Student Outcome Assessment Plan
University of Northern Iowa
Department of Computer Science
Bachelor of Science: Bioinformatics
A. Benchmarks for Student Outcomes Assessment
The Bachelor of Science in Bioinformatics is a cross-disciplinary curriculum that
combines a set of core requirements with a set of elective courses in computer
science, biology, chemistry and mathematics.
The primary purpose of the Assessment Plan for the Bachelor of Science
Bioinformatics is to improve student learning and the effectiveness of the
program. The Student Outcomes Assessment is expected to provide insight into
our students’ strengths and weaknesses and to identify areas where
improvements in our program might be needed. This, in turn, will strengthen
the student learning experience and to improve teaching at the course and
program levels.
The Assessment Plan includes a set of measures that are suited to evaluate the
student's skills and knowledge of computation, biology, chemistry as well as the
knowledge of mathematical and statistical techniques in biological data analysis.
In particular, these measures aim at evaluating the students' ability to:
• Design and perform experiments to collect biological data in order to test
hypotheses about biological processes
• Choose and apply appropriate computational and mathematical techniques
to solve biological problems
• Effectively communicate and present the results of the biological data analysis
among professionals from other disciplines
B. Frequency of the assessments
With respect to a student's career, assessments will occur at four times. The first
will occur on a continuing basis at the time the student declares a bioinformatics
major. The second will occur when a student completes the set of required
courses in the major. The third assessment will occur at the time of the
graduation. The post-graduation assessment will occur biennially.
B. Procedures.
The current SOA plan uses four difference assessment instruments:
(i) Declaration Survey
At major declaration time students are required to complete a questionnaire (see
Appendix A) addressing their reasons for selecting the bioinformatics major,
career goals, and previous background. Until this questionnaire is completed,
their "Declaration of Major Form" is not forwarded to the Registrar. Additional
materials such as ACT scores, high school GPA, high school rank, and a current
transcript are collected at this time. The purpose of this stage of the assessment is
to aid the computer science faculty in understanding the background of our
students and perceptions of the field. This information might enable the faculty
to find some success indicators for the program.
(ii) Student Outcomes Assessment Test
This comprehensive test is administered to test student proficiency in subjects
taught in the required bioinformatics courses: Calculus I (800:060), Introductory
Statistics for Life Sciences (800:064), Introduction to Computing (810:051),
Discrete Structures (810:080), Computing for Bioinformatics I (810:165),
Computing for Bioinformatics II (810:166), General Biology: Cell Structure and
Function (840:052), Bioinformatics Applications to Biology (840:127), Genetics
(840:140), General Chemistry I-II (860:070, or both 860:044 and 860:048), Applied
Organic and Biochemistry (860:063) or Organic Chemistry I (860:120). The
primary mechanism for conducting assessment of the computer science
knowledge and skills is the software package PAT (Program Assessment Tool).
PAT will administer the test, summarize the results, compare them against the
departmental expectations for each subject and generate the reports.
(iii) Exit surveys
Each semester during the last week of classes, students in the program will take a
blind (anonymous) survey that rates their perceived understanding of each topic
using a low, mediumlow, medium, meduimhigh, and high scale (see Appendix
A).
(iv) Alumni Surveys
Every two years a survey of recent graduates is conducted. The questionnaire
(see Appendix A) is designed to assess strengthens and weaknesses in the
preparation received during the program.
Appendix A
Student Outcome and Assessment Forms
Department of Computer Science
Bioinformatics Major Declaration Survey
Name ________________________
Date ____________
Background:
What computer science and biology courses did you take before coming to UNI?
Where did you take the courses?
What computer science and biology courses did you take at UNI?
Did any of these courses influence your decision to become a bioinformatics
major? Which courses?
Objectives Essay:
Write a short essay on your career objectives on the back of this page. Address
the following questions and include anything else you consider appropriate.
1. Why did you choose bioinformatics?
2. What do you expect to do directly after earning your degree?
3. What do you expect to be doing five years after earning your degree?
Note: Your major declaration will not be forwarded to the registrar's office until
you return this completed form.
Exit Survey
This section lists some of the most important topics in the bioinformatics
program at UNI. Rank your understanding of the topics according to the
descriptions of None, Low, Medium, Med/High, and High at the top of the page
on the back of this survey.
Topic
None
Watson
and Crick
model of
DNA
Central
Dogma of
molecular
biology
General
transfer of
biological
sequential
informatio
n
DNA
replication
Transcripti
on
Translation
Genes,
introns and
exons
How the
informatio
n is
“expressed
” in the
form of
RNA and
proteins
Low
Medium
Med/High
High
Three
types of
protein
structure:
primary,
secondary
and
tertiary
Key
concepts in
bioinforma
tics and the
ways in
which
bioinforma
tics can
contribute
to scientific
informatio
n and
practice
Human
genome
project
Main
bioinforma
tics
resources
on the
Web
Protein
and DNA
sequence
and
structure
databases
SWISSPROT, nr,
PDB
databases
Software
Hydrogen
tools used
in
bioinforma
tics
BLAST,
PSI-BLAST
Chemical
structure
of
nucleotides
Chemical
structure
of
ribonucleic
acid
Chemical
structure
of
deoxyribo
nucleic acid
Chemical
differences
between
DNA and
RNA
molecules
Physical
differences
between
DNA and
RNA
molecules
The notion
of
nucleotide
base
pairing
Computin
Hydrogen
bonding
g
the
probability
The role of
of
an event
DNA
as
using
the the
basic
repository
definition
of genetic
of
informatio
n
The triplet
code
The role of
m-RNA in
protein
synthesis
The
chemical
structure
of amino
acids
The
peptide
bond
formations
and
protein
structure
Basic
concepts in
probability
and
statistics
Algorithms
Computin
g the
for
probability
constructin
ofDNA
g
an event
using the
basic
definition
of
probability
Random
variable
Probability
distributio
ns
Binomial
distributio
n
Normal
distributio
n
Statistical
significance
of protein
and DNA
sequence
alignment
scores
Z-score
p-value
and Evalue
DNA
restriction
mapping
problem
Substitutio
Algorithms
formatrices,
n
constructin
g DNA
restriction
maps
Combinato
rial pattern
matching
algorithms
Regulatory
motifs in
DNA
sequences
Median
strings
The
difference
between
the bruteforce and
branchand-bound
approaches
to finding
regulatory
motifs and
median
strings in
DNA
sequence
The
importance
of string
compariso
n in
bioinforma
tics
Substitutio
n matrices,
PAM
series,
BLOSUM
series
SmithWaterman
alignment
algorithm
Needlema
n-Wunsch
alignment
algorithm
Alignment
s with gaps
Different
types of
gap
penalties,
linear,
affine,
position
specific
Multiple
sequence
alignment
Scoring
multiple
sequence
alignment
Protein
structural
alignment
Protein
threedimension
al structure
prediction
Statistical
approaches
to gene
prediction
Similaritybased
approaches
to gene
prediction
Graph
algorithms
for DNA
sequencing
Sequencing
by
hybridizati
on (SBH)
SBH as a
Hamiltonia
n path
problem
vs. SBH as
an Eulerian
path
problem
Hierarchica
l clustering
k-means
clustering
Evolutiona
ry trees
UPGMA
algorithm
Neighborjoining
algorithm
Small
parsimony
problem
Large
parsimony
problem
Hidden
Markov
models in
biological
sequence
analysis
Computati
onal
complexity
, big-O
notation
Time
complexity
of
bioinforma
tics
algorithms,
e.g. the
dynamic
programm
ing for
sequence
alignment
Bioinformatics Alumni Survey
As one mechanism to evaluate the Bioinformatics program at UNI and to gather
information to use in curriculum revision, please complete and return the
following short survey. Please feel free to add additional comments on the back
of this sheet.
Rate the following on a scale from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent):
How well did UNI Bioinformatics program prepare you:
____ to learn to work in your current work environment?
____ to use the bioinformatics software tools?
____ to work in a team?
____ to give oral presentations?
____ to give written presentations?
____ for your first job (or graduate school)?
What do you suggest be added to the UNI Bioinformatics curriculum to improve our
students' transition into the work place?
Name of your current employer or graduate school. (Optional)
Your name, current address, email address, and telephone number. (Optional)