Assigned: 30 November 2000

Due: 12 December 2000

This is an individual assignment. The same assignment is given to students taking Service Learning either with CSC 335 or with CSC 450, so I've used the term software engineering / database to refer to both. Respond as appropriate.

Write a report that addresses the following issues. The report should begin with a brief introduction section and end with a brief conclusions section. Each issue should be discussed in a distinct section using the title shown in bold. In all cases, I want you to write what you really think and feel, not what you think I want to hear!

Community Partner Mission. Who is your community partner? What is the mission of your community partner? Do you feel your efforts have contributed to meeting their mission? Explain. Has this experience changed the way you feel about volunteer efforts (by yourself or others)? Explain.

Experiential Learning. One of the major CASL learning goals is for you to integrate theoretical concepts learned in the classroom with applied experience of the project.

a. Were you able to achieve this kind of integration?

b. Were you better able to learn software engineering / database concepts because of your applied experience?

c. Did you apply, in your project, the principles and practices you studied in the software engineering / database course?

For all three issues, give specific examples to support your responses.

Programming. Considering all the hours you spent on the project, about what percent were spent actually programming? How does this figure compare to projects you have developed for previous courses?

Maintenance. You will soon be graduating and gone from SMSU. Assuming your software continues to be used, how do you suggest that we handle project maintenance? What have you done during development of this system to facilitate maintenance?

Course Administration. How many hours did you turn in to CASL on the logsheets? Of the hours you spent on the project, how did you decide which to turn in for CASL credit? If you turned in all hours, indicate this.

Team Interaction. Do you think that you functioned well as a team? Did your team interactions improve over the course of the semester? Do you think all of you contributed equitably (does not mean equally) to the project?

Suggestions. Please make any suggestions that you think may improve future offerings of Service Learning in Computer Science.

Feel free to address any other issues that you think are important but missing from this list.

You may treat your report as confidential between you and me.

The report is of no required minimum length. If you address all the questions and say everything you need to say, the length will take care of itself.

Compose your report using a word processor and submit to me in electronic form. The best way is attach it to email addressed to PeteSanderson@smsu.edu.

[ CSC 300 | Pete Sanderson | Computer Science | SMSU ]

Peter Sanderson ( PeteSanderson@smsu.edu )