Course Goals: This is a project-based course emphasizing the usability development process: requirements development, activity design, information design, interaction design, documentation development, formative and summative usability testing. We examine human needs and capabilities as well as technological opportunities in the design and development of interactive systems. The course is run as a workshop with a large amount of in-class group work and a heavy emphasis on a collaborative semester project. There are quite a few homeworks and quizzes, discussions that are largely student-driven, and no lectures.

Please re-read the paragraph above before enrolling: Students have been known to read this paragraph, enroll in this course, and later to exclaim in surprising surprise: "There are no lectures, the professor is not teaching us, but instead expects us to learn!" or "There are so many homeworks/quizzes/activities!"  Please don't do this.

Collaborative Case-Based Learning (CCBL) Study: IST 413 is a laboratory for a National Science Foundation research project on collaborative, case-based learning. This is not a control group study where some students experience new approaches and others experience old, soon-to-be abandonned approaches. All students are getting our best teaching and learning efforts. You may volunteer to be an official participant in this study. Being an official participant means that your course data (anonymized) become part of our data set, and you will be invited to complete extra credit surveys from time to time through the semester. 

Students are not required to be participants in the CCBL study. Those who do not volunteer carry out all the same learning activities, however, their course data is not used in our study, and they do not complete the extra credit surveys. They will be offered other ways to earn extra credit.

Prerequisites: IST 331. 

Instructor: John M. Carroll <jmcarroll@psu.edu>, Information Sciences and Technology, IST Building 307H, 863-2476, Office hours: 9-12 Mondays, or by appointment.

GTA: Ishita Ghosh <ghoshishita@hotmail.com>, IST Building 316, Office hours: 2:30-4:00 on Thursday and Friday.

Class meeting time and place: In Spring 2009, this course meets Monday & Wednesday, 1:00 - 2:15 in IST 110.

Required Texts: There is a textbook and there will be a series of current readings throughout the semester.

Rosson, M.B. & Carroll, J.M. 2002. Usability Engineering: Scenario-Based Development of Human-Computer Interaction, San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.

Students are also responsible for any lecture, discussion, and class activity material.  I will make the lecture slides available.

Due Dates and Late Assignments: Work due on a particular day is due at the start of class on that day.  Sending email explanation for late work is appreciated, but it is not an acceptable substitute for submitting work on time in class.

Late homework assignments receive a grade of zero.

Group projects documents will be accepted late, but they will be penalized according to the following schedule: Documents submitted up to 24 hours late will be docked 10%; 48 hours 20%; and 72 hours 50%.  Except for well-documented and exceptional circumstances, assignments more than 72 hours late will receive a zero.

Class Attendance: Class attendance is required. You do not explicitly get points for attending class, but your course grade will be adjusted downward if you have a pattern of missing classes. The content of this course, from the perspective of quizzes, assignments, and grades, includes everything that comes up in the course of class activities and discussions. Thus, students should make every effort to attend all classes. Even if you read the book and the lecture notes, you have not covered everything. 

When you miss a class you are responsible for all assignments, projects, quizzes, and exams for the lecture and discussion that was missed. You are also responsible to check with all your team members to make sure that you know what to do and by when. Please do not come to see me or the GTA for a make up lecture, or a summary of class discussions. It would be wonderful to be able to coach each one of you individually, but there is just not enough time to be able to do this.  If you do miss a class, you will need to work with your fellow class members to obtain notes and other materials.

Note especially that the course includes graded classwork - quizzes and group activities - that cannot be made up at all if they are missed. Missing one quiz or one activity will not hurt your final grade too much, but to do well in this course, it is important to keep absences to a minimum.

Finally, group work is taken seriously in the class.  When you fail to attend regularly, you cannot contribute adequately to your team's collective efforts. You cannot get credit for the work that your group does in your absence. A pattern of absences is grounds for being fired by your group.

Questions about grading
There are many quizzes, homeworks, and semester project components in the course. Quizzes and homeworks are discussed immediately when they are submitted, so that you will know (and can question) the "right" answers immediately. We try to assign homework and quiz grade within two days. We will try to hand back semester project documents within one week.

All questions regarding grading must be resolved within one week of assignment of a grade.  Thus, you should monitor posted grades throughout the semester to be sure that your grade are recorded accurately, and so forth.  Note that while the instructor establishes grading standards, provides grading rubrics, and works with the GTA in grading, the GTA has the immediate responsibility for most grading. When you have questions about grading, it may be more efficient to first see the GTA who graded the work.

E-mail interactions
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 traffic, you should not expect to get a reply in less than 24 hours.  Thus, it would be unwise, for example, to ask questions in an email about a homework or project assignment within the last few hours before that assignment is due.  Please put "IST413" in the subject line of your email; that will help us identify your emails more quickly.

Academic Integrity:  According to the Penn State Principles and University Code of Conduct:

Any violation of academic integrity will be investigated, and where warranted, action will be taken.  For every incident when a penalty of any kind is assessed, a report must be filed.

In particular, all questions on written exams and all homework assignments must be completed individually. The small-group projects should be carried out without assistance from members of other groups.
 
Affirmative Action & Sexual Harassment:  The Pennsylvania State University is committed to a policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by Commonwealth or Federal authorities.  Penn State does not discriminate against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status.  Direct all inquiries to the Affirmative Action Office, 211 Willard Building.

Americans with Disabilities Act:  The School of Information Sciences and Technology welcomes persons with disabilities to all of its classes, programs, and events.  If you need accommodations, or have questions about access to buildings where IST activities are held, please contact us in advance of your participation or visit.  If you need assistance during a class, program, or event, please contact the member of our staff or faculty in charge.  Access to IST courses should be arranged by contacting the Office of the Senior Associate Dean, 002D Thomas Building: (814) 865-4457

An Invitation to Students with Learning Disabilities: It is Penn State’s policy to not discriminate against qualified students with documented disabilities in its educational programs.  If you have a disability-related need for modifications in your testing or learning situation, your instructor should be notified during the first week of classes so that your needs can be accommodated.  You will be asked to present documentation from the Office of Disability Services (located in 116 Boucke Building, 863-1807) that describes the nature of your disability and the recommended remedy.  You may refer to the Nondiscrimination Policy in the Student Guide to University Policies and Rules.