Renewing the HCI Curriculum

Workshop at the GI 2017 conference

 

Bridging the Gap between Research, Industry Trends, and Curriculum Renewal within Human-Computer Interaction

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is one of the most dynamic fields of research, where scientific explorations are strongly connected to real-world advances. In contrast to many other disciplines, HCI research is closely intertwined with industry R&D -- this is very visible in the large number of graduates (MSc and PhD) from Canadian universities joining such industries. It is thus timely to leverage this strong connection and evaluate if the knowledge dissemination activities in which HCI researchers typically engage are effective. Namely, this workshop proposes to take an introspective look at how we incorporate research advances in our own academic undergraduate and graduate curricula and how this connects with industry needs and with the research carried out within industry. In particular, we aim to investigate how adequate are traditional pedagogical methods given the rapidly-changing pace of innovation within HCI research, how do we more effectively incorporate research advances into our curricula, how do we better engage our academic research and teaching with related industries, and how to better define the curricula for UX-related degrees and certificates.