ABET Course Committee Review Report

Course number: COP 3014
Course name:   Programming I
Course review committee members: Ann Tyson (chairperson), Robert Myers, Chris Lacher, David Gaitros
Report submitted date: 09/10/2013

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1. Were there any problems with the course last year? If Yes, describe the problems.

Yes. There has been some inconsistency in the course in recent years.  A variety of
instructors has rotated through, including some graduate student TAs.  This has not
caused problems for COP 3014 itself so much, however it has caused problems in some
inconsistency of preparation of students for the follow-on course, COP 3330.
Some of the committee did not feel that current textbooks in use are as good
as they should be.  The incidence of honor code violations seems to be on an ever
increasing trajectory.

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2. Course committee recommendations to current/future instructors.

Follow the university's curricular file syllabus to keep the course topics, level of rigor, and pacing
as consistent as possible amongst instructors.  The review committee thought that the
current curricular file syllabus is appropriate as it is now, and that most instructors have been 
following it.  
Consider alternative textbooks to see if something better can be found.  Run a software plagiarism detector 
regularly on all program submissions and follow university procedures for honor code violations.  
One recommended detector is the MOSS program from Stanford University, which several instructors have 
used with success. It was also noted that this course is to focus on use of MS Visual C++ on Windows as
per prior ABET accreditation agreements.  In addition, it was noted that the course is intended to 
focus on the procedural, C kernel of C++, with a strong emphasis on relating program operation to memory
allocation (e.g. runtime stack) so that students are well prepared for topics in COP 3330.  This course does
not, and should not, cover actual creation of classes in C++, while it does definitely discuss usage of some 
standard, basic classes in C++ (e.g. iostream, cin, cout).   The major topics covered which are not part of 
the C kernel are call by reference parameters, const call by reference parameters, iostream standard IO,
and the string class (note that C-style strings are still covered as well, and contrasted).  If time permits and 
the curricular file syllabus topics have been covered, it is fine to cover additional, non-required topics for this 
course which are helpful in preparing students for COP 3330 and other coursework."

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3. Course committee recommendations to department/UCC regarding this course.

Only regular full-time faculty should teach this very critical core course.  This course is far too
important to CS majors to allow for inconsistency in topic coverage, rigor and pacing when taught
by either graduate student TAs or adjuncts.  Make the curricular file syllabi more easily
available to all department faculty.


Prepared by: A. F. Tyson 09/10/2013

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