Reading Assignments and Course Schedule

Topic/Assignment  Reading 
Week #1
  
M: Introduction to Human Factors  Ch. 1
T: Reliability and Error (Human and Machine)  Ch. 3\Kantowitz Ch. 12 
W: Human Hearing/Signal Detection 
http://psych.hanover.edu/Krantz/fourier/ 		 81-83; 96-103; 122-127; 152-157; 66-70 
R: Human Visual Capabilities http://psych.hanover.edu/Krantz/receptive/  83-96; 108-122; 132-152; 161-178 
F: Human Motor Capabilities  Ch. 13, 14, 15 
Week #2
  
M: Human Information Processing I  Ch. 4, 9 
T: Human Information Processing II  Ch. 10, 11 
W: Displays and Controls  Ch. 8,16,17 
R: Test I/Task Analysis and Workspace Design  Ch. 17/Sanders Ch. 14, 15 
F: Project 1  readings TBD 
Week #3
  
M: Meetings and Presentations TBD   
T:  
W:  
R: Project 1 Report Due/Begin Project 2   
F: Meetings and PresentationsTBD   
Week #4
  
M:  
T:  
W:  
R:  
F: Project 2 Report Due/Class Wrap-up   

Class Assignments

The class is broken down into three sections each of which will have separate sets of assignments. The first section of the class will consist primarily of lecture/discussion on the background information of Human Factors. This section will conclude with an examination. The examination will be worth 100 points and will be for a mixed format. The types of items will be multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, problems and essays, etc.

The second and third sections of the course will be the projects:

Human factors professions play two types of roles relating to the design of equipment: 1) as actual members of a design team developing a new device or evaluating and existing device and 2) as a researcher collecting and analyzing data necessary to do (1) more effectively. Two of the sets of projects deal with (1) and one deals with (2). The class will be divided into three groups with one group on each of the sets of projects below.


 

Project Set

Project 1

Project 2
1
Design data collection method for link analysis for Web browsers and pages
Test and improve form with tentative link analysis
2
VCR Interface
Second Floor Psychology Computer Laboratory
3
Psychology Handbook
Forms/Information for Secondary Education 

The Class will be divided into the following groups. You will be able to choose one of the three project sets but only one group will be on each set.
 

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3
Amy Agricola
Wes Anderson
Brandon Andress
Elizabeth Barton
Niki Boberg
Emily Flohr
Karl Evans
Jeremy Dixon
Chad Howard
Jocelyn Haskell
Emily Fessel
Maggie Rivette
Hether Hutton
Keith Harper
Mary Shupert
Tina Scott
Ashley Hughes
Jenny Thomas

Grading

The exam, each presentation and each paper will be worth 100 points each. As can be seen, active class participation is vital to the success of this course. Therefore, participation will be worth 100 points, or nearly 2 letter grades. Grades will be assigned on a 10% scale.