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Education Community

Co-Chairs:

Scott Berkun, Scott Berkun Consulting
Charles van der Mast, Technische Universiteit Delft, Netherlands

Message from Scott and Charles

Charles van der Mast Scott Berkun

The CHI Education community will look at what is happening in HCI education. We will examine innovative educational techniques for teaching HCI. We will discuss controversial issues. We will review opportunities and discuss solutions to problems. We will analyze students' needs and the job opportunities for graduates, masters and Ph.D. students.

Whether you are a new HCI educator or an old hand, there will be something to interest you, so plan to join the CHI education community. We need your ideas, your enthusiasm and your energy to make this CHI community experience exciting, useful and memorable.

Contact us: chi2007-educ@acm.org

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Introduction

HCI is now established in the curricula of many countries across the world at undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels. Instructors have a variety of texts from which to choose. HCI classes contribute to the curriculum in computer science, information systems, information studies, psychology, design and others. Increasingly, universities are employing professors whose teaching and research focuses on HCI. Many corporations, government agencies and non-profit organizations seek to employ graduates and students with masters and doctoral degrees. They want people with knowledge and expertise in working with users; people who know how to design, test, evaluate and employ technology in different application areas. From banking in Europe to the mines of South Africa and cattle ranches in Australia, expertise in designing to meet users' needs and support their activities is a high priority. The success of our discipline has also encouraged many universities to develop HCI Research Centers. HCI has become a flourishing discipline with strong education programs. It is therefore timely to feature HCI education more strongly at CHI and to make it prominent in this year's CHI conference program.

The goals of the CHI education community are to:

  • Examine educational curricula and practices from across the world
  • Explore what topics are taught and how they are taught
  • Discuss the foundations of our discipline
  • Examine how the curriculum is changing and what drives it
  • review how students use their HCI education
  • Ask for employer suggestions for HCI curricula
  • Find out what students think about their HCI education
  • Examine innovative HCI education ideas, plans and strategies

Because HCI is taught in different disciplines, we expect that there will be many links with themes and activities offered by the other CHI communities participating in this conference. We strongly encourage you to submit multi-community proposals that look at HCI education in the context of design, engineering, management, research, or usability.

Types of Submissions

Contemporary Trends and Experiences

Experience Reports


This submission type is oriented toward work that is of timely and broad interest and that is likely to provoke and inspire the CHI audience.

To submit stories, demos and sketches, consider submitting an Experience Report.

To submit topics for dialogue and deliberation, consider submitting either an Interactive Session, a Special Interest Group, or a workshop.

Interactive Sessions are an exciting format for encouraging thoughtful and provocative discussion about issues that impact HCI education. If the topic can be considered from several different perspectives, it may make a good interactive session topic. For an interactive session to be exciting, panelists must stake different positions. Some HCI education topics that might make interesting interactive session discussions include:

  • What is the role of theory in HCI education?
  • How do we deal with an expanding curriculum?
  • How different disciplines (computer science, information/library science, management information systems, human factors, psychology, design) view/teach HCI
  • What is the "core knowledge" that every HCI student should know - at the MS level? At the PhD level?
  • To what extent, and in what ways, should design be part of an HCI education - at the MS level? At the PhD level?
  • International perspectives on HCI education - how HCI is taught in countries around the world.
  • Academic scorecard - how does industry view HCI education - the good, the bad, the ugly
  • Industry scorecard - how does academia view the practice of HCI in industry - the good, the bad, the ugly

Special Interest Groups (SIGs) provide an opportunity for those who share an interest to come together to explore ideas. They can take many forms. They can be discussions, planned presentations, question and answer sessions. Special Interest Groups offer an excellent way for bringing together groups of HCI educators. Some possible SIG topics include:

  • HCI education across the world
  • Starting an HCI program - pragmatics and politics
  • The future of HCI education
  • Teaching the introductory HCI course