Authors | Courses: Call for Participation

Quick Facts

Important Dates

Submission Deadline: 6 October 2014 (5:00pm PDT)
Notification: 21 November 2014
Publication Ready Deadlines:

2-Page Course Description: 9 January 2015
Paper Course Notes: 9 January 2015
Electronic Course Notes: 6 March 2015

Submission Details

Online Submission: PCS Submission System
Template: Extended Abstracts Format
Submission Format: 300 word advanced program description, detailed course description, and sample course material

Selection Process: Curated
Chairs: Regina Bernhaupt and Matt Jones (courses@chi2015.acm.org)
At the Conference: Accepted Courses with the minimum number of registered participants will be taught in up to two 80-minute sessions during the conference
Archives: Course descriptions will be published in the Extended abstracts; USB and ACM Digital Library

Message from the CHI 2015 Courses Chairs

The CHI 2015 conference will offer a wide variety of courses designed to appeal to our diverse audience of researchers, practitioners, designers, developers, managers and students. Courses will take place during the CHI 2015 main conference. Course duration can be up to two 80-minute sessions.

We encourage proposals for CHI 2015 conference courses that cover topics like:

history and foundations of HCI
new and emerging topics within and/or relevant to HCI (e.g., HCI and the home, sustainability, mobile HCI, developments in automotive technologies, social media design, game design)
courses focusing on all stages of the user-centered development cycle including user needs and requirements analysis, design, prototyping and evaluation
practical and technical methods that are relevant to HCI (e.g., storyboarding, role playing and improvisation methods, prototyping tools and methods, experimental design and analysis, statistical methods, field methods, Web design tools and languages, mobile development frameworks, microelectronics toolkits, gesture and sensor toolkits, robot programming toolkits)

As CHI 2015 Course Chairs, we are committed to creating the best possible coverage of relevant topics through provisions of high quality courses. To ensure educational value we are balancing course topics over consecutive years of the conference. Therefore, if you have ideas for key courses you would like to see presented at CHI 2015, please email us at the email address below.

Regina Bernhaupt, ruwido, Austria
Matt Jones, Swansea University, Wales
courses@chi2015.acm.org

What is a CHI Course?

Courses allow CHI attendees to extend their knowledge beyond their current area(s) of expertise. Participants will include industry managers and professionals, practitioners, students and researchers. Courses will be offered in up to two 80-minute sessions. Courses will run in parallel with the technical program. Course can be designed for novices, general interest audiences and/or experts.

For example, a Course could:

Provide a substantial overview of state of the art research or technology areas
Introduce practitioners to emerging areas, new technologies and methods within HCI research
Create opportunities to learn new techniques for use in research or practice
Provide master level classes for experienced CHI attendees
Provide advanced instruction in CHI-related tools, technologies or methods

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.

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

Preparing and Submitting your CHI Course Proposal

A Course proposal must be submitted via the PCS Submission System by 6 October 2014, 5:00pm PDT. The proposal must have the following three components which have to be uploaded as three distinct files:

Advance Program Description (max 300 words)
Detailed Course Description (up to 4 pages)
Course Material Sample

Part 1. Advance Program Description (max 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 (max 30 words)
(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.
Audience: state the disciplines and/or organizational roles of attendees who would be interested in your Course
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.
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. if you believe your course should be limited to a certain number for optimal effect, please state so and state the optimal number below or above which you believe your course would not be maximally effective.
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.
Promotional strategy: a description of your advertising/promotional strategy for attracting attendees

Part 3. Course Material Sample

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

Course Selection Process

CHI 2015 Courses will be curated by the CHI 2015 Course Chairs. Acceptance of proposals will be based on:

Fit within the overall CHI education curriculum, that balances topics over consecutive years as well as relationship to the theme of this year's conference, overall distribution of topics within this year's program, approaches, audience experience levels, and specialties of the intended audience.
Factors such as relevance of the course to HCI, suitability for presentation given venue and time constraints, timeliness of topic, audience appeal, attendance limits and presentation methods.
Previous presentations and, if appropriate, course participant evaluations of the Course at CHI and number of times this course (or a similar course or tutorial) has been offered over the past years.
Prior experience and qualifications of the instructors.
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.

Courses should not contain sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at publication time. Submissions should NOT be anonymous. However, confidentiality of submissions will be maintained during the review process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted submissions will be kept confidential until the start of the conference, with the exception of title and author information which will be published on the website prior to the conference.

Upon Acceptance of your CHI Course

Course instructors will be notified of acceptance or non-acceptance by 21 November, 2014. The instructors will receive more information about the expected format of the Course notes and about logistics (e.g., student volunteers, A/V equipment, recommendations and requirements for course evaluations, course payments) after acceptance of courses.

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, e.g., slides
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
PLEASE NOTE: if course notes are not received by the stated deadline, the course will be canceled

All accepted courses will be required to upload a 2-page description of the course in Extended Abstracts Format. The 2-page description should include a description of the topic to be covered with pointers to relevant background material, an outline of the course itself and short presenter/tutor bios. Deadline for 2-page descriptions is 9 January 2015.

All accepted courses are required to provide their course notes. For paper-printed notes: 9 January 2015; for electronically distributed notes: 6 March 2015.

Cancellation: Courses with fewer than 15 participants registered by the early registration deadline may be cancelled. We therefore strongly recommend that you promote your courses through social media channels, in your own social networks, to your personal contacts and in your teaching, research and professional/practice communities. The CHI 2015 conference organizers will not promote specific courses or course materials.

At the Conference

Your CHI Course will be allotted up to two 80-minute sessions for presentation. We will coordinate A/V requirements with accepted course instructors. Instructors should see Presenting at CHI 2015 for information about standard computing and A/V equipment that will be made available to instructors and presenters at CHI 2015.

After the Conference

Accepted 2-page Course Descriptions will be distributed in the CHI Extended Abstracts, available on USB and in the ACM Digital Library. Course notes and additional descriptive material will not be available in the Proceedings or the ACM Digital Library.