Professional outcomes in the BS-CSE program (UGSC meeting of Apr 8, '09)

Background

Of the various outcomes in EC Criterion 3, the following are the "professional" outcomes:

d. an ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams;
f. an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility;
g. an ability to communicate effectively;
h. the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context;
i. a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in life-long learning;
j. a knowledge of contemporary issues;

These outcomes are developed in CSE 560 (d, g); CSE 601 (f, g, h, j); several GEC courses (f, g, h, j); and the capstone design courses (d, f, g, h, i, j). This note is about CSE 601 and, more importantly, the capstone design courses.

The team project that is the main component of all the capstone design courses contributes strongly to outcome (d). A key activity in CSE 601 is to have each student to explore a new or recent product or practice or event etc., consider the impact it may have in a "global, economic, environmental, and societal context"; consider as well any relevant contemporary issues as well as ethical and professional issues related to the product, practice, or event; and present the findings in a 3-4 page paper. This activity makes important contributions to outcomes (f), (g) (written communication), (h), and (j). CSE 601 also requires students to make a number of oral presentations on topics related to computing-related ethical and professional issues, contributing to (f) and (g) (oral communication).

The capstone courses require students to make a number of team presentations, contributing to (d) and (g) (oral communication). The capstone courses also require the student to explore a new tool, technology, or process and write a three or four page paper on it. The student must research the tool on his or her own, evaluate its appropriateness for its intended (and possibly other) purposes, compare it with alternative tools that may be available, and write a clear and succinct paper reporting the findings. Someone reading the paper should be able to get a good idea of the tool's capabilities, how well it might serve its purposes, what other alternatives might exist and what their strengths and weaknesses might be. This makes important contributions to outcome (i) as well as to (d) (written communication). All of these activities are assessed in 601 and in the capstone design courses by use of suitable rubrics; the dimensions in the individual rubrics correspond to the various components of these outcomes.

Dimensions in the rubrics:

Team-work: Contribution to team project; taking responsibility; valuing other team members.
Oral presentations:
Individual: Organization; mechanics; delivery; relating to audience.
Team: Above plus: Contribution as team member; also revises some of the above.
601 paper: Global effects; understanding of economic factors; awareness of societal implications; awareness of otehr contemporary issues (political, cultural, etc.); understanding of ethical and professional issues; paper organization; style of presentation.
Capstone course ("lifelong learning") paper: Research/gathering of information; analysis/evaluation; presentation of ideas/organization of paper; style of presentation.

Issues that need to be addressed

The syllabi of several of the capstone courses do not mention (or mention all too briefly) several of these outcomes. The 601 syllabus is better but does not mention outcome (h). (One other comment about the capstone course syllabi (not related to professional outcomes): The capstone projects are supposed to "incorporate appropriate engineering standards and multiple realistic constraints"; and this should be clear from the outcomes listed in the syllabi.)
We need to have a record of the assessments of these outcomes as well as perform an evaluation of the assessment results and see if any changes, based on the evaluations, are needed.

Possible actions

Develop a common set of "professional learning outcomes" to be included in the syllabus of each capstone design course.
Revise the 601 syllabus to include outcome (h) (and, if necessary, modify the other outcomes).
Introduce suitable mechanisms to keep track of (and document) the rubrics-based assessments; and to regularly evaluate the assessment results and consider possible program improvements based on them.