A problem-based interface design and programming course

Abstract

This paper describes a course that addresses two important issues: introducing interface design and programming at the same time as helping students develop life-long learning skills. Many computer science programmes could well be based on the assumption that the computing world is still oriented towards batch processing. Yet, interactive systems are central to information technology and the interface to a system is very important. Our courses introduces students to this area. At the same time, programming tools for building interfaces are an excellent example of very fast changing technology. Our course explicitly aims to help students learn to how to learn about such tools. The course is based on the approach called problem-based learning: the need to solve an authentic problem drives the definition of appropriate learning goals and strategies. An unusual feature of the course is the inter-weaving of the learning about programming tools and the classic skills of user interface design. We describe our course and its evaluation in a class of over 100 senior year undergraduate computer science students.