Assessment : 2013 - 2014 : Educational Programs :
Information Assurance And Security MS
1 Goal 2 Objectives 1 Indicator 1 Criterion 1 Finding 2 Actions
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GOAL: Technical Competence - To Develop And Demonstrate Knowledge Of Theoretical Materials, And Computational And Technical Skills
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Objective
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Understand The Body Of Knowledge Of Information Assurance And Security
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Students will develop and demonstrate knowledge of theoretical materials, technical skills and project management relevant to information assurance and information security.
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Indicator
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Written Comprehensive Examination
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Each student 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 5 core courses of information assurance and security are responsible to design exam questions. Each student is given one hour on each of the 5 subjects:
- Principle and Policy in Information Assurance
- Database Security
- Organization System Security
- Operating System Security
- Business Continuity Management
Faculty who gave the exam questions are responsible to grade and report grades of these exams.
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| Criterion |
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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.
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| Finding |
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Written Comprehensive Exam Findings
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1. Students who scored "A"s in core subject courses reported that they had to spend a lot of time reviewing content they already know and are familiar with for the purpose of preparing comprehensive exams.
2. Students who failed the first time on certain subjects of comprehensive exams are required to retake these subjects in the next long semester. However, this first possibly causes postponing their graduation time and schedule, and second forces students to spend extra time on some content they were already familiar with.
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Actions for Objective:
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Revising Comprehensive Exam Plan
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Based on the findings, as well as recommended by external program reviewers, we made the following changes to managing comprehensive exams.
1. All thesis-option master students are exempt from comprehensive exams.
2. All project-option master students are exempt from the (comprehensive exams) subject tests if they have secured "A" in the corresponding core courses.
3. If a student failed in a certain subject, instead of being required to retake the written subject exam in the next long semester, the student is required to take an oral subject exam where subject professor will focus examining student's weaknesses found in the failed subject exams.
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GOAL: Technical Competence - To Develop And Demonstrate Knowledge Of Theoretical Materials, And Computational And Technical Skills
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Objective
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Apply Knowledge And Skills In Projects And Real Work Environments
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Students will practice and demonstrate their capabilities and skills relevant to information assurance and security in projects similating real world tasks.
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Actions for Objective:
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Capstone Project - Action
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Students are reminded multiple times well in advance regarding their proposal due dates. This greatly help push all students to initiate project proposal with faculty. Faculties are also reminded and encouraged at committee and department meetings to promptly and consistently respond to student requests and project evaluation.
To help improve students' programming skills, faculty consider adding programming elements and practices in their teaching. Students are reminded to start proposing their project at an early stage of the program, e.g. at end of 1st year. So they will have longer time to study and practice on the programming skills before the project implementation actually starts.
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Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement"
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Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement"
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The responses from students and faculty were unanimously positive regarding individual project proposals. Both students and facutly can get focuses on the projects they are interested in and responsible for.
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Plan for Continuous Improvement
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An intensive external program review and internal program evaluation and assessment was conducted in Spring 2014. See attachments for self-study report, and response to external review.
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