Minnesota
State Colleges
Hennepin Technical College, Eden Prairie, April 11, 2003
Computer and Information Systems Report Summary
Facilitators: Lee Cornell, Leo Christenson, Jeff Greenwood
Transfer issue/problem one:
Develop and communicate clear and compatible descriptions of course and program content.
Strategy(s) to address transfer issue/problem one:
- Use the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), www.acm.org, standards to determine which ACM objectives are being taught by which courses at specific institutions.
- Develop a course outline central data base that will provide professors, at different institutions, with information on what is being taught at other schools.
- Develop common course outlines for similar courses. The outlines should be at least 80% the same.
- Determine if a computer model and process can
be developed that will use fuzzy logic to compare course content
and to show similar courses at different institutions. (Suggested
by Joe Hesse at
- Disseminate common software that has a template to write course outlines based on ACM standards.
Transfer issue/problem two:
Clarify the difference between 200 and 300 level courses.
Strategy(s) to address transfer issue/problem two
- Define clearly a 200 level and a 300 level course and determine how well institutions are following this definition.
- Use an articulation process like the Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) so that students may determine which courses to take and how they build towards a degree.
- Use the credit-by-exam process to allow students the chance to test out of upper division classes if they have already taken the content at the lower division.
- Constant clear communication among faculty and with students as to what transfers and why.
- Create a “course substitution” list to identify lower division classes that have similar content to upper division classes.
- Re-think the Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degree now that is is used increasingly as a transfer degree and not only as a technical degree.
- Research the problem to find out how prevalent it is - does perception match reality?
- Accommodate students when they transfer.
Transfer issue/problem three:
Credit backbone – Develop clear guidelines to define when a class should be three credits and when it should be four.
Strategy(s) to address transfer issue/problem three:
- Delineate lecture and lab components of classes.
- Determine which credit backbone provides students the best learning experience.