Computing
Preamble
The Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) is for the degree programmes in the Computing discipline stipulates the minimum academic requirements for the training of undergraduates in various programmes in the discipline. The document is therefore expected to be used as a guide by degree awarding institutions in Nigeria when designing curricula for Bachelor programmes in the discipline. Institutions are however encouraged to exceed the stipulated minimum standards while bringing necessary innovation into the content and delivery of their programmes for the training in the computing discipline.
The new core curriculum minimum academic standard (CCMAS) is intended towards producing graduates with knowledge, practical skills, soft skills and competencies to fit in for the 21st century. In addition to five general courses for the computing discipline, the global course structure of CCMAS contains 60 units of core courses. Universities are at liberty to add other relevant courses including innovative courses in computing to make up for the minimum of 120 units required for graduation by the students. The course contents for all the core courses, including the learning outcomes for each course, is provided for effective content delivery.
Programmes and Degrees
Presented in Table 1.1 is a list of programmes and degrees covered in this CCMAS document. The list covers existing programmes being currently run in various faculties/schools/colleges of computing in Nigeria as well as some new programmes in line with current global trends in required skill acquisition in the sciences. The contents of many courses of existing programmes have also been modified in consonance with modern trends in the requisite knowledge and skills of computing.
Table 1.1 List of programmes and degrees
| S/N | Programme | Degree in View |
| 1 | Computer Science | B.Sc. |
| 2 | Cybersecurity | B.Sc. |
| 3 | Data Science | B.Sc. |
| 4 | Information and Communication Technology | B.Sc. |
| 5 | Information Systems | B.Sc. |
| 6 | Information Technology | B.Sc. |
| 7 | Software Engineering | B.Sc. |
Philosophy
The philosophy of computing is concerned with the analysis, design, and development of software and hardware systems for specific purposes. In particular, computing encompasses a broad-based exposure to the concepts, theories, technologies of computing, practices and experiences that are utilised for solving problems in all aspects of human endeavour through building safe, reliable, secure and resilient computer systems.
Objectives of the discipline
The broad objectives of the discipline are to:
- Apply the principles and practices of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in the design and construction of computer-based systems;
- Advance the frontiers of computing by developing effective ways for solving computing problems;
- Prepare students to meet the computer technology needs of business, government, healthcare, schools, and other kinds of organisations;
- Provide training on integrating information technology solutions and business processes to meet the information needs of businesses and other enterprises, enabling them to achieve their objectives in an effective, efficient way;
- Provide advanced coverage on developing and maintaining affordable software systems that meet customer requirements and that behave reliably and efficiently;
- Provide training and develop competency in data engineering, big data and data analytics; and
- Provide technical knowledge, principles, technologies and tools required for safeguarding the computer systems, cyberspace and network infrastructure of organisations as well as the data stored on those systems.
Basic Admission Requirements and Expected Duration of the Programmes
There are two different pathways by which candidates can be admitted into programmes in the discipline:
- Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME)
- Direct Entry
Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) Pathway
In addition to appropriate UTME score, a candidate must possess five Senior Secondary
Certificate (SSC)-credit passes including English Language, Mathematics, Physics and any other relevant Science subjects in not more than two sittings.
Direct Entry (3-Year Degree Programme)
A minimum of a credit at the University/National Diploma or NCE with other five Senior School Certificate (SSC) credit passes in relevant science subjects three (3) of which must be in English Language, Mathematics, Physics.
Minimum duration
The minimum duration of computing programmes is four (4) academic sessions or eight (8) consecutively-run semesters for candidates who enter through the UTME Mode. Direct Entry candidates admitted into the 200 level of their programmes will spend a minimum of three academic sessions or six (6) consecutively-run semesters.
Graduation requirements
To be eligible for the award of the Bachelor degree in any of the Computing degree programme, a student must have:
- passed all the core courses, university and faculty/school required courses and electives;
- accumulated a minimum of 120 course units for students admitted through UTME and 90 course units for students admitted to 200 level; and
- attain a minimum CGPA of 1.00.
To graduate, a student must be found worthy in character throughout the period of his/her studentship and must accumulate the total units prescribed for the programme from Core, Faculty and General Studies courses as well as SIWES, Seminar and Final Year Project.
General Definition of Common Terms and Principles Governing the Course Unit System and Graduation
Credit course system description
General definition of common terms and principles governing the course unit system and graduation
Course System
All programmes in the Nigerian University System (NUS) shall be run on a modularised system, commonly referred to as Course Unit System. All courses should therefore be sub-divided into more or less self-sufficient and logically consistent packages that are taught within a semester and examined at the end of that particular semester.
Credits are weights attached to a course. One credit is equivalent to one hour per week per semester of 15 weeks of lectures or three hours of laboratory/studio/ workshop work per week per semester of 15 weeks. In addition to the current 15 weeks semester system, universities should be encouraged to inaugurate a blended system which is based partly on physical contacts and partly using virtual or online platforms.
Definition of Course System
This should be understood to mean a quantitative system of organization of the curriculum in which subject areas are broken down into unit courses which are examinable and for which students earn credit(s) if passed. The courses are arranged in progressive order of complexity or in levels of academic progress, e.g., Level I courses are 100, 101 and Level II courses are 200, 202. The second aspect of the system is that courses are assigned weights allied to Units.
Units
Consist of specified number of student-teacher contact hours per week per semester. Units are used in two complementary ways: one, as a measure of course weighting, and the other, as an indicator of student workload.
- As a measure of course weighting for each unit course, the credit unit to be earned for satisfactorily completing the course is specified; e.g. a 2-credit unit course may mean two 1-hour lectures per week per semester or one 1-hour lecture plus 3-hour practical per week per semester.
- As a measure of workload, “One Credit Unit” means one hour of lecture or one hour of tutorial per week per semester. For other forms of teaching requiring student-teacher contact, the following equivalents may apply:
two hours of seminar: three hours of laboratory or field work, Clinical practice/practicum, studio practice or stadium sporting activity, six hours of teaching practice; four weeks of industrial attachment where applicable.
Normally, in the Credit Course System, courses are mounted all year round, thus enabling students to participate in examinations in which they are unsuccessful or unable to participate on account of ill health or for other genuine reasons. In such a system, no special provisions are made for re-sit examinations.
The minimum number of credit units for the award of a degree is 120 units, subject to the usual department and faculty requirements. A student shall therefore qualify for the award of a degree when he or she has met the conditions. The minimum credit load per semester is 15 credit units.
For the purpose of calculating a student’s cumulative GPA (CGPA) in order to determine the class of degree to be awarded, grades obtained in all the courses whether compulsory or optional and whether passed or failed must be included in the computation.
Even when a student repeats the same course once or more before passing it or substitutes another course for a failed optional course, grades scored at each and all attempts shall be included in the computation of the GPA. Prerequisite courses must be taken and passed before a particular course at a higher level.
Grading of courses
Grading of courses shall be done by a combination of percentage marks and letter grades translated into a graduated system of Grade Point as shown in Table 1.2.
Table 1.2 Grade point system
| Mark % | Letter Grade | Grade Point |
| 70 – 100 | A | 5.0 |
| 60 – 69 | B | 4.0 |
| 50 – 59 | C | 3.0 |
| 45 – 49 | D | 2.0 |
| 40 – 44 | E | 1.0 |
| 0 – 39 | F | 0 |
Grade Point Average and Cumulative Grade Point Average
For the purpose of determining a student’s standing at the end of every semester, the Grade Point Average (GPA) system shall be used. The GPA is computed by dividing the product of the total number of units x grade point (TUGP) by the total number of units (TNU) for all the courses taken (whether passed or failed) in the semester as illustrated in Table 1.3.
The Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) over a period of semesters is calculated in the same manner as the GPA by using the grade points of all the courses taken during the period.
Table 1.3 Calculation of GPA or CGPA
| Course | Units | Grade Point | Units x Grade Point (UGP) |
| C1 | U1 | GP1 | U1 x GP1 |
| C2 | U2 | GP2 | U2 x GP2 |
| – | – | – | – |
| – | – | – | – |
| Ci | Ui | GPi | Ui x GPi |
| – | – | – | – |
| – | – | – | – |
| CN | UN | GPN | UN x GPN |
| TOTAL | TNU | TUGP |
Degree classification
The determination of the class of degree shall be based on the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) earned at the end of the programme. The CGPA shall be used in the determination of the class of degree as summarised in Table 1.4. It is important to note that the CGPA shall be calculated and expressed correctly to two decimal places.
Table 1.4 Degree classification
| Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) | Class of Degree |
| 4.50 – 5.00
3.50 – 4.49 2.40 – 3.49 1.50 – 2.39 1.00 – 1.49 |
1st Class Honours
2nd Class Honours (Upper Division) 2nd Class Honours (Lower Division) 3rd Class Honours Pass |
The maximum length of time allowed to obtain an honours degree in the Faculty of Science shall be ten semesters for the 4-year degree programme and eight semesters for students admitted through Direct Entry.
Students who transfer from other universities shall be credited with only those courses deemed relevant to their programmes of study, which they have already passed prior to their transfer. Such students shall however be required to pass the minimum number of units specified for graduation for the number of sessions he/she has spent in the Faculty; provided that no student shall spend less than two sessions (4 semesters) in order to earn a degree. Students who transfer from another programme in the Faculty or other Faculties for any approved reason shall be credited with those units passed that are within the curriculum of the programme to which he/she has transferred. Appropriate decisions on transfer cases shall be subjected to the approval of Senate on the recommendation of the Faculty.
Probation
A student whose Cumulative Grade Point Average is below 1.00 at the end of a particular year of study, earns a period of probation for one academic session. A student on probation is allowed to register for courses at the next higher level in addition to his/her probation level courses provided that:
- the regulation in respect of student workload is complied with; and
- the prerequisite courses for the higher-level courses have been passed.
Withdrawal
A candidate whose Cumulative Grade Point Average is below 1.00 at the end of a particular year of probation should be required to withdraw from the University.
Evaluation
Techniques of student assessment
Practicals
By the nature of the programmes in Science, laboratory practicals are very important in the training of students. To reflect the importance of practical work, a minimum of 9 hours per week or 135 hours per semester (equivalent to 3 units) should be spent on students’ laboratory practicals. Consequently, some of the courses have both theory and practical components. Thus, in the description of courses to be taken in any programme, as presented in Section 2, the number of lecture contact hours (LH) and the number of practical contact hours (PH) per semester are indicated. The overall performance of students in such courses is to be based on the evaluation of the performance in written examination (which tests theory) and also the performance in the laboratory work (based on actual conduct of experiments and the reports of such experiments).
The experiments to achieve the practical components of the courses must be designed in quality and quantity to enrich students’ grasp of the theoretical foundations of the courses. It is left for the department to organise all the experiments in the best way possible. One of the ways to achieve this is to lump all the laboratory practicals under a course, which a student must pass.
Tutorials
The timetable for courses shall be designed to make provision for tutorials of at least one hour for every four hours of lecture. Thus a 3-unit course of 45 hours per week should attract about 10 hours of tutorials.
Continuous assessments
- Continuous assessment shall be done through essays, tests, homework, practical exercises, etc.
- Scores from continuous assessment shall normally constitute 30% of the full marks for courses which are primarily theoretical.
- For courses which are partly practical and partly theoretical, scores from continuous assessment may constitute 40% of the final marks.
- For courses that are entirely practical, continuous assessment shall be based on a student’s practical work or reports and shall constitute 100% of the final marks.
Examinations
In addition to continuous assessment, final examinations should normally be given for every course at the end of each semester. All courses shall be graded out of a maximum of 100 marks comprising:
Final Examination: 60% – 70%
Continuous assessment (Quizzes, Homework, Tests): 30% – 40%
Each course shall normally be completed and examined at the end of the semester in which it is offered. A written examination shall normally last a minimum of one hour for one unit course.
External examiner system
The involvement of external examiners from other universities is a crucial quality assurance requirement for all courses in Nigerian University System. In this regard, external examiner should go beyond mere moderation of examination questions to examining of examination papers to scope and depth of examination questions vis a vis the curricular expectation.
SIWES rating and assessment
All students taking any degree in Computing must undergo industrial training in order to earn a minimum of 6 credit units. The minimum duration of the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) should be 24 weeks. Students should be assessed using the Log Book, a report and a Seminar.
Students’ evaluation of courses
There should be an established mechanism to enable students to evaluate courses delivered to them at the end of each semester. This should be an integral component of the course system; serving as feedback mechanism for achieving the following:
- improvement in the effectiveness of course delivery;
- continual update of lecture materials to incorporate emerging new concepts;
- effective usage of teaching aids and tools to maximise impact of knowledge on students; and
- improvement in students’ performance through effective delivery of tutorials, timely conduct of continuous assessment and high quality examination.
The evaluation should be conducted preferably before the final semester examinations. It is very important that students’ evaluation of courses be administered fairly and transparently through the use of well-designed questionnaires. The completed questionnaires should be professionally analysed and results discussed with course lecturers towards improvement in course delivery in all its ramifications.
Maintenance of curricular relevance
Using the CCMAS as a guide, the curriculum in each discipline should be reviewed from time to time to determine the continued relevance and fitness of purpose.
The NUC, in its role as the national quality assurance agency on university programmes, shall subject the benchmark statements for review periodically.
It is recommended that universities review their programme, at least once in five years, using the current quality assurance benchmark statements.
Unless otherwise essential for particular programmes, all science programmes in a university should be reviewed at the same time. A committee of staff senior enough and competent to carry out an effective review shall perform each curriculum review. The review shall include an assessment as to whether the goals and objectives of the programme as formulated are still relevant.
Reviews should endeavour to incorporate the opinions of relevant stakeholders such as students, staff, external examiners, employers, professional bodies, policy makers, etc.
Each curriculum so revised should be subjected to consideration and approval at the levels of Department, Faculty/Colleges, and Senate in the University. Specifically, a good review should examine the curriculum and resources in accordance with the following criteria:
- re-assessment/re-formulation of goals and objectives of the programme in relation to the needs of the learners and market requirements taking into account the broader aspects of the discipline.
- the market demands of the graduates now and in the future, in terms of skills needed to function competitively in the current labour market on a global scale.
- relevance of the current content in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes being taught/developed and how these meet the needs of the present and future requirements of the clientele.
- how the teaching and learning methods meet or fall short of current and future standards of comparable programmes.
- the quality of teaching and learning materials used.
- outcomes of learning in terms of success, experience of learners (pass rate, knowledge and skills acquisition, professional capability and integrity) as contributed by the programme.
- the views of employers and community members on the quality and relevance of the curriculum.
Performance evaluation criteria
The accreditation of the Computing degree programme means a system of recognising educational institutions/universities and programmes offered by them for a level of performance, integrity and quality which entitles them to the confidence of the educational and professional community, the public they serve, and employers of labour.
The objectives of the accreditation exercise are to:
- ensure that at least the provisions of the benchmark minimum academic standards are attained, maintained and enhanced;
- assure employers and other members of the community that graduates of these institutions have attained an acceptable level of competence in their areas of specialisation; and
- Certify to the international community that the programmes offered in these universities are of high standards and that their graduates are adequate for employment and for admission for further studies.
COURSE STRUCTURE AND SYNOPSES OF COMMON COURSES FOR UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMMES IN COMPUTING
There are some basic courses which are offered in most of the degree programmes in the computing discipline particularly at the 100 level. The rationale is to ensure that all undergraduate students in the Faculty of Computing have the required basic training in the core basic science programmes. These common courses consist of basic courses in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics as well as the General Studies courses. The Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) is also compulsory for Computing Science programmes.
Common courses
The common courses are basically in the following four categories:
- Courses in core basic sciences of Mathematics and Physics
- Faculty courses (COS)
- General Studies (GST)
- Entrepreneurship
- Student Industrial Work Experience (SIWES
Common basic courses
The basic science courses which students of most degree programmes in Computing have to register for at the 100 Level are:
From Faculty of Science
Course Code Course Title Course Units
MTH101 General Mathematics I 3
MTH 102 General Mathematics II 3
PHY101 General Physics I 3
PHY 102 General Physics II 3
PHY107 General Practical Physics I 1
PHY 108 General Practical Physics II 1
From Faculty of Computing
The basic computing courses which students in the discipline have to register for are:
Course Code Course Title Course Units
COS 101 Introduction to Computing 3
COS 102 Problem Solving 3
COS 201 Computer Programming I 3
COS 202 Computer Programming II 3
COS 409 Research Methodology and Technical Report Writing 3
General Studies (GST)
Students are expected to pass a minimum of 10 units of GST courses.
General Studies: Course structure
| Course Code | Course Title | Units and Status | LH | PH |
| GST 111 | Communication in English | 2C | 15 | 45 |
| GST 112 | Nigerian Peoples and Culture | 2C | 30 | 0 |
| GST 212 | Philosophy, Logic and Human Existence | 2C | 30 | 0 |
| ENT 211 | Entrepreneurship and Innovation | 2C | 30 | 0 |
| GST 312 | Peace and Conflict Resolution | 2C | 30 | 0 |
| ENT 312 | Venture Creation | 2C | 15 | 45 |
| TOTAL | 12 units |
Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES)
An important aspect of the education and training of science students in the universities is organised exposure to some elements of industrial art as articulated below under the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES). This is being emphasised herein in view of the rather poor handling of SIWES, in some existing universities in the country.
Universities are expected to establish a SIWES Unit to coordinate SIWES in all programmes that have SIWES component to shoulder the following responsibilities:
- Soliciting co-operative placements (jobs) in business, industry, government or service agencies depending upon the needs and qualifications of the student, and placing students on such training assignments after analysing the technical contents;
- Coordinating and supervising the co-operative employment of students in such a way that students have the opportunity of learning useful scientific skills on real jobs and under actual working conditions;
- Conducting follow-up activities regarding all placements by checking regularly each student’s job performance through company visits and individual student interviews;
- Assembling individual inventory records of students and employers for the purposes of placements and supervision in addition to maintaining functional departmental and personal records and reports;
- Providing necessary advice to students as to the relevance of their chosen field to the industrial requirements of the country;
- Organising and conducting students’ seminars on Work Reports; and
- Liaison with NUC, ITF, other agencies and industries on student industrial training programme of the University.
Students are expected to have 12 weeks of industrial attachment in 200 level and 300 level long vacation making a total of 24 weeks of industrial attachment. It should be noted that Industrial Training as a course involves the following:
- Working successfully in the industry for the specified period;
- Submission of a Work Report to the coordinating office at the end of the training period; and
- Presentation of seminar on the industrial training experience.
The course codes for Industrial Attachment for each programme are represented by the three-letter code for the programme followed by 299 (industrial attachment at 200 level) or 399 (industrial attachment at 300 level). Thus CSC 299 will be industrial attachment for Computer Science Students at 200 level while CSC 399 represents industrial attachment for Computer Science Students at 300 level. Each industrial attachment course is a 3 unit course.
