Work in progress — Development of a HCI course on the Microsoft Surface

With the advent of multi-touch devices, there exist exciting new opportunities for course development in the area of Human Computer Interfacing (HCI). From the most recent set of devices, the Microsoft Surface offers a set of unique capabilities and challenges for teaching a HCI course. The natural trend of the device towards simultaneous interactions with multiple users as well as the ability to recognize physical objects via byte tags offer fascinating teaching and laboratory experiences. In this paper, we will discuss our experiences in teaching a Surface-oriented course with regards to lecture and laboratory design. We will also offer insight with respect to student performance, student feedback, comparing those aspects versus efforts with the Nintendo Wiimote with regards to programming difficulty. Finally, we will conclude with suggestions for future course refinement.