School of Mathematical & Computer Sciences (MACS)

Heriot-Watt University

Academic Review of Computer Science

March 24th - 25th 2014

Reflective Analysis

Draft

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Student Experience
  3. Programme Quality and Academic Standards
  4. Quality Enhancement
  1. Programme Specifications
  2. Internal Audit Report
  3. MACS Annual Monitoring and Review Reports
  4. Student Feedback on VLE
  5. MACS Organisational Chart and Responsibilities
  6. MACS Learning and Teaching Enhancement Plan
  7. Summary of Enhancement Activities
  1. Introduction

Computer Science provides a wide spectrum of programmes, from undergraduate through to postgraduate, both MSc and PhD,and supports multi-mode as well as multi-location delivery. The Computer Science undergraduate programmes are:

  • BSc Computer Science (Hon & Ord)
  • BSc Information Systems (Hon & Ord)
  • BSc Computer Systems (Ord)
  • MEng Software Engineering

The main undergraduate programmes delivered at our Edinburgh campus are the BSc Computer Science and BSc Information Systems. At our Dubai campus BSc Computer Systems is the only undergraduate programme that is delivered, however, an Honours version of the programme becomes available in 20014-15. Our MEng Software Engineering programme represents the `jewel in the crown’ – which builds directly upon our BSc Computer Science programme and typically attracts some of our most talented students.

In terms of postgraduate taught programmes, we deliver the following:

  • MSc Artificial Intelligence
  • MSc Advanced Internet Applications
  • MSc Business Information Management
  • MSc Creative Software Systems
  • MSc Computer Systems Management
  • MSc Software Engineering
  • MSc IT (Business)
  • MSc IT (Software Systems)

We support Independent Learners both at the of MSc and PhD, while we have been delivering part of the BSc Computer Systems programme in South Africa via an Approved Learning Partners (ALPs), i.e. CTI. We also support Exchange Students on a case-by-case basis.

The development of this Reflective Analysis document has involvement input from both academics as well as students. From the student perspective, our School Officer and Student Representatives have played an important role. The School Officer was also part of a Working Group that provided the core material for this document. Other members of the Working Group included Programme Directors, Administrative Staff, as well as academics that play a central role in enhancing the student experience, e.g. our Special Needs and Industrial Steering Committee co-ordinators. During the final phase of development, the Reflective Analysis document was reviewed by both the UG and PG Board of Studies, as well as the Director of Learning and Teaching.

  1. Student Experience

Across all programmes we endeavour to develop our student’s knowledge and critical understanding of the Computer Science subject area. Our taught programmes are designed to provide students with a theoretical foundation and applied skills in Computer Science in addition to other professional skills, such as teamwork and the ability to communicate effectively to a range of audiences using different mediums. In doing so, we aim to give our students the confidence andskillsthat will enable them to excel in their chosen career path and continue to develop and adapt to future challenges. More broadly our vision is that our graduates will:

  • Seek challenges
  • Be intellectually curious
  • Have the skills for independent learning
  • Feed their passion for technology
  • Thrive when working with others
  • Be in touch with new developments in the industry
  • Be mindful of the impact of technology on the wider society
  • Be problem solvers with strong analytic, critical and transferable skills
  • Be able to manage projects effectively

Our approach is strongly student centred, as the evidence below will show. Moreover, we seek to be as inclusive as is practically possible. That is, we provide robust mechanisms to support students that experience difficulties during their studies, as well as opportunities for students to stretch themselves and pursue their ambitionsoutwith the core curriculum. With respect to our undergraduates, we have expended considerable effort improving student experience over the last two years, particularly in response to a disappointing National Student Survey (NSS) result in 2012.

2.1A supportive and nurturing environment

On arrival all students are given induction sessions, which vary from programme to programme. For instance, at postgraduate level there is emphasis on providing course guidance since all MSc programmes involve course options from day one. In contrast, at undergraduate level emphasis is placed upon the nature of university life and dealing with questions worries about starting university. At undergraduate level we also run welcome back sessions for all year groupsand inform them of improvements and opportunities in the coming year.

On the Edinburgh campus at undergraduate level we have adopted a specialist approach to mentoring. Based on analysis of the number of students who regularly use the mentoring service in times of difficulty, rather than allocating mentees to all staff we now have a team of six mentors who are particularly approachable, experienced and likely to be on campus during semester time. These mentors have attended a training session with the university counsellor and academic counsellor, and meet twice a year to discuss student progress and offer each other informal support and advice. In turn, we have contributed case studies and helped outwith mentor training on PGCAP.We have also offered training relating to working with special needs students with experts from the wider university. In Dubai, where there is a much smaller teaching team, new students are allocated a mentor from the full time staff members at the start of each academic year.

On the MSc programmesdelivered at Edinburgh, each Programme Director acts as mentor for the associated students, while the Postgraduate Programmes Director provides oversight to the process. In Dubai, where MSc programmes are taught in the evening, all postgraduate student issues are related either directly to the Academic Head or to the Director of postgraduate studies.With regards to our MSc level Independent Learners (IDL), the programme director acts as mentor. It should be notedthat the IDL programme director is also one of our specialist UG mentors on the Edinburgh campus.

We employ PhD students as Lab Helpers on some of our Edinburgh based courses where lab classes can be large. Priority is given to enhancing the 1st year experience and students with special needs. All Lab Helpers have Approved Tutor status, in accordance with university regulations.

For many years, a substantial minority of our students have come from outside the UK. We aim, as for all students, to offer them a rewarding experience. In turn, their presence contributes to enhancing and diversifying the experience for UK students. However, almost all international students come directly onto our programmes as full time students.

Having explored EU exchange programmes in the past, we encountered persistent challenges in sending our own students abroad, mainly due to language competency difficulties. Thus we faced an imbalance in resourcing, especially as English medium study is highly desirable. Thus, we no longer take part in formal EU exchange agreements. Nonetheless, we are always open to:

  • Institution specific bilateral exchanges, as for example with the Australian National University;
  • Supporting students taking individual courses as part of exchange programmes in other Schools;
  • Admitting non-graduating, fee paying students, on an individual basis.

Potential students are scrutinised by our Admissions Team and, once accepted, our Exchange Student Liaison coordinator is responsible for ensuring that they can assemble an appropriate set of courses, and for pastoral support.We also benefit from having colleagues from a wide range of national and language backgrounds, and so can offer informal language-specific points of contact, for example for Bulgarian, Chinese, French, German and Portuguese speaking students.

Supporting students with special needs has always been priority for us as a department. Since 2012 a number of significant enhancements have been put in-place:

  • In addition to allowing extra time for university exams,which is standard practice, we have applied the same principle to coursework and class tests in class.
  • We have developed the notion of a student learning profile which documents a student’s special needs/disability together with information about related good practice, e.g. putting learning materials on vision in advance of classes etc. Hard copies of the relevant learning profiles are given to the relevant lecturers. Previously it was left to individual lecturers to check on the VLE for students with special needs.
  • Collaboration with the university disability service has been strengthened. Regular meetings with the university disability team take place so that the team is aware of how Computer Science students are doing. We believe that this more personal approach has significantly improved our service to students with special needs.

Our aim is to be both proactive, in exploring and preparing for anticipated needs, and reactive, in responding quickly to new challenges as they arise. For example, we have organised a number of meetings with the disability service and staff relating to a better understanding of autism. This has become an area that is important for students in computer science - we currently have fourstudents on the autism spectrum. More broadly, a more strategic approach to staff training around such areas would enable us to enhance the student experience for those with special needs. Educating staff and students about special needs is part of our future agenda, i.e. what we do to help and support and how everyone can participate. Towards this end, first year students were recently circulated copies of the university code of practice regarding disable and special needs students, information about autism and mental illness and the university anti-bullying policy in an effort to provide students with an understanding of the bigger picture.

2.2A cooperation approach to enhancement

The methods we use to gain insight into the student experience vary according to the kind of feedback we seek, but in general we use stakeholder consultation methods similar to those in user centred design within our discipline. For example, we have run focus groups to brainstorm on “the best possible computer science department”, prioritised ideas from focus groups with whole class sessions across the year groups, and supported student led initiatives such as Hackathons and Open Source workshops with industry partners.

Both campuses have a School Officer as well as elected Class Reps. At undergraduate level on the Edinburgh campus we have taken care to ensure that staff student consultations meetings are not intimidating for student representatives by balancing the numbers of students and staff better and by encouraging the representatives to meet with the School Officer prior to the meeting to discuss and propose agenda items according to their own priorities.Consultations last year revealed that the students’ most pressing concerns were the poor performance of the university eduroam implementation and lack of out of hours access to the computer labs in the department. We worked with professional services across the university to find solutions to both of these problems.

Formal feedback from MSc students on both campuses is obtained through student-staff committee meetings and through meetings withtheir MSc programme director.With regards to our ALP activities in South Africa, a Class Rep system is also in place, where feedback is channelled to us through the local tutors and academic coordinators. We have considerable input into the delivery of materials with staff visits from the Edinburgh campus. Formal feedback from PhDstudents is obtained at students’ annual progress reviews. They are required to explicitly comment on their progress, on non-specific research problems, e.g. adequacy of facilities, and training received during the year, e.g. in transferable skills.We have also made use of the support that the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) provides for PhD students. In particular the SICSA PhD conferences and summer schools, both of which we have hosted on the Edinburgh campus.

Outwith the more formal mechanisms, we have also worked with students to hold more social events for staff and students. For example, we have had two successful Mulled Wine and Mince Pie events for students in conjunction with the Computer Science Society; staff attended the Computer Science Society 2013 graduation ball; andlast year we started a ten pin bowling evening for staff and student and final year students.

As noted above, where possible we try to support students to stretch themselves and pursue their ambitions outwith the curriculum, i.e. supportstudents as independent learners. For example, we have aStudent Equipment Fund to which students can apply for funding for new hardware/software to support projects in their own time. Last year we purchased and loaned Android tablets, a Parrot AR Drone and an Occulus Rift developer kit recently. Students are excited to have an opportunity to develop skills on unusual and emerging platforms. We also have a Technology Evangelist seminar series in semester 2 in which industrial speakers visit to talk about developments in new technology.

At PhD level the department activity supports the Scottish Programming Language seminar series and the Scottish Theorem Proving seminar series. The latter is co-ordinated by Heriot-Watt and both provide an informal forum which seeks to nurture new researchers as well as provide local networking opportunities. There is also a number of vibrant reading and informal seminar series organised around specialist interest groups: examples include machine learning, parallelism and image processing. Currently we are also considering organising an annual PhD conference in the postgraduate centre.

2.3Employability and professional development

Employability and professional development are integrated throughout our programmes. At undergraduate level from day one students are encouraged to start to think about their future career options. This is undertaken within a course entitled Praxis which teaches students a range of practical skills, including: how to research a company;how to write technical reports; time management; presentation skills; and project management skills. Through our industrial steering committee contacts, we also bring in guest speakers from companies such as BskyB and Amazon. Guest speakers also feature in later years where appropriate, for example, Interaction Design, Software Design and Advanced Interaction Design are courses where guest speakers have been frequently used in order to complement and reinforce the examinable material. We also run a “Day in the Life Of” seminar series where industrial speakers talk about the day-to-day nature of their own work. In the third year of the undergraduate programmes students undertake a significant group project. This year the topic of the group project was provided by one of our industry contacts, and we are currently investigating the possibility of involving industrial mentors in future years.

More generally we have offered mock technical interviews for both our IS and CS students and we work very closely with the university careers service on the Edinburgh campus:

  • Careers fairs and events with industry
  • Careers mock interviews
  • Individual careers guidance interviews
  • Career mentoring programme
  • Working with the Saltire Foundation programme offering internships across the world
  • E-Placement Scotland presentations

The Dubai careers service supports students in finding work placements, internships during the summer break and full time jobs when they graduate.

The nature of our MEng programme means thatyear 3 students are given an additional mock interview experience along with furtherscrutiny of their CV. The mock interviews are run by potential industrial hosts, and have proven to be beneficial for all parties involved. The students benefit from an immediate feedback on their interview performance. The industrialists can identify students whom they would liketo offer placements and the department’s MEng co-ordinator can derive a clear picture about the students’ needs and abilities.The vast majority of the MEng students have reported back that they found this admission process particularly helpful. As the interviews happen more than a year before the actual placements there is scopefor providing tailor-made support for the students. One aspect that turns out to be particularly challenging are attempts to provide guidance for CV writing. It appears that the advice that is offered to the studentsis sometimes conflicting. While this to some extend lies in the nature of the diversity of personal opinions there might be some scope for consolidating the messages provided from the various institutions across the university. It should be noted that the industrial placements have proven to be a big success. All students have demonstrated excellent advancement in their skill, primarily on the technical side but also on an interpersonal level. The placement companies vary widely from small start-up to multinationals. Being so broadly based, the programme allows students to make valuable inter-disciplinary experiences. We are glad to see that this flexibility is reflected the university’s “Guidelines for the Management of Student Placements”.