Courses: Proposal Review Process

For SIGGRAPH Asia 2009, all course proposals will undergo a new two-stage review process designed to ensure fair consideration of all proposals, including those proposed by new organizers who are less familiar with the submission process, and by organizers who are not completely fluent in written English.

Submission Review
The Course Proposal deadline is 13 May 2009, 23:59 UTC/GMT. There will be no extensions given for any reason. The SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Online Courses Submission Form must be completely filled out at that time. Any course proposal that is incomplete at this time (questions unanswered, course note sample not supplied, etc.) will not be considered. Once certified as complete, each course proposal will be examined by the Courses Committee to ensure that the submission is reviewable. The purpose of this initial editorial review is to ensure that the proposal does not have easily fixed flaws that would hinder its chances of being reviewed favorably. In particular, the proposal will be checked to ensure that:

  • All submission questions have been answered reasonably.
  • The syllabus conforms to the time limits of the intended format and length.
  • The course notes sample is sufficient for review.
  • The publicity and conference program information is informative and well written.
  • The written English is not a barrier to successful review.

The Courses Committee may recommend changes, request enhancements or elaborations, or otherwise help the course organizer finalize the proposal for its best presentation to the reviewers for final course selection. The recommendations will not ask for significant changes to course content, only changes to the information provided in the proposal. Course organizers are strongly encouraged to consider these recommendations, but are not required to respond to them. The remarks in this initial review will not affect the content peer review process. Organizers will have (at least) one full week to resubmit their proposal following this feedback.

Content Peer Review
Each revised and final course proposal is extensively reviewed by peers within the SIGGRAPH community. Course reviewers are chosen for their familiarity with the content of the course proposal and familiarity with the SIGGRAPH Courses program. Their primary job is to evaluate whether the proposed course would make a good SIGGRAPH course. In their reviews, they consider factors such as:

  • Course proposal: description, abstract, syllabus, organization and flow, length, presentation history.
  • Course content: material coverage, effectiveness, quality of course notes and supplementary materials.
  • Audience interest level: appropriateness, timeliness, educational value.
  • Topical relevance.
  • Speaker expertise.

Course organizers should be aware that the only information that the reviewers have to evaluate the quality of the potential course is the course proposal. They will look carefully at the depth and care with which the proposal and the sample course notes have been prepared, and will consider that strongly in their recommendations. Many potentially good courses have received bad reviews because the proposals were sloppily prepared or done at the last minute. Don't let this happen to you.

Course Selection
Using the results of the content peer reviews, the Courses Committee selects a set of courses to present at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009, in order to assemble the best overall program. The committee considers factors such as:

  • Course quality, depth, breadth.
  • Overall program balance (breadth of topics and difficulty levels).
  • Continuity, originality.
  • Schedule flexibility (course lengths).
  • Available resources (rooms, equipment, special needs).

Course organizers should learn the results of the jury process by late July 2009. Please see Frequently Asked Questions for more information about the course selection process.