A Contractual Approach to Setting Expectations in the Classroom
During the past several years, the Computer Science faculty at University of Cincinnati—Raymond Walters have observed an exceedingly high number of students who either withdraw from or are unsuccessful (i.e., not earning a passing grade, specifically a C or better) in early computer science (CS) core courses. Based upon the number of students withdrawing from and those receiving failing grades in such courses, we informally estimate the amount of first year student attrition ranges from 40 to 60 percent.
In addition to the attrition, we have observed that the majority of beginning students arrive ill prepared to invest the time and effort required to be successful in these CS core courses. With the job market for information technology and computer–related careers being relatively lucrative (even in slower economic times), coupled with the fact that a majority of students have used computers since early childhood, students arrive with the preconceived notion that CS courses will be a quick and easy pathway to achieve a high–paying career.
Initial approaches to reducing the high attrition rate amongst first year CS students has involved verbal discussions with the students during the initial class meetings, informing them of what would be expected from them. This procedure involved discussions with the students regarding the amount of work and time requirements, both in the classroom and out, attendance, participation, homework completion, and so forth. In addition, many of these expectations were also documented in course syllabi, homework assignments, and projects. The students largely ignored this information, and the attrition rates continued to reflect this.
After it became clear that this information provided to the students was continually ignored, the idea was developed to create a single document that spelled out exactly what the CS faculty expected of our students. Areas where problems existed and solutions to these, as well as other general issues, were discussed between CS faculty, and after a period of time, these ideas were consolidated into a single document. It was decided the format would be such that the document would describe what the students could expect from the faculty (since many of the students were college freshmen), what we (the CS faculty) would in turn expect from the students, and what the business community would expect from the students once they completed school and entered the business community.
Some of the expectations presented in this document should have been obvious to students; however, experience has shown that they still needed to be reminded (e.g., the necessity to come to every class on time and to pay attention). Other expectations presented may be somewhat new to students. For example, in a computer–related discipline, if an assignment (i.e., program, network configuration, etc.) is completed and does not work 100%, it is really not worth much. Thus, this sort of performance on a class assignment or project will not get a student a passing grade, no matter how much time was spent or how close to working the system was.
Fearing that merely distributing a document of this sort would be ignored or discarded, we conceived of the idea to try to impress upon the students the importance of understanding what would be expected of them. The approach that was implemented was to present the expectations document as a contract with the students. As a contract might imply, the students would be asked to read the expectations document, followed by their signing of the document stating that they indeed read the document and understood its meaning and implications. The students would keep the expectations portion of the document, and a CS faculty would keep the signature page. The intended purpose of asking students to sign the document was twofold: first, it was intended to impress upon the students the serious intent of the expectations, and secondly, by keeping the students’ signature, the instructor could discount any complaint used in the future when students made claims such as “I didn’t know you meant ALL of my assignments had to be handed in on time!”
Students were presented with the document on the first day in their core CS classes. As much as 5% of first quarter class time was devoted to discussing with the students the document and its intentions. Faculty asked if the students had questions regarding the document and answered any that were brought forth. Additionally, as behaviors that were outlined in the expectations document occurred (e.g., not doing homework), faculty continued to remind students of the document, its importance, and the students’ agreement. A copy of the entire document appears below.
Computer Support Technology Expectations
The faculty of the Computer Science Department welcomes you to the Raymond Walters College Computer Support Technology (CST) Program.
The following recommendations and expectations are presented to you, as a beginning student, to help you be as successful as you desire, and to make your time in classes at RWC as productive and rewarding as possible.
Student Expectations
As a CST student, you may expect:
• guidance from your instructors based upon a large amount of experience and technical knowledge, both from an industry and from an academic perspective.
• your instructors to be available to answer questions, both in class and outside of normal classroom hours. This would typically include in–person questions as well as questions asked electronically (e.g., via email).
• your instructors to provide documentation as to what work is expected and when it is due, in the form of distributed or on–line based documents.
• the material presented to help you to understand how computers work and how to manipulate their functions in a way that is not tied to specific hardware, software or vendor.
• your grades to be directly related to the amount of effort and dedication that you put forth.
Faculty Expectations
Since you have chosen the Computer Support Technology pathway, the RWC Computer Support faculty will expect each student:
• to have a genuine interest in the subject matter related to this field of study. We will assume that you have a strong desire to learn material related to this field, enjoy learning this material, and are willing to work hard to learn and understand this material.
• in this field to adopt an inquisitive and exploratory attitude as well as corresponding work habits.
• to focus on learning, and not to focus solely on grades. Good grades will come to any student who works hard to learn and understand the material.
• to approach each course as a long–term learning process. This means that knowledge obtained in one course may be needed in a course taken in the future. When a period of time elapses between course periods (e.g., Christmas or summer break), the student should actively research and review topics from previous courses which may have become unclear. This means everything you learn in one programming assignment, lab exercise, lecture or course is likely to be useful in a future assignment or course, as well as in your career.
• to arrive on time to class, and depart only when the class (or lab work) is complete.
• to organize all of your notes and classroom materials such that the material is easily referenced when needed (e.g. to study or to use during an exam).
• to pay attention to the instructor during the entire class period, and not to play with cell phones, beepers, games, email, Internet surfing, other class assignments, etc.
• to take detailed notes during class lectures and to compare notes with other students to make sure of completeness.
• to complete all of the assigned reading, whether in required class texts, other related texts and/or related material online or on the Internet. In addition to reading, you will also be expected to understand the material read, and ask questions when you don’t fully understand. This can easily be accomplished by taking notes during the reading and asking questions as appropriate (e.g., before/during/after class).
• to understand that any and all assignments, whether reading, homework problems, programs, or assignments of any type must be completed before class on the date they are due. The student may expect severe penalties for late or incomplete assignments.
• to spend the appropriate amount of time outside of the classroom, studying and/or working on any assignments. This amount of time will depend upon the specific class, and should be at least 2, probably more, for each hour of in class time (e.g., a 3–credit–hour class would require at least 6 hours work outside of class per week).
• to spend the necessary amount of time in the school’s laboratory facilities when that is the only place that hardware or software is available.
• to understand the difference between collaboration (which is encouraged) and copying/cheating which is prohibited, and will be dealt with severely (refer to Student Code of Conduct).
• to be less dependent upon the teacher as courses progress, understanding and solving his or her own questions and problems (and using problem solving abilities learned along the way).
Real World Expectations
We believe the journey you have begun will take you from the classroom into the business world as an employee in the information technology arena. As we conclude our recommendations, those of us who have spent time in the business community would like to offer some rules which hold true in the business world. We suggest that you consider these as you proceed through the Computer Support Technology program.
• Your employer will pay you to come to work during the hours they specify; they will not pay you to show up when you want and come and go as you please.
• Your employer will pay you for doing all of your work; they will not pay you to do half of your work.
• Your employer will pay you to complete tasks fully when they specify; they will not pay you to complete tasks when you wish.
• Your employer will expect the tasks they assign you to be complete and correct; they will not pay you for tasks which are incorrect or incomplete.
• Your employer will expect you to take the initiative to figure out how to complete your job or current assignment; they will not continually show you how to do your job.
• Your employer will not show you where to click.
• Your employer will care about successful project results; they will not care how hard (or how much time) you worked on an incomplete or incorrect project.
• Your employer will not listen to you whine about how he or she is not fair.
• Your employer will not care what else you’re working on, or when it’s due, when they assign additional work.
• Your co–workers will not continually do your job when you don’t show up for work.
• A network, a system, or a program that is not complete or correct is worthless, even if it is 90% complete or correct.
Having presented these, each of the above will relate directly to your work and your success in this program.
Good Luck!
Student Agreement
I, the undersigned, have read and understand all of the expectations of the CST program stated above. I also understand that deviation away from these expectations could have a direct negative effect on my success in the completion of this program or classes therein.
__________________________________ Print Name
__________________________________ Signature of Student
_______________________ Date
As an indicator for measuring the results, a beginning first quarter core course in the Computer Support Program (math for computer logic) was used. This course is the entry point into the Computer Support Degree Program and a prerequisite for all following courses. Following the first distribution of the contractual expectations document, a dismal 64 percent of students did not successfully complete (i.e., C or better) this first quarter Computer Science prerequisite course (of 47 total, 17 passed with a C or better).
It is worth noting that the course used to indicate the above results is a standard beginning computer science course and was taught according to specific guidelines published by the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) two–year college (ACMTYC) curriculum guide and was not beyond what these students should be expected to understand.
It is also worth noting that it is difficult to determine, without much personal investigation, what other events, if any, contributed to the attrition rate remaining relatively constant. For example, did a student do poorly due to family, health, or work concerns, or was it due to lack of preparation and failure to complete the required work.
Thus, the conclusions drawn, given the results of success, even the students’ being presented with the expectations document, are that students continue to underestimate the commitment, in both effort and time, that the Computer Science (and the related IT) discipline demands.
Since it is not clear whether students fully and completely understood the serious nature of the expectations as presented to them, future plans include taking this a step further and presenting this document in an orientation for incoming CS students. The format for this will likely be an informal gathering, prior to the start of the fall school year, in which the expectations document is presented to the students and then discussed with them in detail by several of the computer science faculty. Questions could be asked and answered for all students present to understand.
I wish to thank Professor Kenneth Koehler and Mrs. Pamela Lineback for their input and feedback on the original expectations document.
Mark Thomas is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Cincinnati—Raymond Walters. He can be reached via email at mark.thomas@uc.edu.