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Courses

Call for Participation

Quick Facts

  • Submissions Due: 5 October 2012 using the PCS Submission System
  • Submission Format: 300 word advanced program description, 4 page detailed description of material, and sample Course material
  • Notification: 14 December 2012
  • Preliminary version of Course Description for web site due by 20 January 2013 (only required if revised from original submission)
  • Final version of Course Description for Advance Program (i.e., 300-word Abstract and 30-word Contribution and Benefit statement) due by 17 February 2013
  • If your course is accepted: Course Notes and 30-second Video Preview due by 17 February 2013.
  • At the Conference: Accepted Courses with the minimum number of registered participants will be taught in one to four 80-minute sessions during the conference
  • Archives: Course descriptions will be printed in the Advance Program.

Message from the CHI Courses Chairs

The conference will offer Courses with durations ranging from one to four 80-minute sessions. Courses should cover the wide variety of all our CHI communities. We encourage submissions of courses that focus on new and emerging areas, methods and technologies as well as courses describing the foundations of HCI. 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.

Gregorio Convertino, Palo Alto Research Center (PARC Inc), Palo Alto, CA
William Hudson, Syntagm Ltd, UK

courses@chi2013.acm.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 may be designed for novices to a specific field or experts.

As an example, a Course could:

  • Provide a substantial overview of state of the art research or technology areas
  • Introduce researchers to emerging areas, new technologies and methods within HCI research
  • Provide researchers, communities, and/or students with insights on the foundations of HCI
  • 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

If you are still in doubt see Shall I offer a course or a workshop?

Duration

Courses will be offered in one to four 80-minute sessions. Courses will run in parallel with the technical program.

We strongly encourage instructors to submit a Course of one or two sessions. Full day Courses (four sessions) 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

Instructor compensation is based on the number of participants who register:

  • $450 honorarium per session for 10 to 20 participants;
  • $500 honorarium per session for 20 to 30 participants;
  • $550 honorarium per session for more than 30 participants.

Alternatively, for the first (or only) unit of a course, one instructor may opt to receive complementary conference registration. The compensation is the same regardless of how many instructors are involved in presenting a course.

Please be aware that we have changed the charging structure for CHI courses in 2013 from a per-course fee to a per-session fee of $25. So, for example, a 2-session course will be charged to registrants at $50.

Preparing and Submitting your CHI Course Proposal

A Course proposal must be submitted as a single PDF file via the PCS Submission System by 5 October 2012. The proposal must have the following, three distinct sections:

Part 1. Advance Program Description (300 words)

The Advance Program Description is your opportunity to market your Course to prospective attendees. 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 300 words.

Components of the description should include the following elements. Please see examples from previous year’s conference websites.

  • 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.
  • (optional) 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 bullet list of the educational goals and/or major elements of the Course content.
  • (optional) Audience: state the disciplines and/or organizational roles of attendees who would be interested in your Course.
  • (optional) Prerequisites: described any background required to understand the Course, including attendance at any other course in the program if that is a requirement.
  • Presentation: list the various presentation forms used in the Course, for example, lecture, 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) Resources: web site or other resources (e.g., books) that might be accessed to provide more information about the Course or instructor(s).

Part 2. Detailed Course Description (up to 4 pages)

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 number of sessions).
  • 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 registrations for Courses at CHI in recent years was 43 (st.dev.=18), with 10 of the 28 Courses having over 50 registrations. 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.
  • Student Volunteers: specify and justify student volunteer help for your Course.
  • Audio/visual needs: CHI can generally provide a projector, screen, computer audio, and podium microphone. Budget constraints make it unlikely that additional equipment can be provided. CHI also provides a small budget for instructors to buy office supplies for their course. Please define all your requirements for audio visual aids and office supplies.

Part 3. Course Material Sample

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

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluations will be completed by juries selected by the Course Chairs from the respective community or communities the course is targeting.

All Course proposals will be Juried by at least 3 individuals representing the appropriate community or communities. Acceptance will be based on:

  1. Factors such as relevance, suitability, timeliness, importance, audience appeal, attendance limits, presentation methods
  2. Previous presentations and evaluations of the Course and number of times this course (or a similar course or tutorial) has been offered over the past years
  3. Prior experience and qualifications of the instructors
  4. Proposals will also be considered for their fit within the overall CHI experience, considering such factors as relationship to the theme of this year’s conference, overall distribution of topics, approaches, audience experience levels, and specialties of the intended audience
  5. Courses that promote products (solely for marketing purposes) will not be considered. The courses may discuss techniques or products in the context of larger issues.

Upon Acceptance of your CHI Course

Course instructors will be notified of acceptance or non-acceptance on or about 14 December 2012. The instructors will receive more information about the expected format of the Course notes and logistics (student volunteers, audio visual, evaluations, payments, etc.) after acceptance. Be sure to follow the formatting instructions for CHI 2013 Course notes.

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 and participation, rather than on hastily taking handwritten notes. The notes should include materials such as:

  • Introduction
  • Copies of presentation material
  • Annotated bibliography and/or 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 one-time-only permission to utilize the notes for Course participants and to sell notes at the conference.
  • Course notes and 30-second video preview must be submitted by 17 February 2013. If the Course notes are not received on time, we cannot open the Course for registration and the Course will be canceled.

Note that Video Previews are a new requirement for CHI 2013. Please see http://chi2013.acm.org/authors/video-previews/ for full details.

The final program description for each Course, 30-word benefit statement, Course notes and video preview should be uploaded to the PCS Submission System by 17 Febturary 2013.

Cancellation: Courses with fewer than 5 participants registered as of 23 March 2013 will be cancelled. It is therefore in your interest to promote your courses to your own contacts and communities. Do not rely on the conference to do this for you.

Your CHI Course At the Conference

Your CHI Course will be allotted one or more 80-minute sessions for presentation. We will coordinate A/V requirements with accepted Instructors and Instructors should see Presenting at CHI 2013 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 2013 program is the only official archive of courses. The course notes and additional descriptive material will not be available in the Proceedings or the ACM Digital Library.