What does it mean to practice sustainable high quality science in human-centered computer science? This course is an exploration of the role, structure, and form of scientific practices in human-computer interaction (HCI) and visualization, particularly lensed through the perspectives of Open Science. In addition to the mechanisms and procedures for doing this mode of work, understanding the meaning of open science also necessitates understanding the socially situated nature of science (and computer science) more generally.
We will aim to answer fundamental questions (or more likely merely sketch the terrain of) driving contemporary scientific questions, such as: what is reproducibility or replicability? As computer scientists how should we approach conceiving of our as work as science? How does open science intersect with the varied epistemological backings held by different scientific communities? How should we approach open science goals in the age of AI?
To achieve this goal, this course is a semi-structured reading group, interlaced with a series of lightly structured assignments that service different aspects of this broad goal.
The central learning objective in this course is: at the end of the course students will be able to explain the structure of open science generally, and replication/reproducibility specifically, within their field and will be able to put this techniques into practice.
Instructor: Andrew McNutt
Contact: mcnutt@cs.ubc.ca
Class: 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. Tuesday/Thursday
Course forum: TBD
Office Hours: TBD
For each class, there will be some assigned reading that you should do before class. Classes will involve discussions of the readings (with some exceptions, such as for presentation), so it is important that you do the readings. The reading list is still to be determined, but to get a flavor for the kinds of things we’ll read
The set of assignments in the class are still in flight, but generally it will have something approaching the following structure
Specific rubrics will be made available for each of these assignments. Grades may be curved depending on class performance.
Policies for this course and expectations of students will be in accordance with UBC policies (e.g., disability, inclusion) and expectations more generally. This document is still under development and these policies will
Assignments operate on a soft/hard deadline schedule. Each assignment has a deadline, for which students should aim to submit the relevant work (soft deadline). However, each assignment may be submitted up to a week late with no penalty, after which no credit will be available (hard deadline). The exception to this policy is for readings which must be submitted by 7am before class.
Cheating is taken very seriously and students must be careful not to collaborate on assignments unless otherwise noted. Submissions are routinely checked by the course staff for signs of unauthorized collaboration. A student found cheating may incur penalities up to failing the entire course. Note: self-plagiarism is plagiarism, turning in work completed in other courses is viewed as plagiarism.
AI Policy: There is zero-tolerance for use of AI on written materials. While AI use for grammar and spell checking is acceptable, the content and syntax should be your own. The point of writing assignments in a class is to work on improving your ability to write. In analogy: you don’t take a fork lift to a gym, the point is to sweat. Students found to be using AI for written materials will receive zeros on the largest relevant parent assignment (e.g., using ChatGPT on the project proposal will yield a zero on the project). I especially do not care about reading AI generated reading responses and would much rather have fragmentary thoughts that show you engaged than content vomit.
In cases where projects involve human subjects, mistreatment of those subjects (such as by not following the tenets of the Belmont Report) will be viewed as academic misconduct.
It is our intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well-served by this course, that students’ learning needs be addressed both in and out of class, and that the diversity that the students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength and benefit. It is our intent to present materials and activities that are respectful of diversity: gender identity, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, and culture.
We also expect students to treat everyone in the class (including the teaching staff) in a respectful manner.
NOTE: This syllabus is meant to serve as an outline and guide for our course. The staff may modify it with reasonable notice to you. The staff may also modify the course schedule to accommodate the needs of our class. Any changes will be announced in class and noted via email.