Improving student engagement and learning outcomes through the use of industry-sponsored projects in human-computer interaction curriculum

Engaging students in higher education can often be a challenge. Traditional curriculum approaches of lectures, homework, and exams are the norm for many university-level courses, especially in the computing and engineering fields of study. This work introduces the use of industry partnerships for class projects to give students exposure to real-world problem solving and solution development. Students work in small groups of 3-5 students (undergraduate and/or graduate) to design, prototype, implement, and evaluate solutions that are later put into production with our industry partners. This approach results in students completing the full development life cycle learned in computer science classes and includes delivery of products that can be used as part of their portfolios. This approach has resulted in improved learning outcomes and higher levels of student engagement in these courses and the industry partners have a product that they can use for their companies. Details are provided that discuss: how to develop industry relationships, designing the course curriculum to support these types of projects, timelines and checkpoints to assess student progress, final presentations, documentation, and product deliverables. There is also a discussion on non-disclosure agreements and what students can use as part of their portfolios and resumes from the course projects. Feedback on the projects from students have been very positive and comments from the student evaluations will be presented in addition to recommendations on possible improvements to the learning process associated with this approach.