WORKSHOP THEME

The workshop aims at bringing together researchers and practitioners working in the fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and e-learning. Within the intersection of these disciplines, we will discuss the participants' work and thoughts on the relation between HCI and e-learning. Our aim is to identify areas where the two disciplines may benefit from one another.

Until now reports on e-learning have tended to focus on the technical qualities of the systems and the social potential of electronically mediated education, whereas reports on actual teaching successes have been somewhat rare. When examining the possible non-success of e-learning, one important factor worth exploring is the design of systems (or the adaptation) to support learning within definite cultural traditions, e.g. pedagogical approaches typical for the Scandinavian countries. Thus in a broad sense the workshop will deal with cultural considerations for HCI-design and with the utility of explicit models of pedagogy and work. Another factor concerns the methods used to evaluate the effects of e-learning and the ways learning are measured. Here, the use of methods and measures from HCI may provide inspiration.

Conversely, research in and development of e-learning may inspire the HCI field. HCI includes direct work on user interfaces that support learning. In addition, most user interfaces will be used in work settings where informal learning of work practices and work tasks are crucial. Thus, support for learning seems to be essential in much HCI work. Another line of work in HCI that may be informed by work in e-learning concerns new criteria for usability. Such criteria, e.g. learnability and creativity support, have been pursued in e-learning and in the field of educational technology for years. A third point of inspiration concerns the design of systems that effectively scaffolds usersí activities and the use of scaffolding in user interfaces used for non-formal learning.

The workshop will explore these and other common themes between HCI and e-learning, including:

… The relation between system design and representations of work and pedagogy.

… Work on evaluation methods and measures.

… Limitations in current research intersecting HCI and e-learning.

… Reports on successful designs.

… The relation between theories of learning, theories of HCI, and the design of user interfaces for learning.

… Visions for designing creative e-learning environments.

Eventually, the position papers submitted to the workshop will determine which of the themes listed that will be selected for discussion.

GOALS AND OUTCOME

The goal of the workshop is to discuss work in HCI that addresses learning and to discuss work in e-learning that addresses human-computer interaction. It is our intention that the discussions will provide mutual inspiration and help establish a network of people interested in developing methods of design and evaluation from an interdisciplinary point of view

The tangible outcome of the workshop will be a companion web-site. In addition to publishing the position papers presented along with a summary of the workshop discussions, the web-site will be a gateway to the pre-workshop discussions and to the network that we hope to establish.

PLAN OF THE WORKSHOP

The duration of the workshop is half a day. Tentatively, the programme (4 hours) is as follows:

… Introduction to workshop.

… Discussion of position papers in two to four thematic groups of participants.

… Reports from the groups and plenum discussion of main issues.

… Discussion of how to continue the work.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants are accepted on the basis of their submitted position papers. We aim at accepting an equal number of individuals from the fields of e-learning and HCI respectively. We aim at a maximum of 15 - 20 participants.

Position papers are due August 20^th. Position papers should be submitted in PDF-format to Khornbaek@nik.ku.dk. Participants will be notified before September 20^th and subsequently the papers will be published online.

ORGANIZERS

Kasper HornbÊk is an assistant professor at the Natural Sciences ITC Competence Center at the University of Copenhagen. Current research includes information visualization, creativity support systems, and measures of usability.

Simon Heilesen is an associate professor in Communication Studies and the net-based Open Education programme Master of Computer-mediated Communication, both at Roskilde University. Current research includes the organisation of work in CSCL/W environments.

Lisa Gjedde is an assistant professor at the department for Curriculum Research at the Danish University of Education. Current research includes ICT and learning potentials in both formal and non-formal contexts.

Bo Fibiger is an associate professor in Media and Communication at Aarhus University. As a teacher he is connected to IT University West with distributed courses on ICT and Learning and IT, organisation and communication (under construction). Current research includes didactic design and learning in virtual environments.

Lone Malmborg is an associate professor and studio director of Creative Environments at Arts and Communication at Malm– H–gskola. Her research interests include Computer supported development of competence and Interaction design and virtual reality user interfaces.