BSCS Assessment Report Fall 2011

As dictated by the assessment schedule, the following Program Outcomes were assessed:

BSCS.OC1

The ability to follow and adapt software development processes

BSCS.OC2

The ability to carry out object oriented design and to apply design patterns

According to the Courses/Outcomes Matrix,

CS 46A to test outcome BSCS.OC1 at the Beginner level. Section 1 of CS 46A is taught by Horstmann, and Section 2 is taught by O'Brien.

CS 151 to test outcome BSCS.OC1 at the Advanced level. Sections 1 and 2 of CS 151 are taught by Atta.

CS 160 to test outcome BSCS.OC1 at the Advanced level. Sections 1 and 2 of CS 160 are taught by Tseng.

 CS 46A to test outcome BSCS.OC2 at the Beginner level. Section 1 of CS 46A is taught by Horstmann, and Section 2 is taught by O'Brien.

CS 151 to test outcome BSCS.OC2 at the Intermediate level. Sections 1 and 2 of CS 151 are taught by Atta.

CS 160 to test outcome BSCS.OC2 at the Advanced level. Sections 1 and 2 of CS 160 are taught by Tseng.

The Assessment Reports for the Program Outcomes are given below.

1. Program Outcome BSCS.OC1 

The ability to explain the structure and function of computer hardware components and their influence on the design of software systems

1.1. Assessment

CS 46A to assess BSCS.OC1 at the Beginner level. Section 1 of CS 46A is taught by Horstmann, and Section 2 is taught by O'Brien.

CS 151 to assess BSCS.OC1 at the Advanced level. Sections 1, 2 and 3 of CS 151 are taught by Atta.

CS 160 to assess BSCS.OC1 at the Advanced level. Sections 1 and 2 of CS 160 are taught by Tseng.

 

1.2.1. Tasks for Assessment of BSCS.OC1 in CS 46A at the Beginner level

Not available

 

1.2.2. Tasks for Assessment of BSCS.OC1 in CS 151 at the Advanced level

Students who pass CS 151 should be able to perform the following tasks:

• Task1: Appropriately select and apply the following design patterns in the construction of a software application: Composite, Decorator, Iterator, Strategy, Template method, and Observer. Assessed by homework assignment, Lab and exams
• Task 2: Be able to follow a systematic OO design methodology. Assessed by homework assignment, Lab and exams.

 

1.2.3. Tasks for Assessment of BSCS.OC1 in CS 160 at the Advanced level

Students who pass CS 160 should be able to perform the following tasks:

Task 1: Software Process and Software Process Models

A student should understand the typical stages of software process in software development. Ability to decide what software process model, e.g., Waterfall and Evolutionary, is suitable for a given type of software development. Knowledge of Agile development and SCRUM is essential.

Task 2: Requirement Engineering

Based on a requirement description, a student should be able to translate the description into use cases, use case diagrams, and sequence diagrams or similar as specification document for subsequent implementation in a team project.

Task 3: Project Management

Based on a subtask and dependency table, a student should be able to construct and Gantt Chart and Pert Chart as well as identifying a critical path. Show and follow project scheduling in a student team project.

Task 4: Design and Implementation

A student should be able to understand and construct the Object Oriented design as described by UML diagrams, including class diagrams, use case diagrams, and sequence diagrams. Team projects should show the ability to transform specification to Object Oriented design and describe it in UML diagrams for subsequent implementation. A fully functioning web project based on the UML design and relevant design pattern like Model-View-Controller or similar should be implemented.

Task 5: Software development adaptation

Show ability to perform necessary requirement modification after component analysis as applied to a team web project with the software reuse approach.

Task 6: Testing

Understand common testing concept like verification, validation, regression testing, and apply them to a team project. Show ability to perform testing and bug fixing on a team project with an open source tool like Selenium or similar.

  

1.3. Results

BSCS.OC1 was assessed in CS 151 at the Advanced Level by Adel Atta.

The results are:

59 of 69 passing students (85.5%) accomplished Task 1.

64 of 69 passing students (92.8%) accomplished Task 2.

 

BSCS.OC1 was assessed in CS 160 at the Advanced Level by Chris Tseng.

The results are:

 

	Task 1	Task 2	Task 3	Task 4	Task 5	Task 6
Perfect	23%	48%	68%	68%	11%	39%
Fair	50%	52%	32%	32%	50%	50%
Poor	27%	0%	0%	0%	39%	11%

  

1.4. Analysis

Overall the results are good. Among all the tasks, students are weakest in Tasks 1 and 5 in CS 160.

 

1.5. Recommendations

We recommend that instructors pay more attention to Tasks 1 and 5 in CS 160.

 

2. Program Outcome BSCS.OC2

The ability to carry out object oriented design and to apply design patterns

 

2.1.Assessment

CS 46A to assess BSCS.OC2 at the Beginner level. Section 1 of CS 46A is taught by Horstmann, and Section 2 is taught by O'Brien, and Section 3 is taught by Atta.

CS 151 to assess BSCS.OC2 at the Intermediate level. Sections 1, 2 and 3 of CS 151 are taught by Atta.

CS 160 to assess BSCS.OC2 at the Advanced level. Sections 1 and 2 of CS 160 are taught by Tseng.

 

2.2.1. Tasks for Assessment of BSCS.OC2 in CS 46A at the Beginner level

Task 1: Design and implement a class based on attributes and behaviors of objects. Assessed by a homework assignment.

Task 2: Identify super- and subclasses in a class hierarchy. Assessed by a question on the final exam.

 

2.2.2. Tasks for Assessment of BSCS.OC2 in CS 151 at the Intermediate level

Students who pass CS 151 should be able to perform the following tasks:

Task 1: Interpret and produce UML class diagrams and UML sequence diagrams. Assessed by homework assignment, lab and exams.

Task 2: Develop simple use cases, perform noun-verb analysis, interpret and produce CRC cards. Assessed by homework assignment, Lab and exams.

 

2.2.3. Tasks for Assessment of BSCS.OC2 in CS 160 at the Advanced level

Students who pass CS 160 should be able to perform the following tasks:

Task 1: Object Oriented Design and Implementation

A student should be able to understand and construct the Object Oriented design as described by UML diagrams, including class diagrams, use case diagrams, and sequence diagrams. Team projects should show the ability to transform specification to Object Oriented design and describe it in UML diagrams for subsequent implementation.

Task 2: Selecting the right design patterns

A student, or team of students, should be able to decide what design patterns are suitable based on their given team project description.

Task 3: Apply design patterns

A student, or team of students, should design and implement in a team web project an object oriented design with suitable design pattern(s). Such a design and implementation might include some of the following features:

Use cases

Use case diagrams

Class diagrams

Sequence Diagrams

Model-View-Control

The factory pattern

The singleton pattern

The observer pattern

The chain-of-command pattern

The strategy pattern

The adapter pattern

The iterator pattern

The decorator pattern

The delegate pattern

Examples: A web project that shows different content and offers varying privilege depending on the authenticated user’s role as described in object diagrams.

 

2.3.Results

BSCS.OC2 was assessed in CS 46A at the Beginner Level by Horstmann, O'Brien and Atta.

Click here to view the report submitted by Horstmann.

Click here to view the report submitted by O'Brien.

Click here to view the report submitted by Atta.

 

The percentage of passing students in each section who accomplished each task are:

 

	Section
	Horstmann	O'Brien	Atta
Task 1	77.78%	73%	75%
Task 2	78.26%	73%	81.48%

 

 

BSCS.OC2 was assessed in CS 151 at the Intermediate Level by Adel Atta.

The results are:

59 of 69 passing students (85.5%) accomplished Task 1.

62 of 69 passing students (89.9%) accomplished Task 2.

 

BSCS.OC2 was assessed in CS 160 at the Advanced Level by Chris Tseng.

The results are:

 

	Task 1	Task 2	Task 3
Good	14%	80%	68%
Fair	50%	20%	32%
Poor	36%	0%	0%

 

2.4. Analysis

Overall, the results are good. Among all the tasks, students performed the weakest in Task 1 of CS 160.

 

2.5. Recommendations

We recommend that CS 160 instructors pay more attention to Task 1.