Course Structure - Fall 2014

"Introduction to human-computer interaction programming. Emphasis on current tools, standards, methodologies for implementing effective interaction designs. Widget toolkits, Web interface programming, geo-spatial and map interfaces, mobile phone interfaces. Strategies for evaluation of user interfaces." (catalog)

I prefer to give many small assignments which build up a picture of overall student learning success rather than to rely on one or two large exams which students may bomb based on non-learning related complications.

At the end of the day, learning is the responsibility of the student. I consider myself someone who points students in the right direction and can/will explain the fundamentals of a subject matter. I can't actually do the work of learning for a student. That takes effort and self-initiative. I will help to provide structure and motivation for that learning, but you also need to learn how to expand on this subject yourself. In a technical field like this, you will be left behind the field in about six months, regardless of how well I present the subject matter, if you can't keep learning on your own.

I like to stop talking periodically and let students ask questions.

Class participation will be determined by completing in class polls. Once registered you can submit answers by text message, twitter, or web. This is a new technology, so we'll be figuring out how best to use it, but I anticipate 3 graded participation points per class.

Two classes worth of points will be automatically dropped to accomodate any non-sickness related event you need to attend to.

Several lab assignments will be assigned consisting primarily of self-directed learning tasks.

The goal of the labs will be to give you a chance to familiarize yourself with basic software technologies for modern user interfaces. Rather than producing extensive deliverables the focus is on learning to teach yourself from on-line resources how to build user-interfaces in different technologies. This will hopefully form the basis of being able to create more extensive projects in the future.

Some of these will be able to be done in groups

Several quizzes will be assigned covering the assigned readings and discussions in class. The goal of the quizzes is to motivate you to process and learn the material in the text book and lecture.

As an instructor it is very difficult to figure out how to navigate the world of laptops, networking and multi-tasking. The landscape of technology and education is moving very fast.

On the one hand my students are almost always adults. You should be able to choose to use electronics in class if you want. On the other hand there is a world of sophisticated software, marketing and designs that are doing everything they can to get your attention. They are so good at what they do that you don't have control over your own cognition. One thing that is clear - if you have your laptop open, if you are texting, tweeting, pinteresting, doing email, surfing the web, playing candy crush etc, you are not learning as much as people who put away their electronics and focus fully on the class. The truth is you are lousy at multi-tasking and it's hurting your grades because it's preventing you from thinking deeply about anything. Putting away the devices requires discipline that some of you need to learn, but won't unless you are forced.

There's an additional problem though. It turns out that if the person next to you is using a laptop, it hurts your GPA also. Using your laptop is like second-hand smoke. It's not just you hurting yourself, it's you hurting other people as well.

Clay Shirky has written a long article about these problems that is worth considering as we start off a new quarter.

A related problem: when it comes to taking quizzes as an instructor I often wrestle with figuring out how to make sure people aren't cheating. How can I proctor a quiz and be sure that people aren't relaying their questions via Google glass to someone else or keeping banned information on hand? Should I lock down the classroom? Buy a cell-phone jammer? Then I wonder, if this is the world we live in, then why are we making artificial rules for what the world is like when you take quizzes?

So for this class we are going to implement the following two rules.

Using electronics in class is actually going to be required. We are going to have online polling periodically that is mandatory to participate in. It will be timed, so you need to pay attention to make sure your input is accounted for. However, we are going to reserve the front 25% of the classroom as a laptop free zone. For the people who choose to sit there, you must participate in class interactions via phone. For those who want the distraction free environment, this is for you.

For quizzes, we are going to open everything up. You can use any resources you want. Quizzes will be strictly timed, so you will need to know the information and have thought about it, taken notes, etc. before you start the quiz. But you can talk to anyone you want and do anything you want except take answers from someone else without their permission (that will treated like plagiarism). The quizzes will be curved to a B+ (88) and one standard deviation will be set an A (95). So if everyone gets a 100% then everyone will get a B+. It is in your best interest to do better than everyone else.