SIGITE FY'04 Annual Report

July 2003 - June 2004
Submitted by: Edith A. Lawson, SIGITE Chair

SIGITE has successfully completed its first year as a provisional SIG and has accomplished all of the goals that were established for this year and has exceeded them.

Conference and Workshops

SIGITE held its annual conference, SIGITE 2003, at the Holiday Inn Select in West Lafayette in October hosted by Department of Computer Technology, School of Technology at Purdue University. John Mendonca of Purdue served as the site coordinator and chair of the conference assisted by co-chairs Sue Conners and Jeff Brewer. Richard Helps was the program chair coordinating the assistance of several volunteers who served as reviewers.

The technical tracks were expanded this year to include a poster session. There were 50 technical papers and 10 poster presentations in 10 scheduled sessions. Richard Helps organized the papers evaluation and the production of the conference proceedings. In addition to the technical tracks curriculum and accreditation continue to be major subjects of interest and concern. Committee updates on these topics were presented and input sessions held with those interested in participating.

There were 116 attendees (102 were pre-registered). Attendees included representatives from 38 different institutions/geographical locations. This included two international attendees (one from Malta and the other from the United Arab Emirates). The conference marked the dissolution of the Society for Information Technology Education (SITE), the organization name under which the group previously operated.

SIGITE sponsored and conducted a workshop with the cooperation of SIGCSE at the SIGCSE2004 conference in Norfolk, Virginia, on the process and preparation for accreditation. The workshop was a success with over 30 people in attendance.

Finances

Financially SIGITE is sound with a positive balance entering our second year that is above the minimum required. The conference produced approximately $1,900 in profit, dues generated $8,860 in revenue, and subscriptions and proceedings produced $1,445. SIGITE had an ending balance of $15, 979.

E-Newsletter

SIGITE distributes a newsletter semi-annually by electronic distribution to all members. The second newsletter released in July 2004 was expanded to include reviewed articles submitted to the editor. This edition contained three articles outlining novel approaches to some of the teaching challenges we all face, while the fourth is concerned with accreditation of our programs.

Committee Activities

The Accreditation Committee has successfully completed preparation of the draft criteria for professional accreditation that was submitted to CSAB. CSAB and CAC (Computing Accreditation Commission) have approved the draft and passed the recommendation to the Board of ABET that the criteria be approved and posted for first reading.

The Curriculum Committee has been working on a model curriculum for the IT discipline and has held several meetings over the last year. The initiative has adopted the format of the CC2001 format and should produce a completed first draft in the next year. Current progress has been shared with Russ Shackelford of the ACM ED Board and other members of ACM.

Future Challenges

We are still a new SIG learning the policies and procedures of being a SIG. We need to become familiar with the election process and how to present a slate of candidates for election.

We have started efforts to actively include community college educators and build a strong relationship between the two- and four-year programs. We are hoping to include a special session for two-year colleges in our next conference and hope to expand the membership to include representation from this area.

We need to establish a better process for involving volunteers who want to become more involved with the organization. The executive committee needs to expand the opportunities for participation in the organization.