Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

Meeting Minutes Wednesday 9/21/2005 by A. Ford, Chair

Attending:  Ken Baldauf, Daniel Chang, Ann Ford, Steve Leach,  Daniel Schwartz, Betty Stanton, David Whalley

Several ideas about CDA 4503, Introduction to Computer Networks, proposed by Alec Yasinsac, Mike Burmeister, and Breno de Medeiros were discussed.  The idea to require CDA 4503 as a core requirement in the CS program did not receive support at this meeting.  It was determined that the course would remain as an elective.  Another proposal, which was to guarantee that the course be offered once a year, cannot be implemented.  Dave Whalley stated that it is not possible to make such a guarantee and that the course will be offered whenever demand exists for it. The enrollment in this course in the Fall 2005 semester is 6 students.

Dave Whalley's charge to the committee to propose new service courses that would be popular for nonmajors was discussed.  The goal is to increase enrollment in department courses. Several ideas were discussed re increasing enrollment:

• Talk to Alec about offering a basic security course for nonmajors.  For example this could cover working safely on the web, computer forensics, protecting your computer from viral and other threats, etc.  This course would have minimal prerequisites.  There is a course being offered now, CIS 4360, Introduction to Computer Security, but it is at a higher level of rigor and is geared for majors.  Ken Baldauf said that the School of Information/IT may be working on developing such a course for university wide enrollment.
   
• Propose a CS course as a college requirement.  For example, perhaps COP 3502 (nonmajors) could serve this role.
   
• Offer a basic database course.  Greg Riccardi taught one at one point and it is still on the books as COP 2721, Introduction to Database Systems and Internet Services.  Students like to learn about areas they think will be appealing on their resumes when applying for jobs.
   
• Survey nonmajor students in courses like literacy, CGS 3408 and COP 3502.  Ask them what they are interested in and what courses related to computing they would be likely to want to take from us.  Daniel Chang planned to write a survey and after review Ken Baldauf offered to implement the survey on the web.  They will take a look at the list of courses our majors requested last spring term in an informal survey taken by Ann Ford and Steve Leach as partial input.
   
• Poll Deans - what computing course would they support from us?  What do they think the students need?
   
• The CS minor was discussed.  Would it make sense to change the minor to attract more students?  Minors might like to take courses like advanced literacy, intro to security, and using databases.  To test the waters, it was suggested that we make advanced computer literacy a requirement in the minor.  This would increase enrollments in that course.  Steve and Ken will investigate what the current number of minors is in the department and discuss enrollment issues before considering this further.  For future discussion: what is the goal of the minor and what should the goal be? 
   
• The idea of marketing our courses to attract more students was discussed.  Ken said he had used campus-wide flyer posting to advertise his courses, and that it worked well.  Betty Stanton said that the Preview program, in which department reps meet with parents and students who have multiple college acceptance offers and are trying to decide about FSU, could be used as a place to create interest and recruit.  Ann Ford suggested that the department could hold an "open house" in a large auditorium for already enrolled students, widely announced to students and advisors, and serve something like cider and doughnuts while having CS reps discuss the program, courses, etc.  Betty Stanton also said that the word can be spread to advisors by Cassie Alexander, who goes to the college "Advising First" meetings once a month.  Cassie could present a marketing talk on whatever it is we would like to attract students to at a particular point.
   
• Daniel Chang has been working on changing the nonmajors section of COP 3502 this term to make it more fun and interesting for nonmajors.  There was concern expressed that it may have too much overlap with the advanced literacy course and Ken and Daniel will meet to discuss that.
   
• We all agreed that marketing, i.e. enthusiastic efforts to attract students, are needed to bring up enrollments.