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Mission, Objectives and Strategies

The principles that guide us, the faculty of Computer Science, in the development of our mission, objectives and strategies are:

Mission

Computer Science offers strong academic programs that prepare students for work and continuing advancement in computing technologies.

Objectives and Associated Strategies

In recognition of the ongoing rapid changes and advancements in computer science, we seek

Objective 1: To keep the CS and MSCIS curricula and pedagogy up-to-date.
    Strategies:

  1. We will establish an external advisory group to our programs. This group will be drawn from regional businesses and industries that hire CS and MSCIS graduates and from faculty in CS and IS programs at other schools. We will meet with our advisory group at least once per semester.
  2. We will routinely assess and articulate our curriculum and our pedagogy among ourselves and with our advisory group to identify needs.
  3. We will participate in workshops, conferences, and seminars that are relevant to our curricular and pedagogical needs and that are likely to lead to appropriate change.
  4. We will use sabbaticals to undertake projects that lead to significant program improvement that meets identified needs.
  5. We will engage in scholarly activities that lead to advancement in computer science education.

Objective 2: To ensure that the resources in our courses and laboratories are appropriate, representative of what is currently used in the computing profession, and competitive with resources at comparable educational institutions.
    Strategies:

  1. We will routinely assess and articulate our program resource needs.
  2. We will seek internal and external funding for equipment and software as an ongoing program activity.
  3. We will facilitate administrative efforts to secure these resources on our behalf. For example, we will provide supporting documentation and reports for our requests, and we will meet with our administration to explain and justify our resource needs.

Because, like other sciences, computer science has a foundational core comprised of sub-disciplines that are interrelated and that have extensive applications, we seek

Objective 3: To encourage breadth of computer science teaching experience in our faculty.
    Strategies:

  1. We will give additional support and recognition to those of us who teach a core course that they have not taught before.
  2. We will recognize those of us who actively help a faculty member to teach a core course for the first time.

Objective 4: To expose our faculty and students to current research and applications of computer science.
    Strategies:

  1. We will institute a seminar series for students and ourselves. We will invite presenters from business and academia who are engaged in computer science research and applications.
  2. We will encourage and help to arrange student internships with regional business and industry to give our students experience with current practices in the computing profession.
  3. We will engage in outside activities that foster relationships with computing professionals and that lead to internships for our students.

Objective 5: To articulate to ourselves and our students what knowledge, processes, and skills are foundational to computer science and why.
    Strategies:

  1. We will identify important recurring principles and themes and highlight them throughout our curriculum.
  2. We will acknowledge and communicate to our students the role of foundational material as a basis for continuing advancement in computer science.

Because we are accountable to our students, our colleagues, our university, and the community that we serve for the quality, attractiveness, and serviceability of our CS program, we seek

Objective 6: To ensure that our CS and MSCIS curricula are taught well.
    Strategies:

  1. We will develop, articulate, and routinely review course objectives for each CS course. These course objectives will specify knowledge units and skills along with the level of competency (mastery, familiarity, or exposure) that we expect of our students.
  2. We will develop and institute a course evaluation methodology that measures the content and effectiveness of each course offering in meeting course objectives.
  3. We will develop and periodically review a code of teaching conduct that pertains to our interactions with and expectations of our students and the expectations we have of ourselves.
  4. We will develop and institute a teaching evaluation methodology that measures our effectiveness in carrying out our teaching responsibilities as described in our code of teaching conduct.

Objective 7: To provide a laboratory environment that is attractive, serviceable, and promotes a sense of community among our students.
    Strategies:

  1. We will ensure that our laboratory facilities are functional, available, and accessible to our students.
  2. We will ensure that our laboratory environments are safe and are conducive to individual and group work.

Because computing systems are woven into the very fabric of our everyday life and are increasingly important to our local and global communities, we seek

Objective 8: To promote a sense of self-discipline and personal responsibility and accountability in our students.
    Strategies:

  1. We will be examples of self-discipline and personal responsibility and accountability in our classrooms and our professional lives.
  2. We will make clear to our students what our expectations are in our course materials, and in our program information and major requirements.

Objective 9: To develop a sense of social responsibility and ethical behavior in our students as future computing professionals.
    Strategies:

  1. We will introduce and discuss ethical and social responsibility issues pertaining to the computing profession at various levels in our curriculum as appropriate. We will articulate where this material should be included in our course outlines and we will ensure its coverage through course evaluations.
  2. We will develop a curriculum unit focusing on ethical and social responsibility issues to be offered in our seminar course.
  3. We will employ students in our computer science laboratory and we will help them exercise responsible and ethical behavior.
  4. Together with our student laboratory employees, we will establish and update a code of conduct that will guide the behavior of students in our laboratories and classrooms.
  5. We will institute a “town meeting” once a semester so that all users of our computer science laboratory and class resources can discuss our code of conduct and can suggest ways to improve it.

Because computer software development is a collaborative human activity, we seek

Objective 10: To communicate the importance of and develop our students' communication skills.
    Strategies:

  1. We will ensure that our own communication skills are good examples for our students to follow as part of our peer review process.
  2. We will incorporate appropriate communication skills (such as writing, oral presentation, group interaction) requirements into course objectives.
  3. We will seek the assistance of our colleagues in communication-related disciplines to develop appropriate exercises and measures.

Objective 11: To communicate the importance of and develop our students' abilities to work effectively in an organization.
    Strategies:

  1. We will ensure that our own organizational behavior as a program faculty is a good example for students to follow, as part of our peer review process.
  2. We will incorporate appropriate collaboration skills (such as group laboratory work, group projects and presentations) requirements into core course objectives.
  3. We will seek the assistance of our colleagues in organizational behavior-related disciplines to develop appropriate exercises and measures.

Because there is a critical national need for a competent technical workforce, we seek

Objective 12: To expect our students to be active participants in their education.
    Strategies:

  1. We will be examples of active learners to our students by advancing our own intellectual and professional development through ongoing program development, scholarship, and service, as measured by peer review procedures.
  2. We will ensure that our teaching methodologies and course materials foster critical thinking and active learning in and out of the classroom through our teaching and course evaluations.
  3. We will expect our students to demonstrate competencies that are required in our curriculum, through appropriate examinations, projects, laboratory work, and other assignments. We will ensure that this occurs through our course evaluations.

Objective 13: To attract and retain qualified students in our programs.
    Strategies:

  1. We will develop and offer a programs for talented high school students to take our introductory computer science classes either in the summer or during the school year.
  2. We will provide a computing environment at UW-Parkside that encourages students from groups who are underrepresented in CS and MSCIS to enter and graduate from our programs.
  3. We will work closely with campus recruiting personnel to promote the CS and MSCIS programs to prospective students.
  4. We will develop a document for advising transfer students that addresses transfer procedures and policies and provides guidelines for evaluating course equivalencies.
  5. We will develop transfer agreements and recruitment programs at College of Lake County, Gateway Technical College, and other two-year feeder institutions.

Objective 14: To encourage pre-college students to study mathematics and science to prepare them to consider technical careers.
    Strategies:

  1. We will work with local high school mathematics and science coordinators and appropriate UW-Parkside agencies to arrange for us to communicate with high school students, teachers, and guidance counselors about career opportunities in computer science and the preparation needed for these careers.
  2. We will participate in university-sponsored events that target precollege students such as Women and Science Day and the High School Science and Technology Competition.

Objective 15: To make our program available to both traditional and non-traditional students so they may complete their requirements in a timeframe appropriate to their life responsibilities and career goals.
    Strategies:

  1. We will continue to review and plan our long-range day and evening cohort schedules of course offerings that move our students through the program to meet graduation requirements in a timely fashion.
  2. We will schedule courses to make them as accessible to our students as possible.
  3. We will employ technology to make our course information and materials, contact with faculty and other students, and computing resources available to our students through remote access.
  4. We will develop a “fast track” schedule of course offerings that will allow students to take all their major requirements in a minimal time frame. The “fast track” targets individuals who already have a degree and wish to retrain in computer science, and those who change their majors to computer science late in their college careers.
  5. We will explore additional scheduling alternatives that may increase the number of students who can successfully complete CS and MSCIS degree requirements.
  6. We will periodically evaluate the effectiveness of our course offerings so we can most effectively move students through CS and MSCIS degree requirements.

Because we recognize that our alumni are an important asset to our programs and our institution, we seek

Objective 16: To maintain regular contact with our alumni.
    Strategies:

  1. We will create and maintain a database of our alumni.
  2. We will create and maintain a web-page to facilitate alumni contact with each other and with us.
  3. We will produce and mail out a yearly newsletter to communicate with alumni about what we are doing and to give them an opportunity to report on themselves.
  4. We will encourage ongoing social and professional contact with our alumni by inviting them to our on-campus computer science student and alumni functions.

Because we believe that these objectives are best met through a collective organizational structure and our effective participation in it, we seek

Objective 17: To re-engineer our program organization.
    Strategies:

  1. We will establish a number of standing committees (for example, budget, scheduling, program review, curriculum, advisory board, teaching code, transfer evaluations, internships, etc.) responsible for implementing strategies related to achieving our objectives.
  2. We will develop and approve documents pertaining to the responsibilities and expectations of each of these committees and of the department chair.
  3. We will establish a process by which we will routinely review our program organization and its placement in the university structure.

Objective 18: To assess our collective and individual performance in carrying out our organizational responsibilities.
    Strategies:

  1. We will expect each of us to be effective participants in their fair share of our standing committees.
  2. We will establish a process that will routinely assess the performance of our standing committees in carrying out program responsibilities.
  3. We will establish a process that will routinely assess the performance of each of us in carrying out our individual program responsibilities. This will be part our personnel review process.

Because all these objectives cannot be achieved without appropriate staff and administrative support, we seek

Objective 19: To have sufficient staffing to achieve our objectives.
    Strategies:

  1. We will make the best use of our existing staff resources to achieve our objectives as outlined above.
  2. We will routinely assess, justify, and articulate our staffing needs relative to achieving our objectives.

Because defining our mission, objectives, strategies, and measurable outcomes is an ongoing process, we seek

Objective 20: To measure the quality of our program systematically and objectively.
    Strategies:

  1. We will develop a rigorous program assessment process with the assistance of those with program assessment experience, for example, our university's assessment committee.
  2. We will establish a standing committee responsible for performing the necessary data collection and carrying out our assessment process.

Objective 21: To review and update this document systematically.
    Strategies:

  1. We will designate one of our standing committees to review and recommend updates to this document each year.
  2. We will share this document with our advisory board and invite their comments and suggestions.

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