Category: Content/Discipline Knowledge & Skills
Outcome: The student will be able to construct computer software solutions for simple programming problems. This will be assessed upon completion of the 3-hour course COP 3330, Object-oriented Programming.
Assessment and EvaluationProcess:
This course is the first advanced programming course that CS majors take and thus represents a means of measuring this skill. The faculty instructor will collect the data from a capstone assignment. This will result in 80% of the students enrolled in COP 3330 during academic year 2005-2006 scoring 70% or better as determined by a faculty designed comprehensive or capstone examination and assignment.
Results: 74% of the students enrolled in COP 3330 during academic year 2005-2006 scored 70% or better as determined by a faculty designed comprehensive or capstone examination and assignment.
Actions: 75% of the 2006-2007 COP 3330 students should score 70% or better on a faculty designed comprehensive or capstone examination and assignment. In addition, the COP 3330 instructors should provide written qualitative feedback on student performance on this course capstone examination and assignment. This feedback will be used to both adjust the assessment requirements and evaluation procedure. In addition, it can be used by the instructors to refine the assignment, and the instructional material provided to the students that is relevant to the capstone assignment.
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Category: Communication Skills
Outcome: The student will be able to formulate an oral presentation, with an accompanying written document, on a large programming project or programming languages topic. This will be assessed upon completion of the 3-hour course COP 4020, Programming Languages, or CEN 4010, Software Engineering (for SE majors).
Assessment and EvaluationProcess: Although all undergraduate students are required to take an oral competency course, this course has oral communication in the discipline. The presentation will be evaluated and data collected by the instructor. This will result in 80% of the students in COP 4020 or CEN 4010 during academic year 2005-2006 scoring 70% or better as determined by a class performance or presentation.
Results: 89% of the students in COP 4020 during 2005 scored 70% or better as determined by a paper and oral presentation. 98% of the students in CEN 4010 during 2005 scored 70% or better as determined by a paper and oral presentation.
Actions: 80% of the students in COP 4020 or CEN 4010 during academic year 2006-2007 should score 80% or better as determined by a class performance or presentation. In addition, the COP 4020 and CEN 4010 instructors should provide written qualitative information on the strengths and weaknesses of the student performances. This can be used as the basis for changing the presentation assignment and the instructional material provided to the students to improve outcomes.
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Category: Content/Discipline Knowledge & Skills
Outcome: The student will be able to use such basic data structures as linked lists, stacks, queues, and trees in programs. This will be assessed upon completion of the 3-hour course COP 4530, Data Structures, Algorithms and Generic Programming.
Assessment and EvaluationProcess: The faculty instructor will collect data on the performance demonstrated in the capstone activity. This will result in 80% of the students enrolled in COP 4530 during 2005-2006 scoring 70% or better on a capstone course evaluation.
Results: 81% of the 2005 COP 4530 students scored 70% or better on the attached course capstone assignment (PDF file). 100% of the 2006 COP 4530 students scored 70% or better on the attached course capstone assignment (web link).
Actions: 85% of the 2006-2007 COP 4530 students should score 70% or better on a course capstone assignment. In addition, the COP 4530 instructors should provide written qualitative feedback on student performance on this course capstone assignment. This feedback will be used to both adjust the assessment requirements and evaluation procedure. In addition, it can be used by the instructors to refine the assignment, and the instructional material provided to the students that is relevant to the capstone assignment.
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Category: Content/Discipline Knowledge & Skills
Outcome: The student will be able to use standard recursive algorithmic techniques for the solution of complex problems in computer science. This will be assessed upon completion of the 3-hour course COP 4530, Data Structures, Algorithms and Generic Programming.
Assessment and EvaluationProcess: This is an important skill for a CS major and data on this will be collected by the faculty instructor from a capstone activity. This will result in 80% of the students enrolled in COP 4530 during 2005-2006 scoring 70% or better as determined by a capstone course evaluation.
Results: 81% of the 2005 COP 4530 students scored 70% or better on the attached course capstone assignment (PFD file). 100% of the 2006 COP 4530 students scored 70% or better on the attached course capstone assignment (web link).
Actions: 85% of the 2006-2007 COP 4530 students will score 70% or better on a course capstone assignment. In addition, the COP 4530 instructors should provide written qualitative feedback on student performance on this course capstone assignment. This feedback will be used to both adjust the assessment requirements and evaluation procedure. In addition, it can be used by the instructors to refine the assignment, and the instructional material provided to the students that is relevant to the capstone assignment.
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Category: Critical Thinking Skills
Outcome: The student will be able to analyze the computational complexity of algorithms used in the solution of a programming problem. This will be assessed upon completion of the 3-hour course COP 4531, Complexity and Analysis of Data Structures and Algorithms.
Assessment and EvaluationProcess: This is an important skill for a computer scientist to have in order to be able to analyze and evaluate the best approach to solving a problem. This skill will be evaluated by the faculty instructor in a course assignment. This will result in 80% of the students enrolled in COP 4531 during 2005-2006 scoring 70% or better as determined by a capstone course evaluation.
Results: 82% of the students enrolled in COP 4531 during 2005 scored 70% or better on the attached capstone assignment.
Actions: 85% of the students enrolled in COP 4531 during 2006-2007 will score 70% or better on a capstone assignment. In addition, the COP 4531 instructors should provide written qualitative feedback on student performance on this course capstone assignment. This feedback will be used to both adjust the assessment requirements and evaluation procedure. In addition, it can be used by the instructors to refine the assignment, and the instructional material provided to the students that is relevant to the capstone assignment.
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Category: Content/Discipline Knowledge & Skills
Outcome: The student will be able to use both relational and object-oriented databases. This will be assessed upon completion of the 3-hour course COP 4710, Theory and Structure of Databases.
Assessment and EvaluationProcess: As databases become increasingly prevalent in business and industry, a CS major needs to have expertise in the area. The faculty instructor will collect data on a capstone activity in databases. This will result in 80% of the students enrolled in COP 4710 during 2005-2006 scoring 70% or better as determined by a capstone course evaluation.
Results: 94% of the students enrolled in COP 4710 during 2005 scoring 70% or better as determined by a capstone assignment.
Actions: 80% of the students enrolled in COP 4710 during 2005-2006 scoring 80% or better as determined by a capstone assignment. In addition, the COP 4710 instructors should provide written qualitative feedback on student performance on this course capstone assignment. This feedback will be used to both adjust the assessment requirements and evaluation procedure. In addition, it can be used by the instructors to refine the assignment, and the instructional material provided to the students that is relevant to the capstone assignment.
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Category: Content/Discipline Knowledge & Skills
Outcome: The student will be able to use an assembly language to write a simple program. This will be assessed upon completion of the 3-hour course CDA 3100, Computer Organization I.
Assessment and EvaluationProcess: This is an important skill for a CS major as a means of better understanding higher-level programming languages, and also as a means of programming embedded systems. The skill will be evaluated by the faculty instructor via a capstone activity in the area. This will result in 80% of the students enrolled in CDA 3100 in 2005-2006 scoring 70% or better as determined by a capstone course evaluation.
Results: 66% of the students enrolled in CDA 3100 in 2005 scored 70% or better on the capstone assignment.
Actions: To achieve 80% of the students enrolled in CDA 3100 in 2006-2007 scoring 70% or better as determined by a capstone assignment. In addition, the CDA 3100 instructors should provide written qualitative feedback on student performance on this course capstone assignment. This feedback will be used to both adjust the assessment requirements and evaluation procedure. In addition, it can be used by the instructors to refine the assignment, and the instructional material provided to the students that is relevant to the capstone assignment. At present students are taught both assembly language for both the X86 (Intel) and MIPS architectures. To create a less confusing learning environment we plan to focus only on the more academically standard MIPS instruction set.
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Category: Program Outcome
Outcome: By the end of the degree, the program will integrate knowledge of theoretical and applied foundations of computer science to provide the student with skills that will remain current as specific technologies change.
Assessment and EvaluationProcess: Graduating seniors are requested to complete an exit survey which includes information on employment or graduate school plans. This data is collected by the departmental undergraduate advisor. This will result in 80% of those graduating during the academic year 2005-2006 from the program being employed in field or being accepted into graduate schools, as evidenced by survey results.
Results: 54% of 2005-2006 Computer Science graduating undergraduates reported having either found professional employment in computing or were accepted to graduate school. This was based on exit interviews that were returned by 82% of the students. However, 66% of 2005-2006 Computer Science graduating undergraduates who returned the exit interview either found professional employment in computing or were accepted to graduate school. While the percentages are not what are desired, 100% of the employed or continuing students are doing so in computing-related endeavors.
Actions: Clearly, the fact that not all graduating students complete the exit interview complicated the evaluation of the results, and so a clear recommendation for improvement is to obtain exit interviews from all graduating undergraduates. Also, the requirement that 80% of students have either found professional employment in computing or were accepted to graduate school at the time of graduation seems somewhat unrealistic. The Computer Science Department also collects information on student activity one year past graduation. Perhaps this is the proper time frame within which to collect post-graduation data of this sort. To facilitate this we plan to place the exit interview and the one year out information on the web. This will make it easier for students to keep us informed of their post-baccalaureate situation.
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