OATdb Archive

2009 - 2010

Digital Forensics MS

Goal
Technical Competence
Graduates with a Master of Science in Digital Forensics will have a strong technical foundation in the computational sciences.

Objective
Acquisition Of Theoretical Computational And Technical Skills
Students will develop and demonstrate knowledge of theoretical materials, computational and technical skills relevant to Digital Forensics

Indicator
Final Project Assessment
The management project in this degree program is a software engineering or strategic planning project that involves the students identifying a significant development need for a selected client and the design and implementation of an appropriate software or policy  solution to that need. 

Each student is assigned to a member of the graduate faculty in Digital Forensics as project advisor together with two additional graduate faculty forming the students committee.

The department has established procedures for managing projects including

1.  The presentation of project proposals within the first two weeks of the semester.  The graduate faculty review and approve or disapprove each proposal. 

2. Weekly progress meetings with the project advisor.

3. The evaluation by the complete graduate faculty of each students progress at midterm.

4. the distribution of project activity to the remaining members  of each committee.

At the end of the project each students prepares and runs a formal presentation including a description of the project, detailed explanation of the solution used and a demonstration of the completed application.

Criterion
Final Project Assessment
Students graduating will have documented consensus of the Graduate Faculty that they meet professional standard in project design, documentation implementation and presentation.

Finding
Final Project Assessment
The final project assessment process functioned well.  Each student submitting a completed final project presented succesffully and their performance was apropriately documented by the committee and the graduate advisor.

Indicator
Oral Examination
One hour oral examination by the student's committee.  The committee consists of three individuals, with one person designated as committee chair.

Students are examined and given a grade of high pass, pass or fail in each of the following areas:

Network Security
Cyberlaw
Policy and Procedure
Digital Forensics Tools and Procedures

and one other area of competence of the students choosing.

Student are prepared by their project advisor  and are furnished with a large sample of potential questions together with model answers.

The graduate advisor also runs review sessions for student preparing for their orals.

Criterion
Oral Examination
We expect committee members to issue the score (high pass, pass or fail) on each of  the knowledge areas to each student.  100% of students will score a pass or high pass on each area.

Finding
Oral Examination
100% of graduating students successfully completed the ral examination

Action
Acquisition Of Theoretical Computational And Technical Skills
The department needs to put into place a stronger mechanism of oversight in order to ensure that students are well prepared for both their oral examinations and for their project presentations.   The graduate curriculum committeee is charged with establishing reporting mechaisms that ensure that student committee chairs perform rigorous weekly evaluastions of progress and that formal study and support systems are in place for orals.

The department should investigate the utility of written comprehensive examinations with oral examinations being used to supplement.

Goal
Lifelong Learning
Graduates with a Master of Science in Digital Forensics will have an appreciation for their undergraduate education that encourages the development of lifelong learning habits.

Objective
Professional Association
Students will demonstrate their understanding of the need for professional association and the maintenance of professional currency

Indicator
Alumni Survey
The department administers an alumni survey every two years to gather data from students who have completed their education and have been available for work within the profession for at least two years.

We will use question four (My current career status: [Employed, In Graduate school, Unemployed])

Criterion
Alumni Survey Findings
We expect that 10% or less of respondent will answer question 4 as 'Unemployed' and that the remainder will answer either 'Employed' or 'In Graduate school'

Finding
Alumni Survey
We do not consider the results reliable since less than five percent of those contacted responded.


Action
Lifelong Learning
This goal will be removed from the MS program and may be added to the department goals.



Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement

Plan for continuous improvement The primary concerns that need to be addressed with regard to the MS inDigital Forensics  program are that there is still insufficient close supervision of both the final project and the oral examination.  Committee chairs need to exercise much more fine grained supervision than currently.  To support this the graduate curriculum committeee should develop an instrument to document the supervision process.  In addition the graduate advisor needs to structure the review and testing process for comprehensive examinations.  The graduate curriculum committee is currently in the process of determining if written comprehensive examinations followed by oral examinations to address weakenesses would be a more effective mechanism of ensuring that our graduates have the necesssary professional background and skills.

The alumni survey goal will be removed from the MS program and may be added to the department goals.