Curriculum Subcommittee Minutes, January 8, 2009

Department of Agricultural Systems Technology and Education Prerequisite Change, Course Description Change Department of Plants, Soils and Climate Credit Hour Change Prerequisite Change Delete Course Huntsman School of Business Grading Mode Change Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation Prerequisite Change Department of Psychology Title Change, Course Description Change, Flexible Title for Sections Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering New Course Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Prerequisite Change Department of Military Science Add University Studies Designation Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology New Course Dual List Change, Prerequisite Change Credit Hour Change, Dual List Change Other Creating a Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Science Changing the name of the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences The Departments of Environment and Society and Watershed Sciences to jointly offering the Geography degre

Chemoinformatics Research at the University of Sheffield: A History and Citation Analysis

This paper reviews the work of the Chemoinformatics Research Group in the Department of Information Studies at the University of Sheffield, focusing particularly on the work carried out in the period 1985-2002. Four major research areas are discussed, these involving the development of methods for: substructure searching in databases of three-dimensional structures, including both rigid and flexible molecules; the representation and searching of the Markush structures that occur in chemical patents; similarity searching in databases of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional structures; and compound selection and the design of combinatorial libraries. An analysis of citations to 321 publications from the Group shows that it attracted a total of 3725 residual citations during the period 1980-2002. These citations appeared in 411 different journals, and involved 910 different citing organizations from 54 different countries, thus demonstrating the widespread impact of the Group's work

Flexible Global Software Development (GSD): Antecedents of Success in Requirements Analysis

Globalization of software development has resulted in a rapid shift away from the traditional collocated, on-site development model, to the offshoring model. Emerging trends indicate an increasing interest in offshoring even in early phases like requirements analysis. Additionally, the flexibility offered by the agile development approach makes it attractive for adaptation in globally distributed software work. A question of significance then is what impacts the success of offshoring earlier phases, like requirements analysis, in a flexible and globally distributed environment? This article incorporates the stance of control theory to posit a research model that examines antecedent factors such as requirements change, facilitation by vendor and client site-coordinators, control, and computer-mediated communication. The impact of these factors on success of requirements analysis projects in a “flexible” global setting is tested using two quasi-experiments involving students from Management Development Institute, India and Marquette University, USA. Results indicate that formal modes of control significantly influence project success during requirements analysis. Further, facilitation by both client and vendor site coordinators positively impacts requirements analysis success

The Effects of a Flexible Benefits Expert System on Employee Decisions and Satisfaction

Anecdotal reports and recent reviews assert that expert systems are potentially useful decision aids in human resource management. This study examines the effects of an expert system designed to aid employees when they make their choices in a flexible bellcfit program. A four group quasi-field experimental design is used to examine the relative effects of the expert system compared to a conventional spreadsheet decision aid. Eighty employees at an NCR-AT&T facility were randomly selected and assigned to the groups. Employees using the expert system expressed greater benefits satisfaction compared to those using the spreadsheet aid. The spreadsheet did not have any effect on employees\u27 decisions. When the benefit choices recommended by the expert system differed from the employees\u27 current choices, employees are more likely to change their choices. Consequently, the expert system is likely to affect employees\u27 decisions. Implications are discussed and future research needs are suggested

Flexible learning in a partnership context for beginning teachers

A preliminary inventory was carried out for a sample of male and female student teachers who had email accounts. Preliminary inventory data revealed that the mean number of times per week that males used email was significantly higher than the mean number for female students. This inventory data indicated that characteristics such as gender affect Internet educational technology utilization, and this factor was addressed within the experimental design for the main study. In the main study, student teachers were assigned to four treatment groups for learning lesson‐planning skills. The first two groups received a traditional university lecture followed by a seminar. For group I, the seminar was provided at university. For group 2, the seminar was provided as part of the student's school‐based experiences. Groups 3 and 4 received identical tuition to groups 1 and 2 respectively, except that tuition was provided on a flexible learning basis, being delivered electronically via the Internet with tutorial support from the university lecturer by way of asynchronous email. It was found that student achievement was significantly higher when tuition was provided as part of the student's school‐based experiences, and also that achievement was significantly higher when tuition was provided on a flexible learning basis involving computer‐mediated communications. A separate AN OVA was carried out for the entire sample of the four treatment groups in order to address the factor of student gender, which was controlled in the experiment. However, there were no significant differences in achievement associated with student gender. This surprising finding suggests that although male. students may make greater usage of information technology, when required to do so, female students perform on a par with their male counterparts

Flexible learning in computer science

This paper outlines the concept of Flexible Pedagogy and how it can assist in addressing some of the issues facing STEM disciplines in general, and Computer Science in particular. The paper considers what flexible pedagogy is and how technologies developed by Computer Science can enable flexibility. It then describes some of the issues facing STEM education, with a particular focus on Computer Science education in Higher Education. Finally, it considers how flexible approaches to teaching and learning are particularly pertinent to the issues faced in Computer Science and future opportunities

Reviews

Teaching and Learning Materials and the Internet by Ian Forsyth, London: Kogan Page, 1996. ISBN: 0–7494‐ 20596. 181 pages, paperback. £18.99

Gender issues in computer‐supported learning: What we can learn from the gender; science and technology literature

This paper is a response to the article, ‘Gender issues in computer‐supported learning’, in Alt‐J 10 (1). I argue that the studies presented in the original paper could be enhanced by a more rigorous approach to gender that avoids universalizing identity, recognizes gender as a construction and which builds on previous research from gender, science and technology studies