CSE Teaching Committee, Minutes for Meeting, 28 July 2006

1. Previous minutes and issues arising from them - John Shepherd
2. Maintenance revisions to Software Engineering + X programs - Ken Robinson

   Ken described the rationale for changes to the SE program (withdrawal of SISTM from program with relatively short notice being the main one). Changes to the Maths courses bring the proposal more into line with other engineering degrees, but still not enough to warrant entry into the Common First Year scheme.

   Action: take the proposal to the Faculty UGEC.

3. Report on first run of COMP1911 - Richard Buckland

   Deferred until next meeting; Richard unable to attend.

4. Revision of BINF1001 - Bruno Gaeta

   Bruno outlined the reasons for changing BINF1001. The primary goal is to make the course available to more students (i.e. not just BINF students). There is still a requirement for bilology background, and the computing pre-reqs have not changed.

   Action: take the proposal to the Faculty UGEC.

5. Proposal for COMP3021/COMP9121 - Jingling Xue

   Jingling discussed problems with the amount of material in COMP4001 being too much for a single course. The course tries to cover both language aspects of OO programming (C++) and the methodology of OO development. It was decided, to improve the learning outcomes, that splitting the course into two separate courses (one covering C++ in depth, and the other covering OO development methodology in depth) would be preferable. This proposal is the first of two, and deals with the C++ course in the the pair. The OO methodology course proposal should follow in due course. COMP4001 will run for the last time in 07s1. In 07s2 will be the first offering of the C++ course (now renumered to COMP3171). The OO methodology course, with COMP3171 as a pre-req, will commence in 08s1.

   Action: take this proposal to the Faculty UGEC.
   Action: John Potter to produce a proposal for the OO course.

6. Proposal for COMP4906 Co-op Industrial Training 2 - John Shepherd

   Postponed pending discussion with senior Eng Faculty education committee members.

7. Teaching Schedule for 2007 - John Shepherd

   The draft teaching allocation for 2007 was noted. Academic staff were encouraged to check it and discuss any issues with Jingling ASAP.

8. Changes to UNSW Academic Calendar from 2008 - John Shepherd

   Details of the UNSW proposed changes to the academic calendar were tabled:

   • semesters: 6 weeks teaching + 1 week professional devel. + 6 weeks teaching
   • 3 equal-sized semesters per year
   • compressed exam periods
     • shorter exams; 2 hours becomes the "norm"
     • three exam sessions per day (10-12, 12-2, 2-4(5))
       (presumably students are guaranteed at least a 2-hour break between exams)
   • summer semester still contains limited offerings (at this stage)
   • no more winter semester