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Courses: CHI 2009 Call for Participation

CHI Quick Facts

  • Submission Start: 18 June 2008 using PCS submission system
  • Submission End: 18 July 2008 (5:00pm PDT)
  • Notification: 12 September 2008
  • Course Notes Due: 12 January 2009 following the instructions at http://www.sheridanprinting.com/sigchi/chi4.htm
  • Submission Format: 500 word advanced program description, 4 page detailed description of material, and sample Course material
  • At the Conference: Accepted Courses will be taught in one to four 1.5 hour sessions during the conference
  • Archives: Course descriptions will be printed in the advance and final CHI 2009 program

Message from the CHI Courses Chairs

CHI 2009 will again offer Courses with durations ranging from one to four 1.5-hour sessions as begun at CHI 2006. We will work to encourage a wide variety of Courses from members of all our CHI communities. If you are interested in developing a Course, but are unsure of its suitability for a CHI audience, we would gladly discuss possibilities with you.

Steve Poltrock, Boeing Phantom Works
Garett Dworman, Tec-Ed, Inc.
Contact us: courses@chi2009.org

What is a CHI Course?

Courses allow CHI attendees to extend their knowledge beyond their current community and their current areas of expertise. Participants will include members of all CHI communities, and interested instructors are advised to consult the specific CHI communities pages for additional information on possible topics of interest. Courses can be aimed at a particular community or can be cross-community. They can be designed for novices or experts in a specific field or novices and experts in other fields.

As an example, Courses could:

  • Provide professional development for practitioners
  • Introduce researchers to emerging areas that will benefit from HCI research
  • Provide an overview of state of the art research or technology areas
  • Create opportunities to learn new techniques for use in research or practice
  • Educate CHI communities about other CHI communities
  • Provide master level classes for experienced CHI attendees
  • Provide advanced instruction in CHI-related tools

Duration

Courses will be offered in one to four 1.5-hour blocks (course units) and will run in parallel with the technical program.

We strongly encourage instructors to submit Courses of one or two blocks. Full day Courses (four blocks) can be proposed but there is limited space in the program for full day courses and few will be accepted. Instructors are encouraged to break a full day course into two or more shorter courses.

Instructors may explicitly link two or more interrelated course proposals that should be accepted or rejected together. The dependencies between these courses must be defined, including whether the courses must be held on the same day or in a particular order.

Instructor Compensation

Each Course will receive one complementary registration or $550 (instructors choice) for the first 90 minute block of instruction and a $550 honorarium for each subsequent 90 minute block of instruction. If there are multiple Course instructors, they must decide who will get the complementary registration and how the additional honorarium will be divided.

Preparing and Submitting your CHI Course Proposal

A Course proposal must be submitted as a single PDF file via the PCS submission system by 18 July 2008 (5:00PM PDT).

The proposal must have the following, three distinct sections:

Part 1. CHI 2009 Advance Program Description

The Advance Program Description is your opportunity to market your Course. Be concise yet provide enough information so that prospective attendees can make informed decisions about the Course(s) they want to attend. Please limit the description to 500 words. Examples of CHI2009 Advance Program descriptions can be found here. Components of the description include:

  • Title of the Course (please make this short but descriptive)
  • Names and affiliations of the instructors.
  • Benefits: Summarize the skills and knowledge the attendees will gain as a result of attending this Course. This should include the reasons that CHI attendees would want to take your Course.
  • Origins: Describe the history of this Course (for example, whether it was given as a tutorial at past CHI conferences or related venues).
  • Features: A bulleted list of the educational goals and/or major elements of the Course content.
  • Audience: Described any background required to understand the Course, including attendance at any other course in the program if that is a requirement. State the disciplines and/or organizational roles of attendees who would be interested in your Course.
  • Presentation: List the various presentation forms used in the Course, for example, lectures, demonstration, exercises, videos, group discussions, and/or case studies.
  • Instructor background: List the background for each instructor, including current employment and activities, previous professional activities, and relevant publications.
  • (Optional) A web site or another reference that might be accessed to provide more information about the Course or instructor(s).

Part 2. Detailed Course description

The Course description is the most important part of your proposal. The reviewers will evaluate the course based primarily on this description and the material sample in part 3. Please be clear about your plans for the course and its justification. This part of the proposal must not exceed four pages. It should contain at least the following information:

  • Duration of the Course (total duration and number of 90 minute units).
  • Linkage to other courses, if any. A linkage should be defined if there is a dependency between the courses requiring that they be considered together. Linked courses will be accepted or rejected together. Include scheduling constraints, such as the order of the Courses and whether they can be scheduled on different days.
  • Learning objectives
  • Justification: Explain why this Course would be of interest to a CHI audience.
  • Content: Describe in detail the material that will be covered.
  • Background of attendees: Describe the assumed background and expected skills of attendees. Include who should not take the Course.
  • Presentation format: Explain how the Course will be conducted.
  • Schedule: Describe time allocations to the Course content.
  • Audience size: What is the preferred audience size? The average number of participants in Courses integrated with the conference in CHI 2006 was 76, with 10 Courses having over 100 participants. If the Course is very popular, would you consider teaching it more than once? We will contact instructors of Courses that have significant enrollments by the end of the second week of registration.
  • Course history – If the proposed Course has been given previously, describe where it was given, the evaluation it received from attendees, and how it will be modified for CHI 2009.
  • Student Volunteers: Specify and justify student volunteer help for your Course.
  • Audio/visual needs – CHI generally provides a projector, screen, computer audio, and podium microphone, and other equipment can be provided but is subject to budgetary constraints. CHI also provides a small budget for instructors to buy office supplies that will be used in their course. Please define all your requirements for audio visual aids and office supplies.

Part 3. Material sample

Provide a sample of the Course material you will present in this Course.

CHI Courses Review Process

A few Courses given at CHI 2008 with outstanding evaluations will be accepted in the CHI 2009 program without further review. All other Course proposals will be reviewed by members of the community or communities they are addressing. Acceptance will be based primarily on evaluations by reviewers.

Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of their value to some segment of the community. Some factors that will play a role in evaluation are relevance, suitability, timeliness, importance, audience appeal, attendance limits, presentation methods, previous presentations and evaluations of the Course, and past experiences and qualifications of instructors. Proposals will also be considered for their fit within the overall CHI experience, considering such factors as overall distribution of topics, approaches, audience experience levels, and specialties of the intended audiences. Courses that promote products will not be considered.

Upon Acceptance of your CHI Course

Instructors will be notified of acceptance or non-acceptance on or about 12 September 2008.

Instructors will receive more information about the expected format of the Course notes and logistics (student volunteers, audio visual, evaluations, payments, etc.) after acceptance.

As a general guideline, Course notes are intended to provide the attendees with carry-away materials that will enable them to concentrate their attention on the presentation rather than on hastily taking handwritten notes. The notes should include such materials as:

  • an introduction to the topic
  • copies of all overhead transparencies and or slides
  • an annotated bibliography pointing the attendee towards recommended reading
  • copies of relevant background material or scholarly papers (for which the instructors have obtained any necessary reprint permission)
  • Course exercises, as appropriate
  • Instructors will be required to sign a release form giving CHI 2009 one-time-only permission to utilize the notes for Course participants and to sell notes at the conference.

Course notes must be submitted by 9 January 2009. If the Course notes are not received on time, we cannot open the Course for registration and the Course will be canceled.

Your CHI Course at the Conference

Your CHI Course will be allotted one or more 90 minute blocks of time for presentation. We will coordinate A/V requirements with accepted Instructors, but Instructors should see Conference Technical Support for information about standard computing and A/V equipment that will be provided by the conference.

Your CHI Course After the Conference

The Course description in the final CHI 2009 program is the only official archive of courses. No record of courses will be available in the Proceedings or the ACM Digital Library.