Information for Students

Onboarding Documentation Guidelines |  Peer Evaluations | Student Outcomes each Semester | Notebooks | Suggested Platforms | VIP @ Cooper Course Structure

Onboarding Documentation Guidelines

View the onboarding documentation guidelines.

Peer Evaluations

Template for end of the semester peer evaluations

Student Outcomes Each Semester

Student outcomes in the first semester are below; students will:

  • Familiarize themselves with their chosen project and acquire enough background information to present/communicate their knowledge
  • Gain basic skills in prototyping and engineering design
  • Make some meaningful contributions to the overall project (with guidance from instructors)

Student outcomes in the second semester are below; students will:

  • Master the foundations within the discipline and be able to communicate that mastery orally or in writing to the instructor/other students
  • Pursue needed knowledge/skills
  • Make several meaningful contributions to the overall project
  • Assume some technical/leadership responsibilities

Student outcomes in the third semester are below; students will:

  • Demonstate mastery of the foundations of the disciplines required for their project, demonstrated by their written work or oral presentations
  • Acquire deeper knowledge/skills than they had in previous semesters (i.e. can teach those skills to others)
  • Make significant contributions to the overall project
  • Assume significant technical/leadership responsibilities

Student outcomes in the fourth semester are below; students will:

  • Provide leadership in their technical area
  • Manage their teammates and their contributions
  • Take responsibility for meeting deadlines and moving the project forward 

Notebooks

Key purposes for VIP notebooks:
  • Facilitate learning (organize thoughts, think about work, reflect)
  • Documentation (document work, track progress, etc.)
  • An assessment tool (shows individual contributions and collaborations, tangible item to grade)
At its most basic level a notebook should show:
  • What the student did that week.
  • What they plan to do in the coming week.
Each week students should take time to:
  1. Check items off the previous week’s to-do list;
  2. Write a short paragraph (or more) explaining their specific contributions to the project over the last week (including documentation of failed efforts!);
  3. Create their to-do list for the upcoming week.

Students may also use their notebooks to take notes at team and sub-team meetings, record ideas as they arise, make sketches and diagrams, and so on.

Source of the table above.

View a sample notebook.

Suggested Platforms

Organizational Platforms

  • Wiki, Github, website, other repositories

Notebook Platforms

  • Indesign, labarchives

Team Coordination and Communication Platforms

  • miro, Monday, Slack, Teams, Trello, MeWe

VIP @ Cooper Course Structure

  • All VIP teams are listed as different sections of
    • VIP 381X: students taking it for the first time
    • VIP 382X: students taking it for the second time
    • VIP 383X: students taking it for the third time
    • VIP 384X: students taking it for the fourth time
    • VIP 385X: students taking it for the fifth time
    • VIP 386X: students taking it for the sixth time
    • VIP 481X: students taking graduate level for the first time
    • VIP 482X: students taking graduate level for the second time
    • VIP 483X: students taking graduate level for the third time
  • Each team is designated by a section letter and course code.
  • VIP courses are open to all Cooper Students from any school.
  • Each course counts as 1 credit.

Course Pre-requisites

Students must be pursuing their undergraduate/graduate degree to enroll in VIP for credit. Enrollment is based on a rolling application process with a decision made before the beginning of each semester.

Graduate level: Junior standing, permission of instructor, 2 semester of prior VIP course work, Cap number no more than 3 credits total.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.