Please save this form to your own computer, type (or cut-and-paste) the required information into the appropriate boxes, re-save the form and then email it as an attachment to the Office of Instruction at this address: Jeannette.U@seattlecolleges.edu. Thank you! Program Review Report: Section A Program or area of study reviewed in this report: ENGR/CSC Responsibility for program review preparation: Name: Dennis Schaffer, Coordinator with peer collaboration from Vince Offenback and Barbara Goldner Division/Dean: Pete Lortz Date of Submission: 7/3/12 Submit to the Office of Instruction Section A: PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: 1. Description of the program/certificate/area of study: The Computer Science program prepares students for transfer to a baccalaureate program by offering three primary courses of relevance: CSC 110, CSC 142, and CSC 143. The latter two courses transfer directly to the University of Washington as CSE 142 and CSE 143; CSC 110 also transfers to the UW. All three of these classes may be applied to meet the “Natural World” and “Quantitative/Symbolic Reasoning” general education requirements at the UW. These courses are required for entrance or graduation from various technical degrees at the 4-year level. Most students include these courses as part of the AS degree. The CSC program also provides coursework to satisfy requirements for AAS students in Network Technology and Electronics Engineering Technology. This is satisfied by the CSC 110 course. One other course, CSC 111, satisfies general education requirements for several professional/technical program, such as nursing, pharmacy, and nanotechnology and also transfers to the UW as CSE 100 or INFO 100. The Engineering Transfer program at NSCC offers a traditional 3-course sequence of coursework in mechanical engineering (ENGR 214, ENGR 225, and ENGR 215), and one course in electrical engineering (ENGR 204). All of these courses have calculus as a prerequisite and transfer to 4-year institutions. In addition, ENGR 240 transfers to the UW as AMATH 301 and satisfies the transfer requirements of some engineering majors for a numerical methods or scientific computing course. This is usually an alternative to a traditional programming course like CSC 142. ENGR 110 is a 2-credit orientation course. It is intended to introduce first-year students to the career choices available to them among the various branches of engineering. Such a course is very commonly offered by 2-year and 4-year colleges that offer engineering degrees. 2. Overview: Describe how this program (or area of study) supports the mission of the college, and its core themes: Mission: North Seattle Community College is committed to changing lives through education. We achieve our mission by: Offering comprehensive educational opportunities Creating a highly supportive learning environment Engaging in effective and enduring partnerships The Computer Science/Engineering Transfer program: Offers courses needed for successful transfer to most engineering departments at most 4-year colleges Revises and maintains courses that transfer to UW and other 4-year colleges to guarantee that students are well-prepared for their transfer institutions Adjusts our course offerings in response to changing student needs maintains contact with UW and other local colleges, as well as attending local professional conferences Maintains tutoring in the Math Learning Center and advises the Engineering Club Develops and supports an ongoing partnership with the BSEE program from Eastern Washington University that is housed at NSCC Has full-time faculty who are all mentors in the Ready, Set, Transfer (RST) program Core Themes: Advancing Student Success Excelling in Teaching and Learning Building Community The Computer Science/Engineering Transfer program participates in or supports the following endeavors, intended to create successful student transfers to 4-year institutions or to help them complete professional/technical requirements: Faculty rotation among courses to create the strongest, most experienced group Ready, Set, Transfer (RST) Math Learning Center (MLC) Engineering Club Creation of a new course, ENGR 110, Engineering Orientation, a course focusing on the soft skills required in engineering careers, as an example of maintaining relevancy the department works closely together, sharing best practices and materials, to continually improve teaching and learning participation in campus-wide ELO assessments (Problem Solving and Information Literacy) 3. Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs): North Seattle Community College serves a diverse student population with a wide variety of educational backgrounds and goals. As a learning community, we foster and promote the following outcomes: Knowledge Facts, theories, perspectives and methodologies within and across disciplines Intellectual & Practical Skills, including critical thinking and problem solving communication and self-expression quantitative reasoning information literacy technological proficiency collaboration: group and team work Personal & Social Responsibility, including civic engagement: local, global and environmental intercultural knowledge and competence ethical awareness and personal integrity lifelong learning and personal well-being Integrative & Applied Learning Synthesis and application of knowledge, skills and responsibilities to new settings and problems All of the engineering and computer science courses (except ENGR 110) fulfill the ELO Quantitative Reasoning and Critical Thinking. Students must recognize a problem to be solved, choose an appropriate tool from among the various tools taught in the class, solve the problem, and test that solution. Some engineering courses, such as ENGR 214 and ENGR 225, require students to submit a complete design report. So they satisfy the ELO for Communication and Self-expression. Computer Science courses expect students to construct and test functional computer programs, spreadsheets, and websites. For this reason CSC 110, 142, and 111 all fulfill the Technological Proficiency ELO. Finally, ENGR 110 is an orientation to engineering careers. It has no math or other prerequisites but serves for students to learn more about the skills required and careers available to them if they study engineering. This course satisfies the ELO Facts, Theories, Perspectives and Methodologies Within and Across Disciplines. In the following table, indicate which courses that you regularly offer meet each ELO in the left column on the table. You may list a course as many times as is relevant. In the last row, please list any course currently offered that does not appear to meet any ELO. Essential Learning Outcome Courses Meeting This Outcome Facts, theories, perspectives and methodologies within and across disciplines ENGR 110 Critical thinking and problem-solving CSC 110, 142, 143, 111 ENGR 204, 214, 215, 225, 240 Communication and self-expression ENGR 214, 225 Quantitative reasoning CSC 110, 142, 143, 111 ENGR 204, 214, 215, 225, 240 Information literacy Technological proficiency CSC 110, 142, 111 Collaboration: group and team work Civic engagement Intercultural knowledge and competence Ethical awareness and personal integrity Lifelong learning and personal well-being Other courses offered that do not address any ELO 4. Program Level Outcomes: The CSC 110 and CSC 111 courses support nursing, EET, pharmacy, and other professional/technical programs on campus. All courses prepare students for transfer to informatics, computer science, and a wide range of engineering degree programs at UW and other 4-year colleges. The program goals are in alignment with the current AS degrees. Here are the Program Outcomes for the CSC/ENGR program: Program Outcome #1a Computer Science students apply appropriate logic, tools, and processes to write software programs that solve given problems. As appropriate, they can use diagram to represent different points in the problem solving process Program Outcome #1b Engineering students apply appropriate analytical techniques and computational tools to solve engineering problems or explain why they cannot be solved with the tools provided. They make extensive use of properly labeled diagrams to represent the system being analyzed. Program Outcome #2 Students test their solutions to verify that they effectively solve the problem and identify any situations in which the solution will not work. Program Outcome #3 Students document their solutions and are able to explain their work from different perspectives, as appropriate to the problem. Program Level Outcome Courses Meeting This Outcome Program Outcome #1a CSC 110, 142, 143, 111 Program Outcome #1b ENGR 110, 214, 215, 225, 204, 240 Program Outcome #2 CSC 110, 142, 143, 111 ENGR 214, 215, 225, 204, 240 Program Outcome #3 CSC 110, 142, 143 ENGR 214, 225, 204, 240 Other courses offered that do not address any program-level outcome 5. Planning for Assessment: One program-level outcome to analyze is solution testing - does a student’s proposed solution to a problem really solve it? We can plan how that evolves through the sequence (either CSC or ENGR) and discuss what activities/expectations are appropriate at each course. This is Program Level outcome 2. An ELO that can be addressed is one feature of problem solving. In engineering classes this would be the skill of diagram-drawing. For electrical circuits this would be complete circuit schematics. For mechanical engineering classes this would be force and kinetic diagrams. In computer science this could be a variety of diagrams: flowcharts, static call graphs, or class diagrams. The final program-level outcome we chose to assess was #1a. The plan, tool, and data are documented in Program Review Section B. 6a. Co-Curricular Activities: The program supports the Engineering Club as an example. 6b. Service to the Wider Community: Helping to satisfy the well-known market demands for engineers and computer scientists. 7a. Program Resource Availability: Here are important resources that help the program succeed, in many cases to support active learning: Dual scheduling of lecture rooms and lab rooms to allow maximum instructional flexibility Up-to-date computer lab Maintenance of two servers: moodler, which supports all computer science classes whether they are on campus or online; and compass, a place where CSC 111 students build web sites Ability to use the electronics lab for ENGR 204 lab exercises A resource that has worked up to now has been regular attainment of sabbatical leaves for faculty seeking retraining. This has worked very well on many occasions. 7b. Program Maintenance and Personnel: In your program, what are your FT/PTF ratios? Three full-time and one priority-hire part-time faculty regularly teach engineering and computer science classes. Rarely (about one class per year) someone else is hired for a class. The following table summarizes our FT/PTF ratios for the past 3 years: Year 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 all 3 years 5-credit sections taught by FT faculty 23 23 22 68 5-credit sections taught by PT faculty 8 10 9 27 25.8% 30.3% 29.0% 28.4% PT Percentage taught by PT faculty In your program, what are the student/faculty ratios (include all faculty in this, both FT/PTF)? The following table summarizes our S/F ratios for the past 3 years: Year 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 all 3 years Total number of 5-credit sections offered 31 33 31 95 Total student headcount 822 816 853 2494 S/F Ratio 26.5 24.8 27.5 26.3 Are there any profession or technical guidelines that your program must follow in terms of accreditation or certification? If so, please explain. NO What duties do program faculty and staff perform outside of normal teaching duties and responsibilities? This work is done is support of program maintenance, upkeep, marketing, or other activities. How much time is required to perform these duties? How are these duties assigned? Regular support of student accounts and some technical support for the moodle server Lots of time dedicated to learn new computer languages as required by curriculum changes Occasional marketing of new courses or those with weak enrollments In what way are program faculty involved in processes related to the hiring of new program faculty (FT/PT), and any support staff directly related to the program? Hiring and tenure committees 8a.Communication within Program: How are program issues communicated to program stakeholders (i.e., students, faculty, administrators, advisory groups, etc.)? What are the modes of communication used (meetings, documents, websites, flyers, etc.? Flyers, email, campus screensavers, campus website, engineering club, RST program, department meetings, WCERTE state-wide organization for engineering, UW Bothell meetings for computer science 8b. Communication about Program with Students: How do students find out about program requirements and program policies (admissions, prerequisites, exceptions, placement, etc.); and issues involving scheduling for planning their progress through the program? List publications, pamphlets, websites, etc., where program information is available. Classroom announcements, college class schedule, advising, flyers, program description on the college web site