CSE Teaching Committee, Agenda for Meeting, 23 July 2008

1. Minutes of Previous Meeting (16 May 2008)

2. New Plan Proposal, Computer Forensics

   Richard Buckland is proposing a new major in Computer Forensics, initially for the CS program. The gist: split the current security course into two parts (Cryptography and Security); add a Security Workshop; add a Network Forensics course; add a Computer Forensics course.

   Comments from Ron van der Meyden on the proposal

3. Minor Course Revision; change titles of eCommerce courses

   The e-Commerce moniker is perhaps becoming worn-out. The field has broadened beyond online services for e-Commerce and now deals with a generic Web Services infrastructure. The titles of COMP9321 and COMP9322 should be updated to relfect this (and better market the course content to prospective students).

   Proposed titles:

   • COMP9321 Web Applications Engineering
   • COMP9322 Service Oriented Architectures

4. Assessing 4th-year Theses and other project-based courses

   In 08s1, a new scheme for assessing 4th-year theses was trialled. Consider feedback on this. Also, there are now a number of courses based solely on supervised project-work (COMP3901, COMP3902, COMP9596, COMP9945). None of these seem to have published assessment criteria. Should they be put under a similar assessment scheme to 4th-year theses.

   On the topic of assessing 4th-year theses, it has been suggested that supervisors assessing their own students is perhaps a debatable practice. Should we adopt a model where the supervisor is no longer an assessor for their own students?

5. Class Lengths and Timetabling

   Hossam suggested that we review the use of 3-hour slots for lectures. Pros: students apparently cannot concentrate for 3 hours; staff apparently cannot lecture for 3 hours. Cons: significant disruption to timetables for PG coursework students; (most likely) requires students to attend UNSW on more days than they would have. What does the education literature have to say on this topic? What do students think of the idea? Would it make overall timetabling better/worse?

   Some suggested reading:

   • "What's the use of lectures?", Donald A. Bligh, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 3rd ed., 2000
   • "Optimal Class Length in Marketing Undergraduate Classes: An Examination of Preference In Evaluations, and Student Performance", James Reardon, Janice Payan, Chip Miller and Joe Alexander, Journal of Marketing Education 2008; 30

6. Review of 08s1 Courses

   The effects of 12-week semesters. Factors that caused courses to rate well/poorly in CATEI. Review grade distributions in all courses.

7. Preview of 08s2 Courses

   What lessons can we learn from the 08s1 experience? How many Course Outlines are completed on time?

8. Any other business

On-going issues:

• Future directions in CSE curricula: Computer forensics? Service-oriented computing?

• Program Coherence Exercise: JohnS (still) needs to collect data

• Project Aardvark: CSE students building an academic advice prototype for UNSW IT