Studying studying - Academic life as the subject of commercial research

Alan Dix*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

This paper offers a personal view on the interplay between the multiple roles of academic and commercial researcher and classroom teacher. A series of vignettes expose a variety of lessons. Some of the vignettes are about the way that being an educator of human-computer interaction has informed my practice as an academic researcher about HCI. Some are about the different ethical expectations when using educational practice as part of commercial research as opposed to academic research. We also see how the inside knowledge of being a practitioner researcher offers unique insights into rich data and how product orientation can expose gaps in research, surprisingly not so different from the way that teaching students does: with neither developers nor students can you hide fuzzy thinking behind long words. While there are conflicts that need to be carefully managed, both academic and commercial research have powerful synergies with educational practice.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI 2017 Extended Abstracts - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publicationExplore, Innovate, Inspire
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages1030-1036
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9781450346566
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 May 2017
Externally publishedYes
Event2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2017 - Denver, United States
Duration: 6 May 201711 May 2017

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
VolumePart F127655

Conference

Conference2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2017
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityDenver
Period6/05/1711/05/17

Keywords

  • Academic life
  • Educational technology
  • Learning analytics
  • Research ethics

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