School of Computer Science and Software Engineering

Staff/Student Meeting - Clayton Campus

Dr David Albrecht, Dr Peter Atkinson, Mr Joshua Bakanursky (2nd year SoftEng), Mrs Nandita Bhattacharjee, Mr Stanley Breskin (4th year SoftEng), Ms Mandy Cheng, Ms Tania Dastres (BA/BCompSci), A/Prof Trevor Dix, Dr Alan Dorin, Dr Tim Ferguson, Mr Stephen Gardner, Dr Charles Greif, A/Prof John Hurst, Mr Karan Juneja (3rd year CompSc), Dr Carlo Kopp, Dr Kevin Korb, Dr Gordon Lowe, Mr Kunal Mamik (3rd year SoftEng), Dr Jon McCormack, Dr Linda McIver, Mr Chris Mears (SoftEng Hons), Dr Bernd Meyer, Dr Ann Nicholson (Associate Head of School), Ms Jeanette Niehus, Dr Pam Norton (School of Mathematical Sciences), Ms Debbie Pickett, Dr Ron Pose, Dr Sid Ray, Dr Peter Tischer, Mr Christoph Walters (CompSci Hons)

Apologies:
David Abramson, Gareth Anderson (MITS), Kirsten Frederiksen (LLB/BCompSci), James Nicholson (BSc/BCompSci)

Welcome
The meeting was chaired by Associate Head of School, Dr Ann Nicholson who opened the meeting, welcomed the student reps, Dr Pam Norton from the School of Mathematical Sciences and several staff members from the School of Business Systems who were observers at the meeting.

Dr Nicholson indicated that the procedure was slightly different for this meeting as student reps were asked to submit written reports before the meeting.

Honours

Christoph Walters (Computer Science) - There has not been much feedback provided by the CS Honours students. The main issue seemed to be that the students felt the CSE450 assignment was too large for a 3pt unit, although the submission date has been extended. Dr Dorin said that the assignment was the only assessment in the unit as there was no exam. He also suggested that students do more than is required and although it is an open ended assignment it is divided up into parts. He is happy to consider other ideas. It was suggested that students need to plan more.

Josh Rodgers (Digital Systems) - No issues other than a couple of students stressed by the CSE450 artificial life assignment.

Chris Mears (Software Engineering) - There is an issue with access to the toilets on level 1 of building 26 after hours.

     Action: follow up with building 26 attendant to give students access to toilets - Ms Cheng

SE students were concerned that the work required in CSE417, which is a subset of CS work, is not credited. Dr Meyer said that the work students do in this unit should form part of their project. Dr Nicholson said that this unit had evolved to support the project.

Fourth Year

Stanley Breskin (Software Engineering) - Gave reports on second semester 2004, first semester 2005 and general feedback regarding the MUSE lab.

Second Semester 2004

Thanked Dr Garcia de la Banda and Dr Meyer for CSE3322 and Dr Pose for CSE3323 last semester. Suggested CSE3302 project needed to be more balanced so all the work is not at the end of the semester, perhaps the prototype could be developed in the first few weeks of semester. The students found the project boring and would have preferred the outcome of the project to be a unusable piece of software. Dr Tischer said that students tended to focus on the software to be written, not on the overall project as a whole. Dr Dorin indicated that students can recommend projects if they have something interesting.

     Action: students to be advised in the next e-newsletter that they can suggest projects for Semester 2 (PT to advise on deadline) - Mrs Fenwick

CSE3302 - The students would like a server for use by project groups to manage, share and archive files. Currently they send various versions by email.

First Semester 2005

Thanked Prof Schmidt for his availability and helpful advice in the studio project.

Thanked A/Prof Hurst for his explanations and demonstrations in CSE4213. Was a problem in the last week with feedback for assignment 2. Students were unhappy with being told to "Look at the lecture notes". A/Prof Hurst indicated that out of 300 postings on the discussion group only 4 were told to look at their lecture notes and only 1 was not offered any other information. It was noted that this unit has changed since last year and students were happy with the changes.

Students are doing many different electives and there has been no negative feedback on any of these units.

MUSE Lab - Students would like Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0 for Linux installed on the computers in the MUSE lab. Students were advised to make a HEAT request which they have done but it requires the authorisation of the Lecturer.

     Action: authorise upgrade of Acrobat Reader - Prof Schmidt

Students would like at least one computer dedicated to each project so it can have specific software installed. They would like to have administrator rights to these computers. Dr Nicholson advised that this was a resource issue.

It was noted that the students would like a photocopier or scanner in the lab.

Students complained that the paper stocks run out after hours and wanted to know if the cupboards could be stocked. Dr Nicholson advised that there was a limit to the amount of paper that can be stored there because of it "walking" and suggested that students check the paper stocks before 5pm.

Students have asked for a bigger stapler to be available, one that will hold together their large assignments.

     Action: purchase a bigger stapler if possible - Admin

There was also an issue with the alarm going off between 5-6pm in building 26..

     Action: check with building 26 attendant - Ms Cheng

Third Year

Karan Juneja (Computer Science) - Thanked Ms Pickett, Dr McCormack, Dr Greif and Ms Morgan for their units last year. There have been no complaints about anything this year. One issue was the lack of feedback about assignments. It was suggested that a FAQ could be set up to deal with the common questions.

Kunal Mamik (Software Engineering) - Some anonymous comments were received. Problem in CSE4213 with BToolKit crashing. Students would like a stable environment to work in. The same concerns about feedback for assignment 2 (see Fourth Year). A/Prof Hurst said that students can search the Web site for information.

There was also an issue of the second assignment being due before the first assignment was handed back. A/Prof Hurst said that the solutions had been posted on the Web site.

The students asked if extra sessions can be scheduled in the CSSE Help room before assignments are due.

CSSE3308 - Students found the material covered in this unit to be a repetition of work that has already been covered. Dr Nicholson said the School would look at what the content covered and what students have done before.

     Action: review as part of current curriculum review - Dr Squire

There was also a concern that during the seminars there are not enough tutors to get around to everyone.

CSE2318 - The students asked if comments about CSE2318 could be passed on to Caulfield. The students felt that the research assignment, which was worth 20% of total marks, was aimed at high level and required too much work. They were required to do a literature review of category 1 journals (which the students did not know what they were) and submit the research as well as copies of 12 papers they had reviewed. The were also asked to sign over ownership of this work. The students are concerned that they are being used as Research Assistants for the lecturer's own research.

     Action: raise with academic staff at Caulfield - Dr Nicholson

Second Year

No second year rep for Computer Science.

Joshua Bakanursky (Software Engineering) - There has not been any feedback from students. He did however overhear students in CSE1401 saying that there was not enough time to prepare in the tutes/pracs.

Dr Nicholson indicated that the School needs to advertise for second year representatives.

Dr Nicholson said that a meeting had been held with Dr Allison and student reps over concerns about CSE2304 raised at the last meeting. These issues are continuing to be followed up.

First Year

There were no first year representative in attendance. Dr Nicholson will follow up with Daniel Heath from comments.

     Action: Dr Nicholson to contact Daniel Heath

Double Degrees

Kirsten Frederiksen (BCompSci/LLB) - Kirsten was unable to attend the meeting but provided a written report.

2004

CSE2305 and CSE2302: thanked Ms Pickett and Ms Fergusson for their help as assistant lecturers and answering questions on the newsgroups.

2005

CSE3308 - Students would like the feedback forum set up so it can be viewed from a newsgroup program such as Thunderbird. They would like to know when they will get feedback on the first assignment. There was some confusion about what exactly is required for the different stages of the group project and they thanked Dr Squire for placing a notice on the front of the Web page. They asked if a FAQ could be made with questions and answers to relevant assignments.

It was also noted that students talk throughout the lecture and have asked if Dr Squire could tell them to be quite. It was suggested that peer pressure was perhaps a better way to deal with this. The students asked if a FAQ could be made available with questions and answers to relevant assignments.

     Action: pass on to Dr Squire - Dr Nicholson

CSE3305 - Thanked Robyn for answering questions on the newsgroups There was a concern that a sample exam based on this year's work would not be available. A/Prof Hurst advised that university regulations required that an example paper be made available. Dr Korb said he would look at possible sample exams after the actual exam has been set. In the meantime, students should refer to previous exams for the subject.

Double Degree - Suggested that because double degree students have less contact with both faculties, a mentoring systems to give students guidance could be set up.

General comments - An information session (or online forum) where previous students (and perhaps lecturers) given their views on the subjects they have completed (especially non-core units). This is especially important in 1st year, when the students may not understand the meaning of the jargon which is used to describe the content of the subject (as found in the Handbook). Also important in 3rd year when students are trying to work out what direction to go in. Possibly more information about Honours? (Apparently the Career’s Fair was not very useful for comp sci-type I.T. students) .

Tania Dastres (BA/BCompSci) - Ms Dastres asked if the School had any contingency plans in regard to students no turning up to class if they strike over the student union fees issue. Dr Nicholson said that it was up to individual Lecturers to make a decision. Dr Nicholson asked to be kept informed about when the strike is likely to happen so the School can advise Lecturers.

     Action: when strike date announced, admin to email all academic staff. Academic staff will then decide on how they will handle it for their subject and inform students as early as possible

General Comments

Chris Mears said that the CSSE consultation room was well attended.

Dr Nicholson read some comments from Gareth Anderson, Vice President of MITS: They are very happy with the CSSE Help room. They believe that the Head Tutor program is working well. They would like to see a survey done on the CSSE Help room and MITS are happy to assist with this.

     Action: organise survey before the end of the semester - Dr Nicholson, Ms Niehus, Ms Pickett, Gareth Anderson

MITS has not received any feedback about CSSE units but they do publish the dates of these meetings on their Web site.

Dr Nicholson made a brief comment about the faculty restructure and advised that the School was reviewing its courses. Transition issues for current students will also be looked at.

It was suggested that students did not receive notification of the student/staff meeting. Dr Nicholson said that students were sent email and it was mentioned in the e-newsletter and suggested that perhaps students were just not reading the emails.

     Action: Check that email is getting through to students - Mrs Fenwick (with Tech Services)

A student asked if there could be some form of standard referencing in the School and a sample of styles given. It was noted that there is not one standard style in academia however it was possible for the Lecturer to refer to a style that they prefer.

     Action: advise academics of web site with material about referencing - Dr Kopp

NEXT MEETING - Semester 2, 2005. Date to be advised.

Dr Nicholson closed the meeting at 1.45pm and thanked everyone for their attendance.

Outcomes [in progress]