Ethical Principles, Technical Skills, And Management Skills (core)
To develop students’ knowledge of ethical principles, technical skills, and management skills relevant to the field of computer science.
Objective
Acquisition Of Technical Skill, Management And Ethical Principles
Students will develop and demonstrate knowledge of ethical principles, technical skills, and management skills relevant to the field of computer science.
Indicator
ICCP Examination
All undergraduate students must complete CS 437 prior to graduation. Part of the course requirements for CS 437 is to prepare for and take the ICCP Examination. The Institute Certified Computer Professional exam is an exam adopted by the Institute for Certification of Computer Professional (ICCP), the national association in the field of computer science. The exam consists of three sections: ethical principles, technical skills, and management skills. The grading of the three sections is objective grading (i.e., there is no written component to the exam)
Criterion
ICCP Exam Performance
70% of graduating seniors taking the exam will pass at or above the minimal level. The minimal level scoring on the exam is between 70% and 85% and professional level scoring is between 86% and 100%.
Finding
ICCP Exam Findings
60.87% of graduating seniors taking the exam passed at the basic level and 33% passed at the professional level.
Action
ICCP Exam Action
Although the findings indicated that we exceeded our goal, we believe we can increase the percentage of students who pass the exam at the professional level from 33% to 50% or better
Goal
Specialized Competencies
To develop students’ skills and knowledge in their concentration areas. The department offers three concentration areas: Computer Science, Information Systems and Information Assurance and Security.
Objective
Specialized Skills
Students will develop and demonstrate skills and knowledge in their concentration areas. The department offers three concentration areas: Computer Science, Information Systems and Information Assurance and Security.
Indicator
Faculty Review
During department meetings faculty with expertise in the three concentration areas will discuss students’ performances in their concentration areas. We expect that faculty in each concentration area will evaluate student performance across the 18 hours course sequence for each concentration.
Criterion
Specialized Skills Faculty Review Criterion
We expect that faculty will deem at least 70% or more of students’ performances as acceptable.
Finding
Specialized Competency Review Findings
Conversations between faculty members revealed both strengths and weaknesses in students’ performances. Faculty in the CS concentration all agreed that their students lacked in depth knowledge of advanced professional programming concepts. Faculty in Information Assurance and Security agreed that students performance, particularly in CS 470 Digital Forensics Challenge, were quite strong.
Faculty members also discussed the need to adopt a more structured and rigorous approach to evaluating student performance.
Action
Summary Evaulation
Although we were pleased with our findings, we believe we need to take a more structured approach to evaluating students’ skills and knowledge in their areas of concentration. We will develop a new approach during fall 2009 and begin implementing it in spring of 2010.
The department is actively engaged in revising the CS curriculum so as to increase student learning of advanced professional programming concepts.
Goal
Student Professional Preparation
The goal of the program is to appropriately prepare students for entry into the professional computer science field.
Objective
Student Professional Preparation
Students will demonstrate their readiness to successfully enter the professional market
Indicator
Graduating Senior Exit Survey
The department of computer science administers an online anonymous exit survey at the end of each semester. Emails are sent to students with a link to the survey. The survey contains questions relevant to students’ professional preparation, specifically question seven (The courses provided content that was useful in preparation of my career in computer science) and question nine (Are you currently employed in the field of computer science?). Students in CS 437 Software Engineering are given a timed opportunity to complete the survey at the same time as they complete their IDEA faculty evaluation forms.
Criterion
Survey Response Expectations
We expect that all students completing the survey will answer agree or strongly agree to question seven. For question nine, we expect that 80% will answer full time employment, 10% part time employment, and 10% no employment.
Finding
Survey Results
Although our findings exceeded our expectations, there are two areas where we need to make improvements. First, through conversations with students, we learned that some students were pursuing acceptance into a doctoral program rather than pursuing professional employment. Thus we need to include a question on the survey that allows students to indicate whether or not they have been accepted into a doctoral program. Second, the survey response rate was roughly 60%. We wish to increase our response rate.
A question regarding students’ acceptance into doctoral programs will be added to the survey.
Action
Survey Revision
The graduating senior exit survey needs to be reviewed and revised to provide more complete information. In particular it is important to obtain information on a range of potential directions for graduating seniors including employment, graduate school and other potential directions. The responsibility for this review rests with the undergraduate curriculum committee.