Topic selection due: 5 PM PST Tuesday September 22

Interactive class: date depends on the paper assigned (different for each student)

Report submission due: one week following presentation given (different for each student)

Short Description:

This assignment is an individual exercise where you will investigate an advanced area of HCI, write a short report, and deliver a short interactive class on the topic.

Objectives:

The objectives of this assignment are for you to:

• explore an advanced topic of HCI
• uncover some research that has been done in the topic area
• examine the main research issues of the topic
• create a concise report that provides a good introductory overview and synthesis of the research topic
• lead a 20 minute interactive class on the topic

Another equally important goal is for your fellow classmates to learn about your topic area through the class that you lead and the report that you write.

What you have to do:

I. Topic/Paper Selection

Topics are paired with readings for this class. Once you are assigned one of the papers, that will form the basis of your topic. But you will have a say in which paper (thus topic) you get assigned, by specifying your preferences to me. Look up some of the papers and skim their abstracts in order to get a sense of the various topic areas. The papers available for selection are those papers that are numbered on the 544 Schedule webpage, except for the ones marked “Optional” and the ones for which the topic is marked "Instructor". (The latter topics are the ones that I will present to the class.)

By 5 PM PST Tuesday September 22 you must email me with your selection of at least 3 preferred papers clearly ranked #1, #2, #3.

Your email must have the subject line:

Subject: 544 submit paper selection

and the following content: (this is an example, your paper numbers will be different)

Name: Joe Blow
Ranked papers: 5, 23, 6, 1, 8, 11, 9

Each paper will only be assigned to one student.  The order of processing student's preferred paper assignment will be determined by random draw. If all of your ranked preferred papers have been assigned to other students already, you may be informed by email of the remaining topics for you to choose or you may be assigned a topic if insufficient choice remains. (The more papers you rank in your selection, the lower the likelihood that you will be assigned a topic that you have not chosen.)

You will be notified by e-mail on Thursday September 24th of which topic/paper you have been assigned. The date of your presentation is dictated by the date the assigned paper appears in the course schedule. Presentations will commence on Tuesday October 13th. (So do not select a paper that appears before this date.)

Note: All students are expected to attend classes throughout the term. Thus, I am at liberty to assign any class presentation to any student. If you know now of any classes at which you will NOT be present, please let the me know the dates and your reason for being absent in the email you send specifying selected papers. Only medical, critical family, and research travel-related reasons will be considered.

Also note: you are not required to submit an Assignment #0 for your assigned paper for Assignment #1. (You will not submit more than one assignment for any one reading.)

II. Research

Now the fun begins! Do some research to find out more about your topic area. Begin by reading the selected paper for your topic. From there you may want to do web searches in appropriate online databases, e.g., the HCI Bibliography (www.hcibib.org) and the ACM Digital Library (portal.acm.org) and visit actual physical libraries. General web searches through engines such as Google (www.google.com) or Google Scholar (scholar.google.com) may also be useful.

You must read at least 4 additional papers in your topic area (i.e., 5 papers including the assigned paper).

Your research should cover at least the following areas for your topic area:

• key research issues
• key research results
• future directions

You will need to choose your papers wisely in order to cover the above areas. You will likely need to skim more than 5 papers in order to select good papers for your report.

III. Report

Write a report that summarizes and synthesizes your research. This report should provide the reader with a short, concise, accurate, introduction to the topic. Assume that the reader is familiar with HCI concepts, but is not familiar with the research topic you have chosen.

In terms of style, you may use point form where appropriate, but it is expected that some parts of the report will be in sentences and paragraphs. Include all relevant sources of your research: URLs, paper references, etc. Be sure to use an appropriate format for citing references, such as APA style (American Psychological Association).  All sources should be annotated. An annotation is a short description of a source, usually 1 or 2 sentences.

Specifications:

• The main body of the report cannot exceed 4 pages printed on 8.5 x 11 paper with 12 point font
• The annotated references cannot exceed 2 pages (one page should suffice)
• Any figures and tables should be attached in an appendix (no page limit)
• The electronic version submitted (see below) should be in PDF

In addition to submitting a printed report, you must submit an electronic version of your report to me by email. Please use:

Subject: 544 submit assignment 1

Both the printed report and the electronic version of the report are due by the class one week following your presentation.

The quality of your writing, the organization of your report, the selection of papers, and your ability to synthesize the material will largely determine your grade for the written portion of this assignment.

Synthesize means to compose or combine parts or elements so as to form a whole. Your report must go further than simply summarizing 5 papers.

Important: As with all assignments in 544, your submitted work must be your own. In my experience, some students are unfamiliar with what constitutes plagiarism. This is especially common for students who have done their schooling outside of North America. Each 544 student is required to review UBC’s academic regulations on plagiarism as well as the Department of Computer Science’s regulations. Feel free to talk to me if you are still not unsure after consulting these resources.

IV. Interactive Class

Your task is to hold a 20 minute interactive class on your topic area. How exactly you structure the class, is left to your discretion. You can assume that your classmates have read the one assigned paper for your research topic area and that they are familiar with general HCI topics, but that they are otherwise unfamiliar with your research area. You can do a formal presentation on your topic area for part of the class, but what you should not do is simply present the assigned paper. You may want to give a demo or show a video clip. You may want to split the class in two and hold a mini debate. Be creative! Your total time is 20 minutes, which is not very long. You will need to be very selective in terms of deciding which material you will cover in class. You will also have 5 minutes to answer questions, for 25 minutes in total.

An important goal of your interactive class is to inform your fellow classmates about your research topic area. You will be graded on how well you achieve that objective. This includes your ability to:

• engage your audience
• convey the relevant information (key research issues, results, and possibly future directions)
• maintain some interactivity
• give a timely class
• answer questions

Please pay particular attention to your timing constraints. You will not be allowed to continue beyond your allotted time so you are encouraged to carefully think through how you will deliver you class to ensure that it is a good length and meets the objectives above. (Note that tightly timed presentations are very common at research conferences where many presentations need to be given within a small number of days. It is awkward for both the presenter and the audience when the presentation terminates prematurely.)

If you use slides (e.g., PowerPoint) you must number your slides and provide one printout of the slides to me at the outset of your class. (To save trees, please use 3-6 printed slides per page page, and double side the printout.)

You are welcome to project your presentation from my laptop or your own laptop. To use my laptop, you must send the slides (and/or any other supporting presentation material) to me by 8 PM the night before your presentation.

Please email me a pdf of your slides for me to post on the website.

I have posted some information on common presentation mistakes and tips to avoid them.

Here is the grading sheet I will be using for the presentation. (I reserve the right to adjust it, if necessary.)