Using community-based service projects to enhance undergraduate HCI education

Abstract

While community-based service projects are utilized in many different fields of study at universities, there is little documentation on how to implement communitybased projects in undergraduate Human Computer Interaction (HCI) courses. This case study provides information on the benefits and drawbacks of community-based service projects, provides a few different examples of community-based learning in undergraduate HCI classes, discusses successes and failures, and provides a set of 7 success factors, all based on 10 years of experience at a single university.

Innovative UX Methods for Information Access Based on Interdisciplinary Approaches: Practical Lessons from Academia and Industry

“…The discussion among panel speakers and workshop participants revealed many shared practices and experiences in UI/UX instruction across the academic disciplines and the industry. The common ground includes "project-led problem-based learning" model (Hanney & Savin-Baden, 2013), user research methods and deliverables, prototyping skills and tools, instructors developing relationships with organizations for projects and industry practices, collaborations between students and stakeholders for real-world UX experience (Lazar, 2011), and helping students to build a strong work portfolio for career transition or advancement (MacDonald & Rozaklis, 2017). The identified common ground confirmed the effectiveness of existing practices in teaching UCD and UI/UX related concepts.…”

Assessing the implementation of authentic, client‐facing student projects in user experience (UX) education: Insights from multiple stakeholders

“…The instructor must not only define the student learning outcomes at the outset of the project and provide instruction about specific methods or tools that students will use, they must also set timelines, provide feedback on deliverables and ensure students are making sufficient progress toward project goals. Further, educators also need to scaffold projects so that students are fully prepared to succeed at each stage (Lasserre, 2011;Lazar, 2011). For course-embedded projects, it may mean scheduling the project to begin later in the course after students have gained sufficient knowledge; for course-long projects, it may mean establishing pre-requisites or other requirements to ensure students have sufficient experience prior to entering the course; for extracurricular projects, it may mean selecting students with a complementary mix of skills and experience.…”

“…Third, it is critical to clearly define client expectations prior to beginning a client-facing project, regardless of format. To help with this process, the instructor should develop a client orientation protocol that sets forth the overall expectations and outcomes for a project and pre-schedules specific clientstudent interactions based on expected project timelines and milestones (Lazar, 2011). Following this protocol allows the instructor to confirm that a client has a real and solvable need that can be realistically met by the student project while also ensuring that clients have appropriate expectations about their involvement and the project's outcomes.…”

“…Next, respondents were asked to rate their knowledge, skills and interest level both after and before participating in the project (the retrospective pretest). From relevant literature, the researchers identified several indicators of effective project-based learning opportunities: knowledge of core concepts (Kokotsaki et al, 2016), interest in the topic/domain (Lasserre, 2011;Shneiderman et al, 2006), confidence in applying core concepts (Helle, Tynjälä, & Olkinuora, 2006), ability to work within real-world time/resource constraints (Lazar, 2011), ability to interact with clients (Ritter, 2014), and ability to work effectively in teams (Hanney & Savin-Baden, 2013). Then, respondents rated their overall satisfaction with several aspects of the project experience, such as the amount of opportunities for selfreflection (Mankoff, 2006;Ritter, 2014), the sense of authenticity or "realness" of the experience (Webster & Mirielli, 2007), and the supportiveness of the learning environment (Warren, 1988).…”

“…While there have been several individual attempts to incorporate problem-based learning into UX learning contexts (Koutsabasis & Vosinakis, 2012;Nordahl & Serafin, 2008), most UX educators have adopted a project-based learning pedagogyor, what may be more accurately called "project-led problembased learning" (Hanney & Savin-Baden, 2013)through client-facing projects that serve as a form of "service learning" for students (Mankoff, 2006). These service learning experiences have been shown to help students better understand the trade-offs required in real design projects (Lazar, 2011), provide students with extra motivation to deliver quality work (Lasserre, 2011;Ritter, 2014), and help students build a stronger work portfolio (Shneiderman et al, 2006). On a more practical level, the uniqueness of these projects is an effective way to prevent plagiarism (Ritter, 2014).…”