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
In last year's review the faculty assessed more than 70% of the students were performing at or above expected levels. As a result the faculty set a higher expectation . We expect that the faculty will deem at least 72% or more of students’ performances as acceptable.
Finding
Specialized Skills
Each member of the faculty completed a student performance review of their classes. As a department, the evaluations indicate that 15.4% of students are failing to meet the departmental expectations of performance. 70.16% meet those expectations and 17.39% exceed those expectations.
As a result the department is meeting its objective in developing Specialized Competencies.
Action
Faculty Evaluation Of Student Performance
The department of Computer Science will determine in its first department meeting of the fall semester whether the faculty should raise the expectations of student performance or change the criterion for success.
The department will extend the rubric used for gathering information to include specific professional required concepts and skills.
Goal
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
The associate level scoring on the exam is between 70% and 85% and professional level scoring is between 86% and 100%. We expect that 70% of graduating seniors taking the exam will pass at or above the associate level.
Finding
ICCP Examination
Of 18 students taking the ICCP examination 13 passed (72%) and 5 (28%) failed. While the overall figures suggest that the department is performing above its stated criterion for success in this area, the overall figures mask two problems. First the performance of female students (33% success rate) is significantly below that of their male counterparts. Secondly, the ICCP examination, while a well constructed test, contains elements that are outside the scope of the computing Science program. Our students tend to do poorly on those areas as a result, depressing the overall performance.
Action
ICCP Examination
The ICCP examination will be abandoned in future assessment activities in favor of the GRE Computer Science Subject Test.