsequent sections should contain the position statements of each panelist. The heading of each section should identify its author.
  • References are encouraged where appropriate, but are not required. If they are included, they should be placed in a separate section headed References and should conform with the formatting guidelines.

If accepted, the panel description will be allocated two pages in the conference proceedings and must adhere to the formatting requirements specified above.

Further details on the submission process are available on the call for submissions page.

Panel presentation

CompEd 2023 will be a face-to-face conference, and all members of an accepted panel will be required to register for the conference and to attend in person. See CompEd 2025 policies.

Further Questions?

Please contact the panel chairs