Interdisciplinary Human Factors Curricula for Individualized, Independent Study

Abstract

Education and career development of new generations of human factors professionals has rightly been a central concern the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society for many decades. There have been periodic surveys to track the changing employer expectations for new professionals, and there have been several panel discussion at the HFES Annual Meetings to address various issues in education of future professionals. There have been significant changes in academia, where many traditional disciplinary programs are declining and new interdisciplinary programs are emerging. These trends may present novel opportunities for education of the future human factors workforce. In this project we surveyed all courses in a university course catalog to identify courses that offer training, to varying degrees, in the Core Competencies as defined by the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics. These courses could form a basis for interdisciplinary programs in human factors without being confined in any particular department or existing program.

Student Perspectives on Changing Requirements for Human Factors Engineering Education

“…Histon (2013) examined the use of online tools to make courses more engaging, while Wichansky (2014) examined the value of professional certifications in the field of user experience design. Rantanen et al(2020) surveyed all courses in a university course catalog to identify courses that offer training, to varying degrees, in the Core Competencies as defined by the BCPE. They suggested that these courses could form a basis for interdisciplinary programs in human factors without being confined to any particular department or existing program, offering an alternative way to incorporate new technologies into the HFE curriculum.…”