Instructor: Evan Golub
(egolub@glue.umd.edu)
Class website: www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2020/cmsc434
ELMS class space: umd.instructure.com/courses/1286267
Student Goals: Many!
For example:
• understand what is meant by "good design"
and the complexities of users and their tasks
• know guidelines and models as well as how
they can be applied to interface design
• know and have applied a variety of methods
for involving the user in the design process
• have experienced building applications
through various methods and systems
• know and have applied methods to evaluate
interface effectiveness and quality
• have sufficient background to apply your
training in future classes and industry
Assessment and Grading
The following is the default grading plan.
If changes are needed due to the circumstances of the semester
they will be well-announced and designed as best as possible to
not "hurt" anyone's grade as compared to this posted plan.
Team Project: 40% Projects will be done in groups of 4 students and have multiple graded phases and sub-phases. As each phase is assigned, its value towards the whole will be published as well. Phase 2 will be a serious implementation phase, and worth more, for example. Phases will have peer assessment that can impact individual student grades. The anticipated phase and sub-phase due dates can be seen in the high-level overview of this semester-long team project |
Exams: 40% There will be many smaller semester exams held online during class time roughly once every other Tuesday as well as one held online during the course common-final date which is on Monday, December 21st at 6:30pm The anticipated semester exam dates are Sep 22, Oct 6, Oct 20, Nov 10, Nov 24, and Dec 8 at your lecture time but any Tuesday might be an exam day with advanced notice, so please plan accordingly. At the end of the semester, based on how many points worth of questions we've had, I'll scale things to an "out of 100%" score for the 40% of your grade connected to exams. |
Homework, class participation, polls/quizzes: 20% Various things will contribute to this portion of the grade. Examples include homework assignments, active participation in class, specifically in the various exercises and activities done during class time, ELMS site polls and quizzes. You should anticipate that there will be around four homework assignments which will account for roughly half of the 20%, but the exact distribution here will be determined in part on the number of in-class and online exercises and activities. The anticipated homework due dates will be 11:59pm on Sep 13, Sep 27, Oct 11, and Dec 6. NOTE: Due dates were updated, and announced as they were. |
Letter grades are expected to follow the standard 90/80/70/60 cutoffs, with the edges of each range reserved for potential +/- scoring. |
Readings
• There will be some required readings posted to ELMS.
• All course "slides" (videos or slides+transcript)
are considered required readings.
Overview of Anticipated Topics (not in strict order of coverage)
• What is Human-Computer Interaction?
• How do Psychology and Psychopathology
impact design?
• How do Task Centered Design and User Centered
design differ and why are both important?
• How do we perform Evaluation and Qualitative Studies
on interfaces and systems?
• What are some key elements of Design Psychology?
• What are some key tools when Designing Visual Interfaces
(Grids, Standards, Style Guides, etc)?
• What are the different Representations that can be used for data?
• What design issues are different on the web or mobile
than the desktop/laptop?
• How do we perform Heuristic Evaluations?
• How can we make good Time Predictions for task completion?
• How do we communicate a product's goals to it's intended
audience?
Late Policy
Homework assignments, the short exams, and project phases are considered
"major grading events" by University definitions and policy.
Please realize that you are going to be given an extended period of time
in which to work on a given project phase or homework, and all submissions
will be done online.
The nominal policy is one self-documented excuse.
With the current context and things going on,
this semester the plan is to use the following more
generous policy with
an assumption of 4 HWs, 7 mini-exams, and a dozen or
so participation activities.
Academic Honesty
The bulk of the team project phases are group assignments,
and each member of the group is expected to accurately
represent their contribution. The peer reviews and role
discussions are individual elements and must be written
by the individual students.
Any attempts to circumvent deadlines or rules will be
considered incidents of academic dishonesty.
Homework assignments, polls, and quizzes, etc. are individual
activities. Students may not discuss these with anyone
other than the instructor or teaching assistants unless
otherwise specified within the homework description.
In cases where a homework assignment involves interviewing
potential users, details will be given in class as to how
these users may be selected, and what can and can not be
discussed with these users.
Exams are individual, closed book, closed note, closed technology
other than the browser window in which you will be taking the exam
and a student may not look at another student's exam, try to contact
others, or refer to any notes, during the exam period, and may not
give assistance to others during their exam period.
Any student violating any of these or general University academic
honesty rules will be reported to the
Office of Student Conduct
for review and potentially a hearing.
After a report is submitted by an instructor, the case is evaluated
by the office and previous cases have resulted in penalties such as
an XF grade in the course (the default penalty),
dismissal from the university,
or even degree revocation.
Religious or University Absences
It is your responsibility to inform the instructor in writing and
within the first two weeks of the semester of any intended absences
for religious observances any time during the semester that could
cause you to miss class or a deadline.
The same is true for any official University functions in which you
are required to participate.
Disability Accommodations
Any student eligible for and requesting reasonable academic accommodations
due to a disability is requested to provide, to the instructor in office
hours, a letter of accommodation from the Office of Accessibility and
Disability Services (ADS) within the first two weeks of the semester.
University-Wide Items
University-wide
course policy information of course applies
as well.
There will also be
course evaluations
for student feedback
that I and the department and the faculty in general
take seriously.
Towards the end of the semester, students can visit
www.CourseEvalUM.umd.edu
to complete their evaluations.
This syllabus is subject to minor updates. Any update will be well announced and discussed.