Graduate students are required to complete a small-scale (4-5 pages) literature review on a emergent HCI topic of their choice. The review should be a descriptive summary of research on the chosen topic. It should serve to inform readers of the important ideas and knowledge that has been established on that topic.

The purpose of this assignment is for graduate students to improve their skills to:

  • identify and formulate an inquiry question that defines what they would like to learn about;
  • read research reports;
  • analyze information found in academic articles; and
  • synthesize new knowledge into a written review.

Assignment Components

The assignment will have two main components:

  • Milestone (3%): Students submit a 1 page pdf with an inquiry question that defines what they would like to learn about in their literature review. The deliverable should describe the importance of the chosen topic for the literature review (Why is it interesting? Why is it worth studying?). In addition, the deliverable should clearly convey the scope of the review (What related topics will not be analyzed or discussed in the review?).

  • Literature Review (7%): Students submit a 4-5 pages pdf with their literature review. The review should be structured as follows:

    • Introduction: Establishes the topic and context of the review.
    • Methodology: Describes how the papers have been searched for and organized for the review.
    • Review: Main body that summarizes prior work and analyzes gaps in the literature that are worth of future study.
    • Conclusion: Summary of key ideas and information that was found to be particularly important through the review.
    • References: List of references that were mentioned in the paper. References should adhere to the in-text citation style and reference format guidelines that are used for ACM publications.

The literature review should be created in according to the ACM Sig Conference Proceeding (double column format). Students can use Overleaf’s online template to generate their pdf with LaTeX if desired.