Faculty Focus: Andrew Shipka on Designing Online UX Courses

When studying user experience (UX) online, there’s almost no greater source of knowledge than Andrew Shipka.

In 2007, Andrew was a graduate student and assistant for the Library and Information Science department. After earning his Master of Science in UX from Kent State University on campus, he started working as an educational technologist and adjunct professor for Kent State, helping to build and teach UX courses for the online master’s program.

Over the course of teaching in the program, Andrew noticed a shift in the student profile of those attending Kent State’s Master’s UX program. Although they envisioned more beginning UX professionals joining the program, “our major client and student in the program were people already in the field,” Andrew said. “They wanted some way to either brush up on their skills or to have some type of certification they could show to their workplace.”

For Andrew, the need for students to earn a Master’s in UX is more than clear. “UXD is going to be what marketing became for businesses. It’s just going to be one of those integral functions you wouldn’t go without doing anymore,” he explained.

“The reason why it’s important is that you are making your service or product more friendly to your user. You’re making it easier for your clients to get to your product or service and more that they want to get to it,” Andrew continued. “There should be no hangups when buying your widget, and we try to design our courses that way, too.”

Online Master of Science in User Experience at Kent State University

The online Master of Science degree in User Experience prepares students for careers in discovery research, information architecture, interaction design, prototyping, usability testing, and user experience strategy and assessment. As essential members of multidisciplinary design teams, user experience professionals engage in a variety of activities to produce usable products that delight users and help organizations meet the needs of their clients, patrons, users, and stakeholders. User experience analysis addresses the structural, informational, psychological, and emotional dimensions that make interactive communication and information technologies useful and successful.

Kent State’s program provides a broad introduction to all phases of the multidisciplinary design process, with the opportunity to build deeper knowledge and skills in a focus area. The program includes electives from aligned master’s programs in the College of Communication and Information and related disciplines.