Assessment Details
Academic Year: 2020-2021 Level: Undergraduate
Campus Department: Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences [UG and Grad]
Program Type: Major [UG] / Program [Grad]
Program Name: Computer Science BA BS (Link)
Description of Data Collection:
We consider independent research projects. For each student, the faculty advisor discusses the student’s ability vis-a-vis the learning outcomes. In the case of honors theses,
we also examine the thesis document and oral presentation. We solicit anecdotal evidence from faculty who teach advanced courses concerning deficiencies in preparation.
We have a town meeting” of seniors at the end of each year. We solicit their opinions about the good and bad aspects of their experiences in the major. We also ask what things they didn’t learn that they wish they had, and ask alumni to provide feedback based on their experience after graduation. (In Spring, 2020, this feedback came in the
form of a survey.)
Review Process:
There is an annual departmental faculty meeting, typically at the end of each academic year, that usually focuses on program assessment. Any assessment-related tasks identified in connection with the meeting are assigned to smaller groups of faculty, who make recommendations for improvement. Faculty across the multiple sections of our introductory courses exchange information regularly during the semester, in order to maintain coordination in terms of content and approach. These meetings provide an opportunity to make mid-course corrections that have an immediate beneficial impact on students.
This past year, our end-of-the-year meeting focused more on reflections on remote teaching and and related planning for the Fall semester. We expect to conduct a more thorough program review next Fall.
Resulting Program Changes:
We have seen a rapid increase in two distinct populations of students. One consists of our majors: taken together, Computer Science has been the fastest-growing major in
the college for the past several years. The other is the growing group of non-majors who want to acquire computing and coding skills as an adjunct to their work in their
principal fields of interest. These two groups of students have very different needs. Up until now, we have lumped the two together in our introductory course CSCI1101,
but it has become increasingly obvious that this is not an ideal arrangement for either group: Too many CS majors were emerging from CSCI1101 deficient in some of the
core skills that are critical for continued study in the subject; but many of these same skills are not particularly relevant or useful { and often too challenging { for the other
group. We have instituted a number of curriculum modifications designed to better serve both these groups:
Data Science. Beginning in the Spring of 2020, we began offering a course in Data Science, aimed principally at non-majors who had taken a single introductory programming course. We hope that this becomes the basis of a more comprehensive, inter-departmental minor (or perhaps even major) program in Data Science. Scientific Computing. Beginning in the Fall of 2021, we are reviving our course in Scientific Computing, which emphasizes the implementation and use of numerical methods important for work in the natural sciences. This is targeted primarily at students in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Neuroscience, Geology and Economics’ Introductory Course. We intend to split the introductory course into two different courses, one aimed primarily at majors who will pursue further study in Computer Science, and the other a new course aimed at non-majors. We currently have a subcommittee within the department aimed at developing the new course, which we expect to introduce in Spring, 2022. At the same time we are implementing some changes in CSCI1101, to ensure that new majors have the appropriate knowledge and skills for further study in the subject.
Date of Most Recent Program Review:
We have seen a rapid increase in two distinct populations of students. One consists of our majors: taken together, Computer Science has been the fastest-growing major in
the college for the past several years. The other is the growing group of non-majors who want to acquire computing and coding skills as an adjunct to their work in their
principal fields of interest. These two groups of students have very different needs. Up until now, we have lumped the two together in our introductory course CSCI1101,
but it has become increasingly obvious that this is not an ideal arrangement for either group: Too many CS majors were emerging from CSCI1101 deficient in some of the
core skills that are critical for continued study in the subject; but many of these same skills are not particularly relevant or useful { and often too challenging { for the other
group. We have instituted a number of curriculum modifications designed to better serve both these groups:
Data Science. Beginning in the Spring of 2020, we began offering a course in Data Science, aimed principally at non-majors who had taken a single introductory programming course. We hope that this becomes the basis of a more comprehensive, inter-departmental minor (or perhaps even major) program in Data Science. Scientific Computing. Beginning in the Fall of 2021, we are reviving our course in Scientific Computing, which emphasizes the implementation and use of numerical methods important for work in the natural sciences. This is targeted primarily at students in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Neuroscience, Geology and Economics’ Introductory Course. We intend to split the introductory course into two different courses, one aimed primarily at majors who will pursue further study in Computer Science, and the other a new course aimed at non-majors. We currently have a subcommittee within the department aimed at developing the new course, which we expect to introduce in Spring, 2022. At the same time we are implementing some changes in CSCI1101, to ensure that new majors have the appropriate knowledge and skills for further study in the subject.
Attachments (if available)