Course Goals
This course presents basic components of human-computer interaction concepts, theory, and practice.  It takes a user-centered perspective, rather than a system-centered one.  We look at bridging the gulf between needs and requirements of human users and capabilities and limitations of technology.  We discuss how to forge communication between users and system developers.  We base the course on a dichotomy between user interaction design and user interface software design.  The course covers iterative development of user interaction design, including user requirements gathering, with emphasis on usability goals; user analysis; user task analysis; design, rapid prototyping, and user-centered formative evaluation.  Iterative development activities are practiced in the context of several team projects. 

Professor
Dr. H. Rex Hartson, Computer Science, McBryde 634, hartson@vt.edu

Office Hours
Tuesday and Thursday at 11:00AM-noon
Tuesday and Thursday at 3:30-4:30PM
and by appointment

Please observe these office hours. 
Please leave me a note if you need to see me and cannot meet at these times.

Class meeting times
Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30-10:45AM in McB 126

GTA

David Tessendorf, dtessend@vt.edu
Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday at 9:30 - 11:30am in McB 133 and by appointment

Prerequisites
CS 3724 has a policy of mandatory attendance on the first- and second-days of class.  Students not attending either of these classes will be dropped from the class roll.

The prerequisite will be enforced rigorously. Each student must sign a prerequisite form and hand it in, in order to remain enrolled in the course. The following prerequisite is new for fall and was announced last year:

• CS 2604 with >= C for CS majors and minors
• CS 2604 with >= C- for ECPE majors unless they have an ECPE signed form giving them an exception
• CS 2604 with > F for all others (e.g. PSYC who is not a CS minor)

Text
No required textbook is used.  Class discussion and activities rely heavily on class notes, which will be posted on the course web site (see the calendar).

Class Notes
Class notes will be put on the Web in advance of the class in which they will be covered by way of quizzes, discussions, and activities.  You can access each set of class notes via the calendar. It is mandatory that you bring these notes with you to every class.

Grading

Homework
There will be a small number of written homework assignments.  Each assignment will be posted on the Web and announced in class well in advance of its due date.  Assignments will not be "handed out" (as in a paper version). 

Quizzes
You control your own reading pace. Therefore you must decide how far ahead to read in order to prepare for what we will reasonably be able to cover in one class. Frequent quizzes, often unannounced, will be used to evaluate the reading assignments. See "Class Policies" section below regarding missed quizzes. There is no midterm in this course so you should treat the quizzes as a cumulative midterm.

In-class activities
This course is undergoing a paradigm shift from lecture-based delivery to an active learning approach. This means eliminating the usual classroom lectures using overheads which, in the past, students have found boring and monotonous.

Instead, you will read the material in the class notes on your own and class time will be used to supplement the reading. The objectives:

• it will be more interesting
• you will learn more

• read enough of the class notes to be prepared for what we cover in each class
• understand the material and be ready to discuss and put it into practice.

See "Class Policies" section below regarding missed in-class activities. You must bring your class notes to each class; we will use them to coordinate these activities.

In-Class Activity Grading Criteria
Although In-Class Activities are often done with teams, grading will be done on an individual basis, generally following these criteria:

• Presence or absence of the individual
• Preparedness, knowledge of material
• Care and correctness in applying it

Intangibles (getting into role, etc.)

Final Exam
The final exam is in-class, closed book, closed notes, and cumulative (See Calendar for date and time).

Class Policies

Reading assignments

You are responsible for keeping up with the reading of class notes per the schedule given in the course calendar.

You are also responsible for knowing where our class discussion are, with respect to the class notes, and setting your own reading pace to keep ahead enough to be prepared for class discussions and activities. There will be numerous quizzes, often unannounced, to assess how well you are keeping up.

All homework and project assignments must be turned in at the beginning of class on the due date.  All due dates for assignments are firm.  Any assignment that you do not hand in on time will be given a grade of zero. If you are not able to complete an assignment by the due date, you should hand in as much of it as you have done.  You must prepare your assignments electronically and hand in a hardcopy by the due date/time.  Assignments may not be submitted via email to either the professor or a GTA.

If the university is closed on an assignment due date, it will be due (in a box or pile outside Dr. Hartson's door) by 2 p.m. on the first day the university reopens.

While the professors establish grading standards and work with the GTA in grading, the GTA has the responsibility to grade homework and project assignments. Therefore, when you have questions about grading of these, you should first see the GTA who graded the work.  All questions regarding grading must be resolved within one week of return of the graded work.  Keep all graded work until the end of the semester.  In case your grade is incorrectly recorded, you will need to bring in the graded original in order for the recorded grade to be changed. 

The professor and GTA will make every effort to answer your email to them in a timely fashion.  However, due to the volume of email with classes of this size, you should not expect to get a reply in less than 24 hours.  Many times you may get a reply in less than 24 hours, but you should not count on it (e.g., to answer questions about a homework or project assignment within the last few hours before that assignment is due).  Please put "CS3724" as the subject line of your email; that will help us identify your emails more quickly. 

Students sometimes ask for some extra credit work near the end of the semester in an attempt to bring up poor grades.  No extra credit work will be given to any student on an individual basis. However, occasionally an extra-credit opportunity might be offered to the whole class. 

Occasionally you might need to be absent from class for a good reason, and it might cause you to miss a quiz and/or an in-class activity. Attendance is not required for the course, nor does it play a direct part in the course grade. However, if you are absent for a quiz, or if your turn comes up for an in-class activity when you are absent, you will get a grade of zero for that quiz or activity.

You are expected to remain through the entire class period, as leaving early is disruptive and disturbs everyone else in the classroom.  If you know in advance that you must leave early, you are to clear it with the professor before class begins, and then to sit as near the door as possible and leave quietly. "I'm sleepy" is not a valid excuse for leaving early :>) 

Because of the large number of students in each class, professors and GTAs will not be able to reply to individual email requests for final exam and/or class grades at the end of the semester, but grades will be posted (on the Web and otherwise). 

Special Needs
If you have any special needs because of disabilities, please contact your professor during the first week of classes.