Symposium: Reviewer FAQs

You can find an overview of the day by reviewing our schedule-at-a-glance and find times and locations of specific presentations through the online public gallery.

All presenters are required to upload a copy of their poster or presentation and are strongly encouraged to include a video. View all uploaded presentations through the online public gallery.

Parking will be available for campus visitors at no charge in the High Country Conference Center (building 58) on Dupont Ave. NAU faculty, staff, and students are asked to follow the standard parking protocol.

Please check your reviewing assignments to determine when you should arrive. If you are scoring only posters, you should plan to arrive 15 minutes before the start of your session (8:30 a.m. for Session 1, 10:30 am for Session 2, 12:30 pm for Session 3, or 2:30 p.m. for Session 4) to ensure you have enough time to visit your assigned presentations. For oral presentations, you should plan to arrive 15 minutes prior to the start of the presentation allowing you time to check-in and proceed to the presentation room.

Each college uses the same scoring rubric based on the nature of their students’ projects. These scoring rubrics will be available in the reviewer portal when you open each individual presentation. Generally speaking, you will be scoring the quality of the abstract, the information included on the poster or in the oral presentation, the presentation skills of the student (including how they present the poster when you talk to them), and the overall impact of the presentation.

The scoring rubrics and assigned projects will be available through our online portal. Since we will have a large number of volunteer reviewers, we ask that you bring a laptop or tablet (not a smart phone) that can be used to access the web. For those who don’t have a device, but are willing to score online, we will have a limited number of devices available for use. If you prefer to score on paper, we will also have printouts of the rubrics, pens/pencils, and a limited number of clipboards available.

We will provide reminders on how to access the link in the Reviewers’ Area on the day of the event.

In most cases, you will be scoring either 3-5 posters per session or 3 oral presentations.  There may be some instances where we will need you to score a combination of posters and oral presentations, but this will be the exception rather than the norm.

You will be assigned 3-5 posters or oral presentations to review unless your availability only allows you to score one or two presentations. If you are interested in scoring more than your assigned projects, please let us know and we will be happy to assign additional projects to you.

This can vary based on the topic of the presentation you are scoring. The most important thing is to make sure you are able to get enough information to provide meaningful feedback based on the scoring rubric criteria. Typically, reviewers will spend 15-20 minutes with each poster presenter.

You will be assigned projects based on the availability you indicated on your reviewer registration form. If you are scoring poster presentations, you will need to complete the scoring within the presentation time (8:30-10 am, 10:30 am-12 pm, 12:30-2 pm, 2:30-4 pm). If you finish early, you are not required to stay the entire time. Students will be taking their posters once each session ends, so you will not be able to score them outside of the presentation time. Please see the “Do I turn my feedback in at the end of the day” FAQ below to learn more about when reviews are due.

For oral presentations, you will need to be at the oral presentation room during the scheduled window.

You are welcome to attend (and we encourage you to attend) any/all sessions on the day of the Symposium.

The group presentations will be scored using the same rubrics as individual presentations within the college.

While a good portion of our presenters are seniors, we do have students from all levels presenting, so you very well could be scoring students at all levels. We will make every effort to assign you to projects within the discipline preferences you indicated on the reviewer registration form. Our priority is to ensure that all student presenters receive feedback, so you may be assigned a limited number of projects outside of your indicated interests in order to meet this goal.

Scoring will be done through our online system and should be completed by the end of the session. Once you have entered your scores into the system, we will instantly receive them. If you will be scoring on paper, please submit your final review at the end of the session. If you need a little more time to complete your reviews, the portal will be open to reviewers until noon on Saturday, April 26. After that time, the portal will close and you will no longer be able to access your assigned projects to provide feedback.

We will provide drinks and hot and cold snacks throughout the day.  Reviewers will be on their own for lunch. We have several options available, including the 1899 Bar and Grill located across the street and at the food court in the University Union, a few minutes’ walk to the south.

If you have any issues, concerns, or changes in your schedule, please contact the Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity at ug-research@nau.edu or (928) 523-6656. We will also be available to help in the Reviewers’ Area (along with several volunteers) on the day of the event.