Educators' Symposium Call for Papers

FORMAL Submission Deadline March 19, 2008
Notifications for FORMAL submissions May 10, 2008
INFORMAL Submission Deadline July 2, 2008
Notifications for INFORMAL submissions August 1, 2008
Symposium Date October 20, 2008
Submission links Formal Submission
Informal Submission
Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Overview

Join us at OOPSLA's 17th Educators' Symposium, the premier forum for educators in academia and industry with an interest in object-oriented and other related technologies. This one-day conference-within-a-conference offers a venue for academics and professional trainers to share their experiences and to consider new ideas that can help us all understand and teach better. We invite your contributions through submissions for paper presentations, interactive sessions, demonstrations, and posters, or by simply attending. We will also have an invited speaker and time for group discussions.

Attendance Scholarships

OOPSLA is delighted to announce the availability of scholarships for educators from 2- and 4-year colleges to attend OOPSLA 2008 and the Educators' Symposium. These scholarships are sponsored by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Programming Languages (SIGPLAN). For more information, see the Educator Scholarship page.

Submission Process

Electronic submission of proposals is handled through the OOPSLA submission system.

OOPSLA invites educators and trainers from all levels of academia and industry to submit papers and proposals in areas relevant to teaching and learning computing. Topics may include, but are not limited, to the following:

  • Teaching and learning techniques
  • Facilitating active learning
  • Innovative use of educational materials, such as software
  • Learner-centered education
  • New thinking about objects
  • Analysis
  • Software architecture
  • Design
  • Modeling
  • Programming
  • Integrating advanced technologies
  • Programming languages
  • Processes and Methodologies
  • Patterns
  • Pedagogical Patterns
  • Assessment

The committee that evaluates all submissions consists of members from academia and industry with extensive teaching experience. The committee will base its decisions on the following criteria:

  • Potential value to trainers and educators
  • Technical merit
  • Originality
  • Writing quality and clarity

Ultimately, the committee's focus will be on proposals that symposium attendees can use to improve any aspect of the teaching-learning process for both students and industry professionals. The program committee solicits a variety of submissions that can help educators and trainers do their jobs better. Academicians, as well as software development practitioners including independent consultants, corporate trainers, systems analysts, and software engineers who have experience in teaching professional software development courses are encouraged to submit a proposal. Feel free to contact the symposium chair to request clarification or to propose a type of submission not listed here.

Formal Submissions: Formal submissions are those intended to be both presented during the Educators' Symposium and also published in the OOPSLA Companion and must be formatted according to the ACM Proceedings guidelines. All formal submissions will be made through the OOPSLA online submission system. (See due date above.) Those that are accepted by the committee will be published in the OOPSLA Companion. Submissions in the following categories have been contributed successfully to past symposia:

  • An experience paper that discusses a challenge encountered teaching in an academic or industrial setting and how the instructor addressed that challenge.
  • A description of an active learning exercise that can be used to introduce or consolidate learning of an important topic.
  • A research paper that reports a contribution to knowledge in the field of computing education and training.

Informal Submissions: All informal submissions will be made through the OOPSLA online submission system. (See due date above.) Informal submissions are those intended to be presented during the Educators' Symposium. Although accepted informal submissions will not be published, the committee will review all proposals. Some examples of informal submissions are:

  • A description and demonstration of a new teaching technique that you've employed.
  • A report of a 2006-2008 education/training event, such as a workshop, working group, or conference during the year, even those from OOPSLA.
  • A proposal for a poster or demonstration that shares a technique or resource with the OOPSLA community.
  • A discussion of the practical use of theory in creating learning games, learning centers, or frame games.
  • A proposal for a panel that discusses a topic of current interest from several viewpoints.
  • A description of the use of killer examples and nifty assignments in your teaching.
  • A film that demonstrates an aspect of active learning.
  • An in-class activity or educational game that would be of interest to OOPSLA Educator Symposium Attendees.
  • An interactive activity for all attendees that lasts a few minutes or up to an hour.

For additional information, clarifications, or questions, please contact the Educators' Symposium chair Jim Heliotis at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The Educators Symposium Committee