Charting the Landscape of HCI Education in Brazil

How Does HCI Research Affect Education Programs? A Study in the Brazilian Context

“…From an analysis of the collected data in context, i.e., taking into account the situation of Brazilian research over time, we concluded that the cross-fertilization between research and education has involved at least three factors: (i) the creation of a reference syllabus by an HCI committee sponsored by the country's CS society (in 2006) [1]; (ii) the publication of educational material in Portuguese (books, technical reports, and class notes and slides), including freely available material [12]; and (iii) research funding opportunities promoted by funding agencies [16]. The work presented here is only one of many possible steps in this area.…”

“…The last one targeted a broader audience, not taking into account specificities of the Brazilian context. This way, in 2013, aiming to deepen the analysis and, mainly, taking into consideration the specificities of the Brazilian context, we designed and applied a new survey [12], through which we collected information on the HCI courses at different levels (undergraduate, Master's, Doctorate, and others); where they were taught and whether they were mandatory; the course topics; the number of hours dedicated to each topic; the recommended bibliography; and the instructors' profiles. The results of these surveys were collected through online questionnaires and participants were invited via mailing lists and social networks.…”

“…The need for HCI textbooks written in Portuguese is a demand of the HCI Brazilian community. In the annual event to discuss HCI Education, WEIHC, this topic is one of the most frequently cited, considering the difficulties that our students have in reading material in English [12]. In addition, the government agencies that evaluate our undergraduate courses demand a certain number of titles to our courses (the best concept is associated to a certain quantity of volumes of 3 titles as basic references and 5 titles as complementary references).…”

How to Join Theoretical Concepts, Industry Needs and Innovative Technologies in HCI Courses? The Big Challenge of Teaching HCI

“…Such data reveals the need to expand the qualification in HCI in CS-related courses and graduate programs. Human-computer interaction is a mandatory discipline in many bachelor's degrees in CS-related programs in Brazil, as was shown by the survey responded the academic community in 2013 [3]. However, it is no surprise that professionals who got a degree in such majors are currently not working in UX/HCI, because not long ago HCI was not included in the CS programs syllabi and, consequently, previously advertised openings would not explicitly include a degree in CS as a mandatory prerequisite.…”

“…In 2012, another survey was conducted in response to an opportunity to collaborate with SIGCHI efforts on HCI Education [2], which targeted a broader audience, not taking into account specificities of the Brazilian context. Finally, in 2013, aiming to gather richer data while taking into consideration the specificities of the Brazilian context, a new survey was designed and applied [3]. It was distributed in Computer Science mailing lists and to researchers in other areas such as Psychology and Design, through the social networks of the survey creators.…”