Home » For Authors » Courses

Courses

Quick Facts

CHI 2024 will be a hybrid conference from May 11-16, 2024 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

Important Dates

All times are in Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. When the deadline is day D, the last time to submit is when D ends AoE. Check your local time in AoE.

  • Submission deadline: October 12th 26th, 2023
  • Notification: November 30th, 2023
  • e-rights completion deadline: Thursday, December 7th, 2023 
  • Publication-ready deadline:  Thursday, January 11th, 2024
  • TAPS closes: Thursday, January 18th, 2024
  • First version course notes due: March 1st, 2024

Submission Details

Submission Format

  • Part 1: Key Course Information
  • Part 2: Detailed Course Description, 5 pages (excluding references)
  • Part 3 (optional): Course Materials Sample
  • Submissions are not anonymous and should include all author names, affiliations, and contact information.

Selection Process

Reviewed

Update July 26, 2023

We recommend that authors read the following two policies before submitting:

  1. The April 2023 ACM Policy on Authorship and use of large language models (LLMs), and the SIGCHI blog post about it.
  2. The 2021 ACM Publications policy on research involving humans.

Message from the Courses Chairs

CHI courses allow CHI attendees to extend their knowledge beyond their current areas of expertise. The courses help people to explore new methods, techniques, and practices; develop new skills in order to innovate; and become inspired to pursue new ideas.

Most courses will run in parallel with the technical program for a maximum of three sessions (75-minutes each). Some will be remote online courses, which run during the two weeks before the actual conference.  Course participants will include seasoned academia, industry leaders and practitioners, students, early-career researchers, and a wider audience with general interest. Please make the expected audience very clear in your proposal.

Courses might cover (but not limited to) the following areas: research methods, design, engineering, and professional skills. For example, a course could cover:

  • Foundational concepts of HCI research and practice
  • Specialized courses with significant depth in specific established and/or emerging areas of research and practice, including the various subfields relevant to the SIGCHI community
  • Tools and methods courses which offer hands-on practical skill development in methodologies, technologies, research/design/ development approaches, etc.
  • CHI academic or professional meta-skills

Courses are different to Workshops or SIGs. Workshops are meetings of experts exploring new knowledge, while Courses are run by expert instructors, typically with established reputations, teaching people new to a topic. See Courses vs Workshops vs SIGs for more information.

We invite foundational courses on HCI Research and Design, as well as any courses that would be relevant and interesting to CHI attendees and particularly also to practitioners (see the collection of ‘hot topics’ below for suggestions). Priority will be given to courses with clearly defined learning outcomes of strong and immediate relevance to CHI course attendees.

Foundations of HCI Research and Design

We invite a variety of high-quality submissions on foundations of HCI Research and Design, mostly under the form of introductory courses:

  • Introduction and overview of HCI
  • Introduction and overview of practical topics in user-centered design and/or interaction design
  • Introduction to qualitative methods in HCI
  • Introduction to quantitative methods in HCI
  • Introduction to universal design and designing for accessibility

Hot Topics

Our goal is to provide courses with high relevance and educational value to the CHI community. Although any course proposals are welcome, the following have been suggested as particular topics of interest:

  • Art + HCI
  • Accessibility and Assistive Technologies
  • Big Data, Machine Learning, and AI for Research/Design
  • Blockchain
  • Children and Technology (Research, Design, Safety, Societal Implications)
  • Content Moderation and Identifying Misinformation at Scale in Online Communities
  • Computational Design
  • Crowdsourcing and Human Computation
  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • Ethics in HCI
  • Critical Design
  • Intelligent and Autonomous Systems
  • HCI for Health
  • HCI and Mobility
  • HCI and Society (Sustainability/Circular Design, Feminist HCI, Civic Engagement, ICTD, etc)
  • Human-Centered Innovation
  • Leadership and Management Professional Skills
  • Making and Digital Fabrication
  • Play/Games
  • Prototyping (incl. Arduino)
  • Risks and Bias in Artificial Intelligence
  • Security and Privacy on the Web
  • Sketching
  • Statistics for HCI (Intro/Advanced)
  • Quantitative and Qualitative Research
  • Data Science
  • Third Wave HCI
  • Tools, Skills, and Methodologies of interest to the CHI Audience
  • UX Research and Design (from Established Practitioners)
  • Virtual/Augmented Reality
  • Voice Interactions and Conversational User Interfaces

If you have ideas for courses you would like to see presented at CHI 2023, or in the future, please provide course suggestions with an email to courses@chi2024.acm.org.

Preparing and Submitting your CHI Course Proposal

A Course proposal must be submitted via the PCS Submission System. The proposal should have the following three parts:

  1. PART 1: Key Course Information (to be entered into the PCS submission form)
  2. PART 2: Detailed Course Description document (up to 5 pages, excluding references), for publication in the ACM Digital Library on acceptance of the Course (to be attached to the PCS submission form).
  3. PART 3 (optional but recommended): Course Material Samples (for example, handouts, slides, etc., in PDF format) to support your submission and aid the course acceptance decision (also to be attached to the PCS submission form (optional)

PART 1: Key Course Information (to be entered into PCS)

Submitters will be asked to also enter the following information into the PCS submission system at time of submission:

  • Duration of the Course (total number of 75-minute sessions, between 1 and 4 sessions for each course).
  • Course delivery: You will have the option to propose courses for either in-person delivery (during the on-site event), or for online delivery (during the two weeks before the conference starts).
  • Course description to the CHI website: This description is a brief 100-word abstract that is used to describe and advertise your course to prospective attendees on the website. The abstract should be as inviting as possible (think: advertising!), as it will be used directly on the CHI2024 website.
  • Audience size: what is the preferred audience size, and what is the maximum audience size your course would be effective at? 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.
  • Category: “professional skills”, “research methods”, “design”, “engineering”, or “other”.
  • Course level: Introductory, Intermediate, or Advanced.
  • Intended audience: As you see relevant, please briefly describe (less than 50 words) a) type of audience (new students, practitioners, new-to-topic-X, or general), and b) any prerequisite experience (e.g. expect some basic stats knowledge).
  • Promotional strategy: A description of your advertising/promotional strategy for attracting attendees.
  • Linkage to other courses, if any. A linkage should be defined if there is a dependency between the courses requiring that they are considered together (for instance, an introduction course, and an advanced “linked” course on the same topic; or a theoretical overview vs practical applications of a topic in two separate, but linked courses). 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.
  • 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.
  • Expertise / merits of instructors: Organizers’ overall expertise and merits related to the area of the course (100 words).
  • Expected practical activities:Are there any planned practical activities for participants? (less than 100 words).
  • Audio/Visual & other 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. We require that all your requirements for audio visual aids and office supplies be defined at submission time.
  • Student Volunteers: Specify and justify any student volunteer help needed for your Course.

PART 2: Detailed Course Description (up to 5 pages)

The Course description is the most important part of your proposal. The chairs will evaluate the course based primarily on this description and the material sample in Part 3. The course descriptions for accepted courses will be published as CHI Extended Abstracts in the ACM Digital Library.

This part of the proposal must not exceed five pages (excluding references). It should include:

  • Title of the Course (please make this short but descriptive)
  • Names and affiliations of the instructors.
  • 100 words Abstract/Course Description. This will also appear on the CHI website describing your course to promote and advertise your course.
  • Benefits: the learning outcomes including skills and knowledge the attendees will gain as a result of attending this Course. This should also include the reasons that CHI attendees would want to take your course.
  • Intended Audience(s): types of audience (researchers, students, practitioners, etc) that will benefit from the course.
  • Prerequisites: describe any background required to understand the Course, including attendance at any other course in the program if that is a requirement.
  • Content: describe in detail the material that will be covered.
  • Practical work: describe the expected practical work in the course.
  • 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)
  • Accessibility: Submitters are encouraged to describe how they plan to improve accessibility of the audience with diverse needs.

We recommend using the pre-filled version of the ACM Primary template, which contains all mandatory sections for the detailed course description. The Detailed Course Description document needs to follow the ACM Master Article Submission Template (single column). Please make sure it includes all above-listed headings and sections. Authors are strongly encouraged to work on improving the accessibility of their submissions, using recommendations found in the Guide to an Accessible Submission. Links to templates designed specifically for Course submissions are provided here:

PART 3: Course Material Sample (optional, but recommended)

Provide a sample of the Course material you will present in this Course. This can include handouts, slides or other relevant material you plan to use or have used before in courses, talks or related curriculum. Sample course materials are very helpful in the Chairs’ course selection process.

Metadata Integrity

All submission metadata, including required fields in PCS like author names, affiliations, and order, must be complete and correct by the submission deadline.  This information is crucial to the integrity of the review process and author representation.  No changes to metadata after this deadline will be allowed.

Accessibility

Authors are strongly encouraged to work on improving the accessibility of their submissions before peer review begins, using recommendations found in the Guide to an Accessible Submission for their paper and in the technical requirements for video content for their video. For any questions or concerns about creating accessible submissions, please contact the Accessibility Chairs at accessibility@chi2024.acm.org.

Selection Process

The Courses venue is a reviewed venue, so no reviews or rating scores will be included in the acceptance/rejection notice. Course selection will happen by the discretion of the CHI 2023 Course Chairs. Acceptance of proposals will be informed by a variety of factors:

  1. Clarity of intended learning outcomes, value for the participants, level of expected interest and engagement, and relevance to the CHI audience. A good course submission will give us a high degree of confidence that the course can meet and exceed these goals.
  2. Previous presentations and, if appropriate, course participant evaluations of the Course at CHI and number of times this course (or a similar course) has been offered over the past years, also in order to balance the CHI courses program over the years.
  3. Coverage of foundational courses on HCI and design, as well as of Hot Topics and other categories of interest listed above.
  4. Prior experience and qualifications of the instructors.

Courses should not contain sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at publication time. Courses that promote products or services (solely for marketing purposes) will not be considered. The courses may discuss techniques or products in the context of larger issues. Submissions should NOT be anonymous. However, the confidentiality of submissions will be maintained during the selection process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity.

Upon Acceptance of your CHI Course

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 materials that will enable them to concentrate their attention on the presentation and participation, rather than on hastily taking handwritten notes. As with recent years, the course notes will primarily be distributed online, in digital format. All accepted courses are required to provide their course notes to CHI by the deadline for the final course materials.

The notes should include materials such as:

  • Overview and clear time plan for your units
  • 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

Cancellation: Courses with fewer than 10 participants registered by the early registration deadline may be canceled. 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.

At the Conference

In-person CHI Courses will be allotted up to three 75-minute sessions for presentation (225 minutes) during the conference.  The Course Chairs will coordinate A/V requirements with accepted course instructors.  Online CHI Courses will be allotted up to three 75-minute sessions for presentation (225 minutes) in the two weeks before the conference.

After the Conference

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