Workshop: Teaching Computational Interaction

Organisers Antti Oulasvirta, Thomas Langerak (Aalto U), Patrick Ebel (HPI), Philipp Wintersberger (IT:U)

Motivation Teaching computational interaction (CI) must be a core part of any HCI curriculum. It enables students to understand how current technology works, design their own algorithms, and conduct research in this direction. However, no consensus exists on how to teach CI, which leaves the field boundaries undefined. Creating computational interaction materials consumes extensive time; CI covers a broad range of topics and the lecturer lacks expertise in important subsets. Institutions worldwide duplicate this effort. The organizers have created an open science living curriculum that defines the field by establishing what should be taught in CI and how to structure the course. This workshop releases the repository to the public, gathers feedback, launches a call-to-action for contributions, and sparks discussion on what it means to teach CI.

Call for Participation: We invite attendees to join our workshop on teaching computational interaction (CI). This workshop releases an open science living curriculum that defines what should be taught in CI and provides course materials. By establishing a curriculum, we define the field boundaries and create a shared resource that reduces duplicated effort across institutions. The workshop launches with a presentation of the curriculum, followed by small group discussions where participants provide feedback on modules, suggest new content, and discuss teaching approaches. We conclude with a call-to-action and tutorial on how to contribute to the living curriculum. We seek participants who teach or plan to teach CI, conduct research in this area, or have expertise in specific CI topics. Participants are encouraged to complete a brief survey when registering (5-10 minutes) covering current CI teaching practices, challenges, resource gaps, and curriculum priorities. Optionally, participants can additionally submit a brief position statement (250 words) if they want to contribute a deeper perspective, but it’s not required. Following the workshop, organizers will publish an ACM Interactions article based on survey results and workshop discussions, and update the curriculum based on participant feedback. The repository remains open for ongoing contributions from the community.