ASSURANCE OF LEARNING UPDATE

REPORT FORMAT

REPORTS ARE DUE DECEMBER 3, 2007

 

Assurance of Learning (AOL) reports are due December 3, 2007.  Email your report, along with any supporting documents, to tpusater@kennesaw.edu.  Please address each of the following questions in your report in no more than 6 pages of text.

 

1.       Following up on last year’s AOL report and the feedback your program received from the AOL Council, what AOL-related activities have faculty in your program conducted in the interim?

2.       As a result of these activities, what did your program’s faculty discover about the quality of teaching and learning within the program and/or its AOL processes?

3.       As a result of these discoveries, what changes did your program’s faculty implement to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in the program and/or its AOL processes?  (Include discussion of changes that are scheduled to be implemented in the future or are currently being considered.)

4.       As a follow-up to the discoveries from the AOL process and the changes that were implemented, what AOL-related activities are your program’s faculty planning to conduct in the upcoming year?

5.       AOL Council is collecting information on the current status and future development of student learning outcomes related to KSU's Quality Enhancement Plan, "Global Learning for Engaged Citizenship."  Refer to the attached working definitions of KSU's Global Learning Outcomes and the grid of learning outcomes and assessment methods related to global learning from each degree program's AOL plan. 

a. Does the grid include all of the learning outcomes and assessment methods most related to global
    learning in your current AOL plan?  If there are errors or omissions, update the grid as appropriate.

b. Describe faculty discussions and any resulting goals or plans for strengthening the connections
    between KSU's Global Learning Outcomes and your degree program's student learning outcomes
    and assessment methods.

6.       AOL Council would like to support faculty in pursuing the scholarship of teaching and learning (e.g., developing peer-reviewed presentations and publications) through their work in AOL initiatives.  Describe faculty discussions, any issues or concerns, and any ongoing or completed projects related to using the AOL process for research in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

 


1.  AOL Related Program Activities for the BS of Information Systems

Following up on last year’s AOL report and the feedback your program received from the AOL Council, what AOL-related activities have faculty in your program conducted in the interim?

Activity 1: Exit Survey

The Information Systems program surveys its graduating seniors every semester. Results from the exit survey are discussed during curriculum meetings. This practiced has continued during the current review period.

Activity 2: Capstone Project Assessment

The Information Systems program has a capstone course experience for an integrated project. Student projects are randomly selected for critical evaluation by faculty. Student learning as judged by the capstone project is shared with faculty. This practice is continued during the current review period.

Activity 3: Compliance with disciplinary convention

The Information Systems program continually reviews its program offering vis-à-vis academic best practices. The three prominent groups that set best practices for the Information Systems discipline are: Association of Computing Machinery (ACM, http://www.acm.org/), Association of Information Systems (AIS, http://home.aisnet.org/), and Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP, http://www.aitp.org/).

Model curriculum guidelines have been published by ACM, AIS, and AITP including 2001 Computing Curricula, 2002 Information Systems model curriculum, 2005 Computing Curriculum, and 2007 Information Systems model curriculum.  KSU’s Information Systems faculty invested a significant amount of time revising its curriculum to aligning with best practices recommended in the guidelines since August 2006.

The resulting curriculum is approved by the department curriculum committee. It will be presented to the UPCC in spring 2008. The revised curriculum is proposed to start summer 2008.

 


2.  Discovery about the Quality of Teaching and Learning

As a result of these activities, what did your program’s faculty discover about the quality of teaching and learning within the program and/or its AOL processes?

Activity 1: Exit Survey

The exit survey informed us about challenges encountered by students. First, two courses, Data Communication and Programming II were identified as contributing less to the overall intended outcome of the IS graduates. Second, the sequence of pre-requisite courses reduced program flexibility.

Activity 2: Capstone Project Assessment

The capstone project experience showed that students lacked knowledge in the development software, VB.NET. Instructors taught VB.NET as part of the capstone course. Faculty discovered the need to prepare students with an integrated development environment prior to the capstone course. Despite the challenges the final projects delivered by the students achieved the course objectives.

Activity 3: Compliance with disciplinary convention

Faculty discovered the need to realign the IS program with disciplinary convention, review course content, and improve the sequence of courses.


3.  Changes Implemented to Enhance the Quality of Teaching and Learning

As a result of these discoveries, what changes did your program’s faculty implement to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in the program and/or its AOL processes?  (Include discussion of changes that are scheduled to be implemented in the future or are currently being considered.)

Activity 1: Exit Survey

To enhance the quality of teaching and learning faculty revised the content and sequence of some courses. Faculty refocused the IS Program as discussed in Activity 3.

Activity 2: Capstone Project Assessment

To enhance the quality of teaching and learning faculty created two new pre-requisites to the capstone course: Application Development I and Systems Design. An integrated development environment is introduced to the student in Application Development I. In Systems Design students learn to design a system using integrated software development environment. This realignment of courses allows the capstone course to focus on developing end-to-end information systems.

Activity 3: Compliance with disciplinary convention

To enhance the quality of teaching and learning faculty re-defined the IS program goal, reviewed and adopted disciplinary conventions, revised course offering, and revised course pre-requisite.

IS program redefined: graduating students will develop information systems using integrated development environment.

Reviewed and adopted disciplinary convention: the IS program will offer core courses focused on information systems development and two optional tracks as proposed by the 2007 IS Model Curriculum: Business Intelligence track and Internet Systems development track.

Revised course offering: all courses in the IS program were revised or new ones created to achieve the revised program goal.

Pre-requisite courses: pre-requisite sequence was revised to quality of teaching and learning in the revised program.


4.  AOL Activities for Upcoming Year

As a follow-up to the discoveries from the AOL process and the changes that were implemented, what AOL-related activities is your program’s faculty planning to conduct in the upcoming year?

Activity 1: Exit Survey

Continue direct student feedback with the exit survey. The IS program will continue to enhance the quality of teaching and learning through feedback and analysis from the exit survey. This process will continue to be used to close the gap between program improvement and student learning.

Activity 2: Capstone Project Assessment

Continue formative capstone project assessment to evaluate program success. The IS program will continue to enhance the quality of teaching and learning through objective evaluation of student capstone project. This process will continue to be used to evaluate student learning.

Activity 3: Approve, Implement, and Monitor the Revised Program

Approve: The revised program is approved by the department curriculum committee. It will be presented to the UPCC in January 2008. The revised program is scheduled for summer 2008 launch.

Implement: Faculty will develop a transition plan to ensure the success of student learning outcome during the transition.

Monitor: Faculty will evaluate if additional measures, beyond exit survey and capstone project assessment, are needed to monitor the revised program.

 


5.  Quality Enhancement Plan: Global Learning for Engaged Citizenship

Refer to the attached working definitions of KSU's Global Learning Outcomes and the grid of learning outcomes and assessment methods related to global learning from each degree program's AOL plan. 

a. Does the grid include all of the learning outcomes and assessment methods most related to global learning in your current AOL plan?  If there are errors or omissions, update the grid as appropriate.

College of Science and Mathematics: Bachelor of Science in Information Systems

QEP-Related Learning Outcomes and Assessment Method Identified by Degree Programs

Current:

Show how an information system is a strategic and integral component of a global organization.

Understand basic global economic principles.

Articulate the roles in ethical decision making that IT practitioners and managers play both within organizations and between organizations participating in the global economy.

CSIS 4830, IS Integrated Project: Grading rubric contains items for each learning outcome

CSIS 4840, Information Resource management and Policy: Research report

CSIS 4841, IT Connections Lecture Series: Reflective summaries

IS Program Exit Survey

Additions to the current grid:

Compare and contrast various implantations of the information systems function, such as centralized, distributed and outsourced.

Perform problem analysis and identify requirement specifications from written descriptions such as case scenarios.

Understand that information systems projects require collaboration as well as individual effort.

CSIS 3210, Project Management: global perspective in managing projects.

CSIS 3600, Systems Analysis and Design: use project scenarios with global implication.

 

 

b. Describe faculty discussions and any resulting goals or plans for strengthening the connections          between KSU's Global Learning Outcomes and your degree program's student learning outcomes and assessment methods.

Integrated project: integrate global issues.

Guest lecture: invite diverse group of speakers to provide global perspective.

IT Resource Management: understand global issues in resource management.

Requirement analysis: analyze business requirements with global perspective.

Managing project: understand global issues in managing projects.


6.  AOL Process for Research in the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

AOL Council would like to support faculty in pursuing the scholarship of teaching and learning (e.g., developing peer-reviewed presentations and publications) through their work in AOL initiatives.  Describe faculty discussions, any issues or concerns, and any ongoing or completed projects related to using the AOL process for research in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Faculty ongoing discussion to use AOL process for research:

o       Current activities:

o       Under discussion

o       Ongoing discussions:

o       Faculty discussion in-progress