Department of Computer Science and Information Technology (CS/IT) of the Southern University of Bangladesh

Methods of Instruction:

CS/IT is the technical department of the university, therefore, the department has developed and adopted some various means and mode of instructions to help students absorb, understand and better prepare for the real world environment. Keeping the students in mind, we have developed our programs with different modes of instructional methods, which are discussed below:

1. Traditional Lecturing: Since this is the primary method of instruction we too kept it to deliver lectures on basic and theoretical aspects of a course or program. The medium of instruction at Southern University is English. To stay competitive, we follow the internationally standard textbooks that are used at different renowned universities around the world.

2. Practical Instruction: In most of the technical subjects it is imperative to have practical instructions. Therefore, most of our CS/IT courses have built-in practical modules in the program where the instructor following a demonstration allows the students to practice the concepts and materials learnt in the computer labs. Individual assignments and group projects are designed for the students to measure their learning abilities and grade them accordingly.

3. Written Assignments: Along with the practical projects, normally a written report is also required. This gives the students to learn the importance of documentation and the procedures to do it right. Apart from the practical report some theoretical reports are also required in some course. A percentage of grades are also allocated for it.

4. Group Projects: In real life, most of the IT related projects are done on a team work environment normally under a team leader or project manager. Therefore, to develop students mentality to work together, group project assignments are also given and graded. All group projects are followed by group presentations with a written group report where every student within the group takes part.

5. Individual Assignments and Presentations: Often times, a technical person is required to offer presentations to a target group to explain a project or a technical product. As such, we to have integrated the presentations as part of the training and learning step for the students. The idea behind is to help the students to become easy and efficient with presentations, so that they would not fear it in real life. Normally students appear before the classroom audience for a formal presentation and introduces their project and defends it at the question and answer session at the end. A written report is also required for all assignments and presentations.

6. Site Visits: If and when possible, we arrange for a site tour at different IT related businesses to give the students an exposure to the real world setup of a business engaged in IT area. There they get to see the arrangement they have and the way they do business, while having the opportunity to interact with the technical persons there by asking technical questions. After each visit, each student is required to submit an "Experience Report" and share their personal views and understanding in the following class.

7. Audio-Visual Presentations: Whenever available, we show our students audio-visuals as a part of teaching method to help them get exposure to something which could not be shown or demonstrated otherwise. Sometimes, it is an Internet based demonstration that are available freely on the net. The department has all the multimedia equipments to handle the demonstrations in classroom.

8. Internships: Since Southern University is a trust and behind it are many corporate giants, we often time arrange for paid or volunteer internships for students when they near graduation. This part of the program normally takes place at the end of the program. Often times, our graduates are offered a position in the organization where the internship takes place.

9. Attendance: Throughout the program, we stress on 100% attendance. To maintain and encourage a student not to miss a class a percentage of the grade is allocated to credit attendance, which is normally 10% of the total grade.

Marking and grading are spread over to cover all the mode of instructions to judge a students performance. Therefore, a student is not judged only on the basis of examinations alone.

Expected Workload: Students should expect to spend around 10 hours per week working on this course. Typically this will consist of:

 Assessment Schedule: Assessment as a percentage of the final grade:

Grading System: As per university policy.