Role play in HCI studies
Kristina Moroz-Lapin · Electronic workshops in computing · 2009
This paper discusses the education of human computer interaction from the perspective of role play activities. In one case, role play is used in team projects where students are encouraged to act as persons with certain responsibilities and motivations. In the second one, roles play can be observed in discussion and debates format that is used in the undergraduate classes and graduate seminars. The multidisciplinary engineering, science and social underpinnings of human computer interaction challenge mostly technical-oriented software engineering students. In our opinion, social aspects are better assimilated by the students when teaching methods established in social science education are used. We employ these methods in traditional lecture-based teaching format and large student classes. The aim is to increase students’ involvement in seminar subject where active participants are both speakers and listeners. In our opinion, the role playing activity in the project work, discussions and debates intersperse engineering studies.