Format for the Usability EvaluationCOURSE GUIDE FOR MMIS 680 HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION ONLINE FORMAT 2008 WINTER TERM, January 7, 2008 – March 28, 2008 Laurie P. Dringus, Ph.D., Professor Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences Nova Southeastern University Carl DeSantis Building, 4th Floor (room 4073) 3301 College Avenue Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33314 email: [email protected] Contents: ¾ Getting Started ¾ Online Access to Course Materials and Activities ¾ About Student Forums ¾ Details on Course Assignments ¾ Reading Assignments -- Addendum to Course Schedule in Syllabus 12 Getting Started Welcome to the HCI course! This document provides specific instructions on what you need to do to complete the course. As you know, much of your work will be completed in a computer-based format. In this dynamic environment, you will study human-computer interaction by researching and completing assignments and by discussing issues with your professor and fellow students. Getting organized and maintaining organization is important for successful completion of this course. Please read this document carefully and login regularly to check for special announcements. Online Access to Course Materials and Activities: Most course activity is managed through WebCT, except for email communication. The professor has developed a HCI online study area to provide you with the necessary resources to begin your study in this area. (The URL is: http://scis.nova.edu/nova/hci/top.html). The HCI website was designed for the purpose of centralizing information and managing course material in addition to what is posted in WebCT. WebCT is being used to post the most essential course materials (except required articles selected by the professor) such as the course syllabus and course requirements (contained in this course guide). WebCT will be used for our online asynchronous discussions, course announcements, and for assignment submissions. With WebCT and the HCI website combined, consider this online study area to be the “classroom” where you go to learn about and discuss HCI. 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, no email attachments of assignment submissions will be accepted, unless preapproved by the professor. From the HCI website, you should check many links out regularly to stay current with the course. ¾ Visit the “Learning Connections” link. That will lead you to your course section and other things to empower your learning experience. ¾ Visit the “HCI Web Exploration” link. There are several “HCI” related links that will help you with your research. Information Requested Early! • Prepare a short "bio" about yourself in the forum thread established in the first week of the course in the WebCT asynchronous forums. (I like to call this Student Forums in the generic sense.) In your bio, indicate your full name, your SCIS account username, what term this is for you, and anything else of interest to your fellow students.3 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 topical areas pertinent to HCI. There will be several threads or mini-conference topics relating to HCI. The professor will post specific topics throughout the term. Class participation points are earned on the basis of steady effort and meaningful contribution to the discussions throughout the term. This means that students should be active in the current threads. (Current threads generally run for one to two weeks, depending on the momentum of the class discussion. The professor does NOT establish specific due dates, but prefers the natural flow of discussion to occur.) In terms of length of responses, 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, including original contributions and responses to others that add value to the discussion topic, postings that are made during the active period of the current thread(s) being discussed, presentation and grammatical accuracy, postings that are well-written, well-organized, and accurate, and postings that provide appropriate literature citations. Overall, I look for the evidence of steady contributions over the term. A total of 25 points is attributed to class participation, so timely and meaningful participation in the discussion forums is important to earn full points. You may be the first student to contribute to a theme! Don’t be shy. Special recognition will be given to students who really contribute to the conference activity -- those who contribute first to a theme and those who participate regularly. 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 main threads or themes. If there is a particular topic you would like to discuss as a main thread, write Dr. Dringus an email. From there, the professor will post all main conference threads or themes. Also, the professor is the gatekeeper of the forums. So, the professor reserves 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