A Strategy for Addressing the Workforce Needs of the Massachusetts Economy

1. A Strategy for Addressing the Workforce Needs of the Massachusetts Economy Rick Adrion UMass Amherst CITI

2. CITI Strategy • High Level Approach • Broad Spectrum IT Education • Multiple Entry/Multiple Opportunity Programs • Goals • Build an Information Technology-fluent workforce and citizenry • Address the workforce demands of the “New Economy” • Broaden participation in IT education and the workforce • Attract and retain more Massachusetts high school graduates in IT education and the workforce

3. Broad Spectrum Grad UG HS MS PS Literacy Fluency ITAC CS/CE/CIS cross-disciplinary IT

4. cross-disciplinary IT educationmodels • Basic • Providing the technical “fluency” for students to combine with their own disciplinary studies. • Extended • Creating computing modules or core curricula that other disciplines can incorporate into their curricula • Co-teaching cross-disciplinary courses that, perhaps, derive from interdisciplinary research projects • Encouraging the introduction of computing skills, concepts, and capabilities, e.g., “IT Across the Curriculum,” in other disciplines

5. cross-disciplinary IT educationmodels • Within CS/CE/CIS • Creating core computing curricula, as a basis for integrating the various computing disciplines (CS, CE, SE, IS, IT) • Introducing cross-disciplinary material in traditional curriculum, i.e., developing and offering computer science courses that incorporate significant non-traditional content meant to endow students with non-trivial domain knowledge. • Comprehensive • Combining core curricula with “cognates” to form interdisciplinary educational programs • Forming a coordinating administrative infrastructure (such as a College of Computing or Informatics) that enables cross-disciplinary programs that cross traditional academic boundaries.

6. The UMass Amherst Experience • Current programs • Literacy general education courses • “fluency gap” • IT Minor • BDIC, e.g. web design, animation • “cross-disciplinary gap” • CS/CE + limited MIS • Challenges • find a bridge between IT minor & CS major • strengthen IT Minor core? Certification? • IT/IS major? • Cross-disciplinary majors? • multiple entry/multiple opportunity strategy • develop fluency courses

7. Multiple Entry/Multiple Opportunity K12 Associate /Bachelor Grad Fluency Other Majors ITAC IT Minors X-Discipl. IT Majors AP CS CS/CE/IS/IT Majors • Challenges • Coordinated curricula • Flexible curricula Gap Progs

8. Opportunities • Build an Information Technology-fluent workforce and citizenry • IT fluency & ITAC • Address the workforce demands of the “New Economy” • Broad Spectrum IT education • Broaden participation in IT education and the workforce • Capitalize on the ITAC programs attraction to women and underrepesented minorities • Combine with multiple entry/multiple opportunity strategy to increase diversity across K20 broad spectrum IT education • Attract and retain more Massachusetts high school graduates into IT education and the workforce • Ditto