Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science

Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science

1. Introduction
   The Ministry of Education of Ethiopia has announced the implementation of exit exam for all
   undergraduate program students (public and private), beginning with the 2022/2023 academic year, in
   order to improve the quality of graduates produced by higher learning institutions. The exit exam aimed
   at checking whether students have acquired the required knowledge, skills and attitudes or not. To
   implement this, it requires determining competency areas for a specific program, which is already
   completed. Based on the competency areas prepared, it needs to plan the construction of tests.
   Planning of a test is a first and vital step in the construction of an achievement test. An achievement test
   demands very systematic and careful planning, as a fact that good planning is a symbol of success. Tests
   are the tools that provide scores that measure level of student learning and study program learning
   outcomes. In order to achieve the valid and reliable measurement of student learning and program learning
   outcomes, the development of valid and reliable test is the mandatory. Test should be able to measure
   student performance in all dimensions of knowledge, skill and attitude. The carefully planned test
   construction contributes to improve the overall quality of the test in terms of test content validity, difficulty
   level, discrimination power and test reliability. Test preparation is not an easy task; it requires a careful
   planning and guideline to make the task simple. Test construction needs the preparation of test blue print.
   Test blueprint is defined as a complete plan that explains how to develop a test. The term refers to a map
   or specification of assessment to ensure that all aspects of the curriculum and educational domains are
   covered by the assessment programs over a specified period of time. It helps curriculum developers/test
   constructors to match various competencies with the course content and the appropriate modality of
   assessment.
   Generally, test blueprint will help to ensure tests: 1) Appropriately assess the achievement of instructional
   objectives of the course; 2) Appropriately reflect key course goals, objectives and the material learned or
   covered during the instruction period; and 3) Include the appropriate item formats along with the
   knowledge and skills being assessed.
   Keeping this in mind, the team has prepared this test blueprint document in order to help the test
   developers or content specialists in their process of valid and reliable test construction. The major points
   considered in the process of preparing this test blue print guideline were the core competencies that have
   been already identified for the themes of courses, the course contents, course credit hours, and the learning
   outcomes with their corresponding levels of achievement by learning domains. In line with this, the
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   primary goal of this blueprint is to determine the number of test items across themes and courses, as well
   as the mapping between learning outcomes and skill sets for the computer science BSc program.
2. Objective of test blueprint
   Test blueprint preparation is generally opted to assist the preparation of a test that is representative,
   broadly sampled, and consisting of complete knowledge domain expected of the Ethiopian higher
   education students on completion of their study program. The specific objectives of test blueprint are to:
    Facilitate the construction of a representative and balanced test items for the selected courses
   in accordance with the competencies identified.
    Guide test developers or writers to write or set appropriate test items.
3. Expected profiles of graduates
   The expected graduate profile of computer science graduates is outlined below in terms of the three basic
   metrics mentioned above.
   3.1. Knowledge
   Graduates of computer science are expected to understand both the theoretical and practical aspects of
   field, as well as the role of computing systems in general. To this end, the ability to apply or justify
   concepts, methods, and computational proficiency in the field is required. It is, therefore, critical to have
   comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the following topics:
    The fundamental concepts, principles and theories of computation and the application of
   computers.
    Software Fundamentals and programming languages
    Systems architecture and infrastructure
    Systems modeling
    Structuring of data and information
    Hardware
    Trends and developments in computer science
   3.2. Skills
   The following skills are also expected from computer science graduates:
    Remembering emerging technologies
    Understanding computer architecture and operating systems
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    Applying programming languages and software tools to address issues in the real world
    Analyzing existing computing infrastructures and architectures
    Evaluating systems in terms of general quality attributes and potential tradeoffs
    Creating computer artifacts to solve societal problems by applying system modeling,
   development, and implementation principles
   3.3. Attitudes
   Graduates of computer science are expected to have a wide range of transferable skills (attitudes),
   including
    Teamwork: Capable of making a valuable contribution to a development team.
    Communication: Briefly explain technical problems and how to solve them to a range of
   audiences.
    Handling Ethical Issues in Computer Technology: Recognize and follow the social, professional,
   and ethical issues that arise from the use of computer technology.