CSCI 4163 / CSCI-‐6610 -‐-‐-‐ Human Computer Interaction
Course Syllabus
Instructor/Course Information
Instructor: Dr. Kirstie Hawkey Office: 225 Goldberg
E-‐mail: [email protected] Office Hours: T/Th 14:30-‐15:30 Class : T/Th 13:05-‐14:25 Class Room: LSC-‐PSYCHOLOGY P4258
Lab: Fri 12:05-‐13:25 Lab Room: KILLAM LIBRARY 2600
Course page: web.cs.dal.ca/~hawkey/4163 TA: Hasmeet Singh Chandok <[email protected]>
Mail List: all-‐[email protected]
all-‐[email protected] Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/901037349916233/
Course Description
Human-‐computer interaction (HCI) deals with human-‐computer communication and how to facilitate it. Computers have become ubiquitous in daily life, and it is important to computing systems are designed for usability as well as utility. In this course, students will learn the foundations of HCI, including the process for user-‐centered development, the models that inform HCI design, the social issues influencing HCI design and use, and the evaluation of interfaces and systems with users.
In one group mini-‐project, students will get hands on experience in performing user-‐centered design as they gather requirements for a user interface through interviews, surveys, and/or observations. In a second mini-‐project, they will design and conduct a laboratory experiment evaluating two techniques (e.g., input techniques, authentication techniques) and perform analysis of the results.
In addition to the hands on mini-‐projects, students will conduct a class seminar where they will present seminal and recent papers on relevant HCI topics and lead a class activity related to the topic.
Important Dates:
Last day of to add/drop: Jan 16,,2015
Last day to drop without a “W: February 3, 2015
Evaluation
Component Undergrad (4163) Grad (6610)
Seminar of HCI topic 15% 15%
Research paper -‐-‐ 15% Group mini-‐project 1 25% 25% Group mini-‐project 2 15% 15% Participation/quizzes/peer evaluations 10% 10% Readings 5% 5% 3 individual assignments 30% 15%
Late Policy
• Late assignments or project submissions will not be accepted – deliverables are due at the beginning of class on the due date. If there are concerns about any deliverable dates, different dates can be negotiated IN ADVANCE.
Required Texts and Resources
There is no required text for the course. Copies of assigned readings will be provided if the online text is not available. The reading list and schedule will be posted on the course web page.
For those students who would like to have a text to refer to, the recommended text is: Lazar, J., Feng, J.H., and Hochheiser, H., “Research Methods in Human-‐Computer Interaction”, ISBN 978-‐0-‐470-‐72337-‐1.
Communication
Course announcements will be posted to the course email list, which comprises the instructor's and students' CS email accounts. It is the student's responsibility to check their CS email account on a regular basis. If you do not know how to access your CS email account please contact the CS help desk or read the following FAQ located at:
http://www.ug.cs.dal.ca/studentservices/faq/technical_services/e-mail/email.php
We will also make use of a Facebook page for course discussions and more informal communication. –4163/6610 W2014 (www.facebook.com/groups/901037349916233/)
Prerequisites
CSCI-‐3160 or permission of instructor
Group Mini-‐Projects:
Students (in groups of ~4-‐5) will get hands on experience inperforming user-‐centered design as they:
MP1: gather requirements for a user interface through interviews, surveys, and/or observations.
MP2: design and conduct a laboratory experiment evaluating two techniques (e.g., input techniques, authentication techniques) and perform analysis of the results.
Note: Students will not conduct a formal study as part of this course. Instead, they will pilot their study with their fellow classmates only as in-‐class activity
Individual Assignments:
Three assignments will assess students’ grasp of material covered (i.e., in lectures, seminars, and required readings) and/or will require students to apply topics from class (i.e., application of a usability technique to a specific problem, experimental design).Participation:
Students are expected to attend class and tutorials and to participate in activities and discussions. During classes that involve a student-‐led research seminar,submission of peer evaluations with meaningful feedback will be used as the participation metric. Other metrics may include pop-‐quizzes, attendance, activity output, etc.
Readings:
Students are required to complete the assigned required readings (1-‐2 per class) PRIOR to class and must submit two questions or comments about each paper to the TA (details to be determined). For each required reading, points will be assigned as 0 (no submission), 1 (obvious comments/questions), 2 (insightful comments/questions that could be used to generate discussion in class).
Research Topic Seminar:
Individually (for grad students) and in pairs (for undergrad students), students will lead one seminar lasting approximately 20-‐30 minutes. Each seminar will be based on an HCI topic. For each topic, a seminal paper and recent research paper will be provided. The papers will serve as a starting point for seminar preparation, but additional research is essential. Students are to focus their seminar on one or more specific subtopics that they think will be of most interest to themselves and the other class members. Thus, theprovided papers provide the breadth for the topic and the seminar provides a critical, in depth examination of the relevant subtopic(s). Each seminar should include a lecture/presentation as well as class involvement through discussion or another class activity (e.g., small group problem-‐ solving, case study discussion, demonstrations, video samples).
Each student will schedule at least one meeting with the professor at least one week in advance of their seminar to discuss their seminar plan and identify any critical missing references.
Graduate students will hand in a ~6 page paper one week after their seminar that will include a
background literature review on the seminar topic, a discussion of the advancements in the field, a discussion of the challenges of studying and/or evaluating the research area, and thoughts on appropriate next steps for the research community.
Tentative List of Topics
• Overviewo Motivation/History o Contexts for HCI
• User-‐centered development process o Early focus on users
o Empirical evaluation o Iterative design o Participatory design • Research ethics o Ethical considerations o Ethics submissions o Participant recruitment o Study design
• Understanding user’s needs o Interviews/Focus Groups o Surveys
o Diaries
o Observation • User centered evaluation
o Observation o Think-‐aloud
o Controlled experiments o Evaluation measures • Models that inform HCI design
o Attention o Perception
o Movement (Fitt’s Law) o Cognition
• Social Issues
o Computer Supported Cooperative Work o Human diversity
o Designing for multiple devices and contexts
Academic Integrity
1At Dalhousie University, we respect the values of academic integrity: honesty, trust, fairness, responsibility and respect. As a student, adherence to the values of academic integrity and related policies is a requirement of being part of the academic community at Dalhousie University.
What does academic integrity mean?
Academic integrity means being honest in the fulfillment of your academic responsibilities thus establishing mutual trust. Fairness is essential to the interactions of the academic community and is achieved through respect for the opinions and ideas of others. “Violations of intellectual honesty are offensive to the entire academic community, not just to the individual faculty member and students in whose class an offence occurs.” (see Intellectual Honesty section of University Calendar)
How can you achieve academic integrity?
• Make sure you understand Dalhousie’s policies on academic integrity.
• Give appropriate credit to the sources used in your assignment such as written or oral work, computer codes/programs, artistic or architectural works, scientific projects, performances, web page designs, graphical representations, diagrams, videos, and images.
• Use RefWorks to keep track of your research and edit and format bibliographies in the citation style required by the instructor http://www.library.dal.ca/How/RefWorks
• Do not download the work of another from the Internet and submit it as your own.
• Do not submit work that has been completed through collaboration or previously submitted for another assignment without permission from your instructor.
• Do not write an examination or test for someone else. • Do not falsify data or lab results.
These examples should be considered only as a guide and not an exhaustive list.
What will happen if an allegation of an academic offence is made against you?
1. I am required to report a suspected offence. The full process is outlined in the Discipline flow chart, which can be found at:
2. http://academicintegrity.dal.ca/Files/AcademicDisciplineProcess.pdf and includes the following:
3. Each Faculty has an Academic Integrity Officer (AIO) who receives allegations from instructors. 4. The AIO decides whether to proceed with the allegation and you will be notified of the process. 5. If the case proceeds, you will receive an INC (incomplete) grade until the matter is resolved. 6. If you are found guilty of an academic offence, a penalty will be assigned ranging from a warning
to a suspension or expulsion from the University and can include a notation on your transcript, failure of the assignment or failure of the course. All penalties are academic in nature.
Where can you turn for help?
• If you are ever unsure about ANYTHING, contact myself.
• The Academic Integrity website http://academicintegrity.dal.ca has links to policies, definitions, online tutorials, tips on citing and paraphrasing.
• The Writing Center provides assistance with proofreading, writing styles, citations.
• Dalhousie Libraries have workshops, tutorials, citation guides, Assignment Calculator, RefWorks, etc.
• The Dalhousie Student Advocacy Service assists students with academic appeals and student discipline procedures.
• The Senate Office provides links to a list of Academic Integrity Officers, discipline flow chart, and Senate Discipline Committee.
1 Based on the sample statement provided at http://academicintegrity.dal.ca.
Responsible Computing Policy
Usage of all computing resources in the Faculty of Computer Science must be within the Dalhousie Acceptable Use Policies (http://its.dal.ca/policies/) and the Faculty of Computer Science Responsible Computing Policy. (https://www.cs.dal.ca/
downloads/fcs_policy_local.pdf)
Student Accommodation
Students may request accommodation as a result of barriers related to disability, religious obligation, or any characteristic under the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act. Students who require academic accommodation for either classroom participation or the writing of tests and exams should make their request to the Advising and Access Services Center (AASC) prior to or at the outset of the regular academic year.
Please visit www.dal.ca/access for more information and to obtain the Request for Accommodation – Form A.
A note taker may be required as part of a student’s accommodation. There is an honorarium of $75/course/term (with some exceptions). If you are interested, please contact AASC at 494-‐2836 for more information.
Please note that your classroom may contain specialized accessible furniture and equipment. It is important that these items remain in the classroom, untouched, so that students who require their usage will be able to participate in the class.
