Program Development Plan
Program:
Computer Science – BS
Department: Math & Computer Science Date: February 15-17, 2009
Strengths:
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The greatest strength of the Computer Science Program is its faculty. They are all well-qualified and extremely
productive, working hard to ensure that students are given the education they need to compete both in the job market and
in graduate school.
The faculty participate regularly in scholarly activities and in service to the Department, College, University, and
profession.
Faculty members have established a first-rate curriculum that includes both fundamentals and current trends presented
through a variety of ways that facilitate hands-on-learning and independent thinking. This is supported by the fact that
students are well pleased with the education they are receiving.
Faculty members have also established the foundations for a solid assessment plan by requiring student portfolios.
The recently renovated building housing the Program is ample and currently the equipment in faculty offices and labs is
adequate.
Recommendation
Strengthen prerequisite structure to avoid
repetition of needed preliminary material
in upper level courses and increase time
spent on new material.
Instead of requiring a grade of C or higher
in all required computer science courses,
require an average of C over all courses in
the major.
Deepen connections with business while not
increasing the service load of the faculty
1.
Form an industrial advisory board and
use it to discover more co-op and
employment opportunities for students
and gain additional assessment
Strategic Action(s)
Will address if and when ABET
accreditation is sought.
Submit AA-4
Resources needed
C=current
R= reallocation
N=new
Costs
N/A
N/A
Person(s)
Responsible
Date of
Review
Bill
CS Program
Director.
December
2009
CS Program
Director.
April 2011
See specifics below.
Create Advisory Board to include
local employers and alumni.
N/A
N/A
1
Recommendation
Strategic Action(s)
Resources needed
C=current
R= reallocation
N=new
Costs
N/A
N/A
Person(s)
Responsible
Date of
Review
OIPE
CS Program
Director
Annual
Review
information. Include alumni of the
Program as board members.
2. Hold 1- or 2-day workshops that
feature areas of need identified by
regional industry and businesses.
Such workshops can bring money into
the Department and will build stronger
relationships with the companies
involved.
Enhance program outreach and
recruitment while not increasing the
service load on the faculty
1. Update web pages to include up-to-date
information on courses, course
schedules, and news items of interest
to parents, prospective students,
current students, and alumni.
2. Consider an online secure alumni
database to which alumni can add their
current employment information.
Add this to Research Questionnaire
for Hanover.
Ignore workshops – concentrate on
Summer Co-ops, Internships –
systematize how these are placed
and evaluated.
See specifics below
Redesign web-site.
Establish Marketing Plan.
C
TBD
CS Program
Director in
collaboration with
Web Services
April 2010
AVC will address – Melissa will
facilitate discussion with Alumni
Affairs to see if we can piggy back
onto their system.
C
TBD
Provost; AVC
Planning &
Effectiveness
CS Program
Director
July 2009
C
TBD
CS Program
Director in
collaboration with
PR and Print
Services
April 2010
3. Publicize exciting work being done by
students and faculty.
Already being done.
4. Create professional-looking brochures
for distribution at recruiting events.
Create program-specific brochure .
2
Recommendation
Leverage participation in high school
programming activities to recruit high
school students:
1. Give every student who participates in
your high school programming contest
a copy of the brochure; and
2. Get addresses so you can follow up
with a letter that further highlights your
Program.
Strongly encourage, if not demand, that
group projects be done in the Capstone
courses. This reinforces software
engineering skills learned in CS-263 and
CS-363 and lessens the number of projects
overseen by the instructor.
Strategic Action(s)
Resources needed
C=current
R= reallocation
N=new
Costs
See specifics below
Date of
Review
Already being done
N/A
N/A
N/A
Annual
Review
Already being done
N/A
N/A
N/A
Annual review
Develop and implement at least
one group assignment in capstone
course – should be aligned with
new QEP expectations in program.
C
TBD
CS Program
Director/Faculty
Implement by
December
2009
N/A
Annual review
See specifics below
Enhance assessment activities while not
increasing the service load on the faculty
1. Continue the use of portfolios both as a
showcase for student work and as a
source of assessment data.
2. Write a formal assessment document
that includes mission, goals, and
student outcomes and how they relate
to each other and courses.
3. Establish a schedule for data collection
and analysis. Members of the faculty
might collect certain data every year
but analyze it every other year.
Person(s)
Responsible
Already being done
N/A
N/A
Done
Done
3
Recommendation
Resources needed
C=current
R= reallocation
N=new
Costs
N
TBD
Kyle will work with Deans to
develop.
N
TBD
Identify and attribute room(s) in
R25.
C
N/A
Strategic Action(s)
Done
4. Identify courses in which
communication is taught, practiced, and
assessed, and in which students are
required to work in teams.
Hire an additional computer science faculty Grow the faculty.
Demonstrate potential and include
member in order to grow the program
in 2009 Staffing Plan
while maintaining its quality.
Establish a 4-year replacement cycle for all
laboratory machines and faculty office
machines. Computer Science needs current
equipment to support an up-to-date
curriculum since the hardware is woven
into the subject matter of the discipline.
Allow faculty to teach classes in the same
building that houses their offices in order
to facilitate classroom demonstrations that
include equipment that cannot be
permanently stored in the room due to cost
or the need for others to share the
equipment.
Person(s)
Responsible
Date of
Review
CS Program
Director
Department Head
Dean
Provost
Dean
July 2009
follow up
annually
CS Program
Director in
collaboration with
R25 Administrator
and Registrar
Implement
Fall 2009.
Annual
Review
4