Department Program Assessment
The Department Programs Assessment Overview and Learning Goals and Outcomes for Individual MT and CS courses.
Department Program Assessment Document
Â鶹´«Ã½ÍÅ¶Ó Mathematics and Computer Science Program Assessment
The Â鶹´«Ã½ÍÅ¶Ó Mathematics and Computer Science Department has designed program assessment plans that focus on student learning goals, objectives, and outcomes. The following is a description of those plans. Since the Department is composed of two disciplines, mathematics and computer science, and since assessment in each of these disciplines is by necessity fundamentally different, the assessment plans for each are designed separately and contain significant differences. These plans are the result of a combined effort by the entire faculty of the Department. The Department will begin to implement these new assessment plans in Fall 2015.
Mathematics Program Assessment Procedures
Individual Course Assessment Procedure
Additional Assessment Procedures for Multi-section Courses
Core Courses in the Mathematics Major Programs
The Department offers two majors in mathematics, a traditional Bachelor of Science in Mathematics program and a Bachelor of Arts in Teaching Mathematics program for students who are working towards the Adolescent to Young Adult teaching license. The Teaching Mathematics Program is a degree program consisting of mathematics content courses with a required support sequence of education courses. The education courses are assessed in the Department of Education. The following procedures apply to both major programs.
Note that the above assessment activities take place just before each semester starts and immediately after each semester ends.
Graduate Programs in Mathematics
The Department offers two graduate programs in mathematics, a traditional Master of Science in Mathematics program and a Master of Arts in Mathematics program. The Master of Science program is based on a foundation of advanced courses in theoretical mathematics and its goal is to prepare students for the possibility of further graduate work in mathematics. The Master of Arts program consists of mathematics content courses especially designed for secondary school mathematics teachers and its goal is to provide teachers with a deeper understanding of mathematics related to the courses they teach. The following are the two main assessment tools used.
Successful completion of the above two graduation requirements is reported to the Associate Dean of Graduate Programs in the College of Arts and Sciences and is reported to the department assessment coordinator.
Department Assessment Coordinator and Department Responsibilities
Additional Assessment Activities
Goals for Mathematics Majors:
Goals for Non-Majors:
Goals and Objectives for Each Course
MT122 (Elementary Statistics):
Goal: Students will learn that data can be intelligently analyzed by using a variety of statistical methods and be able to differentiate which methods are best to use in any given situation.
Objectives: Students will be able to,
MT130 (Applied Calculus):
MT135 (Calculus and Analytic Geometry I):
Goal: Students will understand that calculus is a unified mathematical theory and not just an assortment of techniques. They will learn that the underlying concept of limit leads to the fundamental ideas and techniques of calculus.
Objectives:
MT160 (Mathematics and Creativity):
Goal: Students will learn what mathematics is and what mathematicians do.
MT228 (Statistics for the Biological Sciences):
Students will be able to,
MT229 (Probability and Statistics):
Students will be able to,
MT 271 (Discrete Mathematics and Matrix Algebra):
MT 271 is the foundational course in abstract mathematics in the majors. We expect that students will attain these goals by the time that they complete the major in mathematics; we do not expect full mastery within a single course. The bullet points below each goal are the learning objectives for this particular course.
Goal: Students will state and use formal (precise) mathematical definitions.
Goal: Students will use algorithmic processes to solve computational problems.
Goal:Students will construct mathematically correct and complete proofs, using a variety of techniques.
Goal: Students will evaluate the validity and completeness of a mathematical argument.
Goal: Students will communicate clearly in the language of mathematics.
MT331 (Introduction to Real Analysis):
Goal: Students will learn the particular reasoning that is used to prove theorems in calculus and how it is dependent upon an understanding of the concept of limit and how that idea is a fundamental consequence of the real number system.
Objectives:
MT343 (Introduction to Abstract Algebra):
Goal: Students will know different algebraic structures and their properties.
Objectives:
MT450 (Euclidean and non-Euclidean Geometry):
Goals:
Objectives:
Computer Science Program Assessment Procedures
Computer Science Program Goals
Goal I: Computational Thinking and Problem Solving: Students will develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills and use these skills to solve complex computing problems.
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will:
a) decompose a problem, system or task into parts that are easier to conceive, understand, implement, and maintain
b) recognize patterns among similarities or common differences between a variety of problems
c) use pattern abstraction and generalization in order to manage complexity
d) use stepwise refinement to produce an algorithmic solution to a problem as a result of problem decomposition and pattern identification
Goal II: Theoretical Foundations: Students will acquire a working knowledge of the theoretical foundations of computer science.
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will:
a) apply mathematical foundations to the discipline of computer science
b) understand the theoretical and practical significance of computational theory and its application to important real-world problem domains
c) use, implement and compare fundamental abstract data types
d) analyze the complexity and computability of algorithmic solutions
e) determine the correctness and efficiency of the design of a software system
Goal III: Software Engineering Foundation: Students will acquire both a working knowledge and a theoretical understanding of the professional practice and formal methodologies of development of large software projects.
Student Learning Objectives
Students will:
a) understand strategies for effective design and their application in designing computing systems
b) learn to acquire problem requirements and specifications from the client and express them
c) develop and test software solutions using different design methodologies, application program interfaces, and programming languages
d) demonstrate appropriate uses of modern tools of the computing profession
Goal IV: Communication and Interpersonal Skills: Students will acquire communication and interpersonal skills necessary to perform effectively in a technical environment.
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will:
a) use oral and written communication skills to convey technical information effectively and accurately
b) employ interpersonal skills to work cooperatively and productively in a team environment.
c)communicate effectively with those outside of computing
Assessment process overview
Direct program goals and objectives assessment in key courses within the Computing Core: CS125, CS128, CS150, CS228, CS225, CS242, CS270, CS470.
All of these classes are required by all of our majors: CS, CIS, HCIT, so they will serve as the foundational basis for assessing all three programs.
We propose to assess the majors in the Computer Science component of the Mathematics and Computer Science department with a blend of a capstone experience and a portfolio-based program. Each student taking one of the three intro classes (CS 125, CS128, CS150) will have a portfolio kept in the departmental office. The portfolios for students choosing one of the three majors will have four specific items included.
1. Baseline Student Experience and Skills Assessment.
In each one of the three gateway courses (CS 125, CS128, CS150), students will fill out a survey/skill assessment tool to establish a baseline of their computational experience, their programming exposure, and their ability to reason logically. (Portfolio item)
2. Programming Primitives Assessment.
At the beginning of CS228, all students will complete a programming skills assessment to determine their mastery of basic programming building-blocks: conditionals, loops, procedures, and parameter passing. (Portfolio item)
3. Software Development Skills Assessments.
At the end of CS270, all students will complete a software development concepts and techniques assessment to determine their mastery of the software engineering methodology. (Portfolio item)
4. Capstone Student Assessment.
At the end of CS470 (or afterward) all students will have a technical exit interview with a member of the computer science faculty. At this interview, the materials in the portfolio and the student’s experiences in the program will be discussed. A report of this interaction will be placed in the portfolio.
Additional items to be collected in the portfolio for all majors:
CS128 final project
CS128 final exam
CS228 final exam
CS225 final project
CS242 final exam
CS270 final exam
CS470 project
Additional items to be collected in the portfolios for CS majors:
CS328 final exam
Additional items to be collected in the portfolios for CIS majors:
CS475 paper
Additional items to be collected in the portfolios for HCIT majors:
CS312 final and CS476 project
Department Assessment Coordinator and Department Responsibilities
Additional Assessment Activities
Goals and Objectives for Each Course
CS125 Introduction to web design and image processing.
Program Goals and Learning Outcomes: I(b,c), III(a,d)
Course Learning Outcomes: After successfully completing this course, students will:
1. create and edit basic static web pages in text-based HTML mode
2. design and publish multi-page websites with linked pages and images
3. employ CSS to specify presentation format separately from page content
4. know and apply good design practices for site organization, site navigation, page content, page layout, color and font selection, user accessibility, and image sizing
5. understand key concepts about web file types, web addresses, linking, publishing, and copyright law
CS128 Introduction to software application development.
Program Goals and Learning Outcomes: I(a,d), II(b,c), IV(a)
Course Learning Outcomes: After successfully completing this course, students will:
1. read and write basic procedural programs with text and/or graphical input/output
2. read and write code using control flow structures of branching, looping, and procedure invocation
3. use procedural decomposition and parameterization to create modular code
4. read and write code using basic data structures of variables and arrays
5. methodically verify and debug programs to insure that they are correct
6. use language-specific variable naming conventions and formatting standards
7. understand and apply an algorithmic approach to problem-solving
CS150 Database Systems
Program Goals and Learning Outcomes: I(a,b,c,d), II(a,b)
Course Learning Outcomes: After successfully completing this course, students will:
1. install, configure, and interact with a relational database management system
2. describe, define and apply the major components of the relational database model to database design
3. learn and apply the Structured Query Language (SQL) for database definition and manipulation
4. utilize a database modeling technique for a single entity class, a one-to-one (1:1) relationship between entity classes, a one-to-many (1:M) relationship between entity classes, a many-to-many (M:M) relationship between entity classes, and recursive relationships
5. define, develop and process single entity, 1:1, 1:M, and M:M database tables
6. determine functional dependencies between entities
7. determine the normal form for a table
8. normalize a table to third normal form
9. apply ethical computing concepts and practices to database design and implementation
CS228 Object-oriented programming
Program Goals and Learning Outcomes: I (a,b,c,d), II(c)
Course Learning Outcomes: After successfully completing this course, students will:
1. write a class, create an object of that class and access methods of that object
2. differentiate between the static and dynamic structure and behavior of an object
3. use the appropriate level of access to a class member
4. write a class and a subclass of that class, create an object of the subclass and invoke methods of that object
5. write an interface, implement the interface in a class, create an object of that class, and invoke the interface method
6. determine the result of a polymorphic method invocation
7. demonstrate the use of method overloading
8. demonstrate the use of method overriding
9. construct appropriate object diagrams to demonstrate understand of object references
CS242 Computational Modeling
Program Goals and Learning Outcomes: Goal II (a, b)
Course Learning Outcomes: After successfully completing this course, students will:
1. design finite state automata and regular expressions
2. convert amongst DFAs, NFAs, and regular expressions
3. prove that a language is not regular
4. design push-down automata and context-free grammars
5. convert amongst push-down automata and context-free grammars
6. prove that a language is not context-free
7. design Turing machines
8. apply automata theory to important real-world problem domains
CS270 Software Programming Practices
Program Goals and Learning Outcomes: I(a,b,c,d), II(b,c,e), III(a,b,c,d), IV(a,b)
Course Learning Outcomes: After successfully completing this course, students will:
1. understand and experience requirements analysis, design process, implementation, testing
2. understand both traditional (waterfall) and agile development methodologies
3. experience all phases of the development in isolated components of ongoing projects
4. teach themselves a programming language that they previously did not know
5. apply programming concepts to problems not designed to teach programming concepts
6. experience a code walkthrough from the perspective of the developer and a colleague
7. learn and experience pair programming and test-first design
CS470 Software Engineering Project
Program Goals and Learning Outcomes: III(a,b,c,d), IV(a,b,c)
Course Learning Outcomes: After successfully completing this course, students will:
1. experience in an academic setting a simulated professional software development process
2. work with an independent client with a real programming need for an entire semester
3. learn, teach, and research technologies, tools, and concepts necessary for a project
4. create all documentation for a project – code comments, user’s guide, programmer’s guide
5. develop software development team skills: communication, responsibility, coordination
In addition, specific majors will have another course to be considered:
CS major:
CS328 Advanced Programming
Program Goals and Learning Outcomes: II(c,d,e)
Course Learning Outcomes: After successfully completing this course, students will:
CIS major:
CS475 Technical Writing
Program Goals and Learning Outcomes: IV(a,b,c)
Course Learning Outcomes: After successfully completing this course, students will:
1. be able to independently research technical topics for application to specific project goals
2. express themselves effectively in a written manner on technical subjects
3. be able to critically consider the written ideas of others and express their critiques in multiple ways
4. communicate complex technical material to a non-technical audience
5. understand and create the document tools used in the development of software projects
HCIT major:
CS 476 Professional Practices Seminar
Program Goals and Learning Outcomes: III(c,d), IV(a,b,c)
Course Learning Outcomes: After successfully completing this course, students will:
1. research and prepare for interacting with technical professionals in their area of expertise
2. deconstruct a technical presentation by considering and debating ideas promoted therein
3. compare their academic knowledge with the professional knowledge of the guest speakers
4. develop a significant project based on new ideas brought to them through research and seminars