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How to Submit a Tutorial Proposal

How to Submit a Tutorial Proposal

Note: If you're looking for information on taking tutorials, see the PyCon 2013 Tutorials Schedule.

This page gives detailed instructions and advice on how to submit a proposal for a tutorial at PyCon.

For general information about tutorials, see Tutorial Information for Instructors.

For general advice on developing and submitting a proposal see So You Want To Present a Talk/Tutorial/Poster At PyCon, Tutorials given in 2012, and Past Tutorial Topic Suggestions.

What information to submit

  1. First, sign up for a new account or log in to your account.
  2. Once you are logged in; proceed to your account dashboard and create a speaker profile.
  3. At this point, you can submit tutorials, fill in the fields as follows:

Title

Give your tutorial a name that accurately describes what it's about to potential students.

Description

A high level description of the tutorial, limited to 400 characters.

Abstract

Try to include the following to help participants decide if this is a good match for them:

  • What the tutorial aims to teach students

  • Prerequisites for the tutorial, i.e. what the student should know or be able to do before the tutorial. For example, "Students should have at least intermediate level Python and SQL and have some experience using an ORM."

  • Prerequisites for their laptop (assuming one is required). Note that these prerequisites serve two purposes:

    1. They may help the potential student understand more precisely what you plan to teach.

    2. They help ensure students arrive with the software they need to take the tutorial. If possible, finalize these prerequisites and submit them with your proposal. However, we realize that in some cases the prerequisites may change as you prepare to teach your tutorial, and in a few cases the prerequisites will be complex enough that they'll need their own page of instructions. We're working on how best to communicate to students in both cases.

  • Any information you're providing to reviewers (such as tutorial format or outline) that potential students will also want to know to help them decide if this tutorial is a good match for them.

Audience Level

At what level of Python and other topic-specific experience or expertise is the tutorial aiming for? We realize this may be too narrow for a tutorial, for example if the tutorial is aimed at Experienced programmers but Novices to Python, but give it your best shot. If this field doesn't work well, be sure to include a note in the Additional Notes section, and you may also wish to add to your Description or Abstract.

Additional Notes

This is the one section that is for reviewers only, so it should have lots and lots of information to help reviewers decide which tutorials to accept, based on both the subject being taught and the ability of the teacher. The following information should be included:

  • Any explanation or fleshing out of the public fields that would help reviewers.

  • Intended audience: more than just novice/intermediate/etc. Reviewers need to know what level of Python experience/expertise is targeted but also what level(s) of domain-specific experience/expertise is targeted, for example networking, SQL, database, etc.

  • Tutorial format: lab, lecture, workshop, etc. However, don't just pick a label, describe what will happen during the tutorial.

  • Interest in tutorial assistants: We're considering making tutorial assistants available to instructors. These would be volunteers with Python experience who will provide one-on-one help during the tutorial when students are working on exercises. If we do this, would you be interested and if so how many students per assistant would you want?

  • Preferences or requirements with respect to class size or scheduling.

  • Outline: of the tutorial content for reviewers.

  • Previous experience: tell us what experience you have in the subject, in activities such as teaching or public speaking, or anything else that would help us understand and gauge your abilities as a tutorial presenter. Ideal would be a link to a video.

  • Biography: You'll be asked to enter your biography when you register on the us.pycon.org site and that information will be made public. However, you may wish to include more information for reviewers to complement information about your Previous Experience.

Miscellaneous Notes About Proposals and Tutorials

Here are some notes about the proposal, selection, and delivery process for tutorials.

  • There will be some duplication of information between the public information contained in the Description and Abstract, and the Additional Notes which only reviewers will read. That duplicate information is for two different audiences so if you just copy and paste between them neither will likely be served well. A better strategy, if you don't want to write two versions, is to reference the public version (Description and Abstract) in the Additional Notes for reviewers and then expound on it.

  • The tutorial selection process attempts to choose a good variety of tutorial topics and levels that will be in demand, i.e. it doesn't just select the best proposals!

  • In recent years we've not accepted very many vendor-specific tutorials and no dojo-style tutorials. However, based on feedback from students we're considering making room for these in 2013, so if you're interested in teaching a tutorial in either category please contact us at pycon-tutorials@python.org.

  • The selection process has also tended to prefer Python-related topics over more general software development tools or practices that aren't Python-specific.

  • Tutorial are subject to cancellation if enrollment is low. In the past the cancellation criterion has been less than 10 students registered.

Questions or Suggestions

If you have questions about any of this, or suggestions, please contact us at pycon-tutorials@python.org