Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

A range of ways of knowing and inquiring in design research are explored by providing comparisons of different traditions appropriate for empirical mixed method design evaluations. This is a second research methods course. Students with credit for this course when offered as IAT 888 Special Topics in Spring 2007 may not take this course for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

Who should take this course:
Graduate students in Interactive Arts and Technology, Psychology, Sociology, Computing, Communications, Engineering, Cognitive Science, Education or Contemporary Arts.

Pre-requisites and course enrolment:
Students should have an introductory course in research methods and/or research design. Students will benefit from having clearly defined research questions for their thesis work in place.

Topics:
This course builds a foundation for design evaluation research by providing an introduction to the epistemological origins of different inquiry traditions (e.g., empiricism, ethnography, and phenomenology) which can be used to evaluate human use of computer-mediated environments. This foundation will be used to analyze recent evaluations of design frameworks, concepts, prototypes and systems which use mixed quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry. While this is not a course in using any particular method, students will have the opportunity to plan and design evaluations using mixed methods which may include: analytical methods (e.g., heuristics evaluation, interface criticism), observational (field, lab), query (interview, survey) and experimental (controlled, quasi).

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Aims:
The course covers a range of ways of knowing and inquiring in design research by providing a comparison of different methodological approaches that can be used in design evaluation.  It will focus on understanding how to design mixed method research to explore and investigate how humans interact with computer-mediated environments.  The course is designed as a second research methods course.

The course has two main aims:
1. To help students make sense of the research they can be expected to encounter in published research in art and design, human computer interaction and technology studies in their graduate program and their professional practice.
2. To provide the basis for more intensive study using a mixed methods evaluation approach in the conduct of their own design oriented research.

Outcomes:
The overall learning goals for the course are for students to understand and be able to discuss different methodological traditions and to be able to critique and design mixed method evaluations of human use of computer-mediated environments.

• Understand and be able to explain the epistemological origins of several main traditions including: quantitative (e.g., post-positivism), qualitative (e.g., constructionism) and hybrid or mixed (e.g., pragmatism).
• Be able to critically analyze the methods and results of a variety of design evaluations found in published conference and journal proceedings in art, design, technology, psychology, and, sociology.
• Be able to develop and apply a set of criteria to choose an evaluation approach based on the design to be evaluated.
• Be able to identify and discuss the assumptions underlying the choice of a particular design evaluation approach.
• Be able to propose and design viable and rigorous research studies which focus on evaluating humans in the context of technology design and/or use.
• Understand the difference between a methodology and a method.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

RECOMMENDED READING: