COURSE GUIDE FOR DCTE 720 820 HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION CLUSTER FORMAT 2007 SPRING TERM March 2 2007 August 1 2007 Laurie P Dringus Ph D Professor Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences Nova Southeastern University Carl DeSantis Building 4th floor Office 4073 3301 College Avenue Ft Lauderdale FL 33314 7796 email laurie nsu nova edu Contents Getting Started Online Access to Course Materials and Activities About Student Forums Details on Course Assignments Details on Completing the 820 Project List of Recommended Readings of Human Computer Interaction Selected Articles from ACM 1 Getting Started Welcome to the HCI course This document provides specific instructions on what you need to do to complete the core course 720 and the project course 820 These are intensive highlevel courses involving the study of human computer interaction as a field of the computer and information sciences The focus of this course is usability engineering including usability evaluation and testing You will learn about the major players in the HCI field the trends in HCI research and how to apply a healthy blend of theory and practice to user centered interfaces In our class meetings cluster we will be discussing many pertinent topics related to the study of human computer interaction During the term you will research and share resources and discuss issues with your professor and with fellow students in online discussions Getting organized and maintaining organization is important for successful completion of this course Please read this document carefully and login regularly to WebCT to check for special announcements For those who may have taken a course with me before OLE the format of this course guide may be familiar to you Please read through this carefully though since each course has its own unique objectives and activities Online Access to Course Materials and Activities Most course activity is managed through WebCT except for email communication Additional information resources are available from the professor s HCI website at http scis nova edu nova hci top html WebCT is being used as the central course location to post the most essential electronic course materials such as the course syllabus and the course requirements contained in this course guide We will use WebCT for our online asynchronous discussions course announcements and for assignment submissions With the use of WebCT and the HCI online study area combined consider this online environment to be the classroom where you go to learn and communicate about this topic area Please note WebCT email WILL NOT be used for course correspondence Students are required to use their SCIS email accounts through standard email software to communicate with the professor outside of WebCT Also email attachments of assignment submissions will not be accepted unless pre approved by the professor Information Requested Early When you have access to WebCT asynchronous forums I like to call this Student Forums in the generic sense and when the professor has established a thread called Student Bios in the forum please post a short e bio about yourself Do not email the bio to the professor In your e bio indicate your full name what term this is for you and anything of interest to your fellow students This will help us get acquainted in between cluster meetings 2 About Student Forums Class Participation We will use WebCT s asynchronous discussions area as an environment in which students and the professor discuss HCI issues throughout the term I like to refer to this environment as Student Forums Once you have access to the course in WebCT you will be given topic areas pertinent to HCI The professor will be posting various new topics throughout the term Most of our discussions will occur between the first and second cluster meetings After the second cluster meeting in June our discussions will slowly ramp down to topics that will focus on future research We will be sharing an abundance of information and resources in the Forums The Forums should serve as a significant resource for current research in HCI There will be several threads or mini conference themes relating to Human Computer Interaction HCI Specific topics will be posted throughout the term by the professor Each student is required to participate in the discussions throughout the term Points will be given on the basis of effort and meaningful contribution to the discussions throughout the term Several short responses are encouraged but they should be responses that reflect thought and promote further interest in the topic not just responses for the sake of meeting the participation requirement The class participation grade will be based on quality and quantity of contributions and the evidence of steady contributions over the term Of course it is also important that you provide effective and meaningful responses to your peers Meaningful interaction is about discussing the issues based on what the research literature is addressing and questions and issues we raise about the topic This also includes discussing and citing the appropriate literature into postings as often as possible It s important that we share the research Otherwise our discussions will be limited to personal commentary I look for a healthy balance of scholarly discussion with personal insight I believe this practice makes for an interesting discourse Please DO NOT establish your own threads or themes If there is a particular topic you would like to discuss as a theme write Dr Dringus an email From there the professor will post all conference threads or themes Also the professor is the gatekeeper of the forums As gatekeeper I reserve the right to delete any student postings that are considered inappropriate or irrelevant to the discussions High level scholarly discussions are expected for this class discussion activity The professor will post a couple of starter topics early in the term so that you can practice using the asynchronous discussions area in WebCT The first formal discussion topic will be posted a couple of weeks after the first cluster meeting Note that Student Forums is an asynchronous system enabling students to participate AT ANY TIME in the discussions You are not required to participate in the Forums on a specific evening and at a specific time However to keep the discussions lively and active students should plan as part of the weekly activity to review postings and to contribute to the on going