PART A: Descriptive, Statistical, and Evaluative Information



I - CIP Information

Official name of the program: Computer Science

CIP code number: 11.0701

Approval date by the University: Sept. 1982

Approval date by SCHEV: Sept. 1982

Program Options

B.S. or B.A degree with major in Computer Science (approved Sept. 1982)

Computer Science teaching certification add-on endorsement (approved by R.U. spring 1996)

Computer Science Minor (approved Sept. 1982) Untitled


II - Rationale for the Program


Overall scope, philosophy and vision

We focus on our mission of providing an environment that facilitates the learning of theoretical and applied computer science. The scope of our undergraduate program is almost entirely limited to offering those courses which are essential for an accreditated B.S. program, plus a small number of general education and service courses.

Our vision is to lead in achieving a university which will provide a quality education to its students. Such provision demands teachers with a high degree of technical competence as well as keenly developed pedagogical skills. It also requires students who have the background knowledge, the mental discipline and emotional makeup needed to accept and overcome difficult academic challenges. We strive to attract such teachers and students.

Our definition of quality education includes not only the development of marketable job skills, but also the broader knowledge that provides the foundation for building a full and productive life, outside of a career, as well as the versatile kind of learning that prepares for coping with unpredictable changes in our world.

Besides our top priority of being educators, we envision the sharing of our expertise with the entire university and, so far as practical, with all of society. We constantly work to stay current with the forefront of our science and to make contributions to the field.

Mission of the Department:

General Goals of the department :

1. Provide a stimulating learning environment by

2. Maintain a strong faculty by: 3. Provide opportunities and support to enhance professional development by: 4. Recruit and retain strong computer science majors and minors by: 5. Provide adequate and diverse computing resources and facilities to support its teaching and professional activities by: 6. Encourage and facilitate faculty and student interaction with the community outside the university by: Mission and Goals Specific to the degree Program

Mission: Program Related Goals:
  • Strive to maintain national accreditation for our B.S. degree program
  • Provide a classroom and professional atmosphere that generates an appropriate awareness of social and ethical responsibilities.
  • Increase the quality, number and diversity of computer science majors.
  • Provide greater opportunity for students to gain professional experience with business, industry and government outside the university.
  • Enhance the opportunities for student and faculty contact with computer science professionals outside Radford University.
  • Secure and maintain state-of-the-art hardware and laboratory facilities.
  • Secure and maintain up-to-date software resources.
  • Retain necessary personnel to support departmental computer resources and facilities.
  • Participate actively in the placing of computer science majors in jobs or postgraduate study
  • Provide students with opportunities for interaction between computer science and other disciplines.
  • Provide an advising system that aids students in planning their future professional development.

Situational Analyses

III-Situational Analyses


The Computer Science department offers both a B.A. and a CSAB accredited B.S. program in Computer Science. Students learn about a wide variety of problem solving and programming language concepts in their first year of study. The programming language used during the first three semesters is Ada 95, which encompasses all of the concepts of modern programming languages that are important for the future success of our students. During the remainder of their studies, students will learn Java as well as become familiar with a number of other programming languages. Class sizes for majors are small, typically no larger than 30 for freshmen and sophomores and no larger than 20 for upper-classmen. The department allows credit by examination for all but a few of its courses. A significant portion of the department's FTE is generated by general education courses, particularly CPSC 106 and 106P.

The department maintains three computer labs for use by students taking computer science classes. Every effort is made to keep these facilities up-to-date. This has been managed for the PC Lab with the financial support of Academic Computing. With support last year from the Equipment Trust Fund (ETF), the department has able to maintain a barely sufficient level of hardware in the Unix Lab and faculty offices. ( A number of remaining obsolete units still need to be replaced.) The Advanced Teaching and Research Lab (ATRL), unfortunately, no longer is very advanced. Its hardware is either obsolete or quickly becoming so. Currently, it seems likely that the ATRL will undergo only minimal, incomplete hardware upgrades within the next year.

Although there are those students who change majors into Computer Science, most of our majors enter Radford University knowing they plan to major in Computer Science. As a result, the program's primary competition in the region comes from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI&SU), James Madison University (JMU), and George Mason University (GMU).

The unaccredited VPI&SU computer science program is probably the department's biggest competitor. Although it offers a co-op program and the more popular C programming language in the first year, a number of their students have transferred to our department. One of the reasons most often cited is that of class size. Class size for 100-level courses is typically 300; for 200-level it ranges from 40-100, depending upon the course; and for 400-level courses it ranges from 45-50. As a result, these transfers have reported feeling lost or like just another face in the crowd, and indicated that their move to Radford University was largely due to our small class size in major courses. In addition, the VPI&SU program requires that their students purchase a computer.

Another major competitor is the program at JMU. Like VPI&SU, it too is not accredited but does have an intern/co-op program. Unlike VPI&SU, JMU does not require students to purchase their own computer, but such a purchase is strongly recommended. Class sizes average about 30, with no class having more than 36 students. This class size places JMU very close to RU for freshmen and sophomores, though class sizes for upper-classmen at RU are still much smaller. The most interesting aspect of JMU's program of study is that some of their students skip the first year of the major. This first year consists of a Web publishing course and a Visual Basic programming course, while the second year focuses on software development/engineering using C and C++. JMU has found that approximately one-third of their entering freshmen have substantial programming experience. These students may elect to skip the first year and proceed with the second year, which about one-half do. Since the second year of study assumes the student already knows how to program, this option is not available to those without extensive prior experience. Another facet of the program is that in the Web publishing course, students are encouraged to make extensive use of reuse to the extent that they are encourage to write their own papers by "borrowing" paragraphs, pictures, and sounds from already existing Web pages much to the apparent dismay of other departments (e.g., History). The first year was designed to try to "turn students on" to Computer Science, as opposed to the drier and more abstract approach that is typical in most programs. It is unknown whether this type of approach allows more students to proceed to graduation.

The third primary competitor is GMU, which, like RU, is also a CSAB accredited program. GMU, like both VPI&SU and JMU, has an intern/co-op program. The first language used is C++, which is closely related to C, which is the first language used by both VPI&SU and JMU. The first course for majors typically has a class size of 150, broken down into smaller lab sections for more individual attention. The remainder of courses in the program have an average class size of 40, making them nearly double the size of such classes in our program.

Although our department had considered C++ as a possibility when the change to Ada 95 was made, it was rejected as too error prone and complex, and thus too difficult as a first language for our majors. Class size and accreditation continues to be a benefit to the student choosing Computer Science at RU. The lack of an intern or co-op program, however, is a weakness. In addition, it is not uncommon for inquiries to ask about such a program. Although a number of our majors work as lab proctors, for the Academic Computing Help Desk or at other locations, the lack of a formal intern program is certainly seen as a weakness.

Graduates of our program have done well upon graduation. For the past five years, our graduates have had virtually a 100% placement rate in their chosen field either in industry or in graduate school. Many graduates going into industry have chosen software development, networking, or database related jobs. As a result, the department has recently introduced an additional software engineering course at the sophomore level and has adjusted our course rotation schedule so that the networking and database courses are offered yearly, instead of just once every two years.

Another difficulty our program faces is the ability to attract and keep students who will be successful in our program (particularly female students). In the past, students have successfully completed (with the required grade of C or better) the first two courses only one-ninth of the time, roughly one-third for each course. A Supplemental Instruction program, in which students are hired to assist in first-year lab courses, has been begun to help increase student success, and hopefully retention, but a stronger and larger pool of freshman majors is needed. Although the optional first year offered by JMU is an alternate way to deal with this problem, doing so could make accreditation realistically unobtainable.


Enrollments

IV - Enrollments

The enrollment picture is broken down into three major components: the department's success rate in turning entering freshman into graduates, the quality of entering freshman, and the demand for computer science courses. Each of these areas is discussed separately. Please note that the data in the tables below are based on an academic year (Fall, Spring), except for graduates which include summer, and thus do not correspond directly to the data generated by Institutional Research which are based on the fiscal year (1 July - 30 June).

Table 1

Production & Success Rate

92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 96-97
New Freshmen 32 32 34 20 31
male/female 26/6 24/8 26/8 19/1 26/5
in-state/out-state/international 31/1/0 26/2/4 32/2/0 18/2/0 29/2/0
 
Majors 139 123 116 104 106
full-time/part-time 127/12 107/16 108/8  86/18 94/12
 
Graduates 10 15 12 12 14
male/female 10/0 15/0 12/0  9/3 12/2
freshman/transfer 8/2 11/4 3/9 4/8 6/8

Except for a dip in 95-96, the number of entering Computer Science freshmen has been relatively constant. The mix of freshmen has also been fairly stable with the vast majority being male and in-state. Even taking the dip in incoming freshmen for 95-96 into account, the total number of majors has been decreasing gradually for the last several years. Stable numbers of entering freshmen and a relatively constant number of graduates seems inconsistent with the observed decrease in majors. The cause is unknown, though it is likely that transfer students and changes of major play a significant role. For example, since the proportion of graduates that entered as transfers has increased substantially, this may indicate that freshmen are leaving the major in larger numbers than in the past. For example, looking at the number of 96-97 graduates who entered as freshmen (presumably in 92-93), the graduation rate was 6 out of 32, less than 20%. Unfortunately, no data is available for the number of transfers into the major nor the number of changes of major into (or out of) computer science.


Table 2

Student Quality

92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 96-97
HS GPA  -   -  2.64 2.71 2.831
SAT 910 986 939 1059* 1011*

* recentered scores

Based on SAT scores and High School GPAs, the quality of entering Computer Science freshmen appears to be improving. Based on recent pass rates ('C' or better) in CPSC 120 and CPSC 124, students appear to be doing better than a few years ago, however since these courses are not restricted to majors, and since courses are taught by different faculty members each semester, it is not yet clear whether this is a general and significant trend. A supplemental instructor program was also begun Fall of 97 in order to improve the pass rate in CPSC 120. Although it appears that the goal was met, it is not yet known whether these results will carry over into CPSC 124 and beyond.



Table 3

Demand vs. Resources

92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 96-97
Teaching Faculty 9 7 8 8 7
 
Credit Hrs Taught 169 187 184 173 141
Faculty/Adjunct 141/28 118/69 126/58 122/51 109/32
 
Credit Hrs Taken 5863 7216 6464 5811 4967
major/non-major 1053/4810 1116/6100 1060/5404 1035/4776  976/3991
 
Student Load 34.7 38.6 35.1 33.6 35.2


The number of teaching faculty reported includes tenured and tenure-track faculty, and in years in which they taught, two and administrative and professional faculty members. Not included, is an eminent scholar who was devoted to research during this time period. The credit hours taught and taken are for the academic year.

Since 1992, the number of credit hours taken by majors has decreased by 7%, about one-half of the university's overall enrollment decline during that period. The 17% decrease in the number of credit hours taken by non-majors is slightly higher than the decrease in the university's enrollments. The number of non-major hours is largely driven by the number of students in CPSC 106, the department's most popular general education course. In 1992-93 and 1993-94 this number was particularly large because there was a large amount of unmet student demand from earlier years. To meet this demand, more sections were offered and section sizes were increased temporarily. In 1996-97 the number was artificially low primarily because, as a cost cutting measure in a tight budget year, we decreased the number of sections of CPSC 106 and other service courses. The number of hours being offered by the department has also decreased. This decrease reflects the changes in offering of CPSC 106 and other service courses as mentioned above. Fluctuations in the credit hours taught by tenured and tenure-track faculty are caused by such factors as administrative duties (Dr. Liss was associate dean for 94-95 and 95-96) and by supported research (as was the case for Dr. Chu in 96-97). Furthermore, the department also has a professional faculty member who teaches one course per semester (typically 3-4 credit hours).

The student load has been relatively constant since 1992. A peak occurred in 1992-93 when CPSC 106 sections of size 100 were offered to relieve unmet student demand from earlier years. Except for CPSC 106 and 106P, which tend to have 70-80 students per class, class sizes are generally no larger than 35 students, with 200-level courses usually being less than 25, and 300- and 400-level classes being 15 or fewer. Thus, major courses retain their small size, one of our program's strengths when compared to other regional programs.

Actions taken to Attract Students

V - Attracting and Accommodating Students

Actions Taken to Attract Students

The computer science department attempts to meet the needs of three broad groups of students. One group is those students who wish to prepare for a career as a computer science professional. These students are attracted by our strong, nationally (CSAB) accredited B.S. program, which virtually guarantees employment upon completion, as well as by the small classes and easy access to our professors. Another group is the CPSC minors and others who take our first and second year courses along with our majors, as well as a few service courses, in order to prepare either for a career in a computer related field, such as information systems, or else to be able to work in an entry level programming position. The department offers courses such as COBOL and Visual BASIC in order to attract such students. We are also making plans to develop an interdisciplinary program, with the Department of Accounting, Finance, and Information Systems. We expect that such a program will be especially attractive to this group of students. The third group are those students who are attracted to our computer literacy class (CPSC 106) and a special introductory, non-technical programming class (CPSC 109). These classes currently satisfy a portion of the general education core requirement and that may be part of their attraction.

Besides the lure of well-designed courses, taught by faculty who are dedicated to teaching, and the over-all quality of our accredited B.S. program, which virtually guarantees future employment at attractive salaries, the department participates enthusiastically in university-wide recruiting efforts such as open houses and career days. We write letters and make telephone contacts with prospective students, and maintain our department's world wide web pages (URL: http://www.cs.runet.edu ). In addition to university efforts, we have hosted a department open house for area high school students, sent letters to students who listed computer science as an interest when they took the SAT, and developed a department brochure. Currently an independent study student is developing web-based video tour of the department.

The issue of possible future enrollments without additional resources.

Due to small enrollments in upper division classes, the department could substantially increase, perhaps even double, the number of majors, with only a small increase in resources. An increased number of majors would require additional sections of the first year courses, but one person could possibly accommodate the needs of 100 additional majors. Our service courses, particularly the CPSC 106 computer literacy classes, run at nearly full capacity and so could accommodate only very slightly larger enrollments without additional resources. Any increase in the number of service course offerings would also demand new staff.

Market demands for program graduates and efforts to attract students

Numerous reports indicate a strong present and future demand for persons trained in computer science and computer-related jobs. For example:

IT WORKER DEFICIT WORSENS

The Information Technology Association of America says the gap between the number of vacant positions for computer programmers, systems analysts and computer scientists and engineers and the number of qualified workers has widened to a 10% shortfall -- 346,000 jobs are currently unfilled. "The problem has been getting much, much worse over the last year," says the CIO at CompUSA in Dallas. "It's harder to find people, and when you get them, they stay for much shorter periods." ITAA's president says companies must consider hiring graduates with other academic qualifications or certified skills in specific technologies. "The industry can't step back and say, 'we depend on our universities to solve the problem.' That's not working now, and it's not going to work in the future." (Information Week 19 Jan98)

The demonstrated employability of our majors, as well as the review and approval of our B.S. program by the national accreditation agency for programs such as ours, suggest that demand for our majors will continue to be very high for the foreseeable future.

One concern, which we are addressing, is the fact that relatively few of the students who enter our major program actually complete it. In collaboration with the Department of Finance, Accounting, and Information Systems, we envision a new program, which will be less demanding technically, and so will be easier to complete, but yet will still be rigorous enough to satisfy the demands of many employers in the technology areas. Both of our departments are currently doing a national search for professors who are interested in and capable of setting up such a program .

Trends

VI - Trends


This section has two parts. The first identifies the internal and external constituencies which are served by the computer science program. the second part shows the trends of support provided to these constituencies.

Identifying the Constituencies

Internal Constituents:

1. Students: The University and the College missions stress the focus on students. Students are the computer science program faculty's, the college's, and the University's most important constituent body. The computer science program recognizes its obligation to provide the highest possible quality of education to the students of Radford University.

2. College of Arts and Sciences and Radford University: The computer science program and faculty have a responsibility to function in a matter that will support and contribute to the College of Arts and Sciences and the University's mission. This obligation includes, but is not limited to, cooperation and interaction with other faculty within the University, and supporting the administration and staff of Radford University.

External Constituents: In addition to the internal constituents, the computer science program faculty recognize their responsibility to serve and support a number of external constituents, which include:

1. Business Community: Radford University is a major component of the local and regional economy. As part of the University community, the computer science faculty recognize their responsibility to the area, regional, state and national businesses which provide employment opportunities to our graduates.

2. Parents and Virginia Taxpayers: The computer science faculty recognizes its responsibility to the parents of our majors and non-majors and to the taxpayers of Virginia. In support of the University's commitment to these groups, the computer science faculty recognizes its role in providing a high-quality, cost-effective education to our students.

3. Academic Community at Large: The computer science faculty members recognize their responsibility to build and maintain a highly qualified, professionally active faculty. Involvement and cooperation within the academic community are encouraged and supported. This obligation includes involvement in professional associations, scholarly publications, and cooperation and interaction with faculty of other departments and at other universities.

4. Alumni: Computer science faculty are committed to communicating with, supporting, and assisting our students after graduation. The faculty also recognize their responsibility in involving alumni in fund raising, placement of new graduates and other support activities.





Trends of Support Provided to These Constituencies.

1. Service to the Student Constituency

Table 4
Computer Science Course Offerings
Academic Years 1992-3 through 1996-7
(Fall & Spring Semesters)
Course Number/ Course Title Required by Suggested Elective for
109 Problem Solving and Programming Music and Technology Concentration, Information Systems Major**
120 Computer Principles I Computer Science Major & Minor, Information Systems Major Business Major, Statistics Major
122 Discrete Mathematics Computer Science Major,Information Systems Major Mathematics Major, Computer Science Minor
124 Computer Principles II Computer Science Major & Minor Information Systems Major+
198 Programming Language (Prolog,C,C++,Ada, Visual Basic) Computer Science Major & Minor,
Mathematics Major,
Information Systems Major+
230 COBOL Programming Information Systems Major+
240 File Processing Computer Science Major & Minor
250 Software Systems Computer Science Major & Minor
270 Software Engineering Computer Science Major & Minor
351 Computer Organization Computer Science Major
360 Data Structures & Analysis of Algorithms Computer Science Major
370 Operating Systems Computer Science Major
380 Organization of Programming Languages Computer Science Major
410 Modeling & Simulation *
420 Computability Theory Computer Science Major
430 Computer Graphics *
440 Database Systems *
450 Computer Network *
460 Compiler Construction *
480 Artificial Intelligence *
490 Senior Seminar Computer Science Major

* any two are required for Computer Science Major
+ The Information Sytems major required CPSC 122 and 124 from 1991 to 1996. For the 1996-97 year,the requirement was CPSC 124 or 230.
**required beginning in 1997-98

Table 4 gives a detailed breakout of classes given by the computer science faculty over the past five years. Table 5 summarizes two significant trends.

















Table 5
Computer Academic Support Trends
(Fall & Spring Semester)
Number of Students Enrolled
in Academic Year
1992-3 1993-4 1994-5 1995-6 1996-7
Computer Principles I (120) 183 186 135 170 166
Computer Principles II (124) 37 54 66 47 50
Ratio of number of students enrolled in CPSC 124 to number in CPSC 120 0.20 0.29 0.49 0.28 0.30
Total All Computer Classes 1851 2292 2015 1853 1422

Computer Principles I (CPSC 120) is the first required course for all computer science majors and for all students taking a computer science minor. It is a prerequisite for students from other majors such as Information Systems who are required to take a second computer science course. In addition, it may be taken as a free elective for Business or Statistics majors in meeting their major requirements. Thus it is a good course for estimating macro trends of the total number of students beginning their involvement with computer science.

Computer Principles II (CPSC 124) is a required course for all computer science majors, with only a few Information Systems majors enrolled. It is typical of the computer science major-specific courses. The difference between CPSC 120 and 124 enrollments indicates the number of non-computer science majors.

Using the Computer Principles II (CPSC 124) course as a yardstick for computer science majors, about 20% of the students in Computer Principles I (CPSC 120) in 1992 were computer science majors. Then it jumped to 49% in 1994 and sharply dropped back to 30% in 1996. The computer science related majors (CPSC 120 students) had a 9% decrease in the past five years, although it had a sharp drop 27% in 1994 due to a possible job recession the previous year and it jumped to a 26% increase in 1995. Using CPSC 124 as a measure, the number of computer science majors had an 46% increase in 1993 and 22% increase in 1994 and then had a 29% decrease in 1995. Overall, it had a 35% increase in the past five years. The total enrollment in all computer science classes had a 24% increase in 1993, 12% decrease in 1994, 8% decrease in 1995, 23% decrease in 1996. Overall, it had about a 23% decrease in the past five years. As noted above in section IV above, much of this decrease is due to changes in the number of CPSC 106 offerings. See also the impact of our program on other units, in Part C of this document.
Service to the College of Arts and Sciences and Radford University: Computer science faculty have been strong participants in the affairs of the College of Arts and Sciences and the University. Two members of the department serve in the Faculty Senate and both have served, or are presently serving, on the Senate Executive Council, as Secretary of the Faculty Senate. Members of our department also serve on the University General Education Advisory Council and the Information Technology Resource Committee. Besides the usual representation on the college curriculum committee, department members have served on graduate curriculum committees.

The faculty also provides support to the student activities. Faculty members serve as advisors to the local student Computer Club, and have founded and maintain an active chapter of the national Upsilon Pi Epsilon computer science honor society.

Computer Science students have provided paid and volunteer technical assistance to many campus groups.

Service to the Business Community: In the graduate level projects course, student teams have had meaningful partnership projects with local firms in computational science research. Undergraduate students also work in technical positions in a number of local industries.

Service to Parents and Virginia Taxpayers: Computer science graduates were singularly successful in their job hunts. Table 2 shows employment of computer science graduates in the most recent five years for which data are available. Please note that over the 5-year period, 94.6% of our graduates responding were either employed or in graduate school.





Table 6
Graduation and Employment Data
Computer Science Majors

Academic Year of Graduation: 1992-3 1993-4 1994-5 1995-6 1996-7 5-Year Total
Number of Graduates 10 15 12 12 14 63
Number of Survey Respondents 4 8 6 10 7 35
Number not Seeking Employment 0 0 0 0 0 0
Number Unemployed 0 1 1 0 0 2
Number Employed 4 5 5 8 7 29
Number in Graduate School 0 2 0 2 0 4
Percent Employed 100 87.5 97.5 100 100 94.3






The salary picture stayed fairly constant as reported by the graduates in an alumni survey. Table 7 shows the distribution of income by computer science graduates for the most recent five years that the data are available. The data include salaries reported by all graduates for the year.











Table 7
Salary Data for Computer Graduates
Academic Year of Graduation
Salary Range 1992-3 1993-4 1994-5 1995-6 1996-7 5-Year Total
Less than $7,000 1 1
$7-10,000
$10-13,000 1 1
$13-16,000
$16-19,000
$19-22,000 2 13
$22-25,000 1
$25-28,000 2 21 5
$28-31,000 111 14
More than $31,000 1323 413
Total 4557 728
25th Percentile($000) 25-2828-3125-2819-22 22-2525-28
50th Percentile($000) 25-28 >31 28-31 25-28 >31 28-31
75th Percentile($000) 28-31 >31 >31 >31 >31 >31

5. Academic Community at Large: The efforts of the computer science faculty in meeting its obligation to the academic community at large are discussed in detail in Section XIII-(Contribution Indicators), below .

6. Alumni: Alumni communications has been established through individual faculty-alumni communication and through the Office of Alumni Affairs and Career Services. The Computer Science department provides an alumni web page, which contains an on-line form to encourage frequent updates. This year the department has begun an annual survey of one and three year alumni. A more systematic method of communication between faculty and alumni still needs to be developed by the computer science faculty and alumni, in conjunction with an overall College of Arts and Sciences/computer science alumni program. Confusion


VII - TECHNOLOGY


Technology is being used in a variety of ways by the faculty in many of the computer science courses.  In virtually every class, faculty use overheads, either publisher provided or self-generated.  Our most popular general education class also uses videos.  In some classes students are required to produce reports which require them to use word processors.  A variety of different software packages are used in the computer science classes, including the following:

  • Throughout the curriculum, students write, compile and run computer programs, written in a variety of languages.
  • One general education class (106P) meets in the lab twice per week to enhance the learning of different software applications.
  • A wide variety of simulation software is used to simulate real life problems.
  • Hardware kits are used in the computer organization class.
  • The Advanced Teaching and Research Lab is used to create networks and database servers which the students have been required to setup and administer.

All classes use the world wide web and an extensive amount of in-house created web pages to pass information on to students.  Almost all professors make handouts that have been given out in class available via the web in some format.  Web pages also provide information about the program such as typical schedules, course rotations, and office hours of faculty.  Other web pages show prospective students where our students are working and what positions they hold. Besides web pages, electronic mail is used to send out information to students as well as to enable them to get quick replies from their professors to questions which may arise.

The computer science department also maintains three laboratories which are located on the same floor as the faculty offices and classrooms.  The Unix laboratory is open an average of 90 hours per week.  The Personal Computer Laboratory is primarily used to teach general education classes and is open an average of 60 hours per week (with an additional 14 hours per week for scheduled classes).  A third laboratory is available for majors working on projects with faculty on research or special topic classes.  The Unix   laboratory and Personal Computer Laboratory are monitored by student workers who provide limited assistance to the students using these labs.

To increase the amount of use of the computer in the classroom we have purchased a cart-based PC that can be connected to the network for demonstrations.  New software applications are installed as they become available.
Extended Campus Offerings

VIII - Extended Campus Offerings


The Radford University Department of Computer Science does not offer courses off-campus or through distance learning. Nonetheless, an informal transfer guide was developed during the 1995-1996 academic year to advise students of the courses necessary to complete a four-year degree in Computer Science with the first two years to be completed at any of the schools within the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) and the last two years to be completed a Radford University. The first student following this transfer guide entered Radford University in the Fall of 1997. Unfortunately, the transfer process is difficult because core computer science courses are not offered at most of the VCCS schools. Cooperative Relationships

IX - Cooperative Relationships with Other Areas of Higher Education, Businesses, Agencies , and Public Schools


Cooperation with Other Areas of Higher Education
The Radford University Department of Computer Science cooperates closely with other departments within the University in the offering of several courses designed either for general education or to satisfy requirements for other departments. For example, CPSC 230 - Introduction to COBOL Programming has been populated almost exclusively by Information Systems majors who use that course to fulfill a requirement. Further, several programs on campus require CPSC courses in their majors (e.g. Music, Geography, and Information Systems). More details about the impact of computer science courses on other programs can be found in Part B.

As discussed in the Extended Campus Offerings section, the department has developed an informal transfer guide to aid students that wish to complete a part of their degree at one of the community colleges within the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). We would like to develop a formal articulation agreement with the VCCS.

A substantial percentage of our majors find part-time work within the University either working for academic computing, our department, or wherever there is a need on campus for computer personnel. Recently, we have begun hiring some of our own students as supplemental instructors to help with our freshmen major's courses. This program is proving beneficial not only to the freshmen students but also to the maturity and experience of the supplemental instructors.

Cooperation with Business
Although the department does not maintain any formal internship or co-op program, we do have several long-standing relationships with local companies providing internships or part-time employment for our students. For example, RDAISA has had an intern from our department for each of the last three years. Further, Hubbell Lighting has hired several of our students as night operators. These job opportunities not only provide our students with money for college but also provide them with valuable experience for their future employment.

Cooperation with Public Schools
Members of the department serve as judges in the science fairs of regional public schools. Local high school students sometimes take our first year courses and special scheduling of final examinations are arranged to accommodate their needs. Three of our majors received independent study credit for a pilot intern program in which they provided technical assistance at area public schools.
Untitled

X - International Aspects of the Program


Internationalization of the Computer Science Curriculum
Computer science, by its very nature, is international in scope. The processes used to develop software are the same the world over and programming languages are perhaps the first true international languages. Computer scientists have led the way in international communication systems. Our majors and minors have been making frequent use of the World Wide Web, USENET and e-mail for many years, and are quite familiar with the concept of the world as a global community.

Besides the inherent internationalism of our discipline, we have two Asian-born professors in our department and the majority of our graduate students are foreign-born, so our students have ample opportunity to acquire an international dimension in their class work.

Faculty and Student Exchanges
We do not yet have any faculty or student exchange program in place or other provisions for studies abroad. Some of our graduates have taken positions or continued their studies abroad.

Confusion

XI - Program Support


Faculty and Instructional Support

Office space, classroom space and laboratory are all adequate for the needs of the program.

Computer Technology

All faculty offices are equipped with personal computers and/or Unix workstations.  Each office has access to a network printer and the Internet.   An answering machine or voice mail capability is available upon request. A copier and a fax machine are conveniently situated. 

Software and hardware availability is an integral part of any computer science curriculum. Maintaining software upgrades and/or acquiring new software has been an issue that the department has to deal with each year, since no money is budgeted for use to purchase or update software. The software used to support lower-level courses has been mostly obtained free, from compilers for the primary programming languages, Ada and Java, to GUI environments (X Windows). There is a need to provide adequate software support to courses in the 300- to 400-level. Examples include a good simulation language or package for CPSC410 and a database management system like Oracle for CPSC440.

For hardware, we have requested from the administration a 3-year rotation plan to update equipment in both the UNIX and PC laboratory. This will ensure that no equipment in the laboratories is older than three years, which is the normal "usable" lifespan of computer equipment for computer science majors. It is imperative that our majors be trained on the same kind of modern hardware that they will find when they enter the workplace.

The PC Lab was updated summer of 1995 to 166 MHz machines running NT Workstations. One-third of the machines in the UNIX laboratory were replaced in Fall of 97; the remaining machines were purchased from 1990 to 1993 and need to be replaced. An additional third has been recommended by the Information Technology Resources Committee for replacement in 1998. We hope that a 3-year replacement cycle will be put into place for the UNIX laboratory, with funding coming from the state Equipment Trust Fund (ETF).

The ATRL was completed in Fall of 1994 to provide both a learning and research environment for students and faculty. The lack of funding since then has provided no upgrades to this equipment. Two new machines for this lab have been recommended for purchase in 1998

Student Services

The number of student workers that are being assigned to the department and departmental labs is adequate.

Library Services in Support of the Computer Science Department

Library services are adequate for support of the program. Approximately 6,300 volumes in the library collection and subscriptions to 137 periodical support instruction and research in the department.  According to our annual faculty review all significant principal journals  relevant to the computer science program are under subscription.  In the past five years, sufficient funds have been allocated to the computer science program to meet all book and periodical requests by the faculty.  Over the past five years the library has acquired 652 new books and 10 new periodicals related to our program.

In addition to paper and microform periodicals electronic access to full-text articles from computer and computer-related periodicals is provided by the VIVA (Virtual Library of Virginia) subscription to Information Access Company's Computer Database.

 
Resource Data










XII - Resource Data

Table 8
Computer Science Program Resource Data Including Cost, Class Size, Faculty Salary and Workload, Faculty Size and Trends

Resource Data Measure
92-93
93-94
94-95
95-96
96-97
Financial resources:
 
Total Unit Cost-Dollars
414,050
384,322
383,599
476,055
367,493
Trend of Total Dollars
 
(1992-93 index=1.00)
1.00
0.92
0.92
1.14
0.88
Faculty Salary(Dollars):
 
Full Time*
380,550
297,822
311,599
408,555
330,493
Part Time
33,500
86,500
72,000
67,500
37,000
Trend of Part Time Dollars
 
(1992-93 index=1.00)
1.00
2.58
2.14
2.01
1.10
Teaching Load: +
 
Undergraduate Sections
54
58
56
57
44
Graduate Sections
2
3
3
3
3
Total
56
61
59
60
47
Credit Hours Generated:+
 
Undergraduate Sections
167
178
174
167
132
Graduate Sections
6
9
9
9
9
Total
173
187
183
176
141
Average Class Size:
31.37
36.38
34.15
30.88
30.25
FTE:+
 
Full Time
20
16
16
16
16
Part Time
1.1
2.2
1.9
1.7
1.0
Total FTE
21.1
18.2
17.9
17.7
17.0
Sections per FTE
2.79
3.46
3.30
3.39
2.76
Other Teaching Supervision:+
 
Independent Studies(Credit Hours)
13
6
0
0
0
* Tenured,Tenure Track, Administrative
+ Fall & Spring Semesters

Table 8 above shows that the cost of computer science program, excluding work study, summer and fringe benefits, for the academic years from 1992-93 through 1995-96, decreased by $30,451 from 1992 to 1994. In 1995 it increased from $383,599 to $476,055, but in 1996-97, it decreased again, to 88% of the figure of five years earlier.

Funds for part time faculty salaries showed a substantial increase going from $33,500 in 1992 up to $86,500 in 1993. As a cost cutting measure in 1996, the department decreased the number of general educations courses offered and lowered part-time salary costs to $37,000.

The number of regular class sections in the undergraduate program remained fairly constant from 1992 to 1995. As a cost saving measure in the presence of declining enrollments, the number of sections was deceased by almost 23% between 1995 and 1996. The student credit hours generated in undergraduate classes (excluding credit hours from independent studies) shows an almost 21% decrease over the past five years, although there was also a 7% increase from 1992 to 1993. The reduction in sections did not increase the average class size. On the contrary, the average class size also had about a 4% decrease, although it had a 16% increase from 1992 to 1993.

Although total FTE has fallen from 21.1 in 1992-93 to 17.0 in 1996-97, the number of sections per FTE is virtually the same in 1996-7 as it was in 1992-3.
Contribution Indicators

XIII - Contribution Indicators

The data used in the following analysis include both permanent and temporary faculty, some of whom are no longer with the department. One temporary faculty member served from 94-95 to 96-97, and another started in academic year 93-94, and moved to a full-time tenure track position in fall of 1996.

Faculty Professional Activities

Computer science is a relatively new field which is constantly evolving from its fundamental base to encompass many new areas, from main frames and personal computers, to the use of the Internet as a pervasive conduit of information. Of course, the application of information technology is further spurred on by the ever increasing speed of the processors which are available on the market at affordable prices for general users. The World Wide Web continues its dominance in terms of an identifiable source of information from distance learning to advice in parenting, from electronic commerce to breaking news.

It is paramount for computer science faculty (faculty hereafter) to keep abreast with the rapid development of the field and to constantly update curriculum content to reflect recent changes in the field. We believe the faculty has been successful in accomplishing this essential task despite the budgetary constraints of the university in recent years and the increasing workload that has resulted from the decrease in faculty numbers, both in the department and overall.

Research activities in the department have contributed directly to publications and professional presentations and to both the undergraduate and graduate programs (the Computational Sciences graduate program). Research projects within the last five years and the present include

  • The Use of Cellular Automata in Modeling Physical Systems

    • A three year externally funded (by NASA/JOVE, 93-94 to 95-96) project provided financial support for 3 students each year in the study of the use of cellular automata in modeling physical systems, particularly large scale fluid flows.

    One student's work was given as a poster presentation at a conference as well as in the Undergraduate Forum at Radford University. A no-cost extension was granted for a fourth year. The Cellular Software System, a copyrighted software system, developed by a faculty member before the grant, was dramatically improved.

    This software has been a direct factor in receiving two additional grants, one from the Fuji Research Institute Corporation and one from the Army Research Laboratory.

  • The Virginia Procurement Pipeline Project

    • The department along with members from other departments on campus submitted a successful proposal in summer 1996 to Virginia Economic Bridge, a non-profit organization, to transform its PC-based pipeline project into a Web-based application. The project provided support for faculty reassigned time, Computational Sciences graduate students and undergraduate students. The project is now in its second year after the state approved funding at $100,000.00 a year as part of Radford University E&G budget.

  • WIST (A Web-based Intelligent Survey Tool)

    • A non-funded project by two faculty members since 1993 investigates the use of the World Wide Web as a platform for conducting surveys in an intra- and inter-networking environment. The system provides/will provide automatic generation of survey forms (with Javascript-based data validation), CGI scripts in collecting submitted data, statistical analysis packages or Java applets for data analysis. One undergraduate student was involved in this project and made presentations both in the RU Undergraduate Forum and at a professional conference. Two Computational Sciences graduate students have finished their required final projects related to this project with one and/or both of the faculty as their directors. A number of presentations were made at national conferences based on the research results. One presentation was made at an international conference co-authored with one Virginia Tech professor. This project is on going. One of the authors was invited this year to give a presentation at the 53rd annual conference of American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) in St. Louis, Missouri May 14 - 17, 1998.

  • Parallel Object Identifications from Laser Generated Holograms

    • A non-funded project by one faculty member in cooperation with a faculty member of the Mathematics Department in Radford University and an engineering professor at Virginia Tech where the holograms used in the research were generated. Images in 2-D are reconstructed from these holograms using the parallel software library called MPI (Message Passing Interface).

    A Computational Sciences (CMSC) graduate student was involved in the project and subsequently completed his required final project related to this research. At this point, research output generated from this interdisciplinary research includes one presentation by the CMSC graduate student, one presentation by the Mathematics faculty member and one invited presentation by the computer science faculty member. All presentations appeared in the corresponding proceedings. This research remains on course to eventually identify 3-D objects in images. A manuscript based on the research result is in preparation.

  • Parallel Solution of Method of Lines Problems

    • This internal non-funded research project was the effort of two faculty members, one in the computer science department and one in the mathematics department (not the same faculty member in the Laser project mentioned above) in academic year 95-96. Five invited presentations locally, nationally and internationally resulted from this cooperative research.

    These projects cover two main current research topics in computer science, namely, parallel processing and information technology in the World Wide Web. The faculty members maintain a firm commitment to research and professional activities, and the urgency of incorporating research findings and new ideas into the curriculum.

    The Proceedings for the second Asian Technology Conference in Mathematics were posted on-line on an R.U. server this past August, attracting about 3,000 "hits" for the first three months. These electronic proceedings are the combined effort of a computer science faculty and a faculty member of the Mathematics Department and, so far as we know, are the first effort of this kind at R.U. Similar efforts are underway for the third conference to be held this August in Japan.

    Table 9 provides a summary of faculty publications from the projects described above as well as from other individual faculty efforts.

    Computer science faculty members have been actively seeking funding both externally and internally. Table 10 shows the grants awarded to the department, but does not include unsuccessful grant proposals. Internally funded projects include development of teaching materials, colloquia, and others.

    In addition to their publications, the faculty shows its committment to scholarly activities by attending conferences and tutorials.(See table 11) Although some travel money has usually been available (see Table 12), the actual cost of professional travel has substantially exceeded the travel funds available from the University. Nonetheless, faculty realized the importance of keeping abreast with the field and averaged a total of 6 professional presentations each year, along with attendance at a total of 5 conferences a year.

    Much of this professional activity was made possible by the support of the administration which made provision for course reassigned time for some faculty members. (Table 13 summarizes the reassigned time, supported by the college and different funding sources.)

    In conclusion, The department encourages professional activities and has been fairly successful in seeking funding to maintain a research environment for both undergraduate and graduate students. The faculty keeps abreast of the field with regular attendance at conferences, nationally and internationally, provides referee services to journals and conferences, makes presentations at professional conference to disseminate research findings and results, and serves in official capacities for conferences. Two faculty members provide free services to non-profit organizations to host and/or setup their Web sites.


    Table 9

    Faculty Publications

     92-9393-9494-9595-9696-97
    Teaching Materials* 1 0 1 6+ 1
    Conference Proceedings 6 6 3 4 4
    Refereed Journals 4 2 1 0 0
    Departmental Technical Reports 1 2 0 0 0
    Reviews 7 6 4 4 6

    *includes instructor's manual, ...
    +all contributed by a temporary faculty member, who left the department in 1996.















    Table 10


    Grant Activity

     92-9393-9494-9595-9696-97Average
    $ Amount for individual projects
    Internal Grants 3,000
    14,989+    		 3,000
    4,100
    3,450+
    6,500+    		 2,000 1,350*   7,677.80
    External Grants   33,000** 33,000** 33,000** 36,950++ 27,390
    Total Grants 17,989 50,050 35,000 34,350 36,950 35,067.80
    + by Peter Kugler
    ++ VPP continues to next year
    * Funding approved but withdrawn due to budget cuts
    ** JOVE grants lead to two other (Fuji & Army Research)

    Table 11


    Professional Presentations & Conference Attendance

     92-9393-9494-9595-9696-97
    Professional Presentations 4 8 9 6 5
    Conference Attendance 2 7 9 5 2

    Table 12


    Travel Budgets

     92-9393-9494-9595-9696-97Average
    Travel Budgets 5,696 6,088 3,731 zero 1,455 3,394


    Table 13


    Total Reassigned Time

     92-9393-9494-9595-9696-97Average
     Number of 3 Credit Hour Course Reassigned Time
    Total 12 8* 6.16** 6.16** 9.125*** 8.289

    * One course reassigned time externally funded
    ** two course reassigned time externally funded
    *** three course reassigned time externally funded

    Students' Self Assessment

    XIV - Students' Self Assessment of the Program

    We used the following data sources to assess how our seniors and alumni perceived the B.S. program in terms of meeting their personal, social and career needs:
    • Senior Survey, 1996-97: An annual senior survey is administered by the Office of Institutional Research. We obtained last year (1996-97) senior survey results where a discriminator was used to extract the responses submitted by CS majors. Two majors returned the survey. Responses that are pertinent in our analysis are given in Table 15. Responses from other previous years are grouped by individual colleges and cannot be obtained for CS majors alone.

    • Alumni Survey: This survey, a survey of 1994-95 and 1996-97 graduates, is the first of a yearly plan to survey graduates of one and three years earlier in order to assess the effectiveness of the B.S. program by tracking
      • professional development,
      • job placements, and,
      • graduate school acceptance.

      A survey was sent (in mid December, 1997) to eleven (11) 1994-95 and fourteen (14) 1996-97 graduates, a total of twenty-five (25). Within the specified response period, seven (7) of the 11 and eleven (11) of the 14 returned the survey, representing a response rate of 64% and 78%, or a combined response rate of 72%. This successful survey could be partly attributed to the fact that survey form can be filled out either using the hardcopy form (22%) or the softcopy form accessible through the World Wide Web (78%), and partly due to the willingness of our graduates to share with us their valuable opinions.

    • Alumni Information:
      1. from the alumni office, Fall 1997
      2. from our department Web site where any alumni can provide updated information at any time any day.

        The department has provided an option in the department's home page that allows an alumni to electronically provide or update basic information about themselves. Over 45% of our graduates of the last 5 years have updated their information via the web.

    Background

    Over the past five years, the department has produced a total of 63 graduates (See Table 18), all with a Bachelor of Science degree. To assess the CS program, we focus on three main areas, namely, "Education Received," "Preparation for Their Career," and "Employment Outlook." We conclude with an analysis of the graduates' expectations and their written comments. Hopefully, the information collected can provide us with a better understanding of how effective our program is in meeting the students' personal, social, and career needs.

    Education Received

    The two seniors, when asked about the "Quality of instruction" in lower and upper division classes, responded "good to fair." They perceived as "good to fair" of the "adequacy of preparation by lower division courses for upper division courses."

    Alumni of the same class, 100% of those responded (or at least 78% of the whole class) "strongly agreed" or "agreed" that the quality of instruction in CS courses was high, with over 63% in the "strongly agreed" category. In fact, 100% of alumni of class 94-95 also "strongly agreed" or "agreed" on the high quality of instruction, but with only a 28% rated "strongly agreed."

    For those 94-95 alumni who responded to the question "What course or courses at Radford University have been very valuable to you (Select all that apply)," they identify 124, 240, 250, 270, 351, 360, 370, 380, 420 and 450 (all computer science courses) as valuable with no one identifying otherwise (least valuable). Similarly for those 96-97 alumni, they identify 124, 250, 351, 450 and 490 (all computer science courses) as valuable with no one identifying otherwise (least valuable).

    There are four courses that BOTH groups of graduates identified as valuable with no 'least valuable' votes. The course are CPSC124 (50% of the respondents said so), CPSC250 (28%), CPSC351 (22%), CPSC370 (44%) and CPSC450 (22%) which typically cover each of the four years of a computer science student's study.

    Alumni of those two years consistently indicate that courses from each of the four years classes are very valuable. This observation reflects our approach to curriculum planning, which is to prepare students incrementally and to smoothly equip them with technical skills for their professional career.

    The department offers a strong and rigorous computer science curriculum that includes courses in computer science, mathematics/statistics, physical science, and communication skills. We strive to continue our efforts in providing the best quality of instructions to our students. A 35% increase in the number of alumni who perceive strongly the high quality of instructions over a period of two years indicates that we are making progress towards that goal.

    Yet, there are classes required for all majors that are indicated to be not very valuable by the students in their survey response, namely, PHYS 221-222, CPSC 430 and CPSC 440. None of these three courses are prerequisites for other courses. Close to 40% of the respondents selected the Physics sequence to be least valuable. This is the only class that none selected as being very valuable. These alumni may not see the physics courses as valuable because of the kind of work they do. Their job titles indicate that a knowledge of physics would rarely be a direct tool for solving the kinds of problems they deal with at work. Nonetheless, we believe the physics courses are fundamental to the understanding of how computers actually work.

    CPSC 430 is a senior-level course in Computer Graphics, and CPSC 440 in Databases. Both courses show the same statistics, with 3 out of 18, or 17%, saying it was least valuable, and one, or 6%, saying it was valuable. These courses deal with special topics in computer science. Consequently, if a student works in a job that does not require that particular realm of knowledge, the course could be perceived as not valuable. Another explanation for these negative perceptions is that each CPCS major is required to take two additional 400-level courses and the department offers at most two 400-level courses per semester among a pool of 7 courses. One of the courses, CPSC 420 is offered every year (since it is a required course) , but the other six courses are offered only once every two years. Thus, in order to graduate on time, students may take a 400-level course which they do not want to take, because the course which they do want to take is not offered that semester. A new approach, approved by the department to improve student perception of upper division courses, is to offer, based on students' input, the 400-level course that will meet the most demand. This policy provides an opportunity for juniors and seniors to choose their exposure to technical knowledge in selected fields of computer science.

    Our objective to 'equip the student with technical skills' guides us to continue our unrelenting commitment to high quality of instructions and offer a strong and rewarding curriculum to our majors. Our B.S. program has been accredited by the Computer Science Accreditation Commission since 1992, with our most recent review taking place in fall of 1997.

    In addition to overall quality instruction, the seniors were asked about the adequacy of hardware and software, library resources and the availability of faculty for advice. These areas will be analyzed below.

    Adequacy of Hardware and Software

    The computer science department strives to provide adequate and diverse computing resources and facilities to support its teaching activities. The department's goal is to secure and maintain state-of-the-art hardware and laboratory facilities, and up-to-date software resources.

    When asked about "the laboratory facilities/equipment related to the major" both seniors rated "good to fair." Alumni of both classes surveyed suggested the following:

    • Software: 3 (three) alumni disagree that the software made available was sufficient. One graduated 3 years ago and two graduated last year. Only 17% "strongly agreed" that the software was adequate.
    • Range of Computer Systems: One 96-97 graduate disagreed that the range was sufficient, less than 6% of those responded. Only a total of 22% "strongly agreed" that the variety of equipment was sufficient. This percentage is considered low given our goal is to provide 'diverse' computing resources even we may have secured state-of-the-art equipment.
    • Laboratory Equipment: We have three major laboratories that the students can/will use in different stages in their study, but the UNIX laboratory is one that majors use for most CS classes. They believe that the "quality of hardware available" in these laboratories was sufficient:
      • UNIX: No alumni who responded thought the quality was not sufficient. Forty-four percent (44%) strongly agreed that quality was sufficient.
      • PC: Two alumni believed that the quality was not sufficient. Twenty-two percent (22%) "strongly agreed" that the quality was.
      • ATRL: Six (6) alumni expressed no opinion with respect to the Advanced Teaching & Research Laboratory. And two (2) disgreed that the laboratory has quality hardware, one in each of the two classes we surveyed.

    Analysis of Assessment of Computer Systems

    Good quality hardware demands good quality software, as well as vice-versa. Maintaining software upgrades and/or acquiring new software has been long been a troublesome concern, since no money is budgeted for software updates, acquisition or development. As already mentioned in Section XI-Program Support , the department has proposed a 3-year replacement cycle for hardware. The department hopes to develop a plan for software update cycles and for assessment of current and future software needs.

    Library Resources

    One of the two seniors indicated 'poor' for "ability of the library to supply the materials needed" and "adequacy of library services to meet my research needs". The other senior indicated "good" and "excellent" respectively. See "Program Support-Section XI" for a more information about library resources for the program.

    Availability of Faculty for Advice and Research Activities

    Research is a key element in the professional development activities of faculty. Experiences gained from such activities often are disseminated to students in the classroom, in research done in co-operation with students, and in advising students in terms of independent studies and job trends of the computer industry.

    When the alumni were asked if the academic advice given by CS faculty was sufficient, 44% "strongly agreed" and 44% "agreed". One alumnus of 96-97 did not agree.

    All three (two 94-95 graduates and one 96-97 graduates) who responded to the question "Did you take part in an independent study (CPSC 498) with one or more faculty members?" said YES and found the experience both valuable and helpful in landing the first job.

    Similarly, two graduates that answered YES that they took part in a research project found the experience very valuable. Yet, only 50% of our respondents was aware of the research opportunities with faculty.

    Students who are involved in research projects with faculty members report that the experiences gained from these activities are invaluable to them. Experiences include presentations in the Undergraduate Forum and in professional conferences, writing of manuscripts for the department's Technical Report Series and Proceedings of conferences, and design and implementation of a Web site that serves Virginia businesses and is visible world wide.

    Faculty from other universities are also invited speakers to talk about current issues in computer science (two internal grants were obtained for this purpose). Close to 90% of the alumni attended those talks while they were at Radford.

    Preparation for Their Career

    How do the graduate perceive the program in preparation for their career? The mission of the department is to provide an environment to encourage our students to be socially and ethically responsible citizens and contributing computer professionals in the field of computer science. We evaluate both career advising and ethical and professional preparation.

    Career Advising

    Forty-four percent (44%) or eight, of the respondents gave no opinion when asked if the Career Services Center "was helpful in your preparation for the job market?". Twenty-two percent disagreed, and 44% gave no opinion. The result is a bit puzzling since a speaker from the Career Services Center was asked to meet with graduating seniors in the CPSC 490 class (for the last 4 years at least) which is taken by all majors. Only 33% "agreed" or "strongly agreed" that the Center was helpful.

    A better understanding can be gained from looking at how the alumni landed their first job. If we group the experience into three broad categories that include advertisements (on-line or newspapers), networking, and placement services, then we have this breakdown:

    Table 14

    Landed First Job by
    SourceFrequencies
    Advertisements 8
    No Opinion 1
    Networking 6
    Placement Services 3

    The placement services do not include the RU Career Services Center.

    Ethical & Professional Preparation

    When asked if "Classroom instruction and discussion on social and ethical responsibilities" was sufficient, 22% (4) "strongly agreed", 72% (13) "agreed" while one alumni of 94-95 disagreed. When asked if "the professionalism exemplified by the computer science faculty increased your awareness of social and ethical responsibility", well over half of the respondents either "agreed" or "strongly agreed" (72% or 13). Two gave no opinion, three (3) disagreed and all are graduates of class 94-95.



    Employment

    The Career Services Center & the Office of Institutional Research, Planning & Assessment (beginning with reports starting in 1995) produce annual Employment Status Survey report to detail the employment status of Radford University's graduates. The survey includes graduates of the summer, fall and spring of a particular academic year. The graduates are mailed survey instruments, with a follow-up approximately 45 days after the first mailing for those that do not return.

    The overall (of all RU graduates) employment rates (defined as those graduates that "had either secured employment, were attending, or were planning to attend, graduate school.") and the overall starting salaries are as follows:

    Table 15

    ALL RU Graduates
    YearEmployment RateMedian Starting
    Salaries
    92-9392% $16,000-$18,999
    93-9493% $16,000-$18,999
    94-9595% $19,000-$21,999
    95-9693.5% $19,000-$21,999

    CS Graduates Only
    YearEmployment RateMedian Starting
    Salaries
    92-9386% Not Reported
    93-9487.5% Not Reported
    94-9588.9% $25,000-$27,999
    95-96100.0% $25,000-$27,999


    Table 16
    Current Salaries from the Department's Survey
    Combined (1996-97 and 1994-95)

    All Respondents
    Current SalariesFrequencies
    Less Than 25K 2
    Between 25-35K 5
    Between 35-45K 6
    Between 45-55K 1
    Between 55-65K 1
    Between 65-75K 2
    Between 75-85K  0
    More Than 85K  0

    Table 17
    Current Salaries from Our Survey
    1994-95 and 1996-97
    94-95 Respondents
    Current
    Salaries    		Frequencies
    Less Than 25K 1
    Between 25-35K 2
    Between 35-45K 1
    Between 45-55K  0
    Between 55-65K 1
    Between 65-75K 2
    Between 75-85K  0
    More Than 85K  0


    96-97 Graduates
    Current
    Salaries    		Frequencies
    Less Than 25K 2
    Between 25-35K 3
    Between 35-45K 5
    Between 45-55K 1
    Between 55-65K  0
    Between 65-75K  0
    Between 75-85K  0
    More Than 85K  0

    For CS majors only, the median starting salaries are about 25% higher (for the two reported years) than the overall median. The employment rate for our majors is virtually 100%. The average starting salary for 94-95 alumni is 31K-41K with a high between 45K-55K and a low of less than 25K. The numbers are considerably higher than that obtained via the Career Services Center as given in Table 15 above. For 96-97 the average is 41K-51K with a high 65K-75K (two alumni) and a low remains in the below 25K.

    None of our alumni who responded are currently in graduate school.















    Additional Tables Related to Student Assessment of the Program




    Table 18


    Number of Graduates.

     92-9393-9494-9595-96 96-97Average
    Number of Graduates 10 15 12 12 14 12.6





    Table 19

    1997 Senior Survey

     POORFAIRGOODEXCELLENTNO ANSWER
     (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)
    1. Availability of Advisor --11-
    2. Willingness of advisor to help --11-
    3. Advice advisor gave me about courses and program requirements 1--1-
    4. Advice advisor gave me concerning academic policies and procedures -1-1-
    5. Quality of courses in my major in preparing me for employment -11--
    6. Quality of intership, directed study, or practicum in my major in preparing me for employment or professional school ---11
    7. Quality of courses in my major in preparing me for professional school --1-1
    8. Fairness of grading in courses in my major -1-1-
    9. Quality of instruction in lower division courses in my major --11-
    10. Quality of instruction in upper division courses in my major --11-
    11. Opportunities for interaction outside the classroom with faculty in my major ---2-
    12. Ability of the library to supply the materials I needed 1-1--
    13. Opportunities to receive instruction in library research skills or methods --2--
    14. Adequacy of library services to meet my research needs 1--1-
    15. Availability of professional clubs or activities in my major -11--
    16. Quality of printed information about my major -11--
    17. Helpfulness of office staff in my major area ---2-
    18. Adequacy of preparation by lower division courses for upper division courses --11-
    19. Availability of required courses in my major -1-1-
    20. Availability of desired courses in my major -13--
    21. Laboratory facilities/equipment related to my major -11--
    22. Classroom facilities related to my major -11--
    23. Quality of curricular advising in my major --11-
    24. Quality of career advising in my major -1-1-
    25. Clarity of degree requirements in my major --11-
    26. The relationship between R.U. general education courses and courses in my major -2---
    27. Opportunities to learn from and with students in my major --11-
    28. Opportunities for formal evaluation of instruction in my major --11-
    29. Department faculty concern for my intellectual development -1-1-
    30. Quality of my initial contacts with my department -1-1-
    31. Quality of computer support for student work in my major -1-1-
    32. Overall quality of this department ---2-















    Perceptions of Values of Courses



    Note : 221 refers to Physics 221/222, 114 refers to Speech 114/337 and 151 refers to Math 151/152/153. All other course numbers are CPSC courses. Some 400-level courses may not be offered during their stay.

    Table 20


    94-95 Respondents
    CoursesValuableNOT Valuable
    120 3 1
    122 1 1
    124 2---
    240 4---
    250 2---
    270 3---
    351 3---
    360 2---
    370 3---
    380 3---
    410------
    420 1---
    430------
    440--- 1
    450 2---
    460------
    480------
    490--- 1
    493------
    498------
    221--- 1
    114--- 2
    151--- 2







    96-97 Respondents
    Courses ValuableNOT Valuable
    120 5 2
    122 3 1
    124 7---
    240 4 1
    250 3---
    270 3 1
    351 1---
    360 2 2
    370 5---
    380 3 2
    410--- 2
    420--- 1
    430--- 4
    440--- 1
    450 2---
    460------
    480------
    490 2---
    493------
    498------
    221--- 6
    114 1 1
    151 1 1















    All Respondents
    CoursesValuableNOT Valuable
    120 8 3
    122 4 2
    124 9---
    240 8 1
    250 5---
    270 6 1
    351 4---
    360 4 2
    370 8---
    380 6 2
    410--- 2
    420 1 1
    430--- 4
    440--- 2
    450 4---
    460------
    480------
    490 2 1
    493------
    498------
    221--- 7
    114 1 3
    151 1 3




















    Education Received


    Table 21

    94-95 Respondents
      No Opinion Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
    The quality of instruction in computer science courses was high at Radford University. - 2 5 - -
    Classroom instruction and discussion on social and ethical responsibilities was sufficient. - 1 5 1 -
    The professionalism exemplified by the computer science faculty increased your awareness of social and ethical responsibility. - 1 3 3 -
    Academic advice given by your CS faculty advisor was sufficient. - 2 5 - -
    The software the computer science department made available was sufficient. - 1 5 1 -
    The range of computing systems available in the computer science department was sufficient. - 2 5 - -
    The quality of hardware available in the UNIX Lab was sufficient. - 3 4 - -
    The quality of hardware available in the PC Lab was sufficient. - 1 5 1 -
    The quality of hardware available in the ATRL Lab was sufficient. 1 2 4 1 -
    The UNIX Lab hours were sufficient to carry out your computer science course work. 1 1 1 4 -
    The Career Services Center was helpful in your preparation for the job market (resume writing, job listings, etc.). 1 2 3 1 -

    96-97 Respondents
      No Opinion Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
    The quality of instruction in computer science courses was high at Radford University. - 7 4 - -
    Classroom instruction and discussion on social and ethical responsibilities was sufficient. - 3 8 - -
    The professionalism exemplified by the computer science faculty increased your awareness of social and ethical responsibility. 2 2 7 - -
    Academic advice given by your CS faculty advisor was sufficient. 1 6 3 1 -
    The software the computer science department made available was sufficient. - 2 7 2 -
    The range of computing systems available in the computer science department was sufficient. - 2 8 1 -
    The quality of hardware available in the UNIX Lab was sufficient. - 5 6 - -
    The quality of hardware available in the PC Lab was sufficient. - 3 7 1 -
    The quality of hardware available in the ATRL Lab was sufficient. 5 2 3 1 -
    The UNIX Lab hours were sufficient to carry out your computer science course work. - 3 6 2 -
    The Career Services Center was helpful in your preparation for the job market (resume writing, job listings, etc.). 7 - 1 3 -

    All Respondents
      No Opinion Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
    The quality of instruction in computer science courses was high at Radford University. - 9 9 - -
    Classroom instruction and discussion on social and ethical responsibilities was sufficient. - 4 13 1 -
    The professionalism exemplified by the computer science faculty increased your awareness of social and ethical responsibility. 2 3 10 3 -
    Academic advice given by your CS faculty advisor was sufficient. 1 8 8 1 -
    The software the computer science department made available was sufficient. - 3 12 3 -
    The range of computing systems available in the computer science department was sufficient. - 4 13 1 -
    The quality of hardware available in the UNIX Lab was sufficient. - 8 10 - -
    The quality of hardware available in the PC Lab was sufficient. - 4 12 2 -
    The quality of hardware available in the ATRL Lab was sufficient. 6 4 7 1 -
    The UNIX Lab hours were sufficient to carry out your computer science course work. 1 4 7 6 -
    The Career Services Center was helpful in your preparation for the job market (resume writing, job listings, etc.). 8 2 4 4 -




    Awareness of Research Opportunities

    Table 22
     Aware Research Opportunities
    YesNo
    94-95 Graduates4 (57%)3 (43%)
    96-97 Graduates5 (45%)6 (55%)
     
    All Respondents9 (50%)9 (50%)






    Numbers Attending Professional Talks on Campus

    Table 23
     Attend Talk
    YesNo
    94-95 Graduates6 (86%)1 (14%)
    96-97 Graduates10 (91%)1 (9%)
     
    All Respondents16 (89%)2 (11%)

    Comments/Suggestions

    These are the comments and suggestions from the respondents.

    94-95 Graduates

    • I liked being pushed to work harder. My favorite instructors were Dr. Chu and Dr. Eckart. I keep hearing bad things about the department, such as some class material is being gutted so that you can push more people through the program, or that there isn't funding for as many TAs or even TEACHERS anymore. I hope the department finds the funding they deserve, and also works to maintain the integrity of the program. Want to attract more students? STOP TEACHING ADA! One of the best programmers I've worked with has only a music degree, and learned 'C' out of a book, then C++. It's not hard! C is the new starting point, and a vital foundation for learning Java, C++, and Perl. The sooner students start learning C, the better chance they'll have of competing for an internship with students from other schools. Sorry for the soapbox; I don't want to be critical; Radford was really very good for me, so I guess I have some strong opinions. Thanks for soliciting my input, and let me know if I can be of any further help.

      Signed.

    • Learning how to learn is the most valuable thing I came away with at RU. Computer Language paradigms and software engineering is important -also the languages that are used to teach them (C,C++). Wish also that UNIX Shell scripting had been taught in the OS class along with IPC/sockets. The underlying theory is important but practical examples give a leg-up in the field. The hardware used in the classroom is excellent and is what really draws students to the program -at least initially. Radford's faculty and small classrooms are a big bonus for attending there. One of the most rewarding classes I took was the independent study. In it I was able to setup and configure a three-host sun network and the services on them (NIS,NFS,etc) -even setup one as a diskless client. Group projects give an insight to on-the-job situations. Was exposed to configuration management in the field which, unfortunately was not taught at RU. Really, I found the RU CS program to be extremely valuable to me both directly and indirectly -in my opinion it shouldn't be changed dramatically.
    • I learned a lot and loved my time at Radford. I am a better professional because of it. I would like to thank:

      Dr Chu, Dr Helm, Dr Liss, Dr Eckart, and Dr McMillan for all their help and effort. I feel that without the tools that I acquired at RUCS, I could not be the man I am today.

      One area of improvement would be more C++.

      Signed.

    • Always changing. Keep current.
    • At LEAST one year in Visual C++, Visual Basic, or Java should be required.
    • It would be beneficial to have courses and equipment for the following topics:

      Windows 95 and Windows NT
      CGI script, Perl, HTML, and Java
      Visual C++
      Visual Basic 5.0
      Oracle SQL Packages (such as PL/SQL)
      Microsoft SQL

      When I graduated, the only skills applicable to industry were C and C++. Industry seemed unwilling to train me for other skills. At the time I attended Radford University, COBOL (which I self-taught myself but was not "HOT" in industry) was also available. I believe BASIC was also available in coursework, but BASIC was not "HOT." High-demand skills should be offered.

    96-97 Graduates

    • Strengths: Tough academic standards - students graduating with a CS degree from Radford know they can do anything, teaching good problem solving skills, and most of the faculty are very willing to help students who are willing to work and learn.

      Weaknesses: I still lacked many practical skills when I graduated - what's a PC? What's a batch file? Put the executable in your path. What? You know - the environment variable PATH! Huh? As much as the CS faculty may hate it, it would have been helpful for me to have some more exposure to Windows and the Visual programming tools from Microsoft.

      Teach students to always use make files. Every project I use employ's make files.

      No real hardware exposure. Why not let students assemble some old 486's from scratch? I also lacked database skills.

      Note: on the courses that were helpful and not helpful, the box does not let me select multiple courses unless they are all in sequence. Might want to change that. CS124 was the most helpful course for me.

      Operating systems went over my head. I knew so little about how the computer worked that thinking about multi-threaded processes just lost me. I think it is a very important course, and yet I didn't understand what was being taught at the time.

    • More team building activities are necessary. More class time on design is needed. A class in team skills and leadership would be just as vital as the Communcation class if not more vital. Radford needs to develop a presence. We are the best and brightest in Virginia yet we are treated lower then dirt by recruiters( granted I lack personal skills and a good GPA when I graduated) the only work I could find was crap work that no one else would do at pay that was substandard to the industry. granted I finally did find a good programming job at a great company. Also keep the program as rough and demanding as you have it now, if not rougher. The industry is a 100 times as demanding as Dr. Eckart ever was. In other words more team stuff and leadership stuff with the same amount of work load and impossible tests.
    • The courses 270, 370, and 380 cover extremely valuable material; I wish it could have been somewhat more extensive. I know that some universities offer Operating Systems in two classes - one undergraduate, the next one open to graduates, and those who took the first class. The greatest strength of Radford's CS department is the willingness of the faculty to be accessible to the students.
    • Overall my experience in the CS Dept was definitely a positive one. There are many strengths in the department that, if listed, would make this an extremely long note. However, there is one major weakness that stands out in my mind the most and that is the lack of teaching current commercial industry standards. Knowledge of these will grant you a job anywhere in the world. By industry standards I mean the different technologies that are found to be a staple in modern society including UNIX, Windows NT, Oracle, MS Sql Server, Visual Basic, Visual C++. I think it could be extremely helpful to have a semester class devoted entirely to UNIX (no theory, just application). The CS department devoted much time to theory which was helpful but will never get you a job anywhere but at a university. The trick is to know the current industry standards and not just teach how to use them but how to APPLY them in a realistic setting.

      After rereading what I just wrote, I think it sounds like I am bashing the department, I AM NOT. The staff at Radford does an outstanding job teaching its current curriculum. Its just that this is a very vital subject that I feel is not included in that curriculum.

      Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments regarding my survey.

      Sincerely, signed

    • Although, on a daily basis, I do not use the information from some of the Computer Science courses that I had, I consider them all valuable. Although programming is the main focus of CS at Radford, perhaps broadening the scope to allow for specialization in other areas such a networking would benefit future students.
    • Although I am not working in a mainframe environment there is a ton of jobs out there for mainframe people. I think a class in unix scripting would also be a great idea. Also there seems to be a huge interest in companies be able to do all/some of there business over the internet, so a course in web development would be great. Overall I really enjoyed my time as a CS major at Radford. The students in the major were great and so were the professors.

      Happy programming!!

    • Earlier I said Radford CS has definite pluses & minuses...

      PLUSES:
      - size allows for great interaction between students and professors
      - opportunities for outside projects
      - many high quality professors

      MINUSES:
      -a couple low quality professors
      -at times I think too many people were let off the hook
      (i.e. passed when they shouldn't have)

      Signed.

    • No one class or faculty member made an impact on me, although all together was a definite asset to my newly found career. The importance of a BS degree came full face when I interviewed for the position

    • - More hardware hands on makes you more competitive
      - Compiler + assembler construction are very critical and helpful. Everyone must take these!
      - Curriculum was extremely on target and exactly what my employer was looking for.
      - more real life experience with local companies would help.


    XV - Employers' Assessment of the Program


    No formal employer surveys have been made.  However, we consider the fact that at least five companies have hired more than one of our majors over the past few years to be solid evidence of employer satisfaction with our program  These companies are:
     

    • US ARMY RDAISA in Radford, VA has hired a number of graduates as computer programmers and is now also hiring current majors to work on a part-time basis as computer programmers while in school.
    • NEOCOM Microspecialist Inc. in Martinsville, VA has hired two graduates both as Computer Network Administrators.
    • Kaman Sciences in Washington, D.C. has hired a number of graduates as Software Engineers and has sent recruiters to the department to give talks to majors in hope of hiring them when they graduate.
    • Tangram Enterprise Solutions in Raleigh, NC has hired our graduates (at least one per year over past three years) for many different computer related positions including computer programmers, systems engineer and software quality assurance.  Tangram has also visited the campus numerous times and contacted faculty to help recruit other graduates.
    • Hubbell Lighting Inc in Christiansburg, VA has employed a number of our majors while still in school, using them to assist in their computer center.

    During informal discussion, the recruiters and supervisors all have expressed pleasure with the graduates from the department, citing their maturity level, knowledge of the computer field, ability to complete tasks and work with others.

    On campus, our current majors successfully hold wage positions in Network Services,  Computer Helpdesk, Academic Computing, Teaching Resource Center as well as work study jobs, using computers, for other departments.

     
    Other program indicators

    XVI - Other program indicators

    Since 1992 the number of full-time faculty in the department has decreased from 10 to 7 (See Table 24.) In that time, four full time faculty members have left and one has been hired. Of the four members who left, one took another position within the university, two were denied reappointment, and one took a buyout. One of the faculty who was denied reappointment held the Dalton Eminent Scholar position.

     
    Table 24

    Faculty Resources

      92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 96-97 97-98
    Total Full Time Faculty 10 6 8 8 8 7
             Tenured/Tenure-track 4/4 4/2 5/1 6/0 5/1 5/1
             Systems Administrator 1 1 1 1 1 1
             Eminent Scholar (Research Only) 1 1 1 1 1 0
    Percent of hours taught by part-time faculty  19% 37% 31% 29% 21% 30%
    Annual FTE part-time faculty  1.1 2.2 1.9 1.7 1.0 1.4
     

    Currently the department consists of 5 tenured and 1 tenure track faculty member as well as a full time Systems Administrator who teaches one class per semester and who holds an Administrative and Professional faculty position at the rank of Instructor.

    In December 1997 the department was given permission to advertise for a new tenure track faculty member. A requirement for this position is that the new person must be willing to take an active role in developing a new joint, interdisciplinary program with Information Systems.

    All of the department's six tenured and tenure track faculty members hold a Ph.D. and have graduate faculty status. Four have a Ph.D in Computer Science. Two hold an M.S. in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in either Math or Statistics. The Systems Administrator holds an M.S. in Computer Science.

    While the department has sufficient expertise to offer all courses in the program, no faculty members are specialized in four of the core areas in which we teach senior level courses: networks, database, artificial intelligence and graphics. Networks and databases are increasingly important areas, and the department now offers courses in these areas more frequently. The area of object technology is also one which is increasingly important but one in which no faculty member specializes. The department is currently working to provide in house training in this area.

    The department relies heavily on part time temporary faculty members to offer its courses. Since 1992 the number of such faculty members has ranged between 1.0 and 2.2 FTE per year with an average of 1.6 FTE per year (See Table 21). Between 20% and 30% of the hours offered by the department have been taught by part-time temporaries, with the average being 28%. Temporary faculty members primarily teach CPSC 106, a popular general education course, but they have also taught service courses and in the major they have taught courses at all levels. In some years, every section of CPSC 106 has been taught by a temporary faculty member.

    The qualifications of the part time temporary faculty members have varied widely. While some have held a Ph.D., A.B.D., or M.S. in Computer Science, others have had only an Associates degree or even no degree in the field. At this time, computing skills are in high demand, and consequently it is difficult to find qualified teachers who are willing and able to fill part-time positions.

    The overall loss of 3 faculty members since 1992, the loss of 3 additional faculty members in the 2 years prior to 1992, and the heavy use of part-time faculty has lowered the overall quality of the program, including the quality of classroom instruction. Part-time faculty typically have less teaching experience and less expertise in the field. Part-time faculty are also not able to do the course development required by rapid changes in field. The decrease in number of full-time faculty has increased each full-time faculty member's workload making it increasingly hard to do course development, curriculum reform and to pursue department goals. This decrease in resources has come at a time of rapid change in the field which has further increased demands on department faculty.

    Graduate students assigned to the department are not teachers of record for any courses. Graduate students do teach the lab portion of CPSC 106P, under the supervision of a regular faculty member. As an effort to improve retention in courses and in the major, an experimental program is underway during the 1997-98 year in which undergraduate majors are hired to serve as supplemental instructors in CPSC 120 and CPSC 124, the first two courses for computer science majors. Results from this program are promising and the department hopes to find funding to continue it.

    The B.S. program in Computer Science is accredited by the Computer Science Accreditation Commission of the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board, a specialized accrediting body which is sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society and the Association of Computing Machiner and which is recognized by the Council of Postsecondary Accreditation and the U.S. Department of Education. Only five programs in Virginia have this accreditation and Radford is the only such program west of Richmond.

    Further indicators of quality of the program include the professionalism of the faculty and the success of our graduates in the job market. All faculty in the department are professionally active and the research of two has been recognized internationally.
    Since May 1990, computer science majors have taken the Educational Testing Service's (ETS) Major Field Achievement Test (MFAT) in Computer Science. Two types of scores are obtained from this test: total scores and assessment indicator scores. On this test Radford students performed better, on average, in their overall scores than others who have previously taken the test. Radford students also consistently perform better than others in all four assessment areas.

    Graduates of our program have a virtual 100% success rate in obtaining jobs in the field or attending graduate school. Alumni hold positions across the country and world and some work for major corporations such as SUN, Microsoft, Oracle and IBM. Many employers who have hired our graduates return to hire more. Other program indicators


    PART B: Program Interdependencies


    Impact on other programs

    Computer science courses are required or recommended by many programs. Several majors require programming courses (e.g. CPSC 109, CPSC 120) taught by the Computer Science Department. These majors include Information Systems (11-12 hours required), Mathematics (4 hours), Economics (3-4 hours), Accounting with an Information Systems concentration (3-4 hours), and Music with a Music and Technology concentration (3 hours). Students taking programming courses gain training in software development, development of their logical thinking and problem solving skills, practice in algorithmic thinking, and familiarity with computers.

    In 12 other majors, one or more computer science courses can be used to meet the B.S. requirements for that major. In five majors, students must take CPSC 106 or any other CPSC course. These courses are typically used to meet General Education requirements. In three majors, computer science courses are listed as required or recommended electives. The Computer Science Concentration is an option for three Interdisciplinary Studies Education Licensures.

    The courses taken most frequently by students from outside the major include CPSC 106, 109, 120, and 230. The number of students in each of these courses per year is shown in Table 25. In CPSC 120, about one third of the students are computer science majors; in the other courses, virtually none are computer science majors.


    Table 25: Number of students in courses typically taken by non-CS majors
     
     
      92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 96-97 97-98
    CPSC 106 and 106P 1224 1745 1614 1400 1051 1220
    CPSC 109 61 70 41 15 25 65
    CPSC 120 209 230 190 214 215 238
    CPSC 230 (includes summer) 41 32 32 25 32 44

    Any computer science course (except currently CPSC 103) can be used to meet the General Education Mathematics Area requirement. Although technology was removed at the last minute from being one of the General Education Areas, being able to use appropriate computer technology is one of the goals of the General Education program. Many students gain expertise in use of technology by taking CPSC courses, primarily CPSC 106.

    In a survey of Spring 1997 survey of students in CPSC 106 and CPSC 106P, 74% of the respondents were taking the course to meet a general education requirement. Only 9% were taking the course as an elective.

    Computer science majors are required to take several courses that would have noticeably lower enrollments if they were not required courses for students in computer science. These courses include MATH 151, 152, and 153, STAT 410, and PHYS 221 and 222.

    Computer science students and faculty serve as technology resources for many groups across campus. Campus organizations that have recently used skilled assistance, either volunteer or paid, in technology from computer science majors include Student Affairs, Help Desk, Client Services, Network Services, Telecommunications, Machine Repair, Learning Resources Center, the Cyber University, Business Assistance Center/Economic Bridge, and the BRAINS Center. Computer science faculty also provide assistance and/or expertise with technology to several groups across campus, including Client Services and the Information Technology Resources Advisory Council. Students and faculty also provide technological assistance to several local businesses and industries. Other program indicators

    Impact of other units on the programs


    Computer science majors are required take courses in mathematics, statistics, speech, and physics and other physical sciences. The strength of the computer science program therefore depends on the quality of the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics, Speech Communication, Chemistry and Physics, Biology, and Geology. By taking courses from these departments, our students of course gain knowledge in specific content areas. In addition, in the mathematics and statistics courses they gain in mathematical maturity and quantitative skills, and in the science courses they learn how to apply the scientific method. Public speaking skills, clarity of thought, and composure are developed in the speech courses. Ability to communicate in writing is also valuable to our majors, making our program dependant on the quality of the Department of English.

    All of these areas (i.e. mathematics, statistics, physics, science, and oral and written communication) are required for CSAB accrediation. A core of courses in the humanities and social sciences are also required for accreditation, and this requirement is met by the Radford's General Education program. Other program indicators



    PART C: Assessment



    Assessment Activities and Programs

    The Computer Science continually assesses the Computer Science program in a number of ways:
    • Accreditation Review - the Department of Computer Science is accredited by the Computer Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB),
    • MFAT - all seniors in the Department of Computer Science are required to take the Major Field Achievement Test (MFAT), and
    • Departmental Committees - the Department of Computer Science has a standing curriculum committee which regularly reviews the program.
    These data are analyzed by the department to determine changes which might be in order. For example, the recent CSAB accreditation review led to the development of stronger assessment procedures for the department and the development of ethics modules to be included in several courses in the curriculum. Further, the department's curriculum committee recently made several changes in response to changes in the industry:
    • developed a complete restructuring of the sophomore year to increase the emphasis on Software Engineering and Object-Oriented Technology,
    • changed a service course offering from COBOL to Visual Programming,
    • developed a Web Programming course,
    • developed a version of CPSC 106, our most popular General Education course, that includes a closed lab component, and
    • shifted the department's introductory language from Pascal to Ada.
    Individual students are tracked by their faculty advisors. The department assists that tracking in the following ways:
    • record student's midterm grades in major courses and reports those to the advisors,
    • compiles a list of all majors and their grade history in CPSC courses,
    • sends congratulatory letters to majors who excel for a given semester, and
    • sponsors Upsilon Pi Epsilon, the Computer Science honor society.
    Student satisfaction with the program is assesed in two ways. First, graduating seniors are surveyed. The results of the most recent of these surveys are shown in Table 19. Second, the department surveys alumni who graduated one year ago and three years ago. The results of the first of these surveys are shown in Table 20. From the results of these surveys we can surmise that the Computer Science program is relevant to our student's career choice in that virtually 100% of our graduates are working in the computer industry. The student retention and graduation rates for the Department of Computer Science have remained extremely consistent over the last several years as shown by Table 1. The number of new freshmen, overall number of majors, and number of graduates have remained essentially unchanged during that time. One significant trend however has been the ratio of graduates who entered Radford University as freshmen to graduates who transferred into Radford University. Over the last five years, the percentage of Computer Science graduates who are transfer students has more than doubled. It should be noted, however, that these students typically enter the Computer Science program at Radford University without transferring any computer sciences courses. These students start in CPSC 120, the first course for computer science majors, with a higher maturity level than, and thus an advantage over, the new freshmen with which they are competing. The Department of Computer Science does not directly assess the level of student faculty interaction other than the alumni survey reported in Tables 19 and 20. However, this is one of the areas reported on by the recent CSAB accreditation review. The CSAB preliminary statement noted that students had high praise for faculty availability and interaction.     PART D: Recommendation for the Program



    PART D: Recommendation for the Program

    Program Continuance Recommendation

    As summarized in the points below, the information and analysis presented in this comprehensive program review provide a cogent and compelling rationale for the conclusion that the computer science programs at Radford University should not only be continued but should be afforded a top priority in the distribution of resources.

    • Measured by the percentage of majors who find jobs in their field and the salaries they command, our B.S. degree program is certainly among the best such programs at R.U. Graduates of our program are in exceptional demand in the job market. Employers indicate their approval of our program by repeated recruiting and hiring of our majors, and our alumni voice a high degree of satisfaction with their Radford education. Further all studies indicate that the demand for our product will actually increase in the foreseeable future.


    • Our B.S. degree program has rigorously been reviewed and fully accredited by the Computer Science Accreditation Board, which is the recognized, authoritative accrediting agency for programs in our field. Further, we offer the only such accredited program in western Virginia (i.e. west of Richmond.)

    • We have a highly professional faculty who, despite its small size and heavy teaching loads, manages to stay current in the rapidly changing computer science field. Two of our faculty members have been recognized internationally for their research contributions. Others are very strong in the area of university contributions, serving actively on important university-wide advisory and governing bodies.

      •
    • Besides staying current in our field, we have been among the first departments on campus to use the world-wide-web and e-mail for teaching, recruiting and gathering assessment information.

    • We provide a variety of service courses at different levels, for students in many fields who need a knowledge of computers. We are in the first planning stages of developing an inter-departmental program with the Department of Accounting, Finance, and Information Systems in the College of Business and Economics.

    • The Computer Science Department serves as technical consultants for the campus and the community. Virtually every day, we receive phone-calls and e-mail from other faculty members and students who need technical support and instruction.


    Program Development and Strengthening Recommendations

    Our program could be strengthened by filling the vacant faculty positions in the department. Although we can adequately cover our required courses with existing staff, we have to rely on temporary instructors, who are sometimes barely qualified, to teach service classes and when we are required to carry out extra assignments, both teaching and research activities must suffer. Most of our required courses can be offered only once per year, which fact allows very little flexibility in scheduling, slows the progress of some students through the program, practically eliminates the usual type of co-op program, and undoubtedly discourages some students from choosing our major and causes others to drop out. Also, due to the rapidly evolving nature of computer science, new areas of expertise constantly appear and demand attention; new faculty members are needed to bring new expertise. We, therefore, recommend that our vacant positions be filled at the earliest possible opportunity.

    Because of the high quality of our program, it would be beneficial to the state if we could produce more graduates. Further, since enrollment in upper level classes is not at capacity, it would be cost-effective if more students were enrolled in these classes. Consequently, our department is committed to the goal of increasing the quality, number and diversity of computer science majors. We recommend that the university persist in its new long-term strategy of increasing enrollment indirectly, by setting higher standards and thereby improving its academic reputation, rather than by lowering standards to admit poorly qualified students. As Radford University wins ground in its pursuit of excellence, we are confident that substantially increased numbers will enter and graduate from our quality programs. Further, we hope to make our program more attractive by fully developing our declared niche area of database and networks. In the meantime, we are continuing our focus on recruiting and retention. We are exploring ways to better serve current R.U. students, by setting up a new, less technically demanding program in collaboration with the Department of Accounting, Finance, and Information Systems, and to retain a greater number of at-risk students by means of our student supplemental instructor program. We recommend that both of these efforts be supported with the resources which they require.

    Finally we applaud the recent efforts by the administration to increase travel moneys, to improve opportunities for professional development, to address salary inequities and to enhance the quality and utilization of technological resources. We strongly recommend that such efforts continue and be expanded in certain areas, such as maintenance and scheduled replacement of computer hardware and the acquisition and up-grading of software systems. In particular, we recommend that department labs be upgraded on a three-year rotation cycle and that this upgrade be included in the multi-year campus wide plan for computer lab upgrades currently being developed. We also feel a need for improved financial support for instructional events such as institutes and seminars to make it easier for us to stay current in our rapidly changing discipline.