You will learn principles and methods for designing human-centered AI
There is no official prerequisite for this course. This is a graduate-level, special topic course. For this reason, this class will not cover basic skills and methods in social science research, human-centered design, or data science/AI/machine learning. You will be expected to combine skills & methods that you already know with HAI principles and methods you will learn in the class in order to conduct projects.
Students are expected to attend every class. Every student should demonstrate ongoing engagement in class discussions. Absences will only be excused in situations following university policy (illness, religious holy days, participation in University activities at the request of university authorities, and compelling absences beyond your control) with proper documentation and timely notification (prior to class for non-emergencies).
Some weeks will involve in-class activities. In-class activities include discussion activities prepared by reading panels as well as worksheet activities prepared by the instructor and the TA. Once students complete the activities, the results will be reviewed by a set of other students or shared with the entire class. The completion and review of the activities will be completed during the class time.
You will be assigned 2-3 readings per week Course Outline. The readings are carefully chosen to provide knowledge of both foundational work in the field and up-to-date, cutting edge trends, methods, and studies. The weekly lectures will not cover the content of the readings, so it is very important that you take the time to read these materials and reflect on them.
As you read the materials, note down your thoughts and questions. Discussion questions can cover a range of topics, including useful takeaways and implications in terms of the methods and findings of the paper, observations about trends in the field, doubts or concerns about the findings and/or trends, next steps for researchers and practitioners, and how to apply takeaways and implications in the real world.
Before 6 pm CT on Thursdays, you will submit three discussion questions about the assigned readings via the provided Google Doc.You will then read all the questions submitted by your classmates and vote for the questions that you’d like to discuss in the class by 2 CT pm on Fridays. The reading panel teams will include the questions with the most votes in the class discussion. The TA will keep track of the questions that you submit each week. Submitting three thoughtful discussion questions for all weeks will result in a full score on the reading reflection assignment.
For the weeks with assigned readings, there will be brief, 5-10 minute long, open-book quizzes that ask basic knowledge and take-aways from the required readings. The quizzes will be easy. The quizzes are not meant to test your memorization ability; they are designed to ensure that you understand and can quickly retrieve foundational concepts from the readings. (Most questions will require verbatim answers taken from the readings.) The number of questions and allotted times will vary depending on the week’s readings, but it will not exceed 10 minutes. The quiz will take place as the first activity of the class (e.g., 3:01 pm - 3:06 pm/3:11 pm CT). Late submissions, in other words, quizzes that are submitted after 3:06 pm/3:11 pm CT, will not be considered, so please make sure that you join the class on time so that you can submit the answers on time.
You will be part of the reading panel once in the semester. The panel will consist of two students and will lead an in-class reading discussion for about one hour.
Reading summary (5 minutes): You will prepare 3-5 slides to summarize the papers. Please note 2-3 key concepts, findings, and/or take-aways that you want to ensure that your classmates remember.
Discussion and group activities (5 minutes): Then, you will pose three themes that cover all the readings for discussion and group activities. The panel should synthesize questions raised by classmates and draw out three themes. In your presentation, for each of the three themes, present the overarching theme and then list the questions submitted by your classmates on which the theme is based. The top-voted reading reflection questions may indicate topics that most students are interested in. Based on the themes, you will prepare google slides or google docs that can structure each student group’s discussion and activities; each group will use this google slides/doc to document their outcomes. The instructor will also provide examples from the last semester for the panel’s inspiration and provide feedback on the activities so please get in touch with the instructor early. Prepare your own thoughts in response to these questions to set the stage for the discussion.
After the panelists’ presentation, we will randomly divide the class into small groups (2-3 students in each) to discuss the topics following the panel’s instruction. Each group should make . Each group (not individual students) should make a copy of the panel’s google slides/doc, and use it to organize their discussion and write down their outcomes.
After the discussion, each group’s discussion outcome report will be randomly assigned to different students. Students will follow a rubric to evaluate the outcome report. All students will also provide reviews of the panel’s discussion activity guideline itself.
You will work on a term project. Detailed guidelines are documented in the Project Guidelines document.
We will conduct two teamwork peer evaluation surveys, one during the midterm period and the other at the final. In the survey, you will be asked to evaluate your teammates, including yourself, and your collaboration experiences. The survey results will be factored into the overall teamwork peer evaluation grade.
|
Assignments |
Percent of Total Grade / Points Possible |
|
1. Attendance & active participation |
10% |
|
2. In-class activities |
10% |
|
3. Reading reflections |
10% |
|
4. Reading quizzes |
5% |
|
5. In-class reading panel activity |
10% |
|
6. Project |
50% |
|
7. Overall teamwork peer evaluation |
5% |
A 94-100% A- 90-93% B+ 87-89% B 84-86% B- 80-83% C+ 77-79% C 74-76%
For detailed information about what grade is required for you to receive credit for this class, please refer to UT’s Graduate Catalog. For example, students in the School of Information are required to receive a grade of B or higher in order to include this course in their program of work toward graduation. In addition, the UT Graduate School requires a minimum grade of C or higher to count a course for credit.