Students will acquire an ability to analyze a problem, and identify and define the computing requirements appropriate to its solution.

Outcome (b) contributes to objective 2.

Assessment

Vehicle: Performance on ETS Major Field Test in computer science

Goal: This outcome will be assessed using the ETS Major Field Test in Computer Science. A miniumum of 50% of senior undergraduate computer science majors will score at or above the 40th percentile on the ETS national standardized measure.

Discussion: The ETS Major Field Test is a national test, giving students the opportunity to compare themselves with other computer science students across the country. If our students are as well prepared as other students across the country, one would expect that 50% of our students would score at or above the 50th percentile. Our current goal of at least 50% of our students scoring at or above the 40th percentile is a starting point for evaluation.

Note: The ETS exam provides assessment indicators for 1) Programming fundamentals, 2) Discrete structures and algorithms, and 3) Systems: architecture, operating systems, networks, and databases. Each of these assessment indicators will be examined with respect to this measure.