Human-Computer Interaction in Education: Keyword and Discipline Network in 20 Years

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) education covers diverse human-oriented design approaches, which are Human Factors (HF), Human-Centered Design (HCD), User-Centered Design (UCD), and User Experiences (UX) [5]. However, the relationships among those approaches are unclear. To better understand and develop HCI pedagogy, understanding which approach is more involved than another and how it is associated with each other within HCI is significant. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify the relationship to the four human-oriented design approaches using the keyword network analysis method to answer the following questions: 1) What descriptors, author-chosen subject headings, related to HCI, HF, HCD, UCD, and UX have been studied in the Education field? 2) How does HCI connect to human-related design approaches? and 3) What discipline in higher education has been studying more about HCI? To find the answers, this research analyzed a total of 684 peer-reviewed journal articles’ abstracts published between 2001 and 2020 from the Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC) database. Gephi 0.9.2 was utilized to visualize frequencies and relationships of the keywords. The findings presented that the top five most frequently mentioned descriptors in HCI were “Man Machine Systems,” “Educational Technology,” “Foreign Countries,” “Interaction,” and “Teaching Methods.” The number of articles with the four human-oriented design approaches have increased over the last 20 years. The top five most identified disciplines in the HCI-related articles were “Educational Technology,” “HCI,” “Information Science,” “Computer and Society,” and “Information Systems.” The findings of this research would be valuable resources in understanding the current research trend of HCI education, and the relationship among the four human-related design approaches and developing curricula for HCI related subjects.