Because it’s not packaged as a standalone degree most of the time.
HCI usually lives inside:
Computer Science PhDs
Information Science programs
Human-Centered Computing or Engineering programs
Only a few places—like Carnegie Mellon University—offer a true, dedicated PhD in HCI.
Most universities bury it as a specialization, not a headline.
🧠 What HCI Actually Is (and Why It Matters Now)
At its core, HCI studies:
How humans interact with technology—and how those systems should be designed to support thinking, learning, and decision-making.
That includes:
AI copilots
Interfaces
Learning systems
Accessibility
Human-AI collaboration
In other words:
👉 HCI is the science of using AI effectively
⚠️ Why EdTech Alone Isn’t Enough Anymore
Educational Technology (EdTech) traditionally focuses on:
Tools
platforms
content delivery
But the AI Age is changing the problem.
We’re no longer asking:
“How do we deliver content?”
We’re asking:
“How do people THINK, LEARN, and DECIDE while working WITH AI?”
That’s not just EdTech.
That’s HCI.
🔥 The Shift Happening Right Now
AI is not replacing humans.
It’s changing how humans work.
And the real bottleneck is no longer:
access to information
It’s:
how people interact with AI systems
how they prompt, refine, and evaluate outputs
how they learn through iteration
👉 That is Human-Computer Interaction
🧩 Where This Shows Up (Real Examples)
A real estate agent using AI to forecast market activity
A student learning through AI-guided problem solving
A professional solving an unfamiliar task with ChatGPT
An autistic learner interacting with adaptive AI systems
These are not just “tech use cases.”
These are:
👉 human-AI interaction problems
🧭 Why This Matters for the Future of Education
If you’re building curriculum, teaching, or researching learning,
you have two paths:
Path 1:
Teach tools
(EdTech)
Path 2:
Teach how humans interact with intelligent systems
(HCI)
💡 My Take
The most important academic question of the next decade is not:
“How do we use AI in education?”
It’s:
“How do humans learn, adapt, and solve problems when AI is part of the process?”
That’s HCI.
🔬 Where My Work Fits
My research focuses on:
AI-Augmented Exploratory Learning (AAEL)
How professionals approach unfamiliar tasks using AI
Structured vs. unstructured interaction with large language models
Applications in real estate, education, and neurodivergent learners
This is not just EdTech.
👉 It’s Human-AI Interaction in real-world environments
📌 Final Thought
HCI isn’t new.
But it’s becoming the most important field most people aren’t paying attention to.
And in the AI Age, that’s where the real leverage is.
Robert Foreman
Doctoral Student, Educational Technology
Central Michigan University
forem1r@cmich.edu
NhanceData.com