CS 142 - UW Departments Web Server - University of Washington

CS 142
OOP I
Course Portfolio

[pic]



by
Richard A. Hoagland
CS/CIS Professor


June 2006
Preface

What is a course portfolio?

A course portfolio "can help faculty investigate and document what
they know and do as teachers in ways that will contribute to more powerful
student learning" (Hutchings, P. (1998). The course portfolio: How faculty
can examine their teaching to advance practice and improve student
learning.)

The purpose of the course portfolio "is in revealing how teaching
practice and student performance are connected with each other" (Bernstein,
D. (1998). The course portfolio: How faculty can examine their teaching to
advance practice and improve student learning.)

The course portfolio is a scholarly investigation into student
learning using evidence a teacher gathers about students' learning. This
evidence can be in the form of classroom assessment tools, samples of
student work (homework, tests, and labs) and peer review. The end result is
not only an analysis of student learning but an introspective and meta-
cognitive opportunity to analyze the art of teaching.

UWT Disciplinary Commons project (Tenenberg, 2005)
LINK: http://depts.washington.edu/comgrnd

Project goals
The Disciplinary Commons project has two primary objectives:
. To provide an opportunity for Computer Science faculty at two- and
four-year institutions in the South Puget Sound region to work
together to understand the educational contexts and constraints,
and the qualities of students and their learning, within one
another's courses.
. To improve the quality of Computer Science teaching by establishing
practices of collaboration and review of teaching among regional
Computer Science faculty.
The Commons will involve a series of monthly seminars involving 10-12
faculty from community colleges and baccalaureate-degree granting
institutions in the South Puget Sound region.

Project structure
Each participant in the project will construct a course portfolio for
a course that they teach that is on the path for a baccalaureate degree in
a Computer Science program.

The course portfolio, well known as a method for advancing teaching
practice and improving student learning is a set of documents that "focuses
on the unfolding of a single course, from conception to results"
(Hutchings, P. (1998). The course portfolio: How faculty can examine their
teaching to advance practice and improve student learning.)
Course portfolios typically include learning objectives, course
content and structure, a rationale for how this course design meets its
objectives, and the course's role in a larger degree program. Importantly,
the portfolio also includes evaluations of student work throughout the
term, indicating the extent to which students are meeting course
objectives, their feelings about the course and their own learning, and an
analysis from both the teacher's and students' viewpoint regarding the type
and quantity of formative evaluation (corrective feedback) they are
receiving.

The Disciplinary Commons is a project funded by the Washington State
Board of Community and Technical Colleges and the University of Washington,
Tacoma.

The leader for this project and workshop facilitator is Josh
Tenenberg, Associate Professor and Undergraduate Coordinator in Computing
and Software Systems at the University of Washington, Tacoma's Institute of
Technology.

Each participant is provided a one-course release (5 credits) during
one academic quarter in exchange for participating in the year long
portfolio project. The participant's school is reimbursed for the cost of
hiring an adjunct faculty member to teach the course that the participant
is released from.

Benefits of participating
. Professional development - Most faculty creating course portfolios
state that the critical reflection involved in portfolio construction
results in significant and lasting changes to the course and to their
own subsequent teaching.
. Community development - Although a culture of peer review and
discourse is common within research communities it is rare among
teachers as teaching most often happens in isolation. As we document
our own work and review each other's, we overcome insularity and
limited breadth of view and are able to identify knowledge and best
practices, which can be developed and shared as community resources.
. Documentation of practice - In a course portfolio, participants will
have a persistent, peer-reviewed, documented deliverable that can be
shared with others both inside of, and external to, their home
institution.


Educational Community Benefit
The Disciplinary Commons will act as a repository and archive for
course portfolios in computer science at the two- and four-year level and
provide a valuable resource for educators. In addition, it will chart the
development of "what is" a course portfolio over time.

Summary
A course portfolio is beneficial because:


1. Portfolios provide documented evidence of teaching that is
connected to the specifics and contexts of what is being taught.
2. They go beyond exclusive reliance on student ratings because they
include a range of evidence from a variety of sources such as
syllabi, samples of student work, self-reflections, reports on
classroom research, and faculty development efforts.
3. In the process of selecting and organizing their portfolio
material, faculty think hard about their teaching, a practice which
is likely to lead to improvement in practice.
4. In deciding what should go into a portfolio and how it should be
evaluated, institutions necessarily must address the question of
what is effective teaching and what standards should drive campus
teaching practices.
5. Portfolios are a step toward a more public, professional view of
teaching. They reflect teaching as a scholarly activity.
(Edgerton, R., Hutchings, P., & Quinlan, K. (1991). The teaching
portfolio: Capturing the scholarship in teaching.)


References / Resources

The Course Portfolio - How Faculty Can Examine Their Teaching to Advance
Practice and Improve Student Learning by Pat Hutchings, 1998, Stylus, LLC
ISBN 1-56377-043-1

Making Teaching Community Property - A Menu for Peer Collaboration and Peer
Review by Pat Hutchings, 1996, AAHE (no ISBN)

Classroom Assessment Techniques - A Handbook for College Teachers 2nd
edition by Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross, 1993, published by
Jossey-Bass (Wiley Company), ISBN 1-55542-500-3

William Cerbin, The Course Portfolio, APS Observer, 14(4), 2001.
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/0401/tips.html

Lee Shulman, "Course Anatomy", in The Course Portfolio, Pat Hutchings
(ed.), AAHE, 1998 http://frontpage.uwsuper.edu/scholars/SchulCA.pdf

Indiana University's Course Portfolio Initiative,
http://www.indiana.edu/~deanfac/portfolio/

Peer Review of Teaching Project, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
http://www.unl.edu/peerrev/

Creating a Disciplinary Commons in Computing Education (University of Kent
at Canterbury, UK) http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/saf/dc/


Table of Contents
. Why this course? (page 6 )
. My personal goals (page 7)
. My objectives (pages 8-11)
. Course portfolio (pages 12-44)
How the course fits into degree program(s)?
Who are our students?
What constraints do we operate under?
Course content
Teaching methods
Philosophy of teaching
Evidence of student learning
Assessment
Student consent form (human research)
Summary
. Appendix (pages 45-72)
#1 UWT Disciplinary Commons project/Session Overview web page
#2 Center for Instructional Development and Research
Bulletin/Classroom Observation Notes (Vol.1, no. 4, 1998)
#3 SPSCC Computer Programming
Application-Desktop Track ATA
Applied Science: UW, Tacoma Track AAS-T
Web Track ATA
#4 SPSCC Associate of Science - Option Two
#5 Student Perception Survey for CIS
#6 Interest in CS as a Major Drops Among Incoming Freshmen" by Jay
Vegso
(http://www.cra.org/CRN/articles/may05/vegso)
#7 Computing Curricula 2001: Guidelines for Associate-Degree
Curricula in Computer Science [PL6, Object-oriented programming
(core)]
http://www.acmtyc.org
#8 Handout
#9 Hands-on Lab sheet
#10 Hands-on Lab exercise code
#11 Hands-on Lab learning outcomes
#12 Demo program
#13 Classroom Assessment Techniques (Minute Paper)
#14 CAT (Muddy Point)
#15 CAT (Pace)
#16 CAT (A Content, Form, and Function Outline)
#17 The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Practice, Assignment 1 & 2)
#18 Grading sheet
#19 Homework learning outcomes
#20 Graded work: Practice ('B') Assignment 1 ('B') Assignment 2
('A')
Why this course?

I chose the Computer Science course CS 142, "Object Oriented
Programming I", for several reasons.

First, this course was developed by me as part of a UWT-CTC
Fellowship Program with the Institute of Technology at the University of
Washington, Tacoma in 2004. The purpose of the Fellowship was to create a
"transferable" course for our students seeking to pursue a baccalaureate
degree in Computer Science at UWT after completing their two-year A.S.
(Associate of Science) transfer degree.

Second, this course has become our department's introductory course
to object-oriented progr