Weber State University   

Computer Science

Results of Assessment

2006-2007 (submitted 01/07/08)

The following report discusses the assessment activities in which the Computer Science Department participated during the school year from July 2006 to June 2007.

We have continued to meet on a regular basis with our Industrial Advisory Committee to receive their evaluation and recommendations for each emphasis of our program.  They are pleased with our continued emphasis on having our students work in project teams as well as communication and presentation skills.  They expressed satisfaction and even excitement regarding our new Network Security emphasis and feel that we are headed in the right direction.  Upon a recommendation that we investigate the feasibility and demand for a new gaming emphasis, our Department Chair will do an internship during the summer with Avalanche Software to investigate the skills required and the feasibility that we could offer such an emphasis. 

A very positive indication of the effectiveness of our programs is that we have secured $50,000 in scholarship monies for our students from companies that hire our students are are very satisfied with them. 

In our CS4890 Cooperative Work Experience course, students obtain credit for on the job work experience in the Computer Science field.  Contained in the Progress Reports that are submitted by the students, there are two questions relating to assessing the effectiveness of our programs:

What have you learned in classes that you have applied on the job?

What areas of knowledge have you needed on the job that seem to be lacking in the Computer Science curriculum.

The instructor for this class is compiling the student responses to these questions and presenting them in department meetings for discussion and possible action.

We have created a new course, CS4899, which is an upper division no-credit assessment course in which we plan to give our graduating seniors a test on the material we feel they should have learned during our B.S. programs.  Faculty are in the process of making up questions that can be used.  The course will be required to graduate so we will have a captive audience. 

In the spring of 2007, several of our faculty visited local high schools in the area that offer concurrent enrollment courses for our department. The purpose of these visits was to evaluate the high school instructors and to ensure that their texts and curriculum guides meet our standards. We feel we have an outstanding group of instructors in the high schools who are performing at a high standard.

Our department advisor, Heather Coll, has a data base in which she tracks many of our graduates regarding job placement, locale, salary, etc. This data gives us a “gut” feel as to the success of the graduates from our program. 

We have several labs which support various courses in our curriculum. We have established lab committees which recommend and approve all hardware and software configurations for those labs based on general and specific needs as well as cost effectiveness. We have a formal system (web based) for reporting and resolving problems with our lab and office hardware/software. This has made a huge positive difference in the operation and effectiveness of our labs. Both faculty and students have been impressed with the results.

Mission Statement / Student Learning Outcomes / Curriculum Grid / Assessment Plan / Contact Person