Electives

In planning your degree, students should focus on identifying an area of specialization and relevant courses that can help them obtain that specialization. Some students have chosen topic areas such as

  • Management issues
  • Rhetoric
  • Research methods
  • Statistics
  • Usability
  • 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 or Ph.D. degrees
  • Electives need to be approved by your 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.

Courses used previously taken by HCDE graduate students to fulfill the Approved Elective requirement:

ADMIN 510 Integrative Administration
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
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
ENVH 512 Hazardous Waste
ENV S 476 Conservation Biology
ENV S 481 Environmental Law
GPHYS 425 NASA Science and Engineering Rsrch Sem
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
IS 504 Information Systems for Management
IS 560 Systems Development I
IS 561 Systems Development II
IS 590 Topics in Info Sys
MKTG 510 Product and Price Management
MICRO 410 Fundamentals of General Microbiology I
MICRO 441 Intro to Immunology
MICRO 447 Fundamentals of Immunology
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 462 Human Memory
PSYCH 468 Information Processing
PSYCH 504 Biological Basis of Development
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
HCDE 403 Publication Project Management
HCDE 406 Understanding Research in HCDE
HCDE 407 Computer Documentation
HCDE 408 Public Documents
HCDE 409 Writing for Publication
HCDE 420 Intro to Tech as a Social & Political Phenom
HCDE 425 Technology Assessment Methods & Analysis I
HCDE 455 User Interface Design
HCDE 511 Visual Media in HCDE
HCDE 516 Research Methods in HCDE
HCDE 517 Usability Testing
HCDE 520 HCDE Management
HCDE 521 Current Issues in HCDE (may be taken up to two times for credit)
UCONJ 501 International Health Education
WOMEN 416 Sexist Language & Education

Non-HCDE Electives

Below is a list of courses from outside of the Human Centered Design & Engineering department that our graduate students have taken in the past and found valuable. Please keep in mind that the nature and the content of these courses may change over time. This list should be used as an unofficial guide for you as you search for elective classes from outside the department. The following course descriptions have been provided by students.

ADMIN 510
A 15 credit summer intensive course covering most aspects of business environment including accounting and buziness strategy. Highly useful for anyone seeking a career in industry.

ANTH 469 Contemporary Ethnography
Ethnographic research history, present work, and envisioned future, with an emphasis on recognizing the effects of colonialism, racism, sexism, and other exclusionary contexts. Requires extensive reading, writing, thinking, and engagement with the material and instructor and classmates.

BIOEN 599
A two quarter course overviewing what we know about the brain and how that could apply to education if we could ever get anybody to do the research.

COM 542
Historical Studies of Communication Technology from the User's Perspective.

EDCI/HCDE 436: Design and Authoring of Computer-Aided Instruction
It was a great crash course into Flash and online instructional design. I learned a lot about Flash, and it's great to put on my resume. I came out with a nice portfolio piece at the end.

EDCI 551
Instructional Systems Design: Designing instruction to be cohesive, not on the level of individual lessons but more on the scale of entire curricula.

EDPSY 501
An overview of learning theories from the last 100 years. Mostly focusing on K-12 learners.

HSERV 590
A survey design in health sciences. Critical for anyone who will do a survey.

IE/HCDE 455: UI Design
The course entails one large project where you conduct user and design research and come up with a final UI design with specified system requirements. Great for collaborative work, UI design concepts, and user research. It complemented the information I learned in HCDE 517, UCD. I came out with a great portfolio piece.

HCDE 515/LIS 515: Ecological Information Systems
Interesting course if you are into the overall structure of a system. (System = an office, a university, etc. NOT a computer system.) Though I found the prof to be bored with the topic (she has taught it a number of years), and I wouldn't take it again if I had a chance. (I've heard the same thoughts from other students who have taken it during different quarters.)

IMT 510: Human Aspects of Information Systems
Taught by Raya Fidel

IMT 530: The Organization of Information Resources
Taught by Mike Crandall)

IMT 589: Information Architecture Summer Institute
Taught by Mike Crandall, Samantha Starmer, and Dave Ballantine

INDE 599 - Humanitarian Logistics
Taught by Benita Beamon in IE. Conceptual, and thus hardly any math to scare away non-geeks. Excellent overview of logistics as a field and how it is different in the humanitarian sector.

INSC 572
Qual methods in information science by Karen Fisher. We should have our own qual methods for HCI, but until then, this is as good as you can get on campus.

INSC 598: SPECIAL TOPICS
Digital Culture, with Terry Brooks

IS 520
MBA-oriented examination of how mgrs will think of technology in workplace. This could be very helpful for HCI people who will need to couch work in biz terms.

PSYCH 421: Neural basis of behavior
An overview of the brain structures and how those may influence and structure behavior. Focus is on the neural pathways and chemical systems.

PSYCH 460: Cognitive Neuroscience
A focus on how the fields of cognitive psychology and neuroscience are coming together with an emphasis on current methodologies.

PSYCH 471: Applied issues in cognition
Application of memory, learning, problem-solving, decision-making to real-world situations. Did not personally care for grading system, which focused overwhelmingly in transcription and memorization of answers to pre-provided "focus questions". Recommend solely as an 'audit'.

Psych 507: Cognitive Psychology
A good overview of basic cog. psych. concepts for those who have little to no experience in the area. However, the course was co-taught by two professors who seemed to butt heads a lot. Also, the assignments were unclear and nearly all the students in the class were frustrated by the end of the quarter.

URBDP 498 - Emergency Management
Taught by Clinton-era FEMA official, Bob Frietag. Excellent intro to concepts and practices of EM.

URBDP - GIS
Taught very practically. There is some theory on maps and distorttion, but most of the course is focused on what ARCGis can do as a tool and how to make it do that.