JESA 2014 - Journal of Education in System Administration (JESA)

Journal of Education in System Administration (JESA), which will operate in conjunction with the ongoing USENIX Summit for Educators in System Administration (SESA). If you want your paper to appear at SESA, you submit it to JESA. JESA brings together researchers, educators and experts from a variety of disciplines, ranging from informatics, information technology, computer science, networking, system administration, security and pedagogics. JESA seeks to publish original research on important problems in all aspects of education in system administration. The mission of JESA is therefore to be a body of peer-reviewed, high-quality work addressing the challenges in system administration education.
Important Dates
Submissions due: Sunday, August 3, 2014, 3:59 p.m. PDT
Initial notification to authors: Thursday, August 28, 2014
Second-round revisions due: Thursday, September 18, 2014
Final notification to authors: Thursday, October 16, 2014
Final files due: Thursday, October 30, 2014
Download Call for Papers PDF
Editorial Board
Chief Editors
Kyrre Begnum, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences
Charles Border, Rochester Institute of Technology
Editors
Æleen Frisch, Exponential Consulting
Guy Hembroff, Michigan Technological University
Andrew Seely, University of Maryland University College (UMUC)
Niels Sijm, University of Amsterdam
Charles Wiseman, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Erez Zadok, Stony Brook University
Overview
As society becomes increasingly dependent on IT infrastructures to work correctly and the information within to be protected, so does our need to educate experts in the design and administration of computer systems and networks. The network and system administrator has become an essential part in how businesses can create value, how important web sites can handle traffic surges and how our data can be kept intact and secured. The education of system administrators in higher education is relatively new, but increasingly essential. Educators around the world are defining new courses and whole programs in order to prepare their students for a lifelong career in IT and system administration. Until now, there has been no place to collect the combined knowledge of educators and practitioners in order to collectively advance the profession through the education of future system administrators.
JESA/SESA's core purpose is to foster educational innovation and excellence in the field of System Administration education. Through publications and summits, we wish to:
Advocate for sysadmin education
Advocate for the development of new programs in sysadmin
Refine definitions of academic education and practical training with respect to system administration
Foster accreditation of new programs
Provide a forum for industry and academia to interact around shared needs and capabilities
Provide a forum for the exchange of educational innovations and research in the area of sysadmin
JESA is an example of a hybrid of a conference and a journal. All papers will have a two-round review process (longer than a conference, shorter than a journal). After the first round, authors will get anonymous feedback from the editors. Their manuscripts may be accepted without changes, accepted with minor required changes, rejected with major changes recommended, or simply rejected. Accepted papers will have a brief window to make any necessary changes and then will be subject to an additional round of reviews. By having regular submission deadlines with rapid reviewing, JESA promises to offer authors a rapid and predictable process. By having online open-access dissemination, JESA promises timely, free access to readers worldwide.
JESA authors pay nothing to submit manuscripts and JESA readers pay nothing to read accepted papers. Authors of accepted JESA papers may be invited to present their work at the 2014 USENIX Summit for Educators in System Administration (SESA ’14). SESA ’14 will be a one-day event held on Tuesday, November 11, 2014, co-located with LISA '14 in Seattle, WA.
JESA Manuscript topics
Papers should contain original research in any area related to education in system administration. Example topics include but are not limited to:
Teaching approaches
Defining learning outcomes
Teaching the soft skills needed by successful system administrators
Traversing theory and practical work in classes
Education programmes
Designing and managing lab environments
Gamification of education
Education in perspective to the profession
How new developments in the profession are adapted in the education
Student assessment and grading
The relationship between technical training and education
Submissions will be judged on originality, relevance, correctness, and clarity.