CPE/CSC 581-S07 Usability and Knowledge Management Syllabus

General Information

• Course Description:

  Note: Since I am on a reduced teaching schedule this quarter, this course combines elements of the usual CSC 581 course with the CSC 486 Human-Computer Interaction course.

  The purpose of this course is to examine the way computers can help humans deal with knowledge more effectively. In particular, it will explore various aspects of the usability of knowledge in computer-based repositories. Textbooks, for example, are traditional repositories of knowledge, relying on text, diagrams, and images as the most often used knowledge presentation techniques. Computers offer several additional venues to present knowledge, such as multimedia (e.g. videos), non-static diagrams and images, and interactive exercises and models. At the core of this course is the investigation of fundamental methods for dealing with knowledge through computers, and the analysis and evaluation of specific computer-based tools for the acquisition, organization, and presentation of knowledge. This course combines the most essential aspects of CSC 486 "Human-Computer Interaction Theory and Design" and CSC 581 "Computer Support for Knowledge Management"; see http://www.calpoly.edu/~acadprog/coursedescr2005-07.html for the catalog entries for those courses. It consists of 3 lecture and 1 laboratory unit. Prerequisites are CSC 480 or CSC 484, or consent of the instructor.

• Meeting Times and Places:

  Lecture: Tue, Thu 4:40 - 6:00, Lab: 6:10 - 7:30; rooms 14-232B and 14-301 will be available during lecture and lab times

• Instructor:

  Dr. Franz J. Kurfess
  Office hours: Tue, Thu 2:10 - 3:00, Wed 2:10-5:00
  Office: 14-218, Phone 756-7179, Email fkurfess@csc.calpoly.edu

• Goals and Objectives

  The goal of the course is to understand important problems, challenges, concepts and techniques dealing with the organization and management of knowledge with the help of computers, with particular emphasis on usability aspects. Upon satisfactory completion of this course, students are expected to:

  • Understand the fundamental concepts in the study of knowledge and its creation, acquisition, use and management.
  • Appreciate the role and use of knowledge for individuals, as well as organizations and institutions.
  • Be familiar with the basic concepts, methods, techniques, and tools for the support of knowledge management through computer-based systems.
  • Understand the components and functions of knowledge management systems.
  • Examine and evaluate the usability of systems intended to help humans deal with knowledge.
  • Be prepared for further study in knowledge generation and transfer, and in the architecture and representation of knowledge.
  • Critically evaluate current trends in knowledge management and their manifestations in business and industry.

  In order to achieve these goals, students learn how to analyse, design, implement and evaluate programs and systems of varying complexities. The core aspect of these systems is to offer support to "knowledge workers", in particular with respect to the ever-increasing amound of knowledge and information that becomes available and necessary for many tasks. This includes support for traditional tasks related to knowledge management, such as the grouping of related documents into categories or hierarchies, the generation of dictionaries and ontologies, or the construction of knowledge networks through references and citations.

  In addition, methods and techniques that rely heavily on features offered by computer-based systems can be used to augment the human-centered tasks. Examples for such approaches are collaborative filtering, automatic content- and usage-based categorization of documents, the categorization of non-textual information such as images, drawings or sound, or the extraction of relevant keywords from documents.

  In contrast to knowledge-based systems, where computers are actively involved in the manipulation and generation of knowledge, the goal here is to use computers as tools for activities mainly performed or at least directed by humans.

  Students will apply usability evaluation methods to knowledge management systems in order to decrease the effort and time humans have to invest to utilize these systems. The emphasis here lies in the examination of user interaction methods and paradigms that enhance the effective use of knowledge. This may require evaluations of knowledge organization and presentation methods, in addition to the usual user interaction paradigms.

Textbooks and Course Material

To the best of my knowledge, there are no suitable textbooks available for this course. Most of the books and articles on "knowledge management" are written with a business perspective, usually concentrating on the role of knowledge in corporations. Textbooks on Knowledge-based Systems and Artificial Intelligence mostly concentrate on the direct representation and manipulation of knowledge through computers, rather than on the support that computers can offer for human-centered knowledge management.

Further material will be made through pointers to relevant Web pages. A collection of interesting items that I have encountered over the last few years is available as a Google notebook KM Nuggets. You may find additional material in the respective Google notebooks for the AI and HCI classes: AI Nuggets and HCI Nuggets.

Lecture Notes

The files with the PowerPoint slides will be made available via the course schedule.

Course Administration

Blackboard will be used for some administrative aspects of this class, such as distribution and submission of assignments, and for grading. We will also explore alternatives to Blackboard, in particular for the team projects and research papers.

Class Participation

This class will rely on interactive classroom activities, such as participation in group discussions, presentation of ideas and results (from textbook, class or assignments), leading discussions on selected readings, providing written summary materials (e.g. via Blackboard or other tools), etc. Success in this class depends on regular attendance, preparation of assigned readings and homework exercises, as well as a level of professionalism in the class presentations. Peer evaluations of papers and presentations may be included as part of the grade. We will try to establish more concrete evaluation criteria for participation in class.

Policy on Late Work and Extensions

My general policy for late submissions is a penalty of 10% per late business day.

Much of the graded work in this class depends strongly on presentations. Once a team or individual has committed to a date for the presentation, extensions or changes in the dates will only be permitted for documented medical or documented emergency reasons. With my approval, students may swap presentations.

Grading Policy

This table gives an overview of the calculation of the grades. I reserve the right, however, to change the formula used. Please note that the project consists of several parts which will be evaluated separately. The project will be done in teams, and the performance of the team as a whole will be graded unless there is a clear disparity in the contributions of the individual team members. Should this be the case, I might ask for additional documentation like work sheets, email messages, or draft copies of documentation to evaluate individual contributions.