HCI Education Community of Practice

Research Project

How can we build a community of practice for HCI/UX educators?

While the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) discipline has grown significantly over the past few decades, there is an increased need to build a community of practice (CoP) where HCI educators and scholars can share and get feedback on course outlines, syllabi, learning materials, and teaching techniques and strategies. Our goals in building the HCI Education CoP are to (1) create channels to discuss issues pertinent to HCI education and (2) provide a platform for sharing HCI curricula and teaching experiences.

Related Publications

EduCHI 2019 Symposium: Global Perspectives on HCI Education

Workshop/Symposium

St-Cyr, O., MacDonald, C. M., & Churchill, E. F. (2019).
At CHI 2018, a workshop on developing a community of practice to support global HCI education was held, building on six years of research and collaboration in the area of HCI education. Many themes emerged from the workshop activities and discussions. Two particularly stood out: creating channels for discussions related to HCI education and providing a platform for sharing HCI curricula and teaching experiences. To that end, we are organizing a CHI 2019 symposium dedicated exclusively to HCI education: EduCHI 2019: Global Perspectives on HCI Education. The symposium will focus on the canons of HCI education in 2019 and beyond. It will offer a venue for HCI educators across disciplinary and geographical borders to discuss, dissect, and debate HCI teaching and learning. Through keynote addresses, paper presentations, and a panel discussion, we aim to discuss current and future HCI education trends, curricula, pedagogies, teaching practices, and diverse and inclusive HCI education. Post-symposium initiatives will aim to document and publish the discussions from the symposium.

The HCI living curriculum as a community of practice

Commentary

St-Cyr, O., Jovanovic, A., Chignell, M., MacDonald, C. M., & Churchill, E. (2018).
HCI education reflects the continual evolution of HCI, embracing the changing landscapes of technology, infrastructure, and technology use. This forum aims to provide a platform for HCI educators, practitioners, researchers, and students to share their perspectives, reflections, and experiences related to HCI education.

Developing a Community of Practice to Support Global HCI Education

Workshop/Symposium

St-Cyr, O., MacDonald, C. M., Churchill, E. F., Preece, J. J., & Bowser, A. (2018).
ACM SIGCHI has been supporting research in HCI education for many years, most actively from 2011-2014. At CHI2014, a workshop on developing a new HCI living curriculum was held, building on three years of research and collaboration. We believe the time is right to develop and implement the suggested HCI living curriculum. We propose a hands-on workshop to develop a concrete active community of practice of HCI scholars and educators, sharing and collaborating to develop course outlines, curricula, and teaching materials. The workshop will define the conceptual framework and user experience of the HCI living curriculum, develop its information architecture and infrastructure, and evaluate how existing platforms do and do not fulfill the proposed needs. Post-workshop initiatives will aim to move towards implementing the first iteration of the living curriculum.