Undergraduate
Courses
Undergraduate courses I'm currently teaching or have taught recently:
IAT 480 Special Topics: Sustainable Interaction Design: Sustainability in interaction design (SID) is a new concern in design that complements sustainable or ecological design by understanding the role and impact that the design of digital artifacts have in supporting people’s actions in respect to environmental sustainability. In relation to design practice, SID explores how the design of digital artifacts is impacted when considering issues of recycling, reuse, and renewal. The aims of the course are to develop an understanding of the role of interaction design in respect to sustainability with particular attention given to design concepts, research problems, design learning, and design practice. The course will aim to research and create research and practice-based resources for sustainable interaction design, explore interaction design projects that are sustainable in concept, and explore design learning strategies for design programs like SIAT. This is an advanced student-led seminar/project course. See course blog at <http://sustainableinteractiondesign.wordpress.com/>
IAT 333 Interaction Design: Practice & Methods: Examines concepts of design practice and design methods for interaction designers. Students will learn design methods focused on understanding the people for whom we design, situations of use, participatory involvement and modes of conceptualization. These methods include design ethnography, personas, cultural probes, role-playing, scenarios, participatory workshops and prototyping. In addition to readings, students will engage in a major interaction design project.
IAT 334 Interface Design: The course provides students with an introduction to the design of human-computer interfaces, covers design methods, prototyping and evaluation of user interfaces. Issues of interactivity and its relation to human contexts and technological systems will be examined. The role of aesthetic, symbolic, affective and cultural factors will be assessed in concert with scientific and technological issues.
IAT 431 Speculative Design: Provides students with the opportunity to experiment with designing in various non-normative frameworks in design. Students will examine design’s potential for cultural, social and ethical critique of emerging technologies and society. The thematic investigation will change each year and will focus on various topics including sustainability, design development, social design, and
globalization and localization.
IAT 480 Special Topics: Sustainable Interaction Design: Sustainability in interaction design (SID) is a new concern in design that complements sustainable or ecological design by understanding the role and impact that the design of digital artifacts have in supporting people’s actions in respect to environmental sustainability. In relation to design practice, SID explores how the design of digital artifacts is impacted when considering issues of recycling, reuse, and renewal. The aims of the course are to develop an understanding of the role of interaction design in respect to sustainability with particular attention given to design concepts, research problems, design learning, and design practice. The course will aim to research and create research and practice-based resources for sustainable interaction design, explore interaction design projects that are sustainable in concept, and explore design learning strategies for design programs like SIAT. This is an advanced student-led seminar/project course.
IAT 335 Analysis of Design Situations: Examines participatory and contextual design as a practice for analyzing and gathering requirements for design situations as they relate to the range of technologies, and organizational processes and practices. This course places teams in semester long projects with industry and external partners. Past partners have included Business Objects, Coast Capital Savings Credit Union, City of Surrey, Surrey District School Board, Sea Breeze Power Corporation.
Graduate Courses
Graduate courses I'm currently teaching or have taught recently:
IAT 835 Sustainable Interaction Design: Sustainability in interaction design (SID) is a new concern in design that complements sustainable or ecological design by understanding the role and impact that the design of digital artifacts have in supporting people’s actions in respect to environmental sustainability. In relation to design practice, SID explores how the design of digital artifacts is impacted when considering issues of recycling, reuse, and renewal. The aims of the course are to develop an understanding of the role of interaction design in respect to sustainability with particular attention given to user routines, technologies, and design opportunities. See the course wiki IAT 835 Wiki
IAT 801 Research Methods and Strategies: The course is an introduction to qualitative research practices. It explores epistemological orientations, research design, data collection and analysis, and validation in respect to ethnography, case study, phenomenology and grounded theory. The aim is to provide students the tools they need to critically evaluate various forms of qualitative analyses, and to generate appropriate qualitative work in the context of interactive art, interaction design and human-computer interaction.
IAT 832 Exploring Interactivity: Interaction design is in many respects the convergence of design practice and thinking, the effect and use of interactive technologies, and the understanding of the experience of interaction mediated through technology. The course is intended as an in-depth exploration of this convergence structured along three lines of inquiry that intersect and weave through the course: 1) What ideas and concepts have emerged to define interaction design? 2) What are the methodological foci in interaction design? 3) What related ideas have informed interaction design? The course is based on a combination of readings, seminar discussions and student presentations. A final paper will be assigned with an emphasis on investigating a topic through a literature review, identification of issues and research questions.
Introduction*
Various key factors are important in my approach to learning: open communication (peer-to-peer, as well as faculty to learner); facilitation of a rich learning environment inclusive of multiple perspectives of learning and learning resources; ‘learning in the world’ through trial and error and hands on projects that provide the chance for immediate application of theoretical concepts; and accountability and responsibility of learning at the level of the learner, i.e. the ability to ‘learn to learn’.
Essential strategies of learning that I employ are collaborative learning and co-constructive learning between instructor and learners. This results in learning experiences that model the continual process of learning in the workplace, studio, and research and scholarship. This is supported by designing learning activities that are analogous to the iteration process of learning, the experience of trial and error (allowing for failure and recognizing failure as well as success as valuable to learning), and the requirement to develop reflection in the action as well as reflection on theoretical concepts through application. Teamwork and peer-based activities are the norm in the many courses I have facilitated. Assessment is seen as integral to learning and therefore has informal as well as formal roles in learning, and is both formative and summative.
Cooperative Learning
The main objective of collaborative learning is for learners to work together and use others as a resource, for sharing knowledge, “challenging each other and their own views, hence to serve as a source of puzzlement that stimulates new learning” (VonGlasersfeld, 1989). Critical goals inherent to the method include learning effectiveness, learner centeredness, and responsiveness to workplace needs. Toward that end collaborative learning encapsulates a variety of methodologies, one of them being cooperative learning. Cooperative learning is a well-established practice that has been proven to have positive effects on student achievement (Johnson, et al., 1991; Slavin, 1995; Springer, et al, 1997). In addition, studies on learners’ attitudes and levels of class attrition (Springer, et al, 1997) have pointed out the effectiveness of these constructivist approaches. The same can be said about Problem Based Learning (Lindkvist, 2002) and Project Based learning (Thomas, 2000; Barron, et al., 1998). The goal is to develop constructivist project-based learning environments. This is more easily achieved in upper division level courses however, even at the introductory and concept intensive lower division courses, I always attempt to apply learning through some form of project or problem-based learning.
The purpose behind cooperative learning is to design activities that motivate learners to work with each other and to see the value of sharing their views and knowledge. In the process of cooperative learning, learners potentially value the degree to which their peers learn as well as themselves (Slavin, 1995). Some educational research points to five essential elements that make cooperative learning activities work (Johnson & Johnson, 1991):
- Positive Interdependence, students need to perceive that they need each other in order to be able to complete the group's task.
- Individual Accountability, students should be responsible for their own learning, and be able to perform at a comparable level with or without the team.
- Promoting Interaction, students promote each other's learning by helping, sharing, and encouraging efforts to learn.
- Team skills, for a team to function effectively, its members need to use and practice leadership, decision-making, trust-building, communication, and conflict-management skills.
- Group Processing, groups need specific time to discuss how well they are achieving their goals and maintaining effective working relationships among members.
Assessment and Instructional Design
When learning is internalized, learners see their knowledge and skills develop from meaningful learning assignments. The integration of assessment and good instructional design forms the supporting structures for effective learning. Well articulated learning objectives communicate the knowledge and skills learners can expect as outcomes of the unit of study. They give purpose to instruction. I adopt them as the focus for the design of learning activities, experiences, materials, assessments, feedback techniques, and they are viewes as an inherent part of the learning environment seeking to provide consistency. As we might expect, assessment provides data on learner performance for grading purposes, however it equally provides information on the effectiveness of the instruction. Assessment and learning are intrinsically related, “… the assessment methods and requirements probably have a greater influence on how and what learners learn than any other single factor” (Boud, 1995). Consistent assessment that is inter-related with the learning objectives is a critical goal in my course design.
In regard to team-based learning, teamwork process is structured such that individual skills and accountability are practiced within a team context. In addition to learning activities and assessment of individual reflections of team outcomes, peer and self-assessment aid the integration of collaborative learning and assessment. Peer and self-assessment methods have been widely used as variables to ensure that either or both individual accountability and positive interdependence have been achieved in team-based assessments. It is important to scaffold the introduction of peer and self-assessment practices into a course since learners are simultaneously learning the material, however this in turn is an aspect of 'learning to learn'.
Improvements and ongoing learning research
I continue to research and develop my approach to learning through attendance and presentations at conferences. Publications and presentations range from research contributions in the area of cooperative learning, reflections on courses I’ve developed and delivered as case-studies, and learning in the field of design. These conferences have offered the opportunity to engage in further discussion and exchanges on issues of learning and education (see appendix 1).
*A more detailed discussion of issues within this teaching statement and a case study of a third-year design course I developed are included in Wakkary, R., Belfer, K., Team Assessment Guidelines: A Case Study of Collaborative Learning in Design, in Assessing Online Learning (ed. Patricia Comeaux), Anker Publishing Company – forthcoming 2004
References
Barron, B., Schwartz, D.L., Vye, N.J., Moore, A., Petrosino, A., Zech, L. & Bransford, J.D. (1998) Doing with understanding: Lessons from research on problem- and project-based learning. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 7, 271-311.
Boud, D. (1995). Enhancing Learning through Self Assessment, London: Kogan Page.
Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Smith, K. A. (1991). Cooperative learning: Increasing college faculty instructional productivity. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report. No. 4. George Washington University
Lindkvist, C. (2002). Students' evaluation of a learning method: a comparison between problem-based learning and more traditional methods in a specialist university training programme in psychotherapy. Medical Teacher, 24 (3), 268, 5p
Slavin, R., E. (1995). Research on Cooperative Learning and Achievement: What We Know, What We Need to Know. Retrieved 23, March, 2002 from http://www.successforall.net/resource/research/cooplearn.htm
Springer, L, Stanne, M. E., Donovan, S. (1997). Measuring the Success of Small-Group Learning in College- Level SMET Teaching: A Meta-Analysis. Wisconsin Center for Education Research. Retrieved 10, March, 2002 from http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/cll/cl/resource/scismet.htm
Thomas, (2000). A Review of research on Project-Based: Executive Summary. Available: http://www.k12reform.org/foundation/pbl/research/summary.pdf
VonGlasersfeld, E. (1989). Cognition, construction of knowledge, and teaching. Synthese, (80), 121-140. In: Savery, Savery, J. R. & Duffy, T. M. (1995). Problem based learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework. Educational Technology, (35), 31-38. Retrieved 31, March, 2002 from http://crlt.indiana.edu/publications/duffy_publ6.pdf
