Assessment : 2012 - 2013 : Educational Programs :
Digital Forensics MS
1 Goal 1 Objective 3 Indicators 3 Criteria 3 Findings 1 Action
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GOAL: Technical Competence
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Objective
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Acquisition Of Theoretical Computational And Technical Skills
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Students will develop and demonstrate knowledge of theoretical materials, computational and technical skills relevant to Digital Forensics
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Indicator
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The management project in this degree program is a software engineering or strategic planning project that involves the students identifying a significant development need for a selected client and the design and implementation of an appropriate software or policy solution to that need.
Each student is assigned to a member of the graduate faculty in Digital Forensics as project advisor together with two additional graduate faculty forming the students committee.
The department has established procedures for managing projects including
1. The presentation of project proposals within the first two weeks of the semester. The graduate faculty review and approve or disapprove each proposal.
2. Weekly progress meetings with the project advisor.
3. The evaluation by the complete graduate faculty of each students progress at midterm.
4. The distribution of project activity to the remaining members of each committee.
At the end of the project each student prepares and runs a formal presentation including a description of the project, detailed explanation of the solution used and a demonstration of the completed application.
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| Criterion |
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Students graduating will have documented consensus of the Graduate Faculty that they meet professional standard in project design, documentation implementation and presentation.
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| Finding |
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Final Project Assessment - Findings
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2 digital forensics students presented their final projects in the 2012-2013 cycle, 1 in Fall and 1 in Spring. Both of them successfully defended their projects (100%). For both students, their supervisor and committee members all agreed that their project documentation has met professional standard in project design, documentation, implementation, and presentation. All students took no more than two semesters to complete and successfully defend their projects.
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Indicator
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One hour oral examination by the student's committee. The committee consists of three individuals, with one person designated as committee chair.
Students are examined and given a grade of high pass, pass or fail in each of the following areas:
Network Security
Cyberlaw
Policy and Procedure
Digital Forensics Tools and Procedures
and one other area of competence of the students choosing.
Student are prepared by their project advisor and are furnished with a large sample of potential questions together with model answers.
The graduate advisor also runs review sessions for student preparing for their orals.
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We expect committee members to issue the score (high pass, pass or fail) on each of the knowledge areas to each student. 100% of students will score a pass or high pass on each area.
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| Finding |
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Oral Examination - Findings
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In Fall 2012, 1 DF student took and passed the oral examinations successfully. Starting Spring 2013, oral examinations are replaced by written comprehensive exams (WCE), which are required for all DF students who started their current degree study in or after Fall 2011.
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Indicator
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Written Comprehensive Examination
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Each student who started current program in or after Fall 2011 is required to take and pass the written comprehensive examination (WCE) in the graduating semester. Passing grade is defined as scoring 70 or above out of 100, and high pass grade is defined as scoring 85 or above out of 100. Graduate faculty who teach the current 4 core courses of digital forensics are responsible to design exam questions. These questions cover both theoretical knowledge and practical skills in digital forensics investigation as well as related areas like digital and network security and cyber law.
Each student is given one hour on each of the 4 subjects:
- Digital Security
- Network Security
- Cyber Law
- Digital Forensics Investigation
Faculty who gave the exam questions are responsible to grade and report grades of these exams.
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Written Comprehensive Exams - Criterion
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Graduate faculty who gave the exam questions are responsible for grading and reporting the grades to graduate advisor. Each exam score should be numeric number between 0 and 100, so that a fail (69 or below), pass (70-84), or high pass (85-100) can be determined. All graduating students must pass or high pass all exams before graduation.
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Written Comprehensive Exams - Findings
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Starting in Spring 2013, all DF students who started current degree study in or after Fall 2011 are required to take and pass WCE. The student who graduated in Spring 2013 was waived from WCE as he started before Fall 2011.
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Actions for Objective:
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Acquisition Of Theoretical Computational And Technical Skills - Actions
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In general the Graduate Curriculum committee was satisfied with the results of the evaluation of students acquisition of theoretical computational and technical skills through the capstone assessment system in place.
The graduate faculty has agreed that the last oral exams were given in Fall 2012 and starting Spring 2013 Written Comprehenisve Exams are given.
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Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement"
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The findings appear to indicate that the graduate program in Digital Forensics is effectively transmitting the theortical, technical, ethical and managerial skills to students as evidenced by the students' performance in the oral examinations and in their defense of their capstone projects. The GCC will review the potential for written comprehensive examinations to replace oral examinations.
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Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement"
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The graduate faculty agreed to give the last oral examinations in Fall 2012 and replace it with written comprehensive exams (wce) starting Spring 2013. This applies to all DF students who started their degree study in or after Fall 2011. There was only one DF student graduating in Springl 2013 and no DF student graduating in Summer 2013. This student was waived from wce as he started degree study before Fall 2011.
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Plan for Continuous Improvement
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Graduate Curriculum Committee has considered to emphasize the following in 2013-2014: master project proposal should be conducted with higher quality; for this reason, each student should develop full proposal and give full presentation (e.g. 30-60 minutes) in front of supervisor and committee members (open to all other faculty and students). Supervisor and committee should pass the proposal only when it is clear that the topic is properly chosen, problem statement is well defined, project plan is reasonable, project is workable, presentation is clear and logical, and questions were answered correctly and clearly.
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