Subject: Capstone, CS Curriculum, IT Curriculum From: "Norman Pestaina" Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:54:21 -0500 (EST) To: prabakar@cis.fiu.edu Cc: milani@cis.fiu.edu, pestaina@cs.fiu.edu Prabu, I reviewed the Capstone Project syllabus document, and did reviews (but not in depth) of the CS and IT curriculum flowcharts. I also did some review of the curricula in relation to the (new) ABET Criteria. I have attached some relevant excerpts. Please feel free to share my observations with UGC or other faculty. Capstone: I don't see any curricular issues with this. From the accreditation perspective, this will add substantially to our ability to document evaluation of program outcomes. If you look at the excerpt, you will see that the Capstone outcomes relate directly to many of the ABET outcomes (a) through (f). I think this will be a significant plus for our reaccreditation. CS Curriculum: I think the flowchart is accurate. Re ABET, I believe that we are within the criteria. However, the format of the self-study has changed to reflect more outcomes-based evaluation of the Curriculum criteria. I plan to look at this closely in the coming Spring semester. It may be that we could do well to revisit some selected course outcomes (just a thought at this point). Also, we will have to re-evaluate the core-advanced content of our upper division courses I think. But I am confident that we are in good shape modulo any minor changes that may be indicated. IT Curriculum: I am less sure of myself here as this is the first time that I am looking at the IT curriculum in more than cursory fashion. Also, I am not sure if you intend for me to get into this. I note that the ABET criteria/standards are somewhat less restrictive than the CS. It may be due to ignorance on my part, but it seems that we may need to strengthen the Human-Computer Interaction components of the IT curriculum as this is mentioned explicitly in several places in the ABET document. Perhaps it is necessary only to document where this aspect is covered in the existing required courses. Also, It appears that the IT programs may be short on the comunications components. I also have the impression that the BA program may be difficult to document in terms of the ABET criteria. Attachment: IT_Accred_Preview.doc