The 26^th CDES Annual Psychology Teachers’ Conference on February 23rd 2024 will, once again, be delivered virtually via Zoom Webinars. Whilst we acknowledge that the networking benefits of a face-to-face conference are missed, the accessibility a virtual conference provides, particularly for teachers in rural and remote schools, is especially important in terms of equity for all teachers and their students.

In 2024, there will be six sessions of presentations. As in past years, the program will begin with the VCAA Update (Session 1). Teachers will again have the opportunity to hear from and ask questions of Erin Wilson – VCAA Stem Manager with the responsibility for overseeing VCE Psychology. Erin’s presentation this year will focus on School-Based Assessment.

In Sessions 2,3, 4 & 5, teachers will select the workshops they wish to attend from 27 different workshops on offer.

In Session 6, the only presentation will be the ‘Chief Assessors Review of the 2023 Exam – Part B’. The Chief Assessors – Kerrie Ardley and Matthew DiPetta will provide an evaluation of the common mistakes made by students in Part B of the 2023 exam.

The duration of all workshops will be 1 hour – a 50-minute presentation followed by a 10 minute Q & A. During the presentation part of the workshops, participants’ microphones will be on ‘mute’. However, the Zoom webinar platform allows for participants to type and send questions to the presenter during that time. Participants microphones will be turned on again during the final 10 minutes of the workshop for the Q & A in Sessions 2, 3, 4 and 5 only.

There will be a short break between each workshop session and a 30-minute lunch break between Sessions 4 and 5. In each of Sessions 2, 3, 4 and 5 there will be six or seven different workshops available from which teachers can select. In the week of the Conference, the Workshop Timetable will be emailed to all registered participants. The timetable will clearly show which of the 22 different workshops available will be presented during each of those four sessions.  Each workshop will only be presented ONCE. Each of the 27 workshops will have a designated ‘link’ which teachers will use to access the workshop they wish to attend. The designated links will be emailed to registered participants as part of the Workshop Timetable. On the day of the Conference, participants will select the workshop they wish to attend in each session by clicking the relevant link for that workshop.

Using the Zoom webinar platform is relatively straightforward. However, there are a few key preparations that participants need to undertake to ensure they can access all aspects of the Conference without any technical delays:

1. Set up a free Zoom account using the same email address you provide when registering for the Conference.
2. Have your Zoom password readily accessible on the day of the conference. CDES personnel will be unable to assist with your inability to access Zoom webinars as a result of a forgotten password or being blocked by Zoom due to too many incorrect attempts at accessing a Zoom account.
3. Ensure you have the Timetable that states Session times, the Workshops being offered at that time and the designated links to each workshop readily available before the commencement of the conference.

Importantly, teachers should be aware that webinars cannot be accessed on multiple devices using the same Zoom account. If both you, and someone else, use your Zoom account to login to the webinars, only the first device logged in will be able to join the webinar. Any subsequent attempts to join the webinar will be blocked by Zoom.

As always, access to ALL workshop notes will be available to all registered conference participants after the conference for the remainder of the 2024 school year. As in 2023, it is our intention to record all presentations and to make these recordings available to registered 2023 conference participants until the end of April, 2024. Recordings of some workshops may be edited or unavailable as a result of technical, copyright or cultural sensitivity issues.