Sorry to be so late chiming in on this thread. I thought I'd hear something from the RPI faculty about the phasing out of HCI distance program, or clarify what is happened, and I haven't yet.
I am a product (PhD) of the same dept and took many of the core classes that are part of this program. This is also the dept that initially invented the field of technical communication and offered graduate degrees in it. Knowing the way RPI works, and the strength and commitment to their offerings (and having at one time been responsible for that entire distance learning web site, in the mid-1990s, mostly just catalog updates, as I could not do too much structurally), I am also familiar with the RPI distance learning system, which, I believe has been around 20+ years now. Not many distance learning programs can say that. It confers very high end masters degrees in specialized engineering, polymer chemistry, really wonky stuff, in addition to t-com and HCI. Not just courses. Entire graduate degrees. So what's going on with this? It was a few years back that the technical communication certificate and master's degree in the distance learning program morphed into the HCI concentration, and I'm guessing what they are really doing is morphing it back to a broader focus. I really don't believe the degree is going away, unless enrollments have fallen way off. RPI is an expensive, private engineering school, and the economy sux right now, so that could be having an effect. But at the same time, there will be a lot of laid off people needing to retool their skill sets. The larger issue, as I remember from the 1990s, was the nature of their distance learning program, which was VERY high quality compared to a lot of these fairly new distance learnning university offerings which are just one step away from lite correspondence courses, if you ask me. RPI has always used elaborate video conferencing with satellite link-ups, even before the time of the web, before the days of WebEx, when professors there wrote the software to run it. Also, it tended to cater to big corporate clients who provided the on-site satellite link for the live interactions in the classroom with mixed face to face students and distance students. In addition, the university always had high standards for computer-supported collaborative work, and studio courses had big project and collaboration components, in which the distance students were expected to participate fully. I know I sound like a PR person, but if you could imagine the elaborate system around all those video teleconferences (now supported on web software, I hear), dedicated distance classrooms with multiple cameras and professor view controls, etc. What I'm saying is it ain't your basic "Blackboard" setup with a prof on a phone line and some email correspondence. And RPI has been out in front in innovating on multi-disciplinary design, so if they are moving away from the HCI angle, it could be likely that they are gearing up to blaze another trail in a new area. Like I said, I sound like PR, and I was involved in the founding of the RPI EMAC degree program, so I know how they decide to do these things. Absent a major revenue shortfall, that is what I would expect. Chris On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 4:05 PM, sharon <sharongreenfi...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I wonder how much of it goes back to findability and information >> architecture (but I can be a little biased thinking most problems come back >> to these things). >> >> Placement in search engine isn't really high (and didn't even seem them >> for "online hci program" and the like) and then the description provided >> seemed accidental and had an odd subdomained URL that didn't give you the >> university's name or program in it. >> > I've had a tough time finding programs in most university's convoluted > information architecture. > This is the URL: > http://www.rpi.edu/ewp/distance/course_masters/ms_hum_comp_int.html > > When you go to the program site you arrive at from some of the more >> obscure search terms, I didn't see a mention of format (online vs oncampus). >> There was a link for "working professionals". Mmmm...here's the mention: >> "live on-campus and, by electronic means". I guess in the months I spent >> searching for an online program I never Googled for "masters program HCI >> electronic means". >> > Wow. I found it trough 'distance learning', but you are so right, that term > above is ridiculous in this day and age. > > In my experience, disambiguating on-campus only programs from distance >> ones was a challenge. Trying to winnow them down via search engine alone was >> impossible and even as noted above...it was kind of a treasure hunt on their >> program sites. >> > Agreed! It really is hard to find programs nowadays... > > Why is noone interested in this program? >> There are only two online HCI programs to my knowledge - Rensselaer's >> and Brigham Young University. >> RPI's name has cachet and prestige. I know some nuclear engineers who >> graduated from RPI - smart school for smart people. >> >> I think they are phasing the online HCI program out because they >> didn't have enough applicants. >> Does no one have an interest in working while getting a degree remotely? >> >> ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
