PROVISIONAL

SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

POSTGRADUATE STAFF/STUDENT MEETING

This meeting was held on Monday 2nd May 2005 in the seminar room B5.50A, Caulfield Campus

Staff: Dr Maria Indrawan, Associate Professor Graham Farr, Mr Stephen Giles (Chair), Ms Aleisha Matthews (secretary), Professor Christine Mingins, Ms Judy Sheard, Dr Campbell Wilson

MINUTES

1. Welcome

Mr Stephen Giles welcomed everyone to the first Postgraduate Staff/Student Meeting for 2005.

2. Action items from previous minutes

Mr Dixon from the Caulfield Library was unable to attend the meeting, however he responded to his action items from the previous meeting.

Safety Issue in Level 4, A Block - This safety issue has been reported to Facilities and Services and the problem has since been fixed.

Wireless on Level 4, A Block - In the previous meeting the students requested that the library get wireless access on Level 4 of A Block. Wireless is now available throughout the entire library. Mr Dixon wanted to thank the CSSE students for making this happen.

Hourly Borrowing - The Library has a global policy that allows students to borrow overnight reserve books out of the Library. These books are designated at the request of the Lecturers. For high demand items students could make additional suggestions to Andrew Dixon who would look at the situation and consult the Lecturer if necessary.

Temperature in B Block, Level 3 - Students had commented that the heating in the labs on level 3 of B Block was far too hot. Ms Matthews has spoken to Mr Muhamed Bekir of Technical Service in the Faculty and he has reported that this issue is still being looked at and is considered work in progress. This problem is hoped to be fixed by late May 2005.

Cisco Credit - It was reported reported that credit that was given to students who have completed a Tafe course was not appropriate and this was also agreed on by the Faculty of IT. Mr Giles said he would discuss this issue with the ADE.

Action: Mr Giles to discuss giving credit for TAFE courses with ADE

IMS5026 - Mr Barnden was not able to attend this meeting. His update on this will be posted here shortly.

Windows Lab - Students had informed staff at the previous meeting that the computers in the Windows lab were very old and not suitable for use. Ms Matthews informed everyone that the Windows Lab, B5.37/38, has since been upgraded.

3. Research component in MAIT

The student who requested this agenda item was not present at the meeting however, Dr Wilson informed everyone that in the past there has been 2 cases where a student was approved to undertake a research component in the MAIT, this was required to go through the appropriate committees and was in need of supervisor and course coordinator support. If a student was interested in undertaking research in this degree they should take this up with the course coordinator.

4. Postgraduate Degrees in 2005-2006

Mr Giles commented that students may feel some concern about the direction of the postgraduate degrees in 2005/2006 due to the current Faculty review and the affect it is currently having on the undergraduate degrees. Dr Wilson also raised some concerns regarding the lack of consideration of the change to undergraduate units in respect to the MAIT. At the present time there is no timeline for changes to the postgraduate courses and they will be available as normal in 2006.

5. General Business

Student who was present at the meeting is currently enrolled in the Master of Information Technology. Mr Giles asked student if there was any concerns or anything issues that could be discussed in regards to the MIT course. Student was very happy with the units currently being taking. Student raised a concern in regards to the Programming units, CSE9000 Foundations of Programming and CSE4530 Applications Programming with C++. CSE9000 was completed and the student then felt a need to further her knowledge in this area, however CSE4530 was too advanced. Student suggested that there be an intermediate unit that students could consider.

Student completed a summer semester unit. Student felt that in the exam there was far too much coding to be expected to remember and every part of the code was expected to be exactly correct which felt very difficult. Student applied for special consideration for this exam due to personal problems, however the application was not considered.

Action: Mr Giles to take up this issue with the unit leader and ADE

Some concerns in regards to the quality of the tutors being employed was raised. Ms Sheard informed everyone that tutor workshop training programs were conducted before semester and that if students ever have any concerns with their tutor(s) they should raise this with the lecturer. Student praised the tutors had in the past, these included Ros Gibson, Khadiza Tahera, Eric Pau, Viranga Ratnaike and John Page.

CSE9000, CSE4530, CSE5910 and CSE4490 - It was suggested that the unit leaders for these subjects meet as there has been some students with concerns about the unit content in the past.

Action: Unit leader to meet and discuss unit content

Student raised that for some units within the department the courseware pages are password protected and therefore students have issues accessing unit information unless they are enrolled in that unit. Dr Wilson commented that for his unit an authcate password and an enrolment key is required to access the site, however any other students who wish to access the unit website can email and request this code. Associate Professor Farr suggested that this be raised at the next school staff meeting where we can make sure that unit webpages are accessible to all Monash University students.

Mr Giles raised an issue where a MIT student was able to enrol into a 9000 series unit through WES. Mr Giles said that he would like the system to not allow students to enrol into a 9 series unit as course coordinator approval is required.

Action: Mr Giles to raise at the next SEC meeting

Meeting Closed 3.40pm