IFIP Working Group 13.1 - Education in HCI and HCI Curriculum

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In a considerable number of member countries of IFIP many topics of HCI have been under research during the last two decades. The disciplines have reached notable success in developing new methods, tools and standards for analysing the interaction of humans with technical systems and for designing, developing and evaluating the human-computer interface of complex systems.

Although curriculum development necessarily lags behind the progress of Research and Development, it was beleived timely to begin a Working Group on HCI curriculum development, because a) there is now sufficient knowledge and skills, b) there is increasing interest, as the INTERACT workshops showed, c) the number of courses in HCI has grown rapidly. Especially the momentum, which the conference workshops at the INTERACT Conferences has provided, ought to our opinion not to be lost.

This lead to the proposal to establish a Working Group on Education in HCI and HCI Curriculum under TC13 of IFIP.

1. Aims

The aims of the Working Group are as follows:

• to enhance international collaboration in disseminating knowledge about this rapidly developing and important subject,
• to improve HCI education at all levels of higher education,
• to coordinate and unite efforts to enhance the development of HCI curricula,
• to recommend fundamental structures for curricula and course materials and for their adaption to the various national educational systems,
• to advance international recognition of qualifications in this field,
• and to promote the teaching of HCI.

2. Scope and Tasks

The scope of the Working Group will build upon existing work in IFIP member countries to include:

• the evaluation of the needs of industry to enhance the qualifications in HCI, based on the societal objectives to improve the work environment,
• the collation of existing curricula, course literature and other relevant materials developed by member societies or by institutions who are contributing to their work,
• the international exchange of information about curricular aspects of HCI and their further development,
• the design of recommendations and guidelines for HCI curricula at different levels of higher education and for the adaption of the guidelines to the cultural situation, on which the respective education system is based.

3. Activities

IFIP Working Group 13.1 (Education in HCI and HCI Curriculum) continues discussion about how to organize the qualification process for HCI in Higher Education. In several workshops at international conferences and task forces that have taken place, the aim has been to explore issues and enhance the integration of HCI education in the curricula of different disciplines such as Computer Science, Psychology, Graphics Design and, because of the growing use of embedded computer systems in all kinds of devices, Industrial Design.