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topics, i.e. failing to give the analysis of the topic
acquisition level, and oftentimes, also the analysis
of the extent. The authors did not find a
confirmation for that the description of the topics
considered in the study course used different
methods, which would allow analyzing the
contents of the study courses.
For instance, the list of topics considered in the
University of Latvia study course “Industry
standards” is as follows:
1. Software Engineering Standards
2. Software Requirements Specification
3. Software Design Description
4. Software Testing Documentation
5. Software User Documentation
3 EXISTING PROBLEMS
In analyzing the quality of the contents of the study
courses taught in the Faculty of Computing of the
University of Latvia, several problems are
identified, the solution whereof would allow
improving the quality of the study program
contents. Following are the most significant of the
said problems:
Control of the study program contents in
accordance with the good practice is encumbered,
for instance, during study program accreditation.
The good practice can include specific
requirements of a group of experts towards the
contents of the study program, or as it is in case of
ICT study programs, correspondence with the
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the
Association for Information Systems (AIS), and
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Computer Society (IEEE-CS) Computer
Curriculum 2005, reflecting the modern
requirements for IT studies (ACM/IEEE, 2006);
Encumbered analysis of conformity of the
study program contents to the general requirements
of the industry or the standard study programs, not
only on the level of the study course titles, but also
on the levels of the considered topics and of
acquisition (heard, understood, practically
applied);
Encumbered rendering of correct information
to the stakeholders, for instance, industry
representatives, about the existence of certain
topics in the study program, such as answering a
question about acquisition of a specific topic in the
particular study program and the level of
acquisition of the topic (heard, understood,
practically applied) and extent (by means of study
sessions);
The provision of reciprocal correspondence of
the study courses on the level of the topics
considered in the study courses is encumbered, i.e.,
the ability to control that the topics in various
study courses do not overlap, as well as the option
to control consideration of all of the necessary
topics within the framework of the study program;
Impossible analysis of information about the
level of acquisition (heard, understood, practically
applied) and extent (by means of study sessions) of
the topics considered in the study courses without
involving the lectors of the particular study
courses;
Analysis of related study courses is
encumbered in establishing the actual study course
prerequisites and in identifying the study courses,
which consider certain topics from various
perspectives;
Ensuring sustainable quality of the study
courses is encumbered in case if changes are
introduced in the study courses both by including
new study courses and by implementing
adjustments to the existing list of topics to be
learned.
The authors enlisted the key problems in the
analysis of the study program contents, which have
been observed by those responsible for elaborating
the study programs when performing the analysis
of the study program analysis in preparing the
study program for accreditation or when
demonstrating the study program to the experts
during the accreditation process.
The task set forth by the authors is to plan an
approach to recording the study course information
in a way that it could solve the above-mentioned
problems for quality control and provision of the
study program contents.
4 CONCEPT CLASSIFICATION
The solution offered by the authors for the quality
control of the study program contents and for
improvement thereof is based on use of concepts.
However concept classification allows to attribute
certain keywords for the concept, as well as to
arrange them in specific groups and subgroups,
thus achieving a multilevel concept classifier. By
use of the concept classifier, the description of the
study course topics can be supplemented with the
relevant record from the concept classifier.
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