Curriculum

In their first year, PhD students in Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) will progress through a common set of experiences in terms of general coursework, a preliminary exam, and selection of an advisory committee chair.

Registering for Courses

PhD students in their first year must take the following sequence of courses unless they have already satisfactorily completed one or more these courses.

Course descriptions are available on the Courses page.

Students who have already completed one or more of the courses specific here should work with their advisory committee chair (or PhD Program Coordinator) to identify appropriate alternative credits for registration.

Completing the Preliminary Exam

All first-year PhD students are required to successfully complete a preliminary exam during the spring quarter of their first year in the program. The preliminary exam involves submission of a research paper and an oral presentation to HCDE faculty. The research paper will be submitted with the annual review materials that are due near the end of the winter quarter. The oral presentations will be scheduled to occur early in the spring quarter.

Selecting An Advisory Chair

PhD students may select their advisory committee chair as early as they wish, but must do so no later than one quarter after successfully completing their preliminary exam.

In planning their degrees, students are required to complete a minimum of 30 elective credits. This must include at least one course in each of the four thematic areas. Additionally, students who have not taken HCDE 518 (user-centered design) or equivalent course need to coordinate with the Director of Student Services to take this course in the evening MS program.

Students should work with the PhD Director on identifying an area of specialization and relevant courses to satisfy the remaining credits. Common areas of specialization for MS students are:

• Management issues
• Rhetorical analysis
• Research methods
• Statistics
• Usability
• Internationalization
• Human factors
• Cognition
• Linguistics
• Instructional design
• Graphic design

These sub-areas are not yet well defined or actually named, but such areas are usually fulfilled with courses from many departments in the university.

Remember that:

• All elective courses must have a course designation of 400 or above.
• Courses numbered 499 and some numbered 498 cannot be used toward the MS degree.
• Electives need to be approved by the student's Supervisory Committee.
• Registration in courses other than HCDE graduate-level courses (500-level and above) may be subject to space availability and other restrictions.
• A combined 8 credits of HCDE 596 and HCDE 599 may count in the Electives category, but these credits cannot substitute for an entire category.
• A maximum of 5 HCDE 601 (internship) credits may be applied to the MS.

The following courses have been used previously by HCDE graduate students to fulfill the Approved Elective requirement:

ADMIN 510 Integrative Administration
ANTH 469 Contemporary Ethnography
ANTH 554 Field Techniques in Ethnography
BCMU 510 Business Commun for Managers
BIHS 523 Biomed Ethics & Life Science
BIOC 405 Intro to Biochemistry BIOE
540 Problem Solving in Bioengineering
CEWA 434 Effects Waste Water
CEWA 577 Risk Assess for Envir Health Hazards
CHEM 303 Envr Trace Impact
CSCI 410 Computer Systems
CSCI 415 Artificial Intelligence
ECON 435 Natural Res Utilization & Pub Policy
EDC&I 436 Program Design CAI
EDC&I 480 Intro to Graduate Study in Ed Technology
EDC&I 481 Intro to Instructional Design
EDC&I 485 Workshop in Instructional Improvement
EDC&I 488 Ed Tech & Learning in Alternative Settings
EDC&I 506 Instructional Theory
EDC&I 580 Sem in Educational Communication and Technology
EDC&I 581 Management of Ed Technology Programs
EDC&I 583 Message Design
EDC&I 584 Instructional Graphics Comp
EDC&I 587 Design of Interactive Instructional Systems
EDC&I 589 Current Issues in Educational Communication
EDCI/HCDE 436: Design and Authoring of Computer-Aided Instruction
EDPSY 490 Basic Educational Statistics
EDPSY 501 Human Learning and Educational Practice
EDPSY 506 Instructional Theory
EDPSY 510 Educational Issues in Human Learning
EDPSY 516 Sem Learn & Think
EDPSY 520 Psychology of Reading
EDPSY 521 Psychology of Writing
EDPSY 590 Computers in Ed Res
EDPSY 591 Methods of Educational Research
EDPSY 593 Experimental Design & Analysis
EDPSY 594 Advanced Correlational Techniques
ENGL 441 The Composition Process
ENGL 547 Rhetoric
ENV S 476 Conservation Biology
ENV S 481 Environmental Law
ENVH 512 Hazardous Waste
GPHYS 425 NASA Science and Engineering Rsrch Sem
HCDE 403 Publication Project Management
HCDE 407 Computer Documentation
HCDE 455 User Interface Design
HCDE 511 Information Visualization
HCDE 517 Usability Testing
HCDE 520
HCDE Management
HCDE 521 Current Issues in (may be taken up to two times for credit)
HCDE 515/LIS 515: Ecological Information Systems
HRMOB 500 Management of Organizational Behavior
HRMOB 501 Human Resource Management
HRMOB 515 Performance Appraisal & Compensation
HRMOB 560 Negotiations
HSERV 511 Intro to Health Services
HSERV 519 Complnt Natl Hlth
I BUS 550 International Business Environment
IE/HCDE 455: UI Design
IMT 510: Human Aspects of Information Systems
IMT 530: The Organization of Information Resources
IMT 589: Information Architecture Summer Institute
INDE 599 - Humanitarian Logistics
INSC 598: SPECIAL TOPICS
IS 504 Information Systems for Management
IS 560 Systems Development I
IS 561 Systems Development II
IS 590 Topics in Info Sys
MICRO 410 Fundamentals of General Microbiology I
MICRO 441 Intro to Immunology
MICRO 447 Fundamentals of Immunology
MKTG 510 Product and Price Management
OPMGT 577 System Dynamics
OPMGT 590 Special Topics
PBAF 509 Public Organizational Theory
PBAF 525 Organiz Development in Public Agencies
PBAF 545 Systems Theory
PSYCH 421: Neural basis of behavior
PSYCH 460: Cognitive Neuroscience
PSYCH 462 Human Memory
PSYCH 468 Information Processing
PSYCH 471: Applied issues in cognition
PSYCH 504 Biological Basis of Development
Psych 507: Cognitive Psychology
PSYCH 513 Probability Theory & Nonparametric Stats
PSYCH 515 Modeling Data
PSYCH 541 Smnr Cognitive Proc
PSYCH 553 Smnr Social Psychology
QSCI 482 Statistical Inference in Applied Research
QSCI 597 Sem Quantitative Ecology
SOC 429 Practicum in Data Analysis
SOC 516 Organizations
SPCH 474 Communication, Conflict and Cooperation
UCONJ 501 International Health Education
URBDP 498: Emergency Management
URBDP: GIS
WOMEN 416 Sexist Language & Education