An Integrated Outcome-based Curriculum for Developing Research and Project Skills in Computing |
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Abstract The Final Year Project (FYP) is a yearly individual project that all students in the Computing programme have to undertake in their last year of study. It is challenging to many students as they have to cope with technical writing and formal report structure, while handling uncertainties and risks in project management, problem formulation, solution construction and outcome evaluation. In the last 5 years, the Computing programme has gradually developed a three-phase research and project skill cultivation scheme that equips the students with skills and experience in taking up the FYP challenge. First, the students learn technical reading and writing in the English courses in Year 2 and Year 3 through direct instruction and hands-on practice. The courses cover topic sentence, argument development, coherence and unity, transition, and data presentation using figures and charts. Next, a group project course takes a constructivist approach and provides a scaffolding platform for students to acquire skills in project management, system development and report writing. Finally, in the FYP in Year 4, the students have to submit a series of interim documents that accumulates to the final reports. Project supervisors return feedback for each interim document for prompt remedial actions. Both the group project and the individual FYP share the same outcome-based assessment criteria, and the students are informed of the expected learning outcome of the FYP early in Year 3 of their study. The effectiveness of our cultivation scheme is evidenced by improvement in report quality, successful application of patents and research paper publication in recent years. |
Author Profile(s) Dr. Rita Tse received the Math/Computer Science degree from UCLA and the PhD degree from Hull University in 2004. From 2006 to 2016, she has been the Coordinator of the Computer Studies/Computing Programme at the Macao Polytechnic Institute. In 2016, she was promoted to be the Director of the School of Public Administration. Her current research interests include Ubiquitous Computing, Urban Sensing, Social Network-based Sensing, Casino Gaming Systems, and Course Design and Development. |