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COURSE GUIDE DESCRIPTION

You must read this Course Guide carefully from the beginning to the end. It tells you briefly what the course is about and how you can work your way through the course material. It also suggests the amount of time you are likely to spend in order to complete the course successfully. Please keep on referring to the Course Guide as you go through the course material as it will help you to clarify important study components or points that you might miss or overlook.

INTRODUCTION
CBCH4103 Human Computer Interaction is one of the courses offered by Faculty of Information Technology and Multimedia Communication at Open University Malaysia (OUM). This course is worth 3 credit hours and should be covered over 15 weeks.

COURSE AUDIENCE
This course is offered to all students taking the Bachelor (Hons) Information Technology, Bachelor (Hons) Information Technology and Management, and Bachelor (Hons) Multimedia Communication programmes. This module has been designed specifically to help students understand the vital concepts of Human-Computer Interaction. As an open and distance learner, you should be able to learn independently and optimise the learning modes and environment available to you. Before you begin this course, please confirm the course material, the course requirements and how the course is conducted.

STUDY SCHEDULE
It is a standard OUM practice that learners accumulate 40 study hours for every credit hour. As such, for a three-credit hour course, you are expected to spend 120 study hours. Table 1 gives an estimation of how the 120 study hours could be accumulated.

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Table 1: Estimation of Time Accumulation of Study Hours STUDY HOURS

STUDY ACTIVITIES

Understanding the course contents and initial discussions Reading 3 text units and completing the suggested exercises, with a rate of 20 hours per exercise Attending 5 tutorial sessions, with a 2 hour per session rate Access to websites Completion of 1 assignment with the rate of 15 hours Revision
TOTAL STUDY HOURS ACCUMULATED

5 60 10 12 15 18 120

LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this course, learners should be able to: 1. 2. 3. Explain the importance of the Human-Computer Interaction, and its relationship with other fields. Analyse all suitable technologies that can be applied to the field of HumanComputer Interaction. Apply the principals and related methodologies to the designing and development of protocols, and evaluate the development of a particular system.

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COURSE SYNOPSIS
This course is divided into 10 topics. The synopsis for each topic is presented below: Topic 1: What is HCI? This topic discusses the definition of HCI - goals, importance in living context, and its relationship with other fields. Human Factor: Physical This topic discusses the aspect of the human factor in HCI. To enable a usable computer system to be designed, the human aspect from the physical perspective such as the abilities and limitations of human senses including sights, sounds, and the human touch, the importance of visualisation, and the users touch in interacting with the computer, needs to be understood. This knowledge can then be used during the process of designing the interface for users to enable interaction with the computer. Human Factor: Mental This topic explains how information is represented in the human memory. There is some information that can be remembered for a longer duration, and others which are never remembered. This topic is important in helping students understand the means of how users use their minds to think and learn. Social Aspect In this topic, the social aspect in communication is explained. The social aspect also contributes towards the growth of technology especially those involving teamwork methods. The process of understanding this aspect is an important consideration during the development of a particular system. Input Technology Topic 5 discusses the various technologies and tools or devices that can be used to transform the information that has been provided by users into the type of data that can be processed by the computer. These input devices can be used as interaction medium between humans and computers. However, each of these devices has its respective advantages and weaknesses, depending on the system that is going to be designed.

Topic 2:

Topic 3:

Topic 4:

Topic 5:

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Topic 6:

Output Technology Output technology is the main focus of this topic. It revolves around the technology and devices that function to transform electronic information into a form that can be understood by humans, either through visuals, sounds, or both. The ability of humans to process the visualised information and understanding it depends on the quality and accuracy of the information representation method. The ability to choose the appropriate device or technology is important in designing the system. Conceptual Models and Interaction Styles This topic discusses the conceptual models and interaction styles between the user and the computer. The conceptual model provides an initial visualisation pertaining to the behaviour and usage of the system. This enables the detailed designing of a system. The system developer should ensure that the conceptual model is understood by the user to enable them to form an appropriate mental model. The developer should also have the ability to choose the interaction styles that best fit the conceptual model that has been designed, and is able to handle all related interaction issues. Windows System This topic discusses the elements in the Windows System, and all issues related to Windows management, as well as approaches and various solution methodologies that are used in different system environments. The developer can use this knowledge to plan the design of the system interface that is going to be developed. What is The User Centered Design? In Topic 9, the discussion revolves around the basic principals of user centered designs, that is, the system development approach that focuses on the user. A survey is conducted on a number of traditional System Development Life Cycle models, with the focus on highlighting the weak points in a system that renders it unusable. A number of system development life cycles based on this approach are also introduced in this topic.

Topic 7:

Topic 8:

Topic 9:

Topic 10: Analysis on User Needs and System Requirements This topic explains the issues and important elements in the phase of requirement specifications, including the variety of users and their influences on system requirements. An introduction to the different types of requirements that have to be present in these specifications

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and the techniques used to gathering and interpreting information related to these requirements is also discussed. Topic 11: Prototype Development The discussion in topic 11 touches on the development of prototypes, which is one of the main principals of user centered designing. This topic focuses on the types of prototypes, techniques that can be used to swiftly develop a prototype, as well as some guidelines in designing the interface.

TEXT ARRANGEMENT GUIDE


Before you go through this module, it is important that you note the text arrangement. Understanding the text arrangement should help you to organise your study of this course to be more objective and more effective. Generally, the text arrangement for each topic is as follows: Learning Outcomes: This section refers to what you should achieve after you have completely gone through a topic. As you go through each topic, you should frequently refer to these learning outcomes. By doing this, you can continuously gauge your progress of digesting the topic. Self-Check: This component of the module is inserted at strategic locations throughout the module. It is inserted after you have gone through one subsection or sometimes a few sub-sections. It usually comes in the form of a question that may require you to stop your reading and start thinking. When you come across this component, try to reflect on what you have already gone through. When you attempt to answer the question prompted, you should be able to gauge whether you have understood what you have read (clearly, vaguely or worse you might find out that you had not comprehended or retained the sub-section(s) that you had just gone through). Most of the time, the answers to the questions can be found directly from the module itself. Activity: Like Self-Check, activities are also placed at various locations or junctures throughout the module. Compared to Self-Check, Activity can appear in various forms such as questions, short case studies or it may even ask you to conduct an observation or research. Activity may also ask your opinion and evaluation on a given scenario. When you come across an Activity, you should try to widen what you have gathered from the module and introduce it to real situations. You should engage yourself in higher order thinking where you might be required to analyse, synthesise and evaluate instead of just having to recall and define.

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Summary: You can find this component at the end of each topic. This component helps you to recap the whole topic. By going through the summary, you should be able to gauge your knowledge retention level. Should you find points inside the summary that you do not fully understand, it would be a good idea for you to revisit the details from the module. Key Terms: This component can be found at the end of each topic. You should go through this component to remind yourself of important terms or jargons used throughout the module. Should you find terms here that you are not able to explain, you should look for the terms from the module. References: References is where a list of relevant and useful textbooks, journals, articles, electronic contents or sources can be found. This list can appear in a few locations such as in the Course Guide (at References section), at the end of every topic or at the back of the module. You are encouraged to read and refer to the suggested sources to elicit the additional information needed as well as to enhance your overall understanding of the course.

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge in basic concepts of Information Technology would be an advantage for students taking this course.

ASSESSMENT METHOD
Please refer to my VLE.

REFERENCES
Preece, J. et. Al (1998). Human-Computer Interaction, Prentice-Hall. Faulkner, C. (1998). Human-Computer Interaction, Prentice-Hall.

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