Strategic Plan

!! Action Plans in Priority Order
 * 1) New CS Major Curriculum
 * 2) Hiring Plan, Space Plan, Technology Plan
 * 3) Marketing
 * 4) Advisory Board
 * 5) Articulation
 * 6) Clubs and Activities
 * 7) LASC Course Contribution

Ongoing
 * 1) Data Collection

!! Timeframe
 * 22 May
 * Core Curriculum Development
 * 29 May
 * Core Curriculum Development
 * 11 June
 * Core Curriculum Completed
 * 13 June
 * 27 June
 * 14 August
 * September
 * October
 * November
 * December

!! Brainstorming


 * Develop new CS Major curriculum
 * Determine admission requirements to the major
 * Common Core (CS courses)
 * Determine how many courses/credits/semesters
 * Identify topics/outcomes and how they fit into courses
 * Develop "syllabus of record" for each course
 * Develop template for syllabus of record
 * Outcomes
 * Prerequisites
 * Topics
 * Departmental policies
 * Software engineering (SE)
 * System and Network Administration and Security (SNAS)
 * Ancillary courses (Could be different for different tracks)
 * Should we move some of them into our department?
 * Education of the community
 * Credit load
 * View of what computer science is/does
 * Shows that we contribute LASC in many ways
 * Discrete math
 * Ethics
 * Rewrite program outcomes
 * Redo course map
 * Assessment Plan


 * Hiring Plan


 * Space Plan
 * Community space
 * Project space
 * Research space
 * Department library


 * Technology Plan


 * Advising
 * Assessment Plan
 * Professional Development


 * Internship Placement Development


 * Student Research Development
 * REU programs at UMass Lowell and UMass Boston
 * NASA Space Grant (administered by Physics)


 * Clubs/Activities


 * IT Minor
 * What are the strengths
 * What are the weaknesses
 * How much work will it take to make them "better"


 * Web Development Minor
 * What are the strengths
 * What are the weaknesses
 * How much work will it take to make them "better"


 * Service Courses for other departments


 * Community Outreach


 * Marketing
 * Write an elevator pitch?
 * Brochures
 * Web site
 * Admissions training
 * Diversity of incoming students
 * Women
 * Minorities


 * Articulation
 * QCC
 * MassBay
 * Middlesex
 * Mount Wachusett
 * Graduate students to WPI


 * Participation in International Program


 * Retention


 * Advisory Board
 * Review membership
 * Size
 * Types of companies


 * Data collection
 * What information do we need?
 * Task: Aparna will braindump the data she needed for the program review
 * What information do we need to keep track of ourselves
 * What information can we get (easily) from IR
 * Tracking of alumni
 * What companies (and types) do they work for?


 * LASC Course contribution
 * QR
 * QRAC
 * HBS

I will bring copies of a few CS strategic plans to use as a guide. Here is a google search for more suggestions: https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=computer+science+program+strategic+plan

!! Focus Areas (Tracks?)
 * border=1 width=80%
 * !Focus ||!Who is responsible to research ||
 * Software Engineering/Software Development Track || Aparna and Karl ||
 * System and Network Administration Track || Hemant ||
 * Geographic Information Systems Track || Elena and Karl ||
 * Big Data Track || Elena ||
 * Information Assurance Track || Aparna and Hemant ||
 * Medical Informatics Track || Elena ||

!!! Big Questions
 * How do we distinguish ourselves from our "competition" - WPI, Clark, Holy Cross, Assumption, Fitchburg, Framingham, others? (KRW)
 * How do we become a "destination" for our program, rather than just our geographic location? (KRW)

!!! Things to think about

We should be able to pull some of this from the CS2013 report (excerpts posted in Curriculum Revision). (KRW)

!!! Things to consider
 * Focus on CS Major (with 2 tracks), and CS Minor. (KRW)
 * Drop Bioinformatics Concentration (KRW)
 * Drop Web Development Minor (KRW)
 * Drop IT Minor (KRW)
 * Drop CS 120. (KRW)
 * It does not benefit the department in any way other than adding sections to teach.
 * It would be better to lead students into CS 101, CS 135, CS 235, CS 265, as these may encourage students to major or minor in CS.
 * These courses lead students to a better understanding of what computing actually is.
 * Overarching theme for non-CS major courses should be "If a student were to take only one CS course, would this course give them a good feel for the field?" (KRW)

Karl, very good questions (EB) !!!My thoughts/things to consider:
 * Focus on the CS major and minors (CS, IT, Web Development)(EB)
 * Do not drop Web Development minor - work on it, advertise, work with other depts, - this minor makes sense to almost any major (EB)
 * Do not drop IT minor - work on it, advertise, work with other depts, - this minor makes sense to many majors (EB)
 * Do not drop CS120 - even if Business dept does not require it, it is a good QR (LASC) course, can be proposed as QRAC (LASC) course, the course teaches very useful skills for any major working with data (Excel worksheets, Access databases - still widely popular!)We have adjunct faculties teaching this course, so, faculties are not an issue. CS101, CS135, CS235 and CS265 - are very different from CS120: CS101, CS235 (I guess) - do not have any data processing and are theoretical CS concepts oriented; CS135 and CS265 - very specific programming languages. It seems to me that deletion of a course should be based on: 1. There is no need in the course (nothing/almost nothing useful taught the course, there are no students that need the course) or 2. a duplicate course = there is another course that does almost the same. - Neither of that is true for CS120. Deleting CS120 sections, trying to feed the students into existed CS101, CS135, CS235, CS265 and increasing the number of sections for the last ones seems to me as a technical solution to something that even is not a problem! We do not really think what our (WSU) students need here! (EB)
 * I would formulate overarching theme for non-CS major courses as: "If a student was to take only one CS course would this course still give him/her knowledge and skills useful in his/her field of study/work, showing/demonstrating the importance of CS concepts and techniques as well as IT technology in moderm world". (EB)

!!! My responses to Karl and Elena I agree with Elena, it is too soon to start thinking about dropping minors and service courses. Let us wait and see what Business department is planning to do with CS 120.(AM)