Challenges of Teaching in a Small Computing Department.ppt

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1、Challenges of Teaching in a Small Computing Department,CCSC:SC 2003 Millsaps College Jackson, MS April 12, 2003 10:15 11:45 am,Panelists,Barbara Boucher Owens, Southwestern University Adel M. Abunawass, University of West Georgia Anne Gates Applin, Pearl River Community College Laura Baker, St. Edwa

2、rds University David Luginbuhl, Western Carolina University,Background of the project,SIGCSE 2001 discussions Accreditation problems Needs expressed by colleagues Standards by which to compare with other small departments Aids for assessment Help when teaching specialized courses Best practices webs

3、ite Formed committee in Feb. of 2002 which met during SIGCSE 2002 First task was to better understand the audience (i.e. a survey),Committee which met at SIGCSE 2002,Will Mitchell U. Arkansas Little Rock Cathy Bareiss Olivet College Jim Caristi Valporiso University Susan Dean Samford University Laur

4、ie Smith King Holy Cross Rick Koontz Grace College Barbara Boucher Owens SU Scott Thede Depauw University,SIGCSE 2003,Meetings on Friday and Saturday Discussed where to go from here,Future plans,Define target audience Further analyze survey results Detail survey get comprehensive data Determine futu

5、re tasks Form working committees Apply for grants Get involvement from SIGCSE and other institutions,Survey overview (link to paper),Sections Institutional data (number of students, faculty/student ratio, load requirement, etc.) Departmental statistics (faculty, student, majors, hours, department id

6、entity and support, lab issues, needs, etc Course information (course name, frequency, comfort level),Survey Details,FTE 2000 or 3000 Faculty/student ratio: 1/17.5 Load requirement: 22.5 (24) Full time faculty in C.S. 31 = 5 faculty Majors: (113 mean, 101 std. dev.) Hours in major (30 (30-40), 17 (4

7、0-50),Survey Details (cont.),Campus computerization responsibility (59 out of 62) Lab Help Student (3, 10, 8, 10, 10, 11) Faculty with load (3, 18, 10, 6, 6, 3) Faculty without load (3, 16, 10, 5, 6, 3) Department dedicated staff (6, 12, 1, 3, 5, 7) Computer service staff (1, 13, 10, 7, 8, 13) Resea

8、rch required (35 out of 65 with 30 allowing educational research),Goals Produce Report,Contact information of anyone new who wants to get involved Areas of need expressed by those at the sessions Ideas for the future (if covered) Other issues deemed appropriate by the panel members and/or those at t

9、he session.,Challenges in recruiting Computer Science Faculty: The Small Department Experience.,Spring 03. Jackson, MS.,Adel Abunawass; Ph.D. Department of Computer Science State University of West Georgia adelwestga.edu Presentation site with data http:/adel.cs.westga.edu/ccsc03,14th Annual South C

10、entral Regional Conference Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges,At the SIGCSE 03,Several items were discussed White Paper Curriculum Survey Panels Showcase of faculty in small colleges work Directory Publicity,The Shortage,The Shortage is real (perhaps easing up a little)! Production of PhD

11、s not keeping up with demands Faculty have high demands & higher expectations Enrollment in Computer Science is soaring More Reliance on Technology in Higher Education,The Shortage,By the numbers: Ph.D Production: 1980- 252 PhD graduates/ 1990- 627 PhD graduates 1997- 894 PhD graduates/ 1998- 933 Ph

12、D graduates 1999- 825 PhD graduates/ 2000- 852 PhD graduates 2001- 902 PhD graduates/ 2002- 847 PhD graduates,The Shortage,Where do they go? most of graduates are hired in Ph.D. granting departments & industry. small colleges compete with the rest of non-Ph.D. granting schools (compete over 20+ grad

13、uates on the average).,-Source: Taulbee Survey (CRA) http:/www.cra.org/ - Source: Professor Henry Walker (link to site),The Competition,Competitive starting salaries of new Ph.Ds Reported mean of salary minimum for a starting salary for 00-02, tenure track position, is $75,902 (49% increase over 96-

14、97 of $51,037) Table shows the Average of all salaries,-Source: Taulbee Survey (CRA) http:/www.cra.org/,Nine-Month Salaries for New Ph.Ds, Responding US CS and CE Departments,96-97,97-98,98-99,99-00,00-01,01 02,Average of allsalaries,$53,011,$60,735,$64,283,$68,915,$73,979,$76,595,Rate of Change,15%

15、,6%,7%,7%,4%,Our Experience,Plenty of Faculty positions, but not enough Faculty. Faculty retiring/leaving, but no “suitable” replacement can be found Enrollment is soaring, but no classes for students For the most part Faculty are happy with small departments.,What Can be Done?,Recruiting start with

16、 the advertisement emphasize “small is good” highlight the Department & the People leverage what your city, community & campus offer strive to attract the best use your students as a recruiting tool,For more Information,“IT Staffing: Will Higher Education Become a Preferred Destination?” , By Glen M

17、cCandless, Syllabus, April 1999, Volume 12, No. 8. http:/ Taulbee Surveys http:/www.cra.org/statistics/ “Extrapolation of Taulbee Data”, by Professor Henry Walker, SIGCSE Listserv, March 2003, http:/www.math.grinnell.edu/%7Ewalker/dept/taulbee-97-02.html The Incredible Shrinking Pipeline”, By Tracy

18、Camp, Communications of the ACM, October 1997, Vol. 40, No 10. http:/www.acm.org/ “Americas New Deficit: The Shortage of the Information Technology Workers”, By US Department of Commerce, Office of Technology Policy, 1998. http:/www.ta.doc.gov/reports/itsw/itsw.pdf “The Digital Workforce: Building I

19、nfoTech Skills at the Speed of Innovation”, By Office of Technology Policy, 1999. http:/www.ta.doc.gov/reports/itsw/Digital.pdf “The Supply of Information Technology Workers in the United States”, Supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. EIA-9812240) and published in 1998 by the Compu

20、ting Research Association. http:/www.cra.org/ “IT worker availability, skill sets, and hot jobs & technologies” Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), http:/www.itaa.org/,Small Departments: The Community College Perspective,Anne G. Applin, Ph.D Computer Science Coordinator Department

21、of Science, Mathematics, and Business Pearl River Community College aapplinprcc.edu,14th Annual South Central Regional Conference Spring 2003 Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Jackson, Mississippi,Overview,About the College About the Department Courses / Loads Computing Resources Physica

22、l Facilities Faculty Issues Budget Concerns,About the College:,Oldest of the 15 CC/JC s in Mississippi,Fully articulated and accredited Record enrollments every semester for the past several years, currently 3472 (2339 academic) Approximately 80 full time academic faculty course load of 15 credit ho

23、urs/semester cant count a night class as part of the regular load adjuncts teach most of the night classes Department Directors to teach reduced loads 12 hours next year - and maybe a shared secretary,About the Department,Started in 1982 with 4 Apple computers,1982-1983 Lone instructor 1991-1993 L1

24、3/5 instructors 1994-1995 L 2 instructors (I was #2) 1997 L became part of the “Dept. of Mathematical Sciences“ 2002 L became part of the “Dept. of Sciences, Mathematics and Business“ Instructional area coordinators 24 declared CS majors - but they dont all declare,Courses / Loads,Our Dean Counts a

25、Lab as a Class,Fall - 14 contact hours each 1 section of Intro Programming (3/2) + 3 sections of the Literacy course (9) 1 section of Computer Science I (3/2 ) + 3 sections of the Literacy course (9) Spring - 16 & 15 contact hours each 1 section of FORTRAN programming (3) + 1 section of a web applic

26、ations course (3) + 3 sections of the Literacy course (9) 1 section of Computer Science II (4) +1 section of Discrete Structures (3) 3 sections of the Literacy course (3),Computing Resources,Were almost on our own,3 technicians for approximately 900 computers Our only support is with campus network

27、issues If we can handle a problem in-house we dont call support Faculty installed and maintained network Novell on a 386 server with 24 IBM PS2 NT 4 on dual PII 266 server Instructor installed / administrated until 1998 full-time LAN admin (AA degree) hired 1999 - dropped to part-time in 2000 to go

28、back to school to go back to full time next year NT 4 (PIII 350) and RHL servers (PII 266),Physical Facilities,No scheduling issues here.,One classroom equipped with a computer workstation and data projection system. One lab of 24 student workstations (WinNT4) used for hands on teaching in literacy

29、course nice because it caps the enrollment for a course required for graduation. All sections are always full One lab of everything that still runs (Linux) used for lab component of programming courses and open use for those students Machines are P90 and P120 systems from the teaching lab - so there

30、s no GUI,Faculty Issues,Hard to hire new CS faculty. Open position filled by many adjuncts for 2 years Last 2 searches resulted in one qualified applicant each Some high schools pay better than the CCs at the moment Advising is difficult - not mandatory Literacy class uses common preps full-time fac

31、ulty share responsibility for the preps which include: syllabus, rigid schedule, handouts, tests and a lab manual. Night class instructor uses our preps. all students take the same tests & final. SACS likes it, but new faculty take a while to convince,Budget Concerns,Statewide Problems,Budgets have

32、been cut 3 years in a row “base“ salary reduced to keep salaries effectively frozen (salary schedule - degree by years of service so the “base“ is a Masters with 0 years). Next year? Warranties on the computers in the teaching lab will run out in June. Software Licensing fees forced the change to Li

33、nux for compilers may have the same effect for the entire academic division just so we can all have the same office suite.,Challenges of Managing a Small CS Department,Laura J. Baker, Ph.D. Associate Professor Computer Sciences Department St. Edwards University Austin, Texaslbakeracad.stedwards.edu

34、http:/www.stedwards.edu/science/baker/,About St. Edwards University,Approx. 4000 students 1200 Graduate students2800 Undergraduate students65% full-time35% working adultsClasses day/evening mixture of both populations,About the Computer Science Department,270 total majors (approx.)170 Computer Scien

35、ce100 Computer Information Science Offer Day and Evening programs in both majors Teaching Load 12 hours per semester,Scheduling Issues,Scheduling classes (regular offerings, number of sections, rooms, times) CS major requirements :37 sections of 3 hour classes each semester CS non-major requirements

36、 :18 sections of 3 hour classes each semesterservice level courses Total Classes scheduled per semester55 sections of 3 hour classes,Lab Management Issues,Lab management difficulties Supervising full-time lab managerand managing student lab workers Overseeing training, equipment maintenance, backups

37、 etc. Equipment purchases and budget,Budgetary Issues,Departmental budget, separate from lab budget Hardware/software purchases Student workers for lab and for grading,Student Advising,Degree plan advising for students Degree audits Graduate School planning/advice Letters of Recommendation Internshi

38、p coordination Independent study and special projects,Student Advising,Time to meet with prospective students including preview days, parent weekends Selecting scholarship candidates and outstanding students,Managing Faculty,Curriculum revisions and adjustments to maintain current and credible progr

39、ams Managing full-time and adjunct faculty within department Reaching consensus on major decisions Scheduling meetings Offices scattered in different buildings Philosophical differences among faculty,Challenges of a Small Computing Department,David R. Luginbuhl Dept of Mathematics and Computer Scien

40、ce Western Carolina University,CCSC-SC Jackson, MS April 11, 2003,Overview,Profile of Western Carolinas CS Program Problem: Bench Depth and Curriculum Coverage Challenges Solutions/Discussion,Western Carolina University and Computer Science,Westernmost campus in the UNC System 7000 Students, undergr

41、aduate/graduate CS Program resides in the Mathematics and CS Department, College of Arts and Sciences CS is Undergraduate only CS Faculty 2000-2001: 3 full-time CS faculty members 2001-2002: 3.5 full-time CS faculty members 2002-2003: 4.5 full-time CS faculty members No 5th faculty position in sight

42、 Course load: 3 courses per semester,Problem: Curriculum Coverage,CS1,CS2,Logic and Proofs,SystemsNetworks Operating Systems Systems/Architecture,SoftwareSoftware Engineering Software Development,TheoryTheory of Comp Programming Lang Data Structures,+ 2 Electives,Capstone,Bench Depth Current Configu

43、ration (sort of),Prof A: Systems Networks, O/S Database (a popular elective) Prof B: Systems Architecture, Systems elective Prof C: Software/Theory Software Development, Data Structures, Logic and Proofs Prof D: Software/Theory Theory, Software Engineering, Capstone Prof E: Half-time Programming Lan

44、guages, Advanced Programming (Elective),Other Courses,CS1 Intro to Java 2 or 3 sections taught by a subset of CS faculty CS0 Intro to Computing: HTML and JavaScript Popular service course 2 to 4 sections taught by a subset of CS faculty Two or three other electives taught by Math faculty Math requir

45、ements taught by Math faculty,Challenges,Need for a backup plan We are one faculty departure away from radical restructuring Faculty talents & strengths drive curriculum Always with accreditation and CC2001 in mind And of course, state and university requirements A balancing act, to say the least La

46、ck of ability to offer many electives,Solutions,We have begun to identify “backups” for each course Rely on: part-time help or Mathematics graduate students for service and CS1 courses Mathematics faculty for math-related courses “Creative” course substitutions for students,Rewards,Increased breadth

47、 of teaching experience Ability to determine program direction Changes to curricula Changes to courses Contact with students in multiple settings,Edge of the Box Thought,Is there a more robust structure to a CS curriculum to inoculate against the bench-depth problem? Cross-cuts? Mini-courses (half/third semester)? Component-based curriculum architecture? Something is needed to allow for real-time flexibility Ideas?,Questions?,