Course Syllabus: Fall 2021¶
General Information¶
This course in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) covers issues in the design, development, and evaluation of user interfaces for computer systems. It also covers various concepts in human factors, usability, and interface design, and the effects of human capabilities and limitations on interaction with computer systems.
Course Name¶
CSCI 4800/6800 Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Office Hours¶
Instructor office hours are listed below in Table 1.
Time |
Day |
Location |
|---|---|---|
09:00 - 10:00 |
M |
Boyd 307 |
02:20 - 03:20 |
T |
Boyd 307 |
Prerequisites¶
- Undergraduate Prerequisites
CSCI 1302
- Graduate Prerequisites
CSCI 2720
Textbooks¶
The following textbooks are assigned this semester:
- TB:1
Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant, Maxine Cohen, Steven Jacobs, Niklas Elmqvist, and Nicholas Diakopoulos. 2017. Designing the User Interface. Pearson, Boston, 6 edition. ISBN 978-0134380384.
- TB:2
Donald A. Norman. 2013. The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books, New York, New York, Revised and Expanded Edition edition. ISBN 978-0-465-05065-9.
The required readings for each module are listed on each module page. If a reading is not from one of the textbooks list above, then a direct link to the reading is provided using a UGA Library Link so that you can access it for free using your MyID.
Important Links¶
- HCI Fall 2021
That’s this website! You should bookmark it. It contains the course assignments, including readings, videos, homework, and the term project.
- eLC
eLearning Commons (eLC) is the online learning management system for UGA. This is where your grades will live.
- Piazza
Piazza will be used for online discussion and Q&A. The system is highly catered to getting you help fast and efficiently from classmates, TAs, and the instructor. Rather than emailing questions to the teaching staff, you are encouraged you to post your questions on Piazza.
Offering Information¶
Instructional Format¶
In Fall 2021, this course will employ the face-to-face instructional format. Fully synchronous, in-person instruction is delivered in an assigned classroom for all students. The instructor is in the classroom with all students for the regularly scheduled days/times, and video recordings of each class session are not posted online.
DDQ¶
In this course, DDQ stands for “Discussion, Demos, and Q&A.” Instead of using words like “lecture” or “lab” to describe the synchronous, face-to-face, interactive class sessions for this course, we will simply call them DDQs.
DDQ Meeting Times¶
All students enrolled in the course are expected to synchronously participate in the DDQ meetings in-person. The meeting information for this semester is summarized in Table 2.
Day |
Time |
In-Person |
|---|---|---|
M |
12:40 - 01:30 |
Chemistry 453 |
TR |
12:45 - 02:00 |
Dawson Hall 116 |
Principle Assignments¶
DDQ Participation¶
Participation in DDQs will be measured using some combination of simple attendance checks and DDQ-related submissions. Some yet to be determined number of lowest participation grades will be dropped at the end of the semester. While this does allow a student to theoretically miss some days, each student is still responsible for understanding the DDQ content for any missed days.
Most DDQs involve group work. The composition of these daily DDQ groups is fluid, and the strategy employed for their formation is at the sole discretion of the instructor.
DDQs are posted here.
Paper Presentations¶
All students enrolled in this course must participate in HCI research paper presentation; however, not everyone is required to present.
Requirements for all students
When a research paper is presented by a student in this course, all other students in the course are required to evaluate the presentation by completing a scoring rubric. Satisfactory completion of the scoring rubric will be used for pass/fail grade items in the “Paper Presentations” grade book category. The content of student rubric submissions will be anonymized, aggregrated, and shared with presenters.
Requirements for CSCI 6800 and CSCI 4800H
Students enrolled in CSCI 6800 or CSCI 4800H (hereafter referred to as “presenters”) must read, synthesize, and present one HCI research paper live during a DDQ meeting this semester. Presenters should refer to the Paper Presentations page for specific information about deliverables and due dates. The deliverables and an evaluation of the presentation will be used for presenter-specific grade items in the “Paper Presentations” grade book category.
Important
Material in a paper presentation is fair game for an exam.
Exams¶
This course has two regular exams, both of which will be delivered online on scheduled class days. On an exam day, there will be no office hours and no DDQ meeting. Instead, the exam will be made available at 9AM and must be submitted before 5:30 PM on the same day. The exact format of each test is yet to be determined, and more information about each exam will be posted at least one week ahead of time. Once announced, information about an exam will be posted here.
Per university policy, each student must be provided the opportunity to stand for a final examination as part of the completion of a full instructional term, and instructors have the authority to design and administer the final examination for a course in whatever manner is appropriate. In this course, the final milestone submission of the term project will be treated as the final examination since the grade a student receives for that assignment is a summative evaluation of the entire term’s work. Since this examination can be interpreted as a take-home exam, university policy dictates that it cannot be due earlier than the start of the final examination time slot as assigned by the university.
Term Project¶
Details about the Fall 2021 term project can be found on the Term Project page. The project is comprised of multiple milestones, and the final milestone is considered the final examination for the course as discussed earlier in the Exams section.
Term project groups / teams are different from the daily DDQ groups. Term project teams persist through the end of the semester once established, but daily DDQ groups may change each day.
Grades¶
Numerical final course grades are calculated using Table 3, taking into consideration extra credit opportunities, dropped grades, and category overflow (i.e., exceeding the possible number of points in a category overflows into the rest of your numerical final course grade). Numerical final course grades are not rounded. The letter grade that a student receives in this course will be the direct mapping of their numerical final course grade to a +/- letter grade using the intervals in Table 4.
Category |
Percentage |
|---|---|
20% |
|
10% |
|
20% |
|
20% |
|
30% |
Points Grade |
Letter Grade |
|---|---|
[94, 100) |
A |
[90, 94) |
A- |
[87, 90) |
B+ |
[84, 87) |
B |
[80, 83) |
B- |
[77, 80) |
C+ |
[74, 77) |
C |
[70, 74) |
C- |
[65, 70) |
D |
[0, 65) |
F |
Additional Information¶
Time Zones¶
Unless specified otherwise, all times provided in the various documents for this course (e.g., this syllabus, assignment descriptions, etc.) are assumed to be in the same time zone as UGA’s campus in Athens, GA, USA. You can see the current time in Athens, GA here.
Academic Honesty¶
As a University of Georgia student, you have agreed to abide by the University’s academic honesty policy, A Culture of Honesty, and the Student Honor Code. All academic work must meet the standards described in A Culture of Honesty, found here. Lack of knowledge of the academic honesty policy is not a reasonable explanation for a violation. Questions related to course assignments and the academic honesty policy should be directed to the instructor.
Reporting
All faculty, staff and students are encouraged to report all suspected cases of academic dishonesty. All cases of suspected academic dishonesty (cheating) will be referred to the Office of the Vice President for Instruction for academic dishonesty. Penalties imposed by the Office of the Vice President for Instruction may include a failing grade in the course and a notation on the student’s transcript. Repeated violations are punishable by expulsion from the University.
Sanctions
For this course, the minimum sanction for an academic honesty violation will be a zero on any related assignments and an imposed upper limit of letter grade C for final course grade. The instructors reserve the right to impose stricter sanctions, if warranted.
Collaboration Policy¶
Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all assignment are to be completed individually. Absolutely no collaboration is permitted during exams. If collaboration on an assignment is permitted, then you must include the following with your submission: i) a list of students you collaborated; and ii) a few sentences outling how the collaboration impacts the submission.
Late Work Policy¶
In general, late submissions are not permitted. Work not received by its associated final submission deadline will not be graded and will be assigned a “0” in the grade book. Exceptions will only be made under extenuating circumstances, as described in the Extenuating Circumstances Policy, provided that a written request is made to the instructor that is timely, polite, and includes appropriate evidence to support the extenuating circumstance. Scheduled maintenance of course-related apps, websites, and University systems is not considered an extenuating circumstance. If you need to make such a request under this policy, then please create a private post to the “Instructor” group on Piazza.
Re-grade Policy¶
If you believe one of your assignments was not graded correctly, then you may request a re-grade within 7 calendar days (i.e., not 7 class days) of receiving the grade. To make a request, please create a private post to the “Instructor” group on Piazza and include a detailed justification that outlines how your submission was graded incorrectly.
Extenuating Circumstances Policy¶
Students may only make up a missed exam or be considered for a due date extension for a project under extenuating circumstances such a serious medical injury, bereavement, trauma, or mandatory court attendance provided that a written request is made to the instructor that is timely, polite, and includes appropriate evidence to support the extenuating circumstance. If you need to make such a request under this policy, please create a private post to the “Instructor” group on Piazza.
Disability Resources¶
If you plan to request accommodations for a disability, please register with the Disability Resource Center (DRC). The DRC can be reached by visiting Clark Howell Hall, by calling 706-542-8719 (voice) or 706-542-8778 (TTY), or by visiting their website.
Mental Health and Wellness Resources¶
If you or someone you know needs assistance, you are encouraged to contact Student Care and Outreach in the Division of Student Affairs at 706-542-7774 or visit the SCO website. They will help you navigate any difficult circumstances you may be facing by connecting you with the appropriate resources or services.
UGA has several resources for a student seeking mental health services or crisis support. If you need help managing stress anxiety, relationships, etc., please visit BeWellUGA for a list of FREE workshops, classes, mentoring, and health coaching led by licensed clinicians and health educators in the University Health Center.
Additional resources can be accessed through the UGA App (see the UGA Mobile App page provided by EITS).
Syllabus Notice¶
The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary.