To develop students’ skills and knowledge in their concentration areas. The department offers three concentration areas: Computer Science, Information Systems, and Information Assurance.

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.

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 the students' performances across the 18 hours course sequence for each concentration.

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. 

During the academic year (2011-2012), Computer Science (CS) faculty developed indirect program assessment tools and rubrics to address the new ABET-CAC (Computing Accreditation Commission) criteria, which includes eleven Student Outcomes (SOs) ((a)-(k)). In particular, CS Department set up four Program Education Objectives (PEOs) (E01-E04). For the quantitative assessment and continuous improvement of the program, the tools and rubrics have been continuously used since the 2011-2012 academic year. The students in two courses, COSC4319 (Software Engineering) and COSC4349 (Professionalism and Ethics) participated in this indirect assessment every fall and spring semester since Spring 2012. In addition, another assessment tool, TASO (Test for Assessing Student Outcomes), was implemented for the direct assessment of the students’ outcomes. This direct assessment was first performed in Spring 2013 and is also applied for this academic year as well.

The TASO results can be summarized as follows:

• Student performance has show small but continuous improvements since 2013 accros the 11 Student Learming Objectives identified by, and measured by the department.
• Four Student Learning Objectives have been identified as requiring the most attention; the ability to apply knowledge of computing and mathematics appropriate to the discipline, the ability to analyze a problem, and identify and define the computing requirements appropriate to its solution, the ability to analyze a problem, and identify and define the computing requirements appropriate to its solution, and the ability to use current techniques, skills, and tools necessary for computing practice.
• Performance on the program's four Learning Objectives have shown steady improvement since 2013.

 

 

During fall 2015 the Departmental Undergraduate Curriculum Committee will explore mechanisms for improving performance in the four Student Learning Objectives identified as those with relatively weak student performance.  Those mechanisms will be implemented in the assessment process in spring 2016.

To develop students’ knowledge of ethical principles, technical skills, and management skills relevant to the field of computer science.

Students will develop and demonstrate knowledge of ethical principles, technical skills, and management skills relevant to the field of computer science.

All undergraduate CS students must complete COSC 4319 (Software Engineering) and COSC4349 (Professionalism and Ethics) prior to graduation. In addition, COSC4319, as a capstone course, covers the eight Student Outcomes (except the three outcomes (e), (g) and (h)) out of the eleven Student Outcomes and COSC4349 addresses the remaining three outcomes. Therefore, both the courses are selected for assessment. Additionally, TASO (Test for Assessing Student Outcomes) is implemented to quantitatively measure the eleven SOs. It is required for senior students to take it in senior-level Software Engineering course, prior to graduation regardless of their program concentration.

To perform a quantitative assessment, the following rubrics for the two courses are developed: (1) rubric for Project, (2) rubric for presentation evaluation, (3) rubric for group member evaluation, and (4) rubric for ethics topics. For COSC4319, faculty members observe students’ project presentation and directly evaluate students’ performance based upon the rubrics (1)-(3). One the other hand, for COSC4349, students’ performance is indirectly evaluated through the exam questions that address rubric (4). Each category is rated with the following scale values: (1) 1.0 (below expectations or unacceptable), (2) 2.0 (evolving or developing), (3) proficient (or competent), and (4) outstanding (or exemplary). Student’s performance on Student Outcomes is directly evaluated with each specific rubric, while the performance on objectives is indirectly measured by mapping between Student Outcomes and Program Objectives.

Questions on TASO are based on topics from a number of required core courses  (including COSC 1436, 1437, 2329, 3318, 3319, 4318, 4319, and 4349). Currently, it contains 26 multiple choice questions and 1 short answer question. Each multiple choice question has five choices, including the last choice of “I don’t know”. The percentage of students who select the correct answer to each given question will be computed and evaluated. 

Student performance on the capstone project in COSC 4319 addresses 8 of the 11 ABET/CAC Student Outcomes. Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 results indicate somewhat improved performance in six of the eight student outcomes, with only one outcome(teamwork) showing no improvement.

The Ethics Test covers the three outcome that are not addressed by the Project assessment. One of the three student outcomes (Ethical responsibility) had a lower level than the previous academic year's level.  The reamining outcomes (communication and evaluating local and global impacts) showed marked improvement.

To improve confidence and significance of the analysis results, number of students, different weights for each outcome, and other factors should be considered. COSC4319 and COSC4349 do not have the same number of students, the difference in students’ needs to be weighted properly. In particular, the UCC raised a concern on the number of students in each project, since it is difficult to measure each student’s contribution, work, and learning. As a one solution, potential implementation of capstone courses was discussed.

The level of attainment was evaluated by the CS UCC for each of the Student Outcomes (a)-(k) and the corresponding Program Education Objectives. Then, if needed, specific course contents have been revised to address the weaknesses. The TASO exam questions specifically on the topics of Software Engineering (Outcomes (i)-(k))  have been revised so as to more closely reflect the contents that are currently taught.