Engineering Commons^™

In 2009 DePaul University’s College of Computing and Digital Media (DePaul CDM) discovered a significant lag in undergraduate retention rates as well as four, five and six-year graduation rates as compared to other major colleges at the university. DePaul CDM’s investment in online student service resources had over time caused the unintentional reinvention of the college advising office into one that supported a very limited number of students, focusing primarily on students either in academic distress or students nearing graduation. 

In an effort to modify the advising culture at DePaul CDM into a more proactive one, a strategic student service …

Many information technology educators have worked in recent years to develop courses to attract students to the field. As faculty achieve success with technical courses designed to be appeal to a broad audience, it can be hard to maintain the initial excitement particularly as multiple sections of the courses are taught on a continuing basis. In this article we describe a project that added peer evaluation to an assessment in a game design course with a large non-major audience. While controversial, peer evaluation has shown some promise in motivating students to work harder and in improving certain key skills. Consistent …