Context Document


The University of Lincoln

Based in the City of Lincoln, in new buildings on a brownfield site (formerly railway sidings) - with canalside views. In addition to the main campus, there are departments based in Hull, and at Riseholme and Holbeach.


Constant change

A significant feature of the institution over the last few years is that it has undergone, and continues to undergo, enormous and rapid change. Since becoming a University, the former Humberside Polytechnic has relocated to the City of Lincoln, and has renamed itself twice, first to The University of Lincolnshire and Humberside, and later to the University of Lincoln.

In recent years the university has worked hard to build research activity, and to increase post-graduate student numbers.


The Department of Computing & Informatics

The current computing offer includes a range of award titles which fall into 3 main groups, each with roughly 1/3 of the undergraduate student numbers:

In practice, the department offers a range of units which, in different combinations of core and optional subjects, constitute the various award programmes. All the degree programmes are therefore modular. This has great benefits for the department in terms of economy of delivery, and flexibility and transferability for students. However, it presents problems for the teaching of units, since academics are almost always faced with unit groups which are very 'mixed ability' both in terms of their current level of knowledge in any particular subject, and in their enthusiasm and commitment to it.

There are four research groups: Social Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, and a Pedagogical Research group. The department has a growing number of PhD students, and for the last few years has offered taught MSc programmes, although these have not always recruited.

The department has c 600 undergraduate students, 13 f/t staff (currently carrying at least 2 f/t vacancies - only one of which is likely to be filled because of fears over recruitment).

The department, along with the university as a whole, is attempting to gain more of a national recruitment profile, and has been increasing its point requirement for entry. The current requirement for next year's intake is 260-280 points.


The HCI unit

The HCI course I teach is taken for one semester (the first) in the second year of undergraduate study. It is a required core unit for some students, and chosen as an option by others. (My view, that it should be a core unit for all awards, sadly is not shared across the department.)

The semester runs from the end of September to January, giving a 12-14 week teaching period, with the three-week Christmas break towards the end.

As currently structured, all the degree programmes at Lincoln run on a model of 5 concurrent units, so this course represents approximately 20% of the undergraduate course during the semester, and approximately 10% of the year's work.

During this year (07-08) all the undergraduate programmes have been restructured on a 4-unit model, to be implemented from September 2008 for first-year undergraduates. This change has involved a major re-structuring of the overall unit offer, and will also affect which groups of students continue to study HCI, whether as a core or an option unit, as the change rolls through to second-year students in September 2009. The coming academic year therefore will be the final run-through of this unit in its current form.

The students taking the unit vary in their technical knowledge and skill, and in their level of interest. Some are programmers, many are not. Some are interested in interface design and building, many are not. The course therefore makes no assumptions about previous programming knowledge or skills.