The responsibilities of the technician during a partially digital defence

Technical setup at a partially digital defence

At a partially digital defence the candidate, the chair of the defence and the chair of the committee will be present in the room. There will also be audience members present. The two opponents participate through Zoom in a regular Zoom meeting. The link to this Zoom meeting must never be published, but only distributed to the two opponents, the chair of the committee and the candidate. 

The defence will also be streamed to the defence announcement website, so that anyone who wishes to follow it digitally can do so. On the same website there will also be a form (Nettskjema), where one can submit questions for the candidate. This form will be open during the entire defence, and the questions will be sent directly to the chair of the committee. Near the end of the defence, when the chair of the defence offers the audience to ask questions, the chair of the committee will read out any written questions submitted during the defence. 

If needed the defence may have to be conducted as a Zoom webinar instead. In that case you should read the guidelines for a completely digital defence, where this is described in detail. 

A partially digital defence requires a lecture room with the following equipment:

• Camera showing whoever is speaking
• Canvas and projector
• Zoom installed.
• Possibility to share a screen so that slides shown with the projector is also visible in Zoom
• Cynap (for streaming of the defence to the defence announcement website. If this is not available, you must use Zoom webinar instead.) Using this option also requires an extra screen, so that the candidate can both share their presentation in Zoom, and at the same time see presenter view of their presentation. 
• Table microphone
• Headset microphone for the candidate (if possible and wanted)
• Tablet/iPad to be used as a digital board that can be shared in Zoom so everyone can see what is written (if needed and available)

This is just a minimum requirement. If your unit has better equipment available, feel free to use it as long as the procedure and guidelines are followed. 

Responsibilities as host

• You will be the host of the Zoom meeting, but in the lecture room the feed shown on the canvas will be the candidate's Zoom feed. This is to ensure that when the candidate is sent to the waiting room, nothing is shown on the screen in the lecture room.
• Conduct a practice defence together with the candidate, the chair of the defence and the committee (who will participate via Zoom) two days before the defence. Read more about the practice defence below.
• As host, you must schedule the disputation in Zoom, and ensure that all necessary participants are invited. Those who have to be present, in addition to yourself, are the chair of the committee, the first and second opponents and the candidate. The candidate, the chair of the defence and the chair of the committee will be present in the room, but since the chair of the committee needs to speak privately with the opponents in Zoom to discuss the candidate's work, they should also be invited to the Zoom meeting. 
• You will be the host, but you must make the candidate, and 1. and 2. opponent co-hosts.
• Only the host and co-hosts should be allowed to share a screen or control their own microphone. 
• Remind the opponents to mute themselves when they are not speaking. If they forget, you should do it for them.
• Even though Zoom allows for more than one person to share a screen at the same time, we advice against using this option as it does not work optimally. Instead, we recommend one person sharing at a time, and changing between candidate and opponents sharing whenever necessary. 
• When the opponents are finished asking their questions, the chair of the defence will invite the audience to ask questions ex auditorio. If anyone chooses to ask a question, they should either get a microphone (if available and possible), or the candidate should repeat the question before answering. 
• When all questions have been answered, the candidate must be sent to the waiting room (if you are using webinar, this does not apply). The candidate, the chair of the committee and the chair of the defence will leave the room in procession. The chair of the defence and the chair of the committee will go to a private meeting room to meet with the opponents and discuss the work of the candidate. The chair of the committee is responsible for bringing a laptop so that they can start up Zoom and join the Zoom meeting where the opponents are. When they are done discussing, the chair of the committee, the chair of the defence and the candidate will return to the lecture room, and the candidate should be let back in to the Zoom meeting. The chair of the defence will then announce their decision and say a few concluding words, after which the formal defence is over. (This is not relevant in the Faculty of Humanities, as they normally do not conduct such a meeting before ending the defence.)
• If technical issues occur that simply cannot be resolved right away, the chair of the defence will pause the defence until the issues can be solved. If it still cannot be solved, the defence may need to be called off and rescheduled.

The trial defence session

• You are responsible for creating the Zoom session for the trial defence. This should be done in the same way as you set up the real defence. Read more about this below.
• During the practice session you should follow the same steps as in the beginning of a real defence, and make the candidate and the opponents into co-hosts. 
• Remind the opponents that they should use the same equipment (microphone and camera) and location (office) during the trial session as they will during the defence. 
• The committee and the chair of the defence should practice having their private Zoom meeting, by letting the chair of the defence and the chair of the committee walk to the nearby meeting room, start up Zoom and join the meeting, while the candidate is sent to the waiting room temporarily, and then let back in.
• All active participants should be invited to try sharing a screen and try shown slides to make sure everything is working.
• Invite the chair of the defence to explain routines during a regular defence, and the responsibilities of the opponents. 

Settings when scheduling the defence

• If you have been asked to conduct the defence as a webinar, even though the defence is partially digital, you should follow the setup described under completely digital defence. 
• Create and set up a digital disputation Zoom user (only in Norwegian). Keep in mind that parallell sessions do not work well, so if you have multiple defences at the same time, you need multiple disputation users in Zoom.
• Click "Schedule" in Zoom, and name the session after the name of the candidate. 
• Choose the date and time corresponding to 30 minutes before the defence should start.
• Set Meeting ID to "Generate Automatically".
• Select "Require Meeting Password".
• Under video you can select either "On" or "Off" for the host, but set "Participants" to "Off".
• Under "Audio" select "Telephone and Computer Audio".
• Under "Calendar" select "Outlook".
• Under "Advance Options" select "Enable waiting rooms", "Mute participants on entry" and set up an "Alternative Host". The alternative host will be another technician who will work as a back-up in case you get disconnected. 
• If your faculty has a non-personal Zoom user set up specifically for digital disputation, under "Schedule for", select this user instead of your own. 

Prior to the start of the general defence

• The digital defence session should start 30 minutes before the official public defence, to allow for participants to connect, test microphones and camera, and figure out how to work with Zoom.
• Select Mute all, and make sure no one can turn their microphone back on. There should not be any participants in this meeting besides the committee, but just in case. 
• Admit the candidate and the opponents from the waiting room, and make them co-hosts.
• Anyone who is a co-host can admit participants from the waiting room. However, they should not do this, as it is your responsibility as host to admit and, if needed, remove participants. You should tell the opponents that they should not admit participants. 
• Rename the opponents by adding their defence role to their name, so that it becomes clear who they are at all times. 
• Under "Advanced sharing options", check that only hosts can share a screen. 
• Disable the chat function.

The general procedure during a defence

• If the candidate decides to perform their trial lecture live, with opponents and chair of the defence, you must function as technician for this session as well. The trial lecture is prior to the rest of the defence.
• The defence starts with the candidate, the chair of the defence and the chair of the committee walking into the room in procession. 
• The chair of the defence will start the defence by introducing the candidate.
• The candidate will take over and present their work. This will most likely involve screen sharing to present slides or a "blackboard" from an iPad. (In some faculties this presentation is made by the 1. opponent, not the candidate.)
• The chair of the defence presents the first opponent who then takes over and puts the candidate's work into a larger context. This is also likely to involve screen sharing, but only the first opponent needs to speak.
• After placing the candidate's work in a larger context, the first opponent will ask questions to the candidate. They may also want to jump back and forth between the opponents screen sharing and the candidate's screen sharing.
• When the first opponent is finished, there may be a short break, but that will be decided by the chair of the defence. In some faculties that chair of the defence will now invite the audience to ask questions ex auditorio. 
• The chair of the defence introduces the second opponent who then takes over.
• The second opponent and the candidate will have a discussion. 
• When the second opponent is finished asking questions, the chair of the defence will usually say a few words before inviting the audience to ask questions ex auditorio (provided they have not already been invited to do so after the first opponent finished). If anyone has sent in written questions, the chair of the committee will read these out. 
• When the potential questions from the audience have been answered, the chair of the defence will invite the candidate to say a few words, typically thank the committee, supervisors, etc. 
• If your faculty or department does not usually hold a separate meeting for the committee, the defence is now done. Otherwise, follow the final points before finishing. 
• The candidate should now be sent out into the waiting room so that the other participants in Zoom are no longer shown on the screen in the lecture room. 
• Finally, the candidate, the chair of the committee and the chair of the defence will leave the room in procession. 
• Now the committee (opponents and the chair of the committee) and the chair of the defence will have a private conversation to discuss the candidate's work and (if they wish to) sign the official documents, etc. The chair of the defence and the chair of the committee will walk to a small meeting room. The chair of the committee is responsible for bringing a laptop, so they can start Zoom and join the Zoom meeting where the opponents are.
• When they are done the candidate, the chair of the defence and the chair of the committee will return to the lecture room. The candidate should be let back in to the Zoom meeting, to be able to communicate with the opponents again. The chair of the defence will announce the decision of the committee and say a few concluding remarks. 
• The defence is finished, and you can let someone else take over the Zoom meeting (if they wish to keep it going). Otherwise you can start shutting down. 
• More details about a defence.