Tutorials

Frequently Asked Questions About CHI 96 Tutorials

A: No. We will not extend the deadline no matter who you are and no matter what your excuse is. If the 5 copies of your tutorial proposal are not physically in either Mark Altom's or Marian Williams' office by 5pm Eastern Daylight Time on Friday, July 28, 1995, then your proposal will not be read. We expect to receive 75 to 100 tutorial proposals, so we simply cannot tolerate any delays in processing submissions.

A: Yes! There really and truly is a firm deadline. Even if you send your proposal by courier and they promise to deliver it on time, if it's not here by the deadline it will be rejected without review. The moral of the story is: plan ahead.

A: Please see the Tutorials section of the CHI 96 Call for Participation.

A: Please try to borrow one. If this is not possible, just use a typewriter or whatever printer you do have. Reproduce the standard format as well as you can and make sure your Conference Companion Summary stays within the 2-page limit.

A: Try to match Conference Proceedings Format as closely as possible. This is an area where common sense should prevail. We might reject your proposed tutorial if you use a tiny font to squeeze 4 pages of text into the 2-page limit, but we will certainly not reject you just because your printer doesn't have a Times Roman font! Find a font that matches as closely as possible, and try to make the general characteristics match (e.g., use Helvetica-like font for subtitles, use the specified font sizes and page layouts). The better your summary matches the specifications, the happier you will be when you see it in print!

A: For submissions, you can use either A4 or 8.5x11 inch paper. Please keep the size of the printed text to the proceedings format no matter what size paper you use for printing the text. If your tutorial is accepted, you will receive detailed instructions about preparing the final camera-ready copy.

A: Certainly! Don't feel you have to add unnecessary verbiage to your proposal just to take up the allotted space. Reviewers are very sensitive to this -- they hate reading unnecessarily wordy proposals!

A: Absolutely not! Again, we have so many proposals to handle that we cannot make any exceptions. Proposals longer than 10-pages will be returned unreviewed.

A: You may include other materials, such as a complete draft of your tutorial notes, but the reviewers are not obligated to consider anything beyond the 10-page proposal, Conference Companion Summary, Advance Program Description, Requirements List, and information on Cover Page One, Cover Page Two, and Cover Page Three.

A: The Matching Phrases checklist is used to provide examples of topic areas for tutorials and to help us match up tutorial proposals with appropriate reviewers. If the topic of your tutorial is not in the list of matching phrases, write in the topic in the space provided on Cover Page Two.

A: We will do our best to assign your proposed tutorial to reviewers with appropriate background and interest in your topic area (as indicated by the Matching Phrases on Cover Page Two).

A: Your proposal will be assigned to 3 reviewers and to one of the Tutorials Program Co-Chairs. The Tutorials Program Co-Chairs will collate the reviews of your proposal, decide whether your proposed tutorial has been accepted or rejected, and write a summary of the reviews for your proposal. A more complete description of the review process can be found in the Tutorial Program Review Process FAQ.

A: Technical merit clearly is an important component in determining whether a proposal is accepted or not. However, other factors also play a role in the accept/reject decision.

• Balance of topics. The tutorial program needs a good balance of different topic areas. For example, if we were to receive 5 proposals for designing user interfaces for touch-screens, we could not accept them all, even if all 5 received excellent reviews.
• Balance of experience levels. Just as the tutorial program needs a good balance of topic areas, the program also needs a good balance of tutorials that appeal to attendees with different experience levels. We need a good balance of introductory, intermediate, and advance level tutorials.
• Balance of approaches. The tutorial program needs a good mix of overview, theory, methodology, and "how-to" tutorials that will appeal to practitioners and to academic attendees.
• Communication skills. Tutorial attendees pay a lot of money to attend the tutorials. If the material is not clearly presented in a well-organized fashion, the attendees do not get their money's worth. Evaluation of your communication skills will be based on how well your proposal is written, feedback from attendees of previous CHI tutorials you have given (if any), and reviewers' past experience with presentations that you have given, if they have attended any.

A: Yes. Tutorial instructors receive an honorarium of $1,000 and a complete set of CHI 96 tutorial notes for each half day that is taught ($2,000 and two complete sets of notes for each full day). If a tutorial has two or more instructors, the honorarium and notes will be shared among them.

A: No. The new instructor compensation policy provides larger stipends than in the past, but tutorial instructors are now expected to pay for their own travel expenses.

A: No. The new instructor compensation policy provides larger stipends than in the past, but instructors are now expected to pay to register for the conference.

A: The conference can supply disposable supplies such as transparency markers, flip-chart paper, pens, pencils, and the like.

A: No. But you are welcome to donate a copy for each attendee.

A: No. The conference does not give out guest passes for tutorials.

A: The Student Volunteers will check badges at the door, run the AV equipment, turn the lights on and off, and distribute materials to attendees during the tutorial. You may ask them to perform other reasonable tasks, such as reminding you when it is time for the coffee break. However, you should not expect SVs to serve as auxiliary instructors for your tutorial.