CS2013-final-report

Professional Development Seminar, Northwest Missouri State
University
Carol Spradling
c_sprad@nwmissouri.edu
http://catpages.nwmissouri.edu/m/c_sprad/
Knowledge Areas that contain topics and learning outcomes covered in the course
Knowledge Area
Total Hours of Coverage
Social Issues and Professional Practice (SP)
15 hours
Where does the course fit in your curriculum
Professional Development Seminar, a required, three hour 200 level course for computer science majors, is taken
in the fall of the sophomore year. The student population for this course is approximately 30 undergraduate
computer science majors that are required to take this course for their major and 10 international graduate
computer science students that elect to take this course.
What is covered in the course
While the course covers Social and Professional Practice topics such as social context, analytical tools,
professional ethics, intellectual property, privacy and civil liberties, this exemplar will focus on professional
communications.
The course provides opportunities for students to develop their professional communication skills. This exemplar
includes examples of four Professional Communication outcomes:
• Write clear, concise, and accurate technical documents following well-defined standards for format and for
including appropriate tables, figures, and references.
• Develop and deliver a good quality formal presentation.
• Plan interactions (e.g. virtual, face-to-face, shared documents) with others in which they are able to get their
point across, and are also able to listen carefully and appreciate the points of others, even when they disagree,
and are able to convey to others that they have heard.
• Describe the strengths and weaknesses of various forms of communication (e.g. virtual, face-to-face, shared
documents)
What is the format of the course
The course format is face-to-face weekly class meetings with some online threaded discussions which are used to
augment face-to-face class discussions. Most class meetings include a short instructor lecture of no more than 10-
15 minutes followed by small group topic discussions, consisting of groups of no more than 4-5 students.
Additionally, the course utilizes group discussions (face-to-face and online threaded discussion), a group research
project, a group research presentation and a unit on preparing for professional interviews which includes a unit on
technical resume preparation and technical and situational interview preparation. .
Group Discussions
Students are provided a current news article or issue that pertains to the class topic, asked to read the article before
class and then discuss the merits of the article with their group members. Groups of no more than 4-5 students
self-select a note taker and spokesperson. The role of the note taker is to record the summary of the group
discussion and submit the summary of their discussion by the end of the class period. The spokesperson provides
a short summary of their group findings orally to the rest of the class and is provided the opportunity to
communicate the group views with the entire class.
Students are also provided online opportunities to discuss topics using online threaded discussions. The instructor
selects an article or case study that illustrates issues surrounding a particular topic, such as intellectual property or
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