1. Accreditation Evaluation of the BS-CSE Program
Neelam Soundarajan
Chair, Undergrad Studies Comm.
CSE Department

2. Background
All undergrad programs in CoE are accredited by Eng. Accreditation Comm. (EAC)
BS-CSE: Also accredited by the Computing Accreditation Comm. (CAC)
BS-CIS and BA-CIS are in Arts & Sc. and are not accredited … This discussion is only about BS-CSE
EAC & CAC are both part of ABET (abet.org)
Normal accreditation cycle is 6 years (our last evaluation: Au 2011)

3. Process
Submit a self-study that shows how the program satisfies EAC+CAC requirements
EAC+CAC appoints an evaluation team:
CAC team chair (Rajendra Raj, RIT)
CAC program evaluator (PEV) (Charles Dierbach, Towson University)
EAC PEV (Steven Barrett, U. of Wyoming)
EAC also appoints PEVs for the other programs and a team chair; but we won’t see them
Three-day site visit (Oct )

4. Main point of the site-visit …
Validate the claims made in the self-study by :
Talking to faculty, advisors, students, higher admin, …
Checking course materials, assessment-related materials, …
Looking at computing facilities, classrooms,…
The goal: evaluate how well the program meets the EAC+CAC criteria requirements

5. BS-CSE curriculum
CS core + core choices + tech electives + GE + math, science, engineering And meet requirements of a specialization
CS Core (28 cr hrs): CSE 2221, 2231: Software I, II CSE 2321,2331: Foundations I, II CSE 2421, 2431: Systems I, II Computing ethics: CSE 2501 or Phil 1338 ECE 2020, 2060: Digital logic; Analog circuits

6. Core Choice Junior project: CSE 3901 or 3902
Capstone design course: One of: CSE 5911, 5912, 5914, 5915
One from each of the following four pairs:
CSE 3231 or 3241 (SE or DB)
CSE 3321 or 3341 (Formal Lang. or Prog. Lang.)
CSE 3421 or 3461 (Architecture or Networking)
CSE 3521 or 3541 (AI or Graphics)
A student may take both courses from a pair; then second course counts as a tech elective

7. Tech Electives, Specialization Option
Must complete 17 cr. hrs. of tech electives
Min. 9 hrs. of CSE courses at 3000-level or above Rest: combination of (3000-level or above) CSE and appropriate non-CSE courses
Core choice courses + tech electives must meet requirements of specialization option (AI; Graphics & Game Des.; DB; Systems;…)
What are the EAC/CAC requirements and what questions can you expect? …

8. The Criteria …
Institution: Facilities; Support for teaching; Support for professional activities; …
Curriculum: …
Students: Must be advised and monitored
Assessment/continuous improvement: This is a critical requirement

9. Caution!
It is NOT about our ranking or even how good our curriculum is etc.
It is whether we meet the letter and intent of the Criteria requirements including, especially, the ones related to assessment & cont. improvement
*Most* faculty are expected to be involved with the assessment/improvement activities and you can expect questions about your role in them when you talk to the evaluator

10. A *common* misunderstanding …
“Assessment means assessment of students’ projects, exams., homeworks, … to assign grades”
That is not what ABET means by assessment
Assessment is of the program (not individual students) to see how well it helps students achieve the program outcomes … and use the results to identify weaknesses in the program and develop ways to improve the program
What outcomes?

11. Objectives, Outcomes …
ABET also requires programs to have program (educational) objectives
PEOs are goals that graduate of the program are expected to achieve while student outcomes (SOs) are knowledge/skills they acquire by the time they graduate
PEOs have become less important to ABET in the last few years but it depends on the team

12. Our Program Objectives
Graduates will be successfully employed in the computing profession …
Some will be pursuing/have completed graduate studies in computing …
Will be informed/responsible engineering and computing professionals …
We obtain feedback on these from alumni and Adv. Board members. We revise them based on that input, most recently last fall. (We added a reference to the ACM Code to last objective.)

13. Some of our outcomes Technical outcomes: Students will acquire an
ability to apply knowledge of computing, mathematics, ...;
an ability to apply design and development principles in the construction of software systems of varying complexity;
ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for practice as a CSE professional; …
Professional outcomes: Students will acquire an
ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams;
an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences;
These are are generic … how do you assess them?

14. Our assessment process
POCAT: Multiple-choice Exit exam for assessing technical group of outcomes
Offered each semester
BS-CSE students take the exam close to their graduation
But their performance on the test does not affect individual students in any way nor is this recorded
Questions on POCAT are from a range of required courses and several popular electives …
Designed to assess student understanding of key concepts and identify common misconceptions
Each question is mapped to one or more technical outcomes … hence assessing their achievement

15. Process (for tech. outcomes) (contd.)
POCAT details:
Faculty responsible for relevant courses suggest questions for POCAT; these are maintained in a question bank (Note: We need questions! UGSC will take care of mapping questions to outcomes)
Each semester, UGSC chair creates the test
Students must sign up for the test
It is administered by the Advising Office on a weekday evening; pizza and pop are served after the test
Students (generally?) complete the exit survey during the same session

16. POCAT Details (contd.)
Test results are processed by a script and reported in a web page
For each question, information about which answer was chosen by which student (by code known only to the student)
Summary of average achievement of each (technical) outcome (based on the technical outcomes that each question corresponds to)
Added a couple of years ago: information about the discrimination of the various answers to each question

17. The “improvement” part …
Test results discussed by UGSC
Focus on any unusual results
Typical actions:
Refine the question to get better information
Discuss possible changes in relevant courses
Etc.
For all such actions, involve relevant faculty
POCAT and improvements based on its results is a key part of how we meet the ABET requirements … all faculty should be able to discuss it

18. Process for professional outcomes
Rubric used in CSE 2501/Phil 1338 to assess comm. skills, understanding of prof/ethical issues..
The dimensions include: Organization, Mechanics (of presentation), Relating to audience, Awareness of contemporary issues (such as security of electronic voting machines, …)
Assessed (by the instructor) once a year and the results presented to UGSC
Goal: Identify any weaknesses with respect to these outcomes and possible improvements …

19. Process for prof. outcomes (contd.)
Rubric 2 for use by capstone course instructors to assess team skills, comm. skills etc. as well as other factors (applicable to capstone courses that are included in the criteria): quality of problem formulation, quality of implementation
Rubric 3 for use in the capstone poster session to assess the same items – but this rubric is completed by visitors to the poster session
R2 used once a year in each capstone course R3 used in the poster session at end of Au/Sp sem.
Results presented to UGSC to help identify any weaknesses and propose possible improvements …

20. Summary: Assessments and Improvements
POCAT and the three rubrics are direct assessments (since they are based on assessing actual student work)
We also have an indirect assessment, the exit-survey, which asks students the extent to which the program enabled them to achieve the outcomes
We obtain additional feedback from students at the annual UG forum
UGSC evaluates all of this information and arrives at possible improvements in program

21. Plans
Site Visit: Oct (Sunday-Tuesday) Meetings with faculty: Monday, Oct. 16
But not all faculty The team will tell us, with input from us, who they want to talk to
I will prepare a website with all the relevant information (including these slides) Please go through that information (and ask questions if anything is unclear)
Look for and read(!) s from me and respond …

22. ***Really, Really Important***
Please do NOT argue with the evaluation team!
The team members are volunteers.
Please treat them with respect!
If you have comments about the accreditation criteria etc., send them to Neelam. Do not challenge the team to defend the criteria.