Conference paper 2025

Experiential Learning Internship for Teaching Design Research

AM
Ackerman, Matthew K.
 AV
Armour, Veronica L.
 NZ
Najeeb, Zainab
 MN
Mendoza, Nicole
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
Conference · Art. 674
Abstract

HCI researchers have explored ways to improve HCI and design education. We designed and conducted an experiential learning internship to teach principles of design research to first-year undergraduate students. We describe the framework we used for the design of the internship and the lessons we learned in a self-reflective case study. We provide the following recommendations to other educators who want to incorporate similar programs: 1) prepare for clients having differences in opinion, 2) use multiple educational methods to supplement the experience, 3) allow interns to navigate a project space on their own, but identify areas that may create major delays, and 4) prepare educational material on the latest trends and tools that may be of interest to the interns. © 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Keywords

Author Keywords

Experiential learning Design research HCI Education

Index Keywords

Teaching Engineering education Case-studies Students Undergraduate students Teaching designs experiential learning Design of experiments Design Education Design research First year HCI education Principles of design Project spaces
Author Affiliations
Rutgers University–New Brunswick, New Brunswick, NJ, United States
Funding & Acknowledgements
Nevada Department of Education, NDE
The internship program described in this paper was partially funded through the NJ Career Accelerator Internship Program Grant from the NJ Department of Education. We would like to thank the project sponsors for the summer internship program for coming with problems for the interns to work on and their support of the interns themselves. We also would like to thank the interns for the hard work they put forth on the projects. Finally, we would like to thank Senior Vice Provost and Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education, Dr. Carolyn Moehling and Vice Provost of Experiential Learning, Dr. Charles Keeton, for their continued support of the IDEA program, and Dr. Charles Senteio for providing mentorship to the authors.
References 10 References
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2 Beckman, Sara L., Innovation as a learning process: Embedding design thinking, California Management Review, 50, 1, pp. 3-56, (2007)
3 Bonawitz, Elizabeth Baraff, The double-edged sword of pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery, Cognition, 120, 3, pp. 322-330, (2011)
4 Change by Design how Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, (2009)
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6 Liberal Education, (2016)
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8 Cross, Nigel G., Designerly ways of knowing, Designerly Ways of Knowing, pp. 1-114, (2006)
9 Design Thinking, (2011)
10 Dewey, John, Social purposes in education, General Science Quarterly, 7, 2, pp. 79-91, (1923)
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