The department now has three capstone courses. CSIS 496 Seminar in Computer Science is the long-standing capstone course for computer science majors, CS comprehensive majors, and Airway CS majors. CSIS 497 is a new capstone course this year for computer information systems majors and comprehensive CSI majors. CSIS 880 is the capstone course that is offered every third summer for the CSIS component of the MSEd in Instructional Technology.

Students in the capstone courses produce software packages or equivalent products of a marketable quality while demonstrating the ability to work with team members, to analyze, design, program and maintain a system, and to use the tools of the field. The later includes selection of and proficiency in an appropriate computer languages, computer assisted software engineering tools, operating environment, and project management software. Students are also required to demonstrate professionalism while engaging in their team work and presenting the team's results at year end.

Capstones courses culminate in formal presentations to which the entire campus community is invited. Oral questions and written evaluations are solicited from all present. The senior faculty then evaluates the projects and suggests any program upgrade that is indicated. Capstone Course (1992-94) Students in the capstone courses, CSIS 496, produce software packages of marketable quality while demonstrating the ability to work with team members, to analyze, design, program, and maintain a system, to use the tools of the field, i.e. selection of and proficiency in a language, selection of and use of computer assisted software engineering, and selection and ability to use an operating environment, and to display professional attitudes for presentations. The capstones culminate in a campus wide presentation of the projects. Questions and evaluations, both oral and written are solicited from all present. The senior faculty then evaluates the projects and suggests any program upgrade that is indicated.

Percentage of evaluations in each category
Question	Inferior	Below average	Average	Above average	Superior
How would you rate the quality of the product?	1.2%	1.2%	16.7%	46.2%	34.6%
How would you rate the quality of the presentation?	0.0%	2.5%	12.35%	41.98%	43.2%

    From the information described above the faculty of the department concluded that students in their senior year are able to assess a clients needs, build a high quality software product, and effectively present that product to a varied audience.

One team created the web site for the Buffalo County Offices. Two groups reversed-engineered and recreated software for campus offices; one was a payroll package for the Calvin T. Ryan Library; the other, a database for the Student Employment Services office. Five teams accomplished projects for Kearney Public Schools. Some of those related to the maintenance work order system that was built by seminar teams in 1999. Others revolved around a new system to handle employment applications. The KPS projects involved creating or expanding database applications or building web interfaces for those applications. The economic impact of such projects is $120,000, using conservative estimates of 300 man-hours per project and a $50 per hour rate that a consultant might have charged for the same projects.

Computer science senior seminar students performed as well as teams had in past years, with an average grade of "A" and the lowest grade of a "B." Therefore, the CSIS faculty judged that the computer science portion of the department is operating as it is designed. However, the grade distribution for the computer information systems senior seminar class was somewhat disappointing. The class average was a "B" and only four students earned grades of "A." Many students would have received higher grades except for their performance on the project. The faculty will examine the situation closely in the fall to determine whether the grade distribution was an anomaly or whether program changes are in order.

One of the capstone courses, CSIS880 Seminar in Educational Technology, was not offered in 1998-99 as there were no students in the M.S.Ed. in Instructional Technology program ready for that course.

In spring 1999, sixteen computer science students in three teams completed CSIS496 Seminar in Computer Science. One team worked on web-based software for Nebraska Public Power District and for UNK offices. The other two teams worked on various aspects of elaborate programs for a firm in Austin, Texas.

Also in spring 1998, fifteen computer information systems students in three teams completed CSIS497 Seminar in Computer Information Systems. Two teams created software for Kearney Public Schools to manage work orders and to track inventory. The third team reverse engineered and upgraded a software package for Nebraska Public Power District.

All seminar teams performed very well and students effectively demonstrated their prerequisite knowledge to the faculty’s satisfaction. The final projects were well done and the presentations were thorough. The outcomes of these capstone courses indicate that the curriculum is fundamentally sound and no major changes are in store.

In July 1997, twenty-eight students participated in CSIS 880 Seminar in Educational Technology, cooperating in six teams to create templates to be used to package courses for on-line and web-based delivery. Team members demonstrated well their grasp of the fundamentals of the CSIS courses in the MSEd in Instructional Technology program, as well as considerable creativity as they generated six widely differing templates.

In spring 1998, eleven CS students in two teams in CSIS 496 Seminar in Computer Science greatly expanded upon the concepts designed by the CSIS 880 students. They created a template for UNK Natural and Social Science departments to use to build their departmental web pages, some of which will include web-based instructional materials. The CS seminar teams also developed the web sites for several campus departments (Economics, Alumni Association, Intramural Sports) as well as outstanding UNK campus and UNK web site maps.

Also in spring 1998, sixteen CIS students completed CSIS 497 Seminar in Computer Information Systems. As two teams, they completed two complex systems for Kearney Public Schools. The inventory control system and the maintenance request tracking system were each written in File Maker Pro database system (the choice of KPS) and are designed to allow administrators from each school building to interface with the system through the web.

All seminar teams performed very well and students effectively demonstrated their prerequisite knowledge to the faculty's satisfaction.

The final project presentations in CSIS496 and CSIS497 were extremely creative and the consensus was that all four were among the all-time best seminar presentations. The outcome of these capstone courses indicate that the curriculum is fundamentally sound and no major changes are in store.

All senior seminar group projects were very well done. CIS students developed three separate accounting information systems. The systems were for payroll, accounts receivable and accounts payable applications.

CS students engaged in projects to implement UNK's new world wide web page format. One activity was to develop templates which allow campus departments to easily create and maintain departmental pages in compliance with the new UNK standards. Other activities included creation of more elaborate pages for specific departments such as admissions and the graduate office. Those pages allow prospective students to submit information via the web to get additional enrollment information.

In 1995-96, minor changes have been made to several courses based on student performance in capstone courses. The patterns of course offerings has also been changed to better prepare students for their future successes.

The CSIS880, CSIS496 and CSIS497 students combined a 2-3 person team approach to the study of ethics in the information age. The teams researched and led the class in discussing specific topics in ethics. In all cases, the students were capable of performing this task. The lowest grade for these presentations was a "B" and "A-" was the average grade.

In CSIS880, students worked individually to apply their knowledge of their chosen academic discipline, the knowledge of curriculum development, and their skills in using the technology of the Internet to develop Internet-based lesson plans. All performed very well in this effort. The result is a collection of lesson plans for which the intention is to interest a publisher, with students receiving credit for their efforts and monetary proceeds retained to support the department in similar future efforts.

In CSIS496 and CSIS497, students worked together in teams of four or five to create realistic software systems. The four CIS (CSIS497) students analyzed, designed and constructed a mainframe COBOL accounts receivable system. The emphasis of that project was on analysis and design. Three teams of CS (CSIS496) students worked on projects that was more oriented toward engineering of complex algorithms using object-oriented programming concepts and the TechoJock Pascal code generator. The three projects were

1. The Solicitor, a system for use by a university foundation in its telephone gift solicitation campaign,
2. The Grader, a system for use by university faculty to maintain grade book pages and perform extensive cross analysis of students, classes, and graded items, and
3. The Evaluator, a system for use by department chairs to analyze student evaluations of faculty in a wide variety of ways.

All CSIS496 and CSIS497 projects were done well, judged to be at the "A" or "A-" level. The contribution of individual team members was relatively consistent, with most students earning grades of from "A" to "B" and a couple at the "C" level. When project and ethics presentation grades were combined, all students passed CSIS496 or 497 with a grade of "C" or higher.

Two significant problems arose with the senior seminar team projects. First, teams had some trouble getting and staying on track causing faculty to determine students' project management skills need to be addresses. Toward that end, Professors Jussel and Carpenter had consulted to Nebraska Educational Television Consortium for Higher Education (NETCHE) to create a 30-minute video called "Making Your Team Work." Unfortunately, the video, which was supposed to be ready for the beginning of the semester, did not arrive until final week. It will be very useful in the future to improve the teamwork aspect of senior seminar classes.

The other problem arose in the final team project presentations. Only one team made its presentation without significant computer system problems. Ironically, that was the team which appeared to be the best prepared to handle such problems.

Obviously, there needs to be better instruction and more preparation for the team presentations. To facilitate that, the presentations were video taped to be shown to next subsequent years' seminar students. To overcome computer hardware and software difficulties, the CSIS department will plan to replace classroom presentation systems before the next time the seminar courses are taught. The entire university community was invited to the team project presentation session. Those who attended were asked to evaluate the quality of the students' projects and the quality of the presentations. Approximately sixty evaluation forms were turned in. Most of the audience rated the quality of the presentations lower than the quality of the systems being presented. Audience ratings of the projects were lower than the rating of the course instructors. Obviously, the instructors knew the software more intimately than did the audience, which formed its opinion based on brief exposure. The lower ratings provide additional evidence that more work needs to go into preparing for the presentations. The low quality of the presentation apparently adversely affected the perception of the quality of the overall project.

The two software maintenance projects were performed very well and both packages are judged to be marketable. Both of the new software projects undertaken by senior seminar students this year still need additional work in order to be fully complete. One was judged by the instructor to be of A quality, while the other was judged to be a C quality project overall.

Senior seminar students, were required to give a twenty minute presentation on each of the four packages in a public session at the end of the semester. Written feedback was solicited from those in attendance who were not senior seminar students. Thirty-one evaluation forms were submitted, with evaluators asked to rate on a five point scale the quality of the software and the quality of the presentation. Ratings and other written comments align with the instructor's evaluation discussed above. Three of the packages were judged to be quite good, with two of those deemed to be marketable. The fourth package was rated to be an average product. Comments were generally favorable regarding the four student presentations.

The various methods of evaluating the skills portion of the senior seminar course all indicate that graduating seniors indeed had been well prepared by their prerequisite course work. All of the senior seminar students passed the course with at least a C and with the class average grade of an A-.

A similar computer information systems senior seminar course has been added recently and will be offered in Spring 1995.