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Career Track Design in IS Curriculum: A Case Study

Career Track Design in IS Curriculum: A Case Study. Louise L. Soe Drew Hwang CIS Department, Cal Poly Pomona. Curriculum Redesign Case Study. Who we are Background Research into Curriculum Change Model Curricula IS Career Track Database Our Curriculum Analysis Decision making.

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Career Track Design in IS Curriculum: A Case Study

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  1. Career Track Design in IS Curriculum: A Case Study Louise L. Soe Drew Hwang CIS Department, Cal Poly Pomona ISECON 2007

  2. Curriculum Redesign Case Study • Who we are • Background • Research into Curriculum Change • Model Curricula • IS Career Track Database • Our Curriculum Analysis • Decision making ISECON 2007

  3. Who we are • Southern California Polytechnic University • “learn by doing” is school motto • CIS major classes are taught hands-on, projects • CIS self identity tied up with curriculum innovation • Our faculty had beeen early leaders in differentiation of business information systems from CS (70s & 80s) • Career tracks began in 1980, and were important to our curriculum & to our self-identity ISECON 2007

  4. Recent Developments • Founders of department had retired • Drop in number of majors (from 1300+ in 1998 to 550 in 2006) • NOTE: We initiated reduction by increasing standards in 1999 to bring enrollments down. • System-wide reduction in number of quarter units to graduation from 195 to 180 • Pressures of AACSB re-accreditation on college ISECON 2007

  5. Recent Developments • CIS had developed a strong security program, building on existing MSMBA IS Auditing program • With NSF grant support • Collaboration with Carnegie Mellon Information Assurance Capacity Building Program • The National Security Agency & the Department of Homeland Security recognized the Cal Poly CIS program as a “Center of Academic Excellence”. • only 3 schools in California have this distinction. • The other 2 are UC Davis & the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. ISECON 2007

  6. The process • Fall 2006 – Faculty decided we needed a to review curriculum • Gathered information on model curricula • IS 2002, CC 2005, IT 2005 • Reviewed curricula of 490 IS, MIS, CIS baccalaureate programs in U.S. business schools to see where we stand • Built database to hold information ISECON 2007

  7. Findings: Career Tracks throughout U.S. • 96 programs had total of 269 career tracks • Numbers of tracks ranged from 2-13 • No consistency in track names • Almost all career tracks are named after disciplines & sub-disciplines; very few named after jobs. • It appears that faculty don’t look at a model, but craft track names that mean something to their consistencies & help their students get jobs ISECON 2007

  8. More findings • No consistency on the definition ofwhat constitutes a career track: • Numbers of courses varied – • further complicated by fact many program definitions of a track only included the final 2-3 courses • others listed the student’s entire degree requirements from beginning to end. • No consistency in choice of specific courses that belonged in career tracks with same/similar names • Track structures ranged from highly structured to completely unstructured (i.e., individually designed by student & advisor). • Track courses ranged from entirely within the major department to entirely outside the major department ISECON 2007

  9. 70% ISECON 2007

  10. Applications Development (49) IS Disciplines (IS, MIS, CIS, CS, IT) (41) Web technologies/ E-commerce (38) Networking/ Telecommunications (33) Information Assurance (25) Business/Systems Analysis (19) Business Functional Applications (19) Information Management (15) Specialized IS/Studies (14) End User Support/ Training (8) Decision Support Systems (8) Track Categories in 96 schools ISECON 2007

  11. Our Curriculum in Fall 2006 • Students earn a B.S. degree in Business with concentration in Computer Information Systems • Business core: 12 4-unit courses • 8 CIS core courses-- have to get C or better in 2 tries: • 2 Java programming courses • Intro to object-oriented systems analysis & design • Telecommunications • Database design & Development • Web development • IS careers – gateway to tracks • Senior project – capstone course after 3 track courses completed • 4 career tracks – take 4 courses; 4th can be 2 unit internship or special studies or a 4-unit track course • Application & Systems Development • Internet Programming & Security • Business Systems Analysis • Telecommunications ISECON 2007

  12. At End of Fall Quarter • One-day faculty retreat to review curriculum • Compared core courses to model curricula • IS 2002 – compared favorably in terms of body of knowledge • IT 2005 – not comparable – consensus that we did not have faculty resources to adopt this model, however attractive it is • Compared our track courses to career tracks of other schools in database • We were OK, but no longer out in front ISECON 2007

  13. By the end of the retreat … • Decided to leave core alone • Had been complete reorganized in 1995 to adopt object orientation • Had been tweaked ever since to strengthen body of knowledge students had at graduation • Almost all students had IT internship • Decided to examine the career tracks and align them with developments in the field • Programming classes had moved to web interface • Strong growth in security area ISECON 2007

  14. Results Scrapping career tracks was discussed but proved too foreign to department’s culture Committee developed 3 career track proposals: • Cafeteria model: students design own tracks with advising • Cluster model: students pick clusters of 2-3 courses & build own track, with advising • Reform current track realignment (incremental): • Information Assurance (Security, Computer Forensics, Secure Web Computing, IS Auditing) • Application development merges with web/e-commerce courses & multimedia course (which provides usability & accessibility components) • Business Systems Analysis (includes RAD) • Telecommunications & Networking ISECON 2007

  15. Decisions in Spring 2007 • One faculty member presented each option & the arguments for and against it. • Lots of discussion and switching decisions • Everyone enjoyed the meeting • the level of give & take was high • In the end, the faculty reached consensus on keeping the tracks & realigning them • Changes in track structure are being implemented in January 2008 ISECON 2007

  16. Conclusions • We are in minority (25%) of programs with career tracks • Our tightly structured program is demanding on faculty resources • The process of re-examining our curriculum was an important activity for us • We needed to adapt to the changes in the field. ISECON 2007

  17. Recommendations • Periodic review of curriculum is healthy • The current effort of ACM & to create a model career track curriculum is sorely needed: • definition of what a career track is • Some consistency in track names • Consistency in courses required for track • Still using job names rather than subdiscipline names that we found almost everywhere • List on next slide ISECON 2007

  18. Application Developer Business Intelligence Manager Business Process Analyst Database Administrator Database Analyst eBusiness Manager ERP Specialist Information Auditing and Compliance Specialist IT Architect IT Asset Manager IT Consultant IT Operations Management Specialist IT Security and Risk Manager Network Design and Administration Specialist Project Manager User Interface Designer Web Content Manager Current AIS/ACM Wiki List of Trackshttp://blogsandwikis.bentley.edu/iscurriculum/index.php/Career_tracks ISECON 2007

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