Qualifying Exam Process

The faculty have been working on revising the qualifying exam process for the area. Following is a draft of our proposal for the new quals process. We’re sending this out to give you all a heads up. We will publish and formalize this information on a website soon. If you have any questions about the proposed new exam, please do ask!

Why are we changing the quals process?
As the Computers and Education research area, most of us come to this research area with breadth and depth in computing but little formal experience with the field of education or education research. While the process of conducting dissertation research helps give our PhD students depth in one or two aspects of education research, we have few mechanisms for helping you all develop your breadth. We are changing our qualifying exam process to help students gain this breadth of knowledge. We believe that this breadth of perspectives on education research can help you be a better reviewer able to comment on a wider variety of studies, give you more tools to tackle the complex problems in education research, help you collaborate with more people, and stand out in the computing education research community. We hope that helping you prepare for this new qual process will provide you with a wide foundation on which to build upon.

What are we doing to help you prepare for this new process?
First, we are offering a new CS 598 course (section KMC) that will provide you with course credit for reading the literature we expect you to know for the qualifying exam. The course will focus on giving you feedback on your writing to prepare you to write the essay part of your exam. We are also reaffirming that we expect all PhD students in the area to attend the research group and reading group every week. The CS598 course and required quals readings focus on the foundations within the field, which forms the trunk of your research skills tree. These weekly meetings are the branches that will grow from the trunk provided in the CS 598 course. We will help you make connections between newer papers and new research back to the central trunk. We are alerting you to the change in the qualifying exam process at the start of summer so that you can begin preparing. We will publish a reading list soon of literature that we expect you to know.

Overview
The qualifying exam for the Computers and Education Research Area has two parts: a written exam and oral exam. Students must submit a qualifying exam statement by the departmental deadline. The area chair will assign a qualifying exam committee for the student and the committee will decide upon a set of question prompts for the written exam. At least one week before the oral exam, the student will complete their written exam during a 24-hour period. The committee will then review the students’ written exam and discuss the students’ responses during a follow-up 2-hour oral exam.

Requirements

  • The student must have a signed advisor agreement with a faculty member in the Computers and Education Group.
  • The student must take at least one 400- or 500-level course in educational theory with a minimum grade of B+. Students are particularly encouraged to take [QUALIFYING EXAM COURSE]
  • The student must take one 400- or 500-level research methods (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, human-computer interactions methods, and/or educational research methods) course with a minimum grade of B+.
  • Pass the qualifying exam consisting of a written exam and oral exam

Written Exam

  • Due 1 week before the oral exam
  • The student will schedule 2, 4-hour periods within a 36-hour period during which to complete their written exam.
  • The written exam will comprise responses to three questions. Questions may cover readings from a required reading list, topics discussed in [Qualifying Exam Course], and providing a peer review of a research article from the field of Computers and Education.
  • One 4-hour period will focus on two questions about the readings.The student may use whatever notes they have collected prior to the written exam to assist them in answering the written exam questions, but may not use internet searches or other online resources during this part of the exam. The committee will send the student their questions at the start of the 4-hour period.
  • One 4-hour period will focus on providing a peer review. The student may use whatever notes they have collected prior to the written exam and may use internet searches to look-up references cited in the paper. The committee will send the student their article to review at the start of the 4-hour period.
  • The student will write all of the qualifying exam essays in a google doc shared with the committee.
  • Students may work and consult with other students and their advisor in preparation for the written exam but may not consult with other students or faculty about the exam during the 36-hour period. Students may ask their committees clarifying questions.

Oral Exam

  • The student will begin by briefly summarizing (< 20 minutes) their responses to the written exam
  • The remainder of the oral exam will be a Q&A by the committee focused primarily on responses to the written exam and may also explore questions related to the required readings not explored by the written exam.
  • The oral exam will take about 1.5 hours but students should schedule 2 hours for the exam.

Qualifying Exam Committee
The Area Chair will assemble a qualifying exam committee (henceforth the “committee”) that will include 3-4 members of the Core Faculty. Other faculty members with graduate advising privileges with relevant computing and/or education expertise may be substituted. The PhD advisor is not a member of the committee.  If the Area Chair is the PhD advisor, then the list of proposed committee members will be assembled by another Core Faculty member.  The Chair of the committee must be a Core Faculty member.