Comparing the cognitive profile of the HCI professional and the HCI educator

Previous research into Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) education has focussed mainly on the curriculum, pedagogy and the gap between education, and little is known about the cognitive profile of the HCI practitioner or educator, or how their individual differences impact upon practice in the field or the classroom. This research intends to address this gap by investigating the cognitive style of HCI practitioners, educators, and those with both roles. 315 professionals responded to a global online survey which captured their individual cognitive style using the Allinson and Hayes Cognitive Style Index (CSI) which tests whether the subject tends more towards an intuitivist or analyst, and the Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Questionnaire (OSIVQ) which suggests a three dimensional model of cognitive style – object imagers who prefer to construct pictorial images, spatial imagers who prefer schematic representations and verbalizers who prefer to use verbal-analytical tools. Together, these two instruments provide a profile that matches the skills required to work within the field of HCI. The respondents included practitioners in the field (N=179), educators (N=61), and some who were both practitioner and educator (N=75). A one-way between-groups ANOVA and MANOVA was performed to investigate differences in the role of the professional, and the CSI and OSIVQ profiles respectively, followed by the Welch t-test to compare their OSIVQ scores with the published normative values. The ANOVA comparing the CSI scores for each of the groups revealed a statistically significant difference of F(2, 312) = 3.35, p= 0.38 and post-hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test indicated that the mean score for the educators was significantly different from that of the ‘both’ group. The practitioners did not differ significantly from either the educators or ‘both’. This may in some part be explained by the fact that very often HCI is taught by an academic with a computer science background rather than an HCI specialist, but further investigation is needed in this area. The MANOVA used the three constructs of the OSIVQ as dependent variables. No significant difference was found between the groups. However, the t-tests comparing the professional against the normative data revealed that whilst there was no significant difference between the object imager score of the HCI professional and the scientist, there was a difference between the spatial imager score of the HCI professional and the visual artist, perhaps again reflecting the computer science background of many professionals. 24 survey respondents have been interviewed and the resulting data will form the basis of a thematic analysis to extend the cognitive profile, and to identify the predominant technological frames of operation. Applying this concept of technological frames to the domain of HCI, will help to make sense of the adoption and application of knowledge, tools and techniques amongst this community. In order for the curriculum to meet the needs of the market, the educator needs to understand the practitioner in order to produce graduates equipped for the role. Finally, as HCI is delivered in a multidisciplinary environment, should it not also be taught by a multidisciplinary team

Interacción Humano-Computador en la Sociedad Colombiana de Computación

La Interacción Humano-Computador (HCI, CHI en USA o IPO en España) en la actualidad está presente en cualquier software o producto y por ende es una asignatura obligatoria en todo el mundo (Abascal et al., 2001). Una interfaz es una “superficie” de contacto (Laurel & Mountford, 1990), que refleja las propiedades físicas de los usuarios que interactúan, las funciones a realizar, y el balance de poder y control. La interfaz forma parte de un entorno cultural, físico y social, y por tanto, es necesario tener en cuenta una serie de factores al momento de diseñarla. Es así como el diseño de la interfaz se ha convertido en un elemento crítico en el desarrollo de productos software y hardware, y es uno de los principales factores que influyen en el éxito y competitividad de las aplicaciones. Actualmente, los sistemas interactivos prestan una atención cada vez mayor a las interfaces, demandando cambios en el desarrollo de estos productos. Un sistema interactivo ya no es sólo juzgado por su capacidad de realizar operaciones sino también por su capacidad de comunicarlas adecuadamente al usuario

"Do we need an entire course about it?": Evaluating two years of teaching HCI in computer science

Educators increasingly agree on the importance of teaching Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to Computer Science (CS) students, but there is debate on how to best integrate HCI into CS curricula. Unfortunately, standard course evaluations typically do not provide sufficient insights for improving HCI classes. In the present article, we used a human-centered design approach to evaluate our HCI classes, building on a qualitative study with CS students from four introductory HCI classes over two years. We report on a qualitative assessment through interviews, photo elicitation and sentence completion. Specifically, we addressed four research questions: which contents were the most relevant, how students experienced the courses, how they view the role of HCI in CS, and which outcomes they perceived from the HCI courses. We gathered rich qualitative insights beyond the standard course evaluations and derived concrete enhancements for future course iterations. We discuss implications for other HCI educators and contribute recommendations for the living HCI curriculum. Furthermore, we reflect on the usefulness of our methodological approach to collect in-depth constructive feedback from students

Towards the Use of Interactive Simulation for Effective e-Learning in University Classroom Environment

In this PhD thesis, the utilisation of interactive simulation in a higher education e-learning classroom environment was explored and its effectiveness was experimentally evaluated by engaging university students in a classroom setting. Two case studies were carried out for the experimental evaluation of the proposed novel interactive simulation e-learning tool. In the first case study, the use of interactive agent-based simulation was demonstrated in teaching complex adaptive system concepts in the area of ecology to university students and its effectiveness was measured in a classroom environment. In a lab intervention using a novel interactive agent-based simulation (built in NetLogo). For the purpose of teaching complex adaptive systems such as the concept of spatially-explicit predator prey interaction to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the University of Stirling. The effectiveness of using the interactive simulation was investigated by using the NetLogo software and compared with non-interactive simulation built using R programming language. The experimental evaluation was carried out using a total of 38 students. Results of this case study demonstrates that the students found interactive agent-based simulation to be more engaging, effective and user friendly as compare to the non-interactive simulation. In the second case study, a novel interactive simulation game was developed (in NetLogo) and its effectiveness in teaching and learning of complex concepts in the field of marine ecology was demonstrated. This case study makes a twofold contribution. Firstly, the presentation of a novel interactive simulation game, developed specifically for use in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the area of marine ecology. This novel interactive simulation game is designed to help learners to explore a mathematical model of fishery population growth and understand the principles for sustainable fisheries. Secondly, the comparison of two different methods of using the interactive simulation game within the classroom was investigated: learning from active exploration of the interactive simulation game compared with learning from an expert demonstration of the interactive simulation game. The case study demonstrated the effectiveness of learning from passive viewing of an expert demonstration of the interactive simulation game over learning from active exploration of the interactive simulation game without expert guidance, for teaching complex concepts sustainable fishery management. A mixed methods study design was used, using both quantitative and qualitative methods to compare the learning effectiveness of the two approaches, and the students’ preferences. The investigation was carried out by running interventions with a mixture of undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University of Stirling in a classroom environment. A total of 74 participants were recruited from undergraduate and postgraduate level for both case studies. This thesis demonstrated through two case studies effectiveness of the proposed novel interactive simulation in university e-learning classroom environment

The differing profiles of the human-computer interaction professional: perceptions of practice, cognitive preferences and the impact on HCI education

At a time when there is increasing demand for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) skills, it becomes increasingly important that the curriculum is effective and relevant. This research aims to provide a better understanding of the professionals who work in the field of HCI. It extends previous studies by examining the different roles of HCI professionals in order to identify differences regarding cognitive preferences, background, what is valued, concerns and issues, and the potential impact of these upon curriculum design and delivery within the Higher Education sector. This study also extends technological frames theory by applying the framework to HCI practice. The literature review covers the history of HCI, the position of HCI within the software development lifecycle, HCI academic research and its relationship to practice, HCI practice and HCI education. It then discusses cognitive style research and the Cognitive Styles Index (CSI) and the Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Questionnaire (OSIVQ), concluding with the social construction of technology and technological frames. This study follows a mixed methods approach adopting a pragmatic epistemological stance, collecting data by means of a survey which gathered demographic data and cognitive profiles. These were complemented by interviews which were analysed using the Template Analysis approach. iv Both the quantitative and the qualitative data highlight a number of differences between the roles of the professionals, and in particular between those who educate and those who are involved in practice. The interview findings also highlight inconsistences in what is valued, and indicate that HCI is not well understood outside of the HCI community. It appears that a dominant technological frame has not yet been achieved in the field of HCI, with particular incongruences noted between academia and practice. In particular, the interviews confirm the findings of the literature that the curriculum may not be meeting the needs of practice, and that there still exists a lack of consensus regarding terminology and processes. The discussion moves on to consider the implications for the curriculum discussing the need for more input from practice when designing the curriculum, the advantages of embedding HCI skills within the curriculum in order to address graduate attributes, and the need to be aware of role differences in order to offer appropriate academic advice to students