1. What are the student learning outcomes?
2. What procedures will you use to ensure students meet these outcomes?
3. How will you evaluate if students have actually met these outcomes?
I responded as follows.
Thank for your kind follow-up. I kind of rushed the proposal so I really appreciate the chance to clarify. To answer the questions...
1. The student will learn how to apply hands-on technical programming skills to a real-world problem: analyzing vehicle privacy protocols. The programming skills are within the skill limits of an undergraduate programmer. Prior to working on this project students will likely not have the ability to analyze research parameters (for example: communication range of antennae, density of vehicles, distances between vehicles, etc.). However, after they have worked on this project they will see (a) how to set up a vehicle simulation program, (b) how to tweak the parameters to test the limits of the protocols and (c) how to document and write up the research in a proper scholarly fashion. I have done this with 4 undergraduates already (at oakland university) and we published a paper in an IEEE conference with undergrads as co authors.
2. I've managed many programmers before, both as an advisor at oakland university and as a professional manager in industry. My method is (a) to keep individual assignments small so the students don't get overwhelmed, and (b) to meet weekly to review progress and if not on target take corrective measures. The students will use equipment in my office or in a lab room which I will supervise.
3. I like the "Bloom's Taxonomy" method of evaluating learning levels. I will examine the participant(s) to determine if they are advancing from the "remembering" and "understanding" levels and moving toward the "applying", "analyzing" and "evaluating" levels. I hope the students will get to the "creating" level, by coming up with their own protocols, but that may be too ambitious. We'll see. My final report to the university will specify my observations of student capabilities using Bloom's Taxonomy measures. This will include contributions by students to the project and to the advancement of scholarship. We will submit our results in the form of a scholarly paper and receive peer feedback, which is the ultimate "creating" evaluation. At the very least students will have real-world programming experience measured by external evaluations (peer review).
I hope this provides sufficient depth. I am at your service, and at the service of the committee, to provide more detail at your convenience.
ppc_2014-11-15_faculty_led_student_research_proposal_safety_silence_tradeoff.docx |