MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD DATE: January 12, 2016 Prepared by: Dr. David A. Gaitros Chair, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee Department of Computer Science RE: ABET Course Reports for CDA3100 Course number: CDA3100 Course name: Computer Organization I Course review committee members: Zhenghao Zhang, David Whalley, Steve Leach Report submitted date: 12/11/2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Are there any problems with course last year? If Yes, describe the problems. 25% of the students received a score of ineffective but of those, there was only one student actually attempted the assessment and did not pass. The rest of the students performed well and showed that they had developed a strong understanding of MIPS assembly. This assessment was conducted at the end of the semester, approximately six weeks after the conclusion of MIPS programming modules. I’m not sure if moving the assessment up would result in more participation or not but its something to consider. Even though most of the students were rated as highly effective, many lost points because they did not follow the project guidelines. This was not because they chose as more simple solution; it was because they did not pay attention to the requirements. This is a problem in other courses and I do not have a solution. Few attempted to cheat at the program but were very intimidated by programming in assembly. They appeared to delay attempting any programming of it until the last moment. Some ( approximately 4) chose not to do it at all. Could be because this paraticular observation was made during the summer term and with fewer students. A group of low performing students can sway the results. - Additionally the Discrete Math co-requisite slowed our covering of the digital circuit design. - Provide some evaluation of the method you used and its continuing status as a tool for assessment of outcomes: I would like to have another programming assignment before this one ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Course committee recommendations to the current/future instructors. I would suggest to have a separate CDA3100 for students in Computer Criminology as they are not subjective to the ABET requirements and also most of them do not seem to be ready to take the CDA3100 that requires more formal analysis skills. Delay covering material where discrete math would benefit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Course committee recommendations to department/UCC regarding this course. NA.