HCI 530 : Seminar (HCI)

HCI 530 : Seminar (HCI) Damian Schofield

HCI 530: Seminar (HCI) • Who Am I ? • Why Do I Study This ? • What Do I Do ? • Introduction to the Course • Course Practicalities • So What Will We Study ? • Alice

Introduction To The Course I. Course Number and Credit: HCI 530 3 S.H. II. Course Title: Seminar in Contemporary Topics in HCI III. Course Description: Study of selected topics in the area of Human Computer Interface providing opportunities for the study of material not covered in current course offerings. Special emphasis will be on emerging areas. This may be repeated for credit with different content. Topics vary from semester to semester.

Introduction To The Course • IV. Prerequisites: • Undergraduate degree in Psychology or Computer Science or permission of the instructor. • V. Justification for Course: • Professional training in HCI necessitates that a student be familiar with the most current topics in the field. • Practitioners in this field are expected to be knowledgeable of recent developments in the technology related to the design of computer interfaces as well as recent advancements in design and evaluation methodologies.

Introduction To The Course • VI. Course Objectives • The general objectives of the course are to introduce students to emerging technologies, new methodologies and contemporary issues related to the design of human-computer interfaces. • VII. Course Outline: • Varies with the content of the course

Introduction To The Course • VIII. Methods of Instruction: • These will be primarily seminar courses involving student presentations. Methodologically oriented versions of this course may have laboratory components. • IX. Method of Evaluation: • Varies with the course. • X. Resources: • The participating departments have the faculty resources and expertise to offer these seminar courses. Computer laboratories will support the specific courses. The current library holdings in conjunction with access to intra-library loan will be sufficient for the variety of courses offered.

Course Policies • Attendance. • Attendance will be documented at each class period. Students must attend all classes and lab periods that they are listed for. • Missed exams. • Under special circumstances (e.g., death in family, illness), a make-up may be given. Prior notification of absence and documentation of absence is required. If you miss an exam for another valid and documented reason and do give prior notice, other options will be considered. To give notice: call, email or ask a friend to contact me. • Late and not-completed assignments. • For each calendar day an assignment is late, the maximum grade that may be achieved drops by 30%. Assignments are due at the start of class on the date indicated. An assignment that is not turned in will be factored in the overall grade as a zero.

Course Policies • Academic integrity. • It is critical that each student does his or her own work and properly acknowledges the work of others. If I have evidence of cheating or plagiarism, I will follow vigorously the procedures as stated by University policy. Plagiarism and cheating on exams are particularly serious matters and are grounds for failure in the course. As stated in University policy, instances of violations of academic integrity will be reported. University principles and policies are stated on page 195-196 of the current catalog and online at the link below: (http://catalog.oswego.edu/content.php?catoid=2&navoid=47#stat_inte_inte). • Classroom etiquette. • Students are expected to be punctual and respect others in the classroom by speaking in turn, sitting near the door if late or needing to leave early, raising a hand to request to speak and not distracting classmates who are trying to participate. A student who leaves the room during an exam will not be permitted to re-enter and complete her or his exam. In the case of illness during exams, students should go to the health center (and a make up will be made available).

Course Policies Modifications to syllabus. I reserve the right to modify the syllabus and assessment criteria in response to student needs, developments and unforeseen events. Research participation. Participating in focussed research will be a required part of the course. This is designed to help you acquire a solid foundation in psychological research, and undertaking your own research is a valuable part of this process. Extra credit. I will try to provide opportunities for extra credit where I am able. Office of Disability Services. The office is available to assist students who have a legally documented disability or students who suspect that they may have a disability. If you have a disabling condition that may interfere with your ability to successfully complete this course, please contact the office of Disability Services. Also, please see me to let me know how we may be of assistance. Alternative testing for students with learning disabilities is available.

Academic Assessment Readings. Reading assignments may be given for some weeks of class. Make sure that you understand the reading each week in order to keep up and to achieve good academic performance. Exams. A number of exams will be given: ending with a final exam. Exam format will probably be short answer and multiple choice. Exams will cover all assigned readings and all information presented in class. Assignments and quizzes. There will be a number of quizzes or assignment through the year. Some assignments will be completed in class; some may be due the following week. Quizzes will focus on the concepts presented in the current chapters (terms will be given in class beforehand). These assignments and quizzes will be designed to help students understand and practice concepts and skills.

Academic Assessment Project. Students will complete a small research project that includes developing and testing a hypothesis, collecting and analyzing the data, and writing the results in academic style. Probable Grading: Exams 100 points each, Assignments worth 10 points each, Quizzes worth 20 points each, Project worth 150 points. Grade* for the course is based on the percentage of total points accumulated: A = 90 - 100 %, B = 80 - 89 %, C = 70 - 79 %, D = 60 - 69 %, E = 0 - 59 % (*plus and minus grades will be used)

Course Practicalities • Curriculum Variation • Assessment Variation • Access / Student Hour / Email • Website Access – www.cs.oswego.edu/~schofield • Teaching Section – Password: seminar1 • 5. Time / Location

ALICE : www.alice.org • Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. • Alice is a freely available teaching tool designed to be a student's first exposure to object-oriented programming.

ALICE : www.alice.org • It allows students to learn fundamental programming concepts in the context of creating animated movies and simple video games. • In Alice, 3-D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world and students create a program to animate the objects.

ALICE : www.alice.org • In Alice's interactive interface, students drag and drop graphic tiles to create a program, where the instructions correspond to standard statements in a production oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, and C#.

ALICE : www.alice.org • Alice allows students to immediately see how their animation programs run, enabling them to easily understand the relationship between the programming statements and the behavior of objects in their animation. • By manipulating the objects in their virtual world, students gain experience with all the programming constructs typically taught in an introductory programming course.

ALICE : www.alice.org

HCI 530 : Seminar (HCI)