Disillusionment with Usenix tutorial

[Mike Tilson]

Richard Kelly (ecsvax!rpk) writes:

> ... If you can say anything about the tutorials put on by Usenix it is that
> they vary wildly in sophistication.  At the Dallas meeting for example
> I signed up for a course in System Admin that was taught by an ill-prepared
> instructor that rambled on and on and never said anything of use to real-life
> system admin.  I found out that he had never done any real system
> administration and that he wasn't going to address issues such as security
> backups, staffing, and user admin except in general terms ("security is
> important, you should consider it...backups are important, try to do them,...
> etc, etc).  I left this foolishness and changed my ticket to an Advanced
> Shell Programming course taught by Mark Sobel that was very interesting
> and professionally done. 
> 
> Moral: Usenix doesn't appear to screen the instructors so you should. ...

Please note that last winter in Dallas there were *two* UNIX conferences:
the UniForum trade show (put on by /usr/group) and the Usenix conference.
These were distinct and independent; both had tutorial sessions.
Mark Sobell's shell programming course mentioned above was part of the
*UniForum* show so I assume that the System Admin course was also.
The *Usenix* tutorial course on System Admin was taught by Ed Gould
and Vance Vaughan of Mt. Xinu.  Both of the *Usenix* instructors are
extremely well qualified, and their course evaluations reflected this.

Because two UNIX activities were held in the same city at the same time,
there has been a lot of confusion.  Usenix has been called UniForum and
vice versa.  But they AREN'T THE SAME, so please be careful.

The Usenix Association tries to screen its tutorial instructors in
several ways.  We look at past tutorial offerings by the same
instructor.  We look at the proposed course outlines and materials.
We discuss the course topics before selecting an instructor.  Finally,
we obtain evaluation forms from the attendees, and we use this in
our decisions about future courses.  While the quality of instruction
varies, and while the course descriptions have not always been as
clear as they could be, we have to my knowledge never offered a
course whose instructor was not more than qualified technically.

	Michael Tilson
	Usenix Tutorial Coordinator
	{utzoo,decvax}!hcr!hcradm!mike