ECE Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes for October 15, 2009

1. The Minutes of the October 8, 2009 meeting were approved.
2. The rerevised Minutes of the September 24, 2009 meeting were approved.
3. Marie-Christine Brunet joined the meeting to discuss her ECE 109 proposal, for an online version of the lecture portion of ECE 110. The course is intended for transfer students, as they are often delayed in their progress by the need to take ECE 110 after arrival. The average time for first degree completion for students entering after two years is 2.8 more years; Marie-Christine believes that ECE 109 will enable many more to finish after five semesters here. The course will be offered online during the summer session for students transferring here for the fall semester.

   The material is presented asynchronously, with reformatted versions of the ECE 110 course notes and supplemental flash videos that explain the key principles and work through examples. The bulk of course management would be performed by the Office of Continuing Engineering Education, although office hours (accessed online) and email help will be held by the instructor and ECE teaching assistants, supported by the tuition revenue from the course.

   Questions raised in the discussion included whether non-transfer students and even high-school students could take it; the conclusion was that nothing prevents them from doing so, and that there is no particular reason to disallow it if they are prepared to do so. There was concern that students who did poorly when taking the course early or to explore ECE might be penalized relative to students taking it after arriving, and the Committee consensus was that any student should be allowed to drop the grade from the online version upon retaking ECE 110 on campus if so desired. Doug Jones noted that the course could either serve to attract or discourage students from transferring to the University of Illinois, so it is important that it be a positive experience for students appropriate for our department.

   The Committee was supportive of the course in principle, although the formal course proposal review was postponed due to a photocopying error.

4. Steve Levinson proposed that the following Linguistics courses be approved for Technical Elective credit: Ling 300, 402, 406, 407, and 427. After his presentation, the Committee approved these. After some discussion we decided against approving Ling 423.
5. The Committee adjourned at 1:55 PM.