Present: Jim Oliver, Derrick Parkhurst, Julie Dickerson, ChiuShui Chan, Steve Herrnstadt, Matt Heying, Pam Shill. Absent: Brian Mennecke
Report from the Student Body: On behalf of the students, Matt thanked JO for the meeting that was held on October 3 to discuss the relationship between VRAC, the HCI Presidential Initiative, and the HCI Grad Program. The students met that afternoon for their weekly meeting and discussed it further. They suggested a mentoring program for new students, more demo opportunities for HCI students throughout the year and some group projects for HCI students. Pam will begin setting up a mentoring program for new students and the student group will continue to discuss more specific demos and/or group projects that they would like to propose.
HCI Faculty Membership Criteria: HCI recently received requests from faculty to add HCI membership in which their connection to HCI was not obvious. It was decided that faculty requesting HCI faculty status in the future will be asked to send in, along with their resume or cv, a paragraph about why they are interested in HCI faculty status and how their research applies to the HCI program.
Eportfolios: Since the HCI handbook is clear about the learning objectives that should be covered in a student’s eportfolio, the issue is now reminding faculty that are serving on POS committees to review the eportfolio before the student graduates to be sure these learning objectives are shown and met and reminding students about this requirement. Students will be directed to the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching’s eDoc program if they are not comfortable creating their own website for the collection of their documents. The student group may also look into creating a template for those not familiar with creating their own website. Pam will work with faculty and students to be sure they are clear about this requirement. Pam will also create a checklist for graduates which will include turning in a copy of their thesis or dissertation and their eportfolio before graduation.
HCI Retreat Discussion Recap: Derrick reminded the group that during the HCI Retreat, several action items relating to the three priorities were determined and in some cases faculty volunteered to lead these action items. Pam will follow up with these faculty members to see what progress is being made and invite them to future meetings to discuss the action item.
Certificate Electives Update: Pam reported that after she emailed HCI faculty to request certificate electives for Spring 2007 to be offered to off-campus students, she was contacted by several faculty members with offers of their courses. ChiuShui offered to teach his Arch 534 Advanced Modeling course in the Spring of 2008, since it is only offered every other year.
Begin Curriculum Review Discussion: Jim Oliver said that the objective of the curriculum review would be to open up more course options for students. Matt reported that the students are interested in a required usability course. Since the discussion began with only a few minutes left in the hour, it will continue at another meeting.
The committee went into a closed session.
Next meeting will be on Wednesday, October 18 at 9 am in the VRAC Conference Room.