In March 2020, COVID-19 disrupted global society. Impacts as a result of COVID-19 were seen in all industries, including higher education research, which was paused in order to accommodate newly imposed restrictions. Social science research, specifically stakeholder engagement research, was one area that was potentially impacted given its need for person-to-person interaction. Here, we describe how we successfully adjusted our stakeholder engagement methodology to accommodate for socially distant requirements. Initially, we planned to host in-person workshops to assess stakeholder perceptions of microplastics impacts on oysters in Boston Harbor and coastal Massachusetts using the deliberative multicriteria evaluation (DMCE) methodology. To transfer these workshops online, we used familiar, open-access platforms, Zoom and GoogleDrive, to enable dialogue among participants and evaluate preferences. While modifications to length (5 to 3 h) and order (participants were asked to watch expert videos before their participation date) of the workshop were necessary, most other elements of the methodology remained the same for the online format. The main element that was lacking was the in-person interactions. However, with video conferencing tools available, this element was not completely lost.

中文翻译：

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在COVID-19时代举办利益相关者研讨会上回应社会距离

2020年3月，COVID-19破坏了全球社会。由于COVID-19的影响已在包括高等教育研究在内的所有行业中看到，为了适应新施加的限制而暂停了该研究。社会科学研究，特别是利益相关者参与研究，由于需要人与人之间的互动，因此可能会受到影响。在这里，我们描述了我们如何成功地调整了利益相关者参与方法，以适应社会上遥远的需求。最初，我们计划举办现场研讨会，以利于利益相关者对微观塑料对波士顿港和马萨诸塞州沿海牡蛎的影响的看法，采用协商多标准评估（DMCE）方法。为了在线上转移这些研讨会，我们使用了熟悉的开放式平台Zoom和GoogleDrive，在参与者之间进行对话并评估偏好。虽然有必要对讲习班的时长（5至3小时）和顺序（要求参加者在参加会议之前观看专家视频）进行修改，但该方法学的大多数其他要素仍保持在线格式不变。缺少的主要要素是面对面的互动。但是，有了可用的视频会议工具，此元素并没有完全丢失。