Student Outcome Evaluation Summary Results

Our department continuously monitors students' mastery of six student outcomes defined by ABET for computer science programs:

• SO1: Analyze a complex computing problem and apply principles of computing and other relevant disciplines to identify solutions.
• SO2: Design, implement, and evaluate a computing-based solution to meet a given set of computing requirements in the context of the program's discipline.
• SO3: Communicate effectively in a variety of professional contexts.
• SO4: Recognize professional responsibilities and make informed judgments in computing practice based on legal and ethical principles.
• SO5: Function effectively as a member or leader of a team engaged in activities appropriate to the program's discipline.
• SO6: Apply computer science theory and software development fundamentals to produce computing-based solutions.

The following figure summarizes the Course Direct Measures (CDMs) evaluation score for each of six Student Outcomes (SOs) over the past six academic years. Here, the x-axis represents the category of SOs from 1 through 6 and the y-axis represents the average percentage of the students who achieve a score of 3 or above for the performance indicators. Our goal is for at least 80% of students to attain competency levels 3, 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale for each outcome. It should be noted that no CDMs were collected in the academic year 2023-2024 to focus on analyzing CDM data and improving the assessment procedures. The figure shows that the satisfactory attainment level for SOs 1, 2, 5 and 6 generally increases each academic year. In particular, SOs 1, 5, and 6 experienced a drop around AY20-21, but have been rebounding in more recent years. The attainment level for SO 3 dropped significantly in AY20-21 but is lately showing positive growth. The department has recently increased its emphasis on communication skills in upper-division courses to shore this skill up. The attainment level across all measured academic years stays above 80%. The satisfactory attainment level for SOs 3 and 4 is above 90% across the measurement window. The CDM data shows that the USU undergraduate CS program meets the ABET criteria and achieves the expected SOs for its curriculum.

Here, the x-axis represents the category of SOs from 1 through 6 and the y-axis represents the percentage of the students' response to their competency level at a score of 3 or above. The data shows that the satisfactory attainment level for each of six SOs self-reported by graduating seniors is high with all the percentages being above 90%. In particular, attainment levels for SOs 1, 2, 3, and 5 are all above 96% for the duration of this measurement window. The attainment level for SO 4 dropped somewhat in AY19-20 but has since recovered to its former level. The attainment level for SO 6 remains satisfactory, staying above 94% for the past six years.

Overall, the SES data shows that almost all graduating CS students are happy with the CS curriculum and confident that they will function effectively as a member or leader of a team engaged in activities appropriate to the program’s discipline. Their self-ranking on mastering at least two programming languages and mastering the core curriculum with regards to principles and practices for problem/solution analysis and design exhibits an increasing trend at the highest competency level in the past four years. However, we need to strategically incorporate the ethics component in most pre-professional CS courses to get students exposed to ethics throughout their undergraduate studies.

Based on the results presented above, it is clear that the department, in general, is doing an excellent job of meeting the SOs. This is not unexpected as the Computer Science program at USU is a mature program that has operated successfully for many decades. However, we stress that a score of 3 or above in the assessment process does not mean that our students are all doing above average work; it does indicate that they are satisfactorily achieving the SO as measured by the assessment tools.

The Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC) report each year has been generally positive. Since it only provides qualitative feedback, we cannot provide data analysis results here. It should be noted that all the IAC members mentioned that they are always pleased with the caliber from USU’s CS program and would love to recruit USU undergraduate and graduate students to be interns at their companies and then offer the full-time positions to them if there are openings. In each of the past three academic years, around 70 undergraduate students participated in the internship co-op program. Most of them work in companies around the Salt Lake City area. Ninety-five percent of their employers are pleased with the performance of their interns and communicated with the internship coordinator about their interest to continue hiring the students for a full-time job. All of these indirectly demonstrate the success of the CS program to provide contributing professionals across a variety of career paths, to be effective communicators and team members, to solve real world problems, and foster personal and organizational growth, which supports the program’s program educational objectives.

Archive of Student Outcome Evaluation Summary Results 2014-2020