Fitts Education Award Winners: Teaching Human Factors and Ergonomics

Abstract

Every day, current Human Factors & Ergonomics (HF/E) professionals work to foster the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for their students to be future HF/E professionals. Experienced HF/E educators possess a wealth of knowledge of what works in regards to teaching their particular topics. Unfortunately, this valuable in-domain teaching knowledge and expertise often does not get disseminated to other HF/E educators. The purpose of the current panel is to provide a forum for professionals, who have been recognized for teaching excellence, to share their ideas and approaches with other educators. The panelists are recent winners of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society’s Paul M. Fitts Education Award, an award that recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to HF/E education. The discussion will focus on three themes: strategies to integrate practical problems into the education process, suggestions for improving instructional effectiveness via mentoring skills, and HF/E teaching challenges.