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Current Students

PhD Curriculum - Effective Autumn 2018

Students enrolled in the HCDE PhD program complete at least 90 credits to earn their degree, including:

Students who enter the PhD program with a previous graduate degree relevant to HCDE can petition to have up to 30 credits transferred toward the doctoral program upon approval of Sean Munson, the Graduate Program Coordinator.

The HCDE doctoral curriculum has been designed with the expectation that students will enroll in HCDE 541 and HCDE 543 in autumn and HCDE 542 in winter of their first year. Students who find the need to tailor their program - e.g., to take advantage of one-time opportunities - may petition to take either HCDE 543 or HCDE 542 in their second year. If you find yourself considering making this petition, please discuss this with Kathleen Rascon and/or Sean Munson. All other foundational courses should be completed within the first two years of study. 

For questions about the appropriate course sequence, course planning and other academic advising related issues, contact the HCDE advising team for assistance.

PhD Course of Study Form

For details on sequencing of required coursework, critical information for first-year students regarding their year one curriculum, and electives, please see below.

Required Foundational Core Courses

Additional Requirements

  • HCDE 596: Directed Research (minimum total 10 credits)
  • HCDE 800: Doctoral Dissertation (minimum 27 credits)
  • Electives: minimum of 31 credits, including:
    • 4 additional Theory credits
    • 4 additional Methods credits
    • 12 credits toward your Concentration, to be developed collaboratively by the student and the advisor
    • 11 credits of free electives

Course of Study Guidance

The electives used to satisfy the research methods and theory requirements vary from student to student and are determined between the student and their advisor(s). We offer the following guidance for making decisions about whether a course would be appropriate for the research and theory requirements.

Also, each 548 is different, and so some 548s may count toward methods and others toward theory, depending on the topic, while others may be general electives. 

Methods

Courses used to satisfy the research methods requirement should support one or more of the following:

  1. Understand the many different research paradigms (e.g. experiments, ethnography, survey, qualitative, quantitative) that guide inquiry in our field
  2. Articulate and identify appropriate criteria, particularly strengths and limitations, of different methodologies for producing knowledge
  3. Formulate a question that is important in terms of the field and in terms of extending or critiquing theory
  4. Formulate a research design that is manageable and executable
  5. Articulate the practical and theoretical contributions that different methods can play in design research

A common question that arises is whether courses in a professional master’s program apply toward the research methods requirement. In general, they do not when they are focused on understanding or refining a particular design (e.g., HCDE 517 and 518 generally do not meet the methods requirement), but courses that focus on methods for the production of generalizable or transferable knowledge may. 

When there are similar courses in the MS and PhD programs (e.g., HCDE 519 and HCDE 545 for qualitative methods; HCDE 516 and HCDE 544 for experimental/quantitative methods). These master's courses generally do not count toward the PhD methods requirements, as they are designed and taught with different goals. If you have already taken an HCDE MS course (e.g., because you completed our master’s at HCDE before joining the PhD program), though, it may make more sense to take an advanced methods course rather than the similar course in HCDE’s PhD program.

Theory

Courses used to satisfy the theory requirement should support one or more of the following: 

  1. Recognize the most prominent epistemological frameworks (e.g., cognitive theory, social psychology, semiotic theory, actor-network theory) that inform research in Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE)
  2. Understand the intellectual implications of those different frameworks for the processes and results of scholarly inquiry in HCDE
  3. Explain how theory motivates and supports the practices of knowledge-making
  4. Apply theory appropriately and productively to the framing or analysis of research issues in HCDE

Concentration

Please see the concentration guidance page.

Completing an MS in HCDE alongside a PhD

Some HCDE PhD students may be interested in completing a Master of Science in HCDE in addition to their PhD, though this is a separate degree with different goals and, consequently, additional requirements. View the MS HCDE requirements for PhD students.