Course Syllabus (SUMMER 2014)
CPSC 4205 Senior Project and Portfolio

Instructor(s): Dr. Wayne Summers

Office: CCT453 Office phone: (706) 507-8193
Department phone: (706) 507-8170 Department FAX: (706) 565-3529
Office Hours: Monday – Friday 9:00 – 11:00 AM; via e-mail, net-meetings and by appointment
e-mail address: summers_wayne@ColumbusState.edu
homepage:http://csc.ColumbusState.edu/summers

Required Textbooks

Title: The Career Portfolio Workbook: Using the Newest Tool in Your Job-Hunting Arsenal to Impress Employers and Land a great Job! Author: Frank Satterthwaite, Gary D'Orsi Publisher: McGraw-Hill ISBN: 007140855X Year: 2002

Course Description

Prerequisite – senior status.

A capstone course for BSIT majors that includes completion of a digital portfolio, an electronic resume representing skills acquired and projects completed. The skills to create the portfolio will be introduced in an earlier course and students will be expected to add selected assignments to the portfolio during their last few semesters. Faculty will include Portfolio comments and students will be expected to record reflections on accomplishments. Finally, in cooperation with the IT industry, students will be expected to secure an internship or equivalent work arranged with a faculty member and document internship hours, objectives and supervisor evaluations in the Portfolio, and to present a summary of their experiences in the course to interested faculty and fellow students at the completion of the course.

Course Objectives

At the completion of this course, students will have experienced a real world IT environment and demonstrated their preparedness as a practicing IT professional. As part of this, upon completing this course, students will have:

1. Completed and documented a minimum of 20 hours of internship-like project hours within an IT-related position.

2. Created a digital portfolio that highlights their skills, completed projects, and most recent assignments; that contains faculty comments as well as personal reflective comments; and that contains internship objectives and supervisor evaluations.

3. Presented a summary at the end of the course that reflects their experiences both in building the portfolio and in completing the project.

Course Outcomes

1)    Students demonstrate a solid understanding of concepts fundamental to the discipline of information technology.

• Strategies and Actions used to produce the outcome:
• Review fundamentals of information technology.
• ABET Criteria covered: A, B, C, I
• Program Objectives covered: 2
• Assessment Methods: Portfolio, Internship

2)    Students have the ability to function and communicate effectively as ethically and social responsible information technology professionals.

• Strategies and Actions used to produce the outcome:
• Group discussions about what it takes to be ethically and social responsible information technology professionals.
• ABET Criteria covered: D, E, F, G, H
• Program Objectives covered: 4
• Assessment Methods: Portfolio, Internship.

Assessment Methods

Grades in this course will be based on the following assessments:

• Digital portfolio – 30%
• Electronic Resume – 10% [upload to LinkedIn]
• Internship – 40%
• Final Presentation – 20%

Final grades will be assigned according to the following schedule:

Percentage	Grade
90 – 100	S
80 – 89	S
70 – 79	S
60 – 69	U
<60	U

Additional Student Requirements

· The student must request a review of the graduation requirements with the student’s academic advisor, and return a copy of the signed advising form to the instructor before midterm.

· The student must take the University Outcomes Assessment Test when scheduled.

· The student must complete the TSYS School of Computer Science exit survey before the last week of class.

· The student must submit a professional resume and have it reviewed by the Career Center, and returned to the instructor and upload before the last week of class.

· The student must attend the scheduled exit interview with the School Chair.

Student Responsibilities

As a student in this course, you are responsible to:

• manage your time and maintain the discipline required to meet the course requirements;
• complete reading assignments prior to the beginning of each class;
• attend classroom meetings regularly and actively participate in classroom discussions;
• complete assignments by their due dates;
• abide by the requirements established for the internship;
• respect the value of the other students' time while in the classroom, meaning no surfing the Web or playing games; and
• read any e-mail sent by the instructor and respond accordingly.

“I didn’t know” is not an acceptable excuse for failing to meet the course requirements. If you fail to meet your responsibilities, you do so at your own risk.

While in the classroom, students should turn off cell phones or place them on vibrate. In addition, to be respectful of other students' time and money, if the classroom is equipped with computers, playing games and/or surfing the Web is not allowed since these activities can be distracting to other students.

The ACM recommends the following: “As a general guideline, the amount of out-of-class work is approximately three times the in-class time. Thus, a unit that is listed as requiring 3 hours typically entails a total of 12 hours (3 in class and 9 outside).” Students will be expected to spend this time outside class reading the book, online materials and other materials; writing solutions to homework exercises and programming projects. FOR SUMMER CLASSES, YOU ARE EXPECTED TO SPEND 35 HOURS A WEEK ON THIS CLASS!!!

Instructor Responsibilities

As your instructor in this course, I am responsible to:

• prepare lessons that demonstrate and help students understand the course material,
• if applicable, prepare exams that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of the course material,
• actively solicit and participate in classroom discussions,
• grade exams (if applicable) and homework assignments and post scores within one week of the end of the week in which they are submitted; and
• read any e-mail sent by students and respond accordingly within 48 hours.

Attendance Policy

Communicating regularly with the course instructor is important to your success in this course. You must communicate via telephone, email, or in person with your instructor at least once a week. If you miss communicating two or weeks in a row, you may receive a WF. 

Tentative Schedule

The following is the tentative schedule for the course. It is subject to change. A current schedule will be maintained in the WebCT calendar. 

Week	READINGS	TOPICS
1	Chapter 1: What is a Career Portfolio	Review of course requirements and objectives; investigate sources of internships and secure an internship
	Chapter 2: Assembling Your Master Portfolio	Building, using, and maintaining a career portfolio Outline Senior Project
2	Chapter 3: Targeting Your Portfolio	Senior Project progress report 1
	Chapter 4: Using Informational Interviews
3	Chapter 5: Creating Resumes	Senior Project midterm report and presentation Draft portfolio
4	Chapter 6: Using Your Portfolio	Senior Project progress report 3
5	Chapter 9: Digital Options	Senior Project progress report 4
6	Examples: Zach, Peter	Senior Project progress report 5
7		Senior Project final report and presentation Portfolio

Supplemental Course Materials

Supplemental course instructions and material will be available through my website.

Incompletes

If unusual circumstances preclude you from completing the course and you have satisfactorily completed all the other course requirements up until that point, I will award you a grade of "Incomplete" provided you contact me regarding the unusual circumstances and you agree to certain conditions for removal of the "Incomplete." You must, however, contact me and arrange for the Incomplete as soon as you are aware that you will be unable to complete the course and before the Final Exam Week. 

Academic Honesty/
Plagiarism Policy

Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, activities such as cheating and plagiarism. It is a basis for disciplinary action. Collaboration is not permitted on assignments or exams/quizzes in this course. Any work turned in for individual credit must be entirely the work of the student submitting the work. All work must be your own. You may share ideas but submitting identical assignments (for example) will be considered cheating. You may discuss the material in the course and help one another with debugging, however, I expect any work you hand in for a grade to be your own. . A simple way to avoid inadvertent plagiarism is to talk about the assignments, but don't read each other's work or write solutions together. Keep scratch paper and old versions of assignments until after the assignment has been graded and returned to you. If you have any questions about this, please see me immediately.

For assignments, access to notes, textbook, books and other publications is allowed. Stealing, giving or receiving any code, diagrams, drawings, text or designs from another person (CSU or non-CSU) is not allowed. Having access to another person’s work on the system or giving access to your work to another person is not allowed. It is your responsibility to keep your work confidential.

No cheating in any form will be tolerated. The penalty for the first occurrence of academic dishonesty is a zero grade on the assignment or exam/quiz; the penalty for the second occurrence is a failing grade for the course. For exams/quizzes, access to any type of written material or discussion of any kind (except with me) is not allowed. (http://ace.columbusstate.edu/advising/a.php#AcademicDishonestyAcademicMisconduct)

Confidentially of Information Shared by Students

CSU does not guarantee the confidentiality of information shared by students in the course environment. Therefore, students should not share any confidential information from employers unless explicitly released for public use.

ADA Accommodation Notice

"If you have a documented disability, as described by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (P.L. 933-112 Section 504) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and subsequent amendments and would like to request academic and/or physical accommodations, please contact the Office of Disability Services in the Schuster Student Success Center (room 221), 706-507-8755, as soon as possible. Course requirements will not be waived, but reasonable accommodations may be provided as appropriate." 

ABET Criteria:

CS Program Objectives:

A.    An ability to apply knowledge of computing and mathematics appropriate to the discipline;
B.    An ability to analyze a problem, and identify and define the computing requirements appropriate to its solution;
C.    An ability to design, implement and evaluate a computer-based system, process, component, or program to meet desired needs;
D.    An ability to function effectively on teams to accomplish a common goal;
E.    An understanding of professional, ethical, legal, security, and social issues and responsibilities;
F.    An ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences;
G.    An ability to analyze the local and global impact of computing on individuals, organizations and society;
H.    Recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in, continuing professional development;
I.    An ability to use current techniques, skills, and tools necessary for computing practice.
J.    An ability to apply mathematical foundations, algorithmic principles, and computer science theory in the modeling and design of computer-based systems in a way that demonstrates comprehension of the tradeoffs involved in design choices;
K.    An ability to apply design and development principles in the construction of software systems of varying complexity.

Our graduates will have achieved:
1)    a broad general education assuring an adequate foundation in science and mathematics relevant to computing.
2)    a solid understanding of concepts fundamental to the discipline of computer science.
3)    good analytic, design, and implementation skills required to formulate and solve computing problems.
4)    the ability to function and communicate effectively as ethically and social responsible computer science professionals.