The department chair and faculty will engage in strategic planning.

The department will maintain a strategic planning process identifying departmental strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Document generated by the department chair and presented to the department during the February department meeting.

The strategic plan was developed as scheduled.

Adequate distribution of faculty resources.

The department allocated $32,000 for faculty travel, and $40,000 for equipment to support research.  In addition the department supported 5 graduate students presenting at a professional conference.  The details of resource support for faculty, students and the department are on file in the departmental meeting minutes in the department office.

THe department should review the strategic plan on an annual basis, in February each year to determine it's ongoing relevance and to assess progress on goals and objectives.

Faculty will demonstrate quality teaching.

Faculty will demonstrate quality teaching.

Faculty documents and provides evidence of research, teaching and service activities together with formal end of cycle evaluations of teaching, service and research. This evidence and formal evaluation documents are reviewed by the DPTAC and department Chair.  FES forms 1 and 8 are signed by both chair and faculty member and maintained as an historical record from the initial point of employment.

Satisfactory performance requires that the department complete the DPTAC and the department chair complete the faculty evaluation process in accordance with university and departmental policy and forward the required documentation the the Dean of the College of Sciences by the date specified by the Office of Academic Affairs.

The department uses four metrics to establish the quality of teaching, IDEA evaluation scores, classroom observation by the department chair each semester, self-reflection of teaching by individual faculty members and documentation of activities that improve the classroom experience for students.  Successful performance in the assessment of teaching will be evidenced by overall departmental IDEA scores being above the Institutional and Discipline averages.

The annual Faculty Evaluation process was conducted according to university and departmental policy.  The required materials were forwarded to the Dean of Sciences office before the due date.

The overall departmental IDEA evaluation scores were above the Institutional and Discipline averages.

The Computer Science should continue to monitor the faculty evaluation system process to ensure continued compliance. 

The department will maintain updated and quality curriculum at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

The department will conduct continuous curriculum review for each degree program.

Minutes of the meetings of the undergraduate and graduate curriculum committees.

Successful performance by the departmental curriculum committees is indicated by the documentation of consistent and on-going curriculum planning.

The Computer Science undergraduate curriculum committee has reviewed CS undergraduate curriculum to fit for the ABET-CAC criteria. All the meeting agenda and minutes are displayed in a folder with assessment rubrics documents and the supporting documents.

The graduate curriculum committee identified and addressed two weaknesses in the graduate curricula.  The curriculum committee has recommended that all graduate students take written rather than oral comprehensive examinations, providing an opportunity for student to better display in-depth understanding of the program content.  The curriculum committee also recommended that the Digital forensics program include 2 courses taught by the Forensic Science department to allow for potential accreditation by the American Association of Forensics Educators.

The curriculum committees will be asked to review the curricula for both the undergraduate and graduate programs. The committees will issue annual reports to be distributed at department meetings together with university required documentation for curriculum changes.

Successful performance will be measured by the successful passage of curriculum changes through the College of Sciences and University Curriculum Committees.

The undergraduate and graduate curriculum committees provided progress reports on progress monthly during the year.   The reports are part of the departmental meeting minutes and are available on request in the departmental office.

The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee submitted two successful requests for two courses to be added to the curriculum to enhance the architecture and database components of the undergraduate degree program in line with ABET/CAC requirements.

Topics on curriculum and assessment that CS undergraduate curriculum committee are currently discussing:

(1)  The Program Educational Objective (PEOs) need to be fully addressed through Industry Advisory Board survey and Alumni survey.

(2)  COSC4319 (Software Engineering) and COSC4349 (Professionalism and Ethics) will be used for major assessment. In particular, both direct assessment (i.e., by faculty members’ evaluation on students’ presentation, which is currently implemented) and indirect assessment (i.e., through test/exam questions, which will be implemented from Fall 2012) will be employed for COSC4319. Similar assessments in other courses can be considered in the next academic year.

(3)  The weakness of Computer Architecture (CA) noted by the ABET team need to be addressed. In particular,  CA is not emphasized in Information System (IS) concentration. The following remedies are suggested: (1) CA can be a recommended/required elective for IS students; (2) Revision of CA syllabus to add the missing contents can be considered as a quick solution; and (3) Full revision of CS undergraduate curriculum can be considered.

(4)  Complete self-study report needs to be prepared.

In summary, both COSC4319 and COSC4349 will be used for assessment and evaluation. Both indirectly assessment approach will be added to COSC4319 from Fall 2012.

The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee also proposed a new degree program in Software Engineering.  This proposal is currently under review by the University Curriculum Committee.

The Graduate Curriculum Committee recommended that a full review of the Digital Forensics degree program be conducted in the 2012/13 cycle.

The graduate curriculum committee should consider developing a preliminary authority request for a doctoral program in Digital Forensic Science.  In addition the undergraduate curriculum committee should consider additional undergraduate programs.

The curriculum committees should provide an annual comprehensive report to be submitted in February each year.