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 student 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
Eight Digital Forensics students were enrolled in the Final Project course. Of those eight, seven completed their final projects, underwent an oral defense and demonstration of their project, and received a "pass". One student did not complete the project and will continue into the summer.
The seven students completing the project submitted academic papers to the faculty formatted to professional standards. Two of the papers were accepted for publication.
The final project performance indicates the students are meeting the criterion for success.
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 Findings
Oral examinations were conducted for eight students. All eight students passed the examination in the first attempt.
The students are meeting the criterion for successfully meeting the learning objective.
Action
Acquisition Of Theoretical Computational And Technical Skills
While the students successfully meet the criteria specified, the faculty members are concerned that insufficient detail is being provided by the assessment process. The process should allow collection of data specific to the concepts and skills. The rubric used to collect data should include more specific information.