EE Faculty Department Meeting Minutes
November 25, 2002
11:00-12:30, Room BE 352

Attending: B. Friedlander, C. Gu, K. Pedrotti, H. Sadjadpour,
H. Schmidt, A. Shakouri, J. Vesecky.  Also attending: T. Larrabee.

1)      ABET.  The Dean planned to attend the meeting but had a
  conflict.  His intention was to stress the importance of ABET.  The
  situation has improved but work must continue in order to stay on
  track.  Tracy has focused on how the ABET requirements actually help
  us with courses.  Course descriptions: the process of reviewing them
  has the tendency to change & update them.  CE has found that it is
  very helpful, when there are questions regarding courses, to be able
  to refer people to the extended course descriptions.  Tracy has
  found it helpful, when teaching a CS course, to check the
  description weekly in order to stay on track.  They are also helpful
  for new faculty teaching a course. CS, even though it is not being
  accredited, has benefited from submitting extended course
  descriptions (reviewing course content and its impact on students). 
  The idea is to have faculty, as they teach courses, review extended
  descriptions and, when noting changes that might be made, have
  faculty discuss at faculty meeting, then update course description. 
  There is a program on the ABET webpage for checking all courses. 
  One can see all of the courses that contribute to Outcome A, B,
  etc.  193 and 195 don't have to be listed (CE doesn't list
  them).  CE's outcome courses have a paragraph at the bottom
  saying that the core exam monitors how the course meets that
  objective.  EE needs a similar paragraph (need to monitor and have a
  feedback loop).  Tracy tried to give faculty similar outcomes.  The
  exit survey is completely geared toward assessing whether we are
  meeting our objectives and outcomes.

  If you have an entrance exam for a course (to assess students'
  preparation for a course), tell Tracy.  For example, the first day
  of class, you tell students that they will be quizzed on their
  knowledge from a previous course, tell them the quiz date, and that
  their grade will be included in their grade for a course.  If you
  use feedback from a quiz to determine content of course, you could
  say the feedback is used to change the course.

  If faculty are going to give a presentation at Cabrillo or other
  places, or talk to students or prospective students, tell Tracy so
  she can put it in EE's file in order to show we are working with
  students.  Also, if faculty meet with people in industry and the
  person says our students don't have the necessary skills or
  breadth of knowledge, tell Tracy so this can be added to the file.

  It was decided that 193 & 195 will be removed from the ABET course
  description bank (they will still be offered to students).

  Mission statement & objectives will be put on the webpage since John
  didn't receive any comments from his email re: them.