Courses: Submission Rules and Requirements

The rules for proposing a course for SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 are straightforward, but they must be carefully followed. In particular, the online submission form must be filled out completely and submitted by the Courses deadline: 13 May 2009, 23:59 UTC/GMT.

First Step
The first, and most important step, in proposing a course for SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 is to come up with a compelling topic that interests you as an organizer and will interest a reasonable number of SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 attendees. This may seem obvious, but having a focused and well-defined subject, rather than a vague idea about some general topic, will make submitting a compelling proposal much easier. Remember that SIGGRAPH audiences are diverse and have lots of interests. But no matter what the topic, the details of the course and how it will be presented should be well thought through before the proposal is written.

Electronic Submission
All course proposals must be electronically submitted for peer review and selection. Proposals include several parts, including abstracts, a complete course syllabus, a slate of qualified presenters, and a course notes sample. The following checklist will help you ensure that your submission is complete and complies with all program requirements:

Online Submission
All course proposals must be electronically submitted via the SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Courses Online Submission Form. No other method of submission will be accepted or allowed. Fax or paper submissions are not accepted.
SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Courses Submission Form
Complete all required fields in the Online Submission Form. Instructions there will guide you to successful completion. When you begin the form, your submission will be assigned a unique submission ID number that will identify your submission throughout the entire review and production process.
Editorial Resubmission
This year, the Courses program will be using a two-phase review process to help organizers create the best possible submission (see Proposal Review Process for more details). Resubmissions with corrections or enhancements must also be submitted via the online submission system and must be received by the resubmission deadline in order to be considered.
Acceptance Agreements
If your course proposal is selected, every speaker in your course must complete and sign an Acceptance Agreement. This form stipulates that you have the necessary rights to present your material and assigns certain rights to SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 to archive the material you present. If we do not receive all of your contributor Acceptance Agreements, your course cannot be presented at the conference.

Course Proposal Form
It is extremely important that you fill out the Online Submission Form as completely and compellingly as possible. This is your single opportunity to convince the course reviewers that your course will be successful. If a simple submission form cannot be filled out completely, on time, and with clear forethought, the committee will assume that the much more difficult task of preparing the lectures and course notes will be impossible for the submitter. We cannot stress this point enough. The quality of your course submission is the only information the reviewers have to determine the quality of your course.

You will find the following items on the SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Courses Online Submission Form The first 11 will be published in the SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Advance Program, web site, and Conference Program, and must conform to the editorial requirements of those publications. The last eight (from Syllabus to the end) are for the jury to understand the content and presentation style of the proposed course, and will not be published.

Course title
Name of the course organizer
Names of additional presenters: A course presenter is any active participant in the course, such as a speaker or lecturer.
Proposed length: Full-day, Half-day, or Tutorial
Summary statement: A two- or three-sentence description (limit: 50 words or less) of the course suitable for pre-conference publicity. The description should reflect key topics, goals, and formats that distinguish this presentation, and it should concisely highlight your course abstract. Publication deadlines preclude revision of this statement after the submission deadline.
Course abstract: A slightly longer description (limit: 300 words or less) of your course suitable for publication in the Conference Program. The abstract should include key topics, course objectives, presentation formats, and other important details of the course.
Level of difficulty: Beginning, intermediate, or advanced. This should be consistent with the course prerequisites below.
Intended audience: Who will most likely enjoy and benefit from this course? What will they learn?
Course prerequisites: A concise statement (limit: 50 words or less) that explicitly conveys to prospective attendees the type of background knowledge needed to understand the course presentation. Prerequisites might include specific mathematics knowledge, experience with graphics, particular application areas, etc.
Attendee equipment requirements: Do attendees need to bring their own laptops and/or download software in order to get the most of out the course? Do attendees need internet access during the course?
Course presenter information: Name, title, affiliation, and a short biography (100 words or less) for the organizer and each lecturer.
Course syllabus: This is the heart of the submission. It is a detailed course syllabus that outlines the subjects to be discussed in the course. It should give the precise time schedule (in minutes) for all sections within the course. Each section should specify the presenter, the topic, and any sub-section titles and content. Additionally, breaks (which occur at specific times for each format) should be included in the schedule. Here are the SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 course formats:

Full day: Seven hours of syllabus, typically two to four presenters. These courses run for the entire conference day with 15-minute breaks for morning and afternoon tea, and a (much longer) lunch break.

Half day: 3.5 hours of syllabus, typically one or two presenters. These courses run for a total elapsed time of 3.75 hours in either the morning or afternoon and contain a single 15-minute break.

Tutorial: 1.75 hours of syllabus, typically one presenter. Sessions may begin at various times and will contain no scheduled breaks.

Course length reduction: For full or half-day courses, explain if your course could be flexibly redesigned into a shorter time frame. If yes, please tell us specifically how you might achieve this (specify which sections of the syllabus and/or lecturers would be cut or reduced in presentation time). If no, please explain why the presentation will seriously suffer if shortened. Note: Format flexibility can sometimes improve chances for acceptance. See Frequently Asked Questions for details.
Course rationale: Has your course or any other similar course appeared at previous SIGGRAPH conferences or at any other conferences? If yes, when was it presented, and how does this proposal differ from what was taught before? How has it improved? Why should it be presented again at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009? If no, explain the importance of this course to SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 attendees.
Special presentation requirements: Explain requirements for hands-on demonstrations, special equipment, or unusual presentation techniques. This can include remote presentation for speakers who are unable to attend the conference in person. Unusual or ambitious requests will be considered based on their benefit to the conference and their effect on support costs.
Special notes requirements: Explain any requests to include supplementary materials such as textbooks, videos, slides, or commercial software with SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 published Course Notes. Materials that cannot be published digitally or require additional cost must be justified. Important: SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 does not pay for the cost of including supplementary materials with Course Notes.
Organizer contact information: Occasionally there is need to contact a course organizer shortly before, during, or following the jury meeting, so please provide information (including phone numbers) on how to contact the organizer during June and July 2009.
Course Notes sample: An outline of materials and a representative sample of the type of Course Notes that the organizer and presenters plan to provide upon acceptance. Ideally, each presenter should provide a brief sample excerpt. They should be clear and concise in what they are demonstrating. Reviewers use this sample to evaluate the expected quality of the course's learning materials for use at and after the conference, and are extremely important in the review of the proposed course. Note: see Frequently Asked Questions for more detailed guidance on Course Notes examples (annotated slides, papers, source code, animations, etc.) and their contribution to the review process.
Advance publicity image (optional): You are encouraged to provide an image that supports advance marketing of your course at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009. If provided with your submission, it will be considered for use in any advance promotions of the SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Courses program. Image requirements include:

The image must represent significant concepts, themes, or details of the course material.

The image must avoid use of embedded logos, copyright, trademark, and commercial information where possible.

The course organizer understands and agrees that download of the image grants permission for the image to be altered (cropped, scaled, rotated, or otherwise modified) for editorial purposes without prior notice.

The image must be a TIFF file (uncompressed or using a standard loss-less compression algorithm) at least 1500 x 1200 pixel resolution (300-dpi).

Image caption and credits must be provided in the online submission form.

Official Language
SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 is an English-language conference, and most presentations will be expected to be made in English. However, the Courses Committee is interested in seeing proposals for a trial of a small number of course presentations in Japanese. If you have a course that you think would be better presented and attended in Japanese, with or without English translation, please contact the Courses Committee before the submission deadline to discuss this.

Alternatively, if presenters believe that they can present in English, but may need some help with English translation during question-and-answer sessions or other direct communication with the audience, bilingual Interns will be available on a limited basis to assist. Contact the Courses Committee after course acceptance to request this type of presentation support.

English Review Service
Submitters may voluntarily use the English Review Service for help with the text of their original proposals. Please schedule sufficient review time and backup options in case the service cannot provide timely feedback. The English Review Service is a volunteer organization that is not administered by the Courses program. No extensions to the submission deadline will be granted due to delays caused by using this service.

Course Preparation
Upon selection, course organizers must ensure that course presentation details are completed in a timely manner. In particular, the full set of electronic course notes and all supplemental materials must be prepared by the specified deadline for inclusion on the Full Conference DVD-ROM. This deadline is approximately two months before the conference, and course organizers must carefully plan the work necessary to complete this deadline. Organizers must also ensure that all presenters stay on schedule for preparing their lectures, and have practiced their lectures to the extent necessary to ensure that their presentations will be successful and stay within the alloted time. Any special audio/visual or other requirements of the course will be coordinated with the conferences audio/visual contractors during this time.

Please review the information in Accepted Courses' Finishing Steps to ensure you complete everything necessary to present a successful course.