Worldwide HCI Professional Education
Marian G. Williams*, Guy Boy**
- *Computer Science Department
- University of Massachusetts Lowell
- Lowell, MA 01854 USA
- +1 508 934-3628
- williams.chi@xerox.com
- **European Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Engineering
- 4, avenue Edouard Belin
- 31400 Toulouse, France
- +33-62 17 38 38
- boy@onecert.fr
KEYWORDS:
SIGCHI, education, continuing education, CHI professional issues.
INTRODUCTION
A great deal of attention has been paid to HCI education in traditional academic settings. Consider, for instance, the SIGCHI curriculum effort headed by Tom Hewett [1] and the NSF-sponsored curriculum initiative chaired by Gary Strong [2]. Both produced immensely valuable reports that have influenced the delivery of HCI education in traditional academic settings.
Much less attention has been paid to HCI professional continuing education. A number of useful articles have appeared (e.g., [3,4]), but there has never been a major curriculum initiative to study HCI professional education. The report by Hewett et al. points out the need: "We hope that this report would be used to help assess and structure continuing education possibilities" [1].
The ACM SIGCHI executive committee has launched an HCI professional education initiative. A working group is being formed to examine the meaning of professional education in countries around the world, propose a curriculum for HCI continuing education, recommend vehicles for delivering that curriculum, and suggest strategies by which SIGCHI can support worldwide HCI professional education.
Participants in this SIG will learn about the SIGCHI working group on HCI professional education and will have an opportunity to influence its direction.
GOALS OF THE SIG
The goals of the SIG are to disseminate information about the SIGCHI working group on HCI professional continuing education and to gather information and ideas to guide the working group in their efforts to improve HCI professional education worldwide.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
We invite conference attendees from all over the world and from all facets of the CHI professional community to join in the discussion. Participants from outside the US and Canada are particularly encouraged to attend.
HOW THE SIG WILL BE CONDUCTED
SIG participants will hear a brief presentation about the SIGCHI professional education working group. They will engage in small- and whole-group discussions and brainstorming sessions and will complete a brief questionnaire about professional education. If the outcomes of the SIG warrant it, the organizers will submit a summary of the SIG to SIGCHI Bulletin.
ISSUES
The following issues will form the core of discussion during the SIG, though participants are welcome to add to this agenda:
- How does the need for HCI professional education differ in various parts of the world?
- Is it possible to describe a global curriculum for HCI professional continuing education?
- How could such a curriculum be localized for maximum effectiveness in a given country?
- In what ways can SIGCHI serve as a resource for professional continuing education worldwide?
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
Marian Williams is ACM SIGCHI Vice Chair for Operations and CHI 96 Tutorials Co-Chair, and is leading the SIGCHI Executive Board's initiative on CHI professional continuing education. She is faculty member in the Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Guy Boy is Executive Vice Chair of ACM SIGCHI. He is director of the European Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Engineering (EURISCO).
REFERENCES
- Hewett, Thomas T., Ronald Baecker, Stuart Card, Tom Carey, Jean Gasen, Marilyn Mantei, Gary Perlman, Gary Strong, and William Verplank, ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction . New York: ACM, 1992.
- Strong, G.W., J.B. Gasen, T. Hewett, D. Hix, J. Morris, M.J. Muller, and D.G. Novick, New Directions in Human-Computer Interaction Education, Research, and Practice, Philadelphia, PA: Drexel University, 1994.
- Howard, Steve, "User Interface Design and HCI: Identifying the Training Needs of Practitioners," SIGCHI Bulletin 27(3);17-22, 1995.
- Karat, John and Tom Dayton, "Practical Education for Improving Software Usability," Proceedings of the CHI '95Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 162-169, 1995.
