UDCA Elementary Middle School State Championship

2021 — NSDA Campus, UT/US

Best Practices

Here are reminders for participating in online tournaments:

1. Every participant (students, judges, coaches, etc.) need a tabroom.com account. This is how students will access the link to their online room. 

2. Every participant will need a wifi-enabled device and quiet room during the tournament. 

3. Students can participate at school or at home, depending on their school's guidelines and expectations. 

4. All participants should test online platform ahead of time. Visit https://campus.speechanddebate.org/ to check your tech. Schools should work with their IT departments to ensure that their network's firewall settings allow the required websites. Competitors should ensure that they have working hardware and software. Using Chrome for your web browser is all but required. 

5. For younger students, especially in the elementary division, a chaperone should be present in every room to support technology and troubleshooting.

 

Said differently (extra details)...

 

1. The State tournament takes place on the NSDA Campus platform. It feels like Zoom or Google Meets but it's an independent platform, created by the NSDA, and synched up with tabroom.com. Most questions are best answered by the NSDA Campus Resources page: 

That covers the technology side of things (what the platform looks like, tech requirements, etc.)
 
2. As far as your own team organization, a lot of it is up to you. Older kids might be able to debate from home, others need close support by meeting at school. If you only have a few entries, you could pull off communication without being in-person, but larger squads will probably benefit from a group meeting. Here's what I plan to do:
  • Have students meet in my classroom after school. 
  • I'll go over announcements and reminders and we'll make sure every student/team has a laptop or tablet, connected to wifi, and with Google Chrome or the Jitsi app. I'll also make sure every student is logged into their personal tabroom.com account. 
  • I'll assign each student/team a physical classroom to debate from in my building. Ideally, I'll have a high student or parent chaperone for each room. I won't dismiss them to their room just yet. 
  • Once the pairing comes out, I'll make sure each student/team sees the assignment on tabroom and successfully accesses the online room. After confirming that, I'll dismiss them to their physical classroom space. 
  • I'll plan to stay in my classroom where students can check in and get snacks in between rounds. 
It may sound intimidating, and it does require more hands on help, but it works. High school teams have been competing all year using this model and 11 middle school programs in Utah have successfully competed this month. Doing the work on the front end (making sure students have tabroom accounts, making sure your school's wifi doesn't block NSDA Campus, etc.) goes a long way. 

 
Contacts
Leslie Robinett Mike Shackelford
General Info
Invitation Homepage Email Archive Events & Divisions Institutions In Attendance
Pages & Uploads
UCDA W9 Form Asynchronous/Recording Help Award Nominations Best Practices Qualification Procedures Topics
Circuits
UT – Utah Past Years' Editions

Dates & Deadlines

 MDT
Tournament Dates May 12 to May 13 2021
Registration Opens Fri Mar 26 at 5:00 PM
Registration Closes Sat May 8 at 7:00 PM
Fees Freeze After Mon May 10 at 5:00 PM
Judge Information Due Mon May 10 at 5:00 PM
Drop online until Mon May 10 at 5:00 PM
Change fees apply after Tue May 11 at 5:00 PM
EOO Entry Deadline Wed May 12 at 7:59 PM
INF Entry Deadline Wed May 12 at 7:59 PM

These deadlines are set in Tabroom for technical purposes. Always consult the invitation or tournament notices for official policies about deadlines and procedures.