The selected date is May 8. Attendees have filled out the Doodle poll with their food preferences for lunch, which will be provided at the workshop. There was no clear consensus on the type of food; sandwiches, salads, beverages, and cookies will be provided (gluten-free and vegan options available). There is still room for a few more participants. Add you name to the Doodle poll if you would like an invitation. A (partial) list of courses that have been used in the past to satisfy the requirements is now available.
What? A half-day planning workshop to review the HCI sub-specialization and make recommendations for its future.
Who? Anyone with an interest in the future of the program who is willing to contribute time and effort to the discussion.
When? Noon - 4:30PM on May 8, 2015. Fill in this Doodle poll if you would like to attend and have not already done so. Lunch will be provided.
Where? EDC 102 in the Studio in the Engineering Design Centre (tentative booking).
How? The workshop will be informal, but with specific goals set by a steering committee prior to the workshop.
Why? The HCI sub-specialization is a master’s level program that allows students in participating academic units to receive formal recognition on their transcripts of degree work that has a significant human-computer interaction component. The program is administered by MAGIC, the Media & Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre, with a steering committee drawn from a number of academic units. The sub-specialization is an adjunct to the normal degree requirements in the participating academic units. There is growing interest to further expand the sub-specialization to other units, and to address concerns that the existing program is too narrowly defined relative to the very broad scope of the field as it is understood across the various disciplines that comprise the HCI community at UBC. A longer term consideration is whether a distinct degree program should be established that focuses primarily on HCI, while taking into account the historical connection to many units across campus.
We held a half-day HCI@UBC kick-off workshop in May 2013. Those in attendance agreed that we should focus on community building and then deal with the HCI-subspecialization later (i.e., put the HCI curriculum on hold) so we could focus on one thing at a time. The community building seems to be going well. The monthly HCI@UBC Designing for People Series has by all measures been very successful in pulling together the HCI community at UBC over the past two years.
It is now time to turn our attention back to HCI curriculum matters. There are a number of issues that need to be resolved. Many relate to how the HCI sub-specialization can be structured to accommodate the range of programs from which students are drawn. In many cases the current requirements make it difficult for some students to meet the requirements while also meeting the requirements of their home academic unit.
The iSchool (SLAIS) is an example of this problem. We had our first iSchool student successfully complete the HCI sub-specialization in 2013. We managed to make this happen, but it was not straightforward. Other iSchool students are interested in getting the HCI sub-specialization but have encountered difficulties. We believe that similar problems exist for a number of other academic units where there are students who are interested and who are doing research that definitely qualifies as HCI but who are not able to take advantage of the sub-specialazation.
The current thought is to run another half-day workshop in May 2015 focused on curriculum ‐ the first step towards revamping the HCI sub-specialization. The goal is to get together the key players / representatives from the various units who are currently involved in the sub-specialization or who would like to be involved in tge future. The workshop will initiate an exercise that will continue into the 2015/16 academic year. It is intended to get people started thinking about the HCI curriculum, to determine who should be involved moving in the future planning, and to collect preliminary thoughts on the process that we should follow so that things will hit the ground running in September.
The workshop is intended for faculty members who have had or would like to have students they supervise participate in the HCI sub-specialization. If there is interest, we would like to invite a few graduate students who have been or are in the program so we gain their perspectives. We would like to have representatives from all of the current academic units that are involved, as well as those who are not currently involved but would like to consider being involved.
There are many issues that could be included in the workshop. The following are examples. Comments and suggestions for topics for the workshop can be sent to Kellogg Booth.
Part of the process that is envisioned will be looking at the longer-term needs for HCI at UBC, including whether a separate degree program should be established that might eventually be in-addition-to the HCI sub-specialization, or perhaps replace it. These and other questions will be topics for discussion at the half-day workshop.
More The following web pages may provide additional helpful information.Issues that may be discussed are the following. Others are likely to be added at the workshop.
A working agenda for the workshop is available. This is an informal workshop, so the agenda is more a guideline that an agenda. Adjustments will be made at the workshop by attendees.