First Day of Class

Class Objectives
Define human-computer interaction
Define usability and its relation to HCI
Identify important considerations for education technology

What is Human-Computer Interaction?
What you're doing with the system
Your experience with how those interactions are going
How you are going to accomplish your goals with the software
Depends on your user goals
Visual appeal, layout, design, perceptual aspects
Bulk and speed of the program
Design so it runs the way we want it to so it is functional and quick enough
The use of the user's time
Does the interface match what the user is used to and wants and can utilize?
Usability

What is usability? Is it the same thing as HCI?
Usability is only part of the entire picture of HCI
It's how we access a tech tool in the first place so we can interact with it at all
Our standards of usability are rising. We no longer are willing to use things that aren't user friendly.

Educational Technology: Do our definitions need revising? (If so, how?)
Your target audience might be a lot more specific (ie. are you trying to reach teachers, students, what age or level?)
Motivation and attention-getting becomes more necessary
Training people to use the technology - how quickly can they learn and be trained?

Formal Definition of HCI:
A discipline concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of the major phenomena surrounding them

HCI vs. CHI
Some think we should put the Human first, not the computer, but sometimes you'll still see CHI. :)

Usability:
Usability is typically the goal human-computer interaction methods
Technology is usable if:

• appropriate for the target users
• allows users to accomplish their goals

Usability ≠ user friendly

HCI & Educational Technology
•Usability not necessarily end-goal
–Goals may be educator’s (not student’s)
–Learning processes?
–Learning outcomes?
•Learner Characteristics Complicate Usability
–Prior Knowledge
–Personalized technology

Desirable Difficulty
–Desirable Difficulty
•Learning can be triggered by impasses (VanLehn1991; 1995)
–The “Assistance Dilemma” (Koedinger& Aleven, 2007)
•Key problem for interactive educational technology.
•When to let students struggle, when to provide support
•How much struggle is productive may be personal

Prior Knowledge
•Expertise Reversal (Kalyugaet al., 2003)
–Experts: Visual representations
–Novices: Need plenty of textual instruction
•Expert knowledge structures (e.g., Chi et al, 1981)
–Experts have conceptual knowledge organization
–Integrate incoming information
•Self-Regulated Learners
–Hypermedia requires self-regulation (e.g., Azevedoet al, 2004)

Personalization
•Increases HCI & usability demands
•Intelligent tutors
–immediate feedback
–custom selection of content
–customized hints and help messages
•Automated knowledge analysis
–recommended materials
–provide customized prompts

HCI & Ed Tech: What Doesn't Change?
•Importnce of
–task
–users
–scenarios of use
•Useful methods for analysis
–cognitive walkthroughs
–heuristic analyses
–learner interviews & tests

For Next Week:
•2 chapters (one is short)
•Post questions on WebCT discussion area
–Due by 12 noon on day of class