Adjustments of Methodology Planning and Assessment Activities of Senior Projects in the Computer Science Program

Abstract

The senior project stage in bachelor's degrees represents an essential milestone in the learning process of a Computer Science (CS) student. The Senior Project Management System (SPMS) plays an important role in refining the quality of the resulting product and improving the learning experience of students. The CS department at King Abdulaziz University (KAU) has followed a well-defined system for managing senior projects since 2012. Systems evolve through time in response to encounters that unfold when the system is put to use. The administration of CS senior projects is no exception. In this paper, we present some incremental changes that have been introduced as refinements to the original system. This paper focuses on analyzing the data of the projects conducted during 2015 and 2016 in the Computer Science Department, Girls Main Campus (GMC) branch from the following perspectives: the project plan and deliverables at each milestone, and the provision of constructive mature collective feedback by the evaluating committee. These refinements are called addendums as they are additional steps to the SPMS and each step is monitored by using forms. This paper also describes some practices that support the SPMS along with the rationale behind their application. Evidence for the two addendums have been collected from analysis of the relevant forms. The analysis showed that the students benefited from the flexibility introduced by the milestone addendum as they made use of the new options. In addition, analysis of the forms of the feedback addendum showed that this documentation served as a means to gather the overall collective opinion of the committee members as opposed to the individual assessment of each member. Additional evidence was collected from evaluation committee members, by conducting a questionnaire. It showed that participants do benefit from the discussion promoted by the feedback addendum.