Undergraduate Human Factors: Challenges and Opportunities

Teaching undergraduate human factors provides challenges in developing an appropriate course, providing material to students with varying backgrounds and preparation, offering examples with which students can identify, and keeping students engaged in large (i.e., 150 students) courses. Means to overcome these challenges include evaluating the type of institution where the course is taught and the level of student preparation, identifying current and relevant examples for demonstrations or projects, and engaging the students to help them understand the application of human factors to their own lives. The benefits of successfully teaching undergraduate human factors includes introducing students to the field and application of HFE to their own lives, as well as building a pipeline for HFE graduate education.