Restructuring the Major in Computer Science

The Advanced Computing (AC) Track of the Computer Science major is currently accredited by ABET. In October 2008, a 3 member team of experts visited the college as part of ABET’s re-accreditation review. Based on the feedback from this visit and our program assessment, we propose to revise the requirements. Changes made to the AC Track require corresponding changes to the Software Development (SD) Track as they have several courses in common

The introduction of a \u27Learning in the Workplace\u27 component for an undergraduate IT program and its impact on professional accreditation

A new learning in the workplace and community policy (LiWC) at Victoria University has been introduced to ensure that graduates are job and career ready. The policy mandates that all programs incorporate at least a 25% workplace contextual learning component by 2010. For the IT undergraduate program, compliance with this policy poses a number of significant challenges, not least of which is the meeting of professional accreditation criteria. Acquiring a recognized professional body accreditation, like that of the Australian Computer Society (ACS), is pivotal for all IT Australian programs, in that, it is a vital quality assurance measure and it enhances program marketability. For an ACS accreditation, the course structure and content of the IT program is examined against the Society‘s defined core body of knowledge (CBOK) which covers both generic and ICT specific skill sets. This paper describes the current Bachelor of Science in Information Technology degree structure with respect to the ACS‘s CBOK. Within this framework, a possible strategy is proposed for realizing the University‘s LiWC policy whilst conforming to accreditation requirements. Finally the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed approach are discussed

One School’s Approach to the Additional Area of Science Requirement for Civil Engineering

In 2008 ABET’s Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC), the body responsible for accreditation of engineering programs, changed the criteria for Civil Engineering programs to include a requirement that graduates of those programs “can...apply knowledge of...at least one additional area of science, consistent with the program educational objectives”. 1 This new requirement appears to have its origins in the Body of Knowledge (BOK), and the desire to make those ideals and the ABET requirements for Civil Engineering programs become one in the same. However, for many programs across the country this became an issue of concern and confusion. Taking its cue from the BOK the “one additional area of science” shortly became defined to mean a physical science, as opposed to a social science, and that this “area of science” could not include Computer Science, Chemistry or Physics. Because of this, programs needed to change their curricula to address this criterion. Schools that had an emphasis where additional Chemistry or Physics courses had previously been incorporated to take advantage of native strengths in their university or to support the focus of their program now had to reassess the value of these course versus the need to cover an area of science outside these fields. Many other schools had not required a science course outside of Chemistry or Physics and now needed to add a course to address this issue. Still others who may have required such a course now needed to assess the effectiveness of yet another course taught outside their department. This paper will look at the method adopted by one university to meet this criterion while at the same time attempting to remain true to the goals and objective of that program with respect to providing a broad education to its students and utilizing the unique and distinct opportunities that program’s university provided to those same students. To assess the method adopted by this school a series of questionnaires were given to all students who graduated with the criterion of an additional “area of science” included in their graduation requirements. These questionnaires attempted to determine which area of emphasis within Civil Engineering the student planned to pursue upon graduation, which additional “area of science” the student the student studied while they were in school, and how this study aided them in their understanding of Civil Engineering. The results obtained, after this new criterion had been in effect for several years offers insight into both the method of meeting this requirement chosen by this school, as well as comments on the benefit of this criterion for the Civil Engineering profession as a whole

Data analytics based positioning of health informatics programs

The Master of Science in Computer Information Systems (CIS) with concentration in Health Informatics (HI) at Metropolitan College (MET), Boston University (BU), is a 40-credit degree program that are delivered in three formats: face-to-face, online, and blended. The MET CIS-HI program is unique because of the population of students it serves, namely those interested in gaining skills in HI technology field, to serve as data analysts and knowledge-based technology drivers in the thriving health care industry. This set of skills is essential for addressing the challenges of Big Data and knowledge-based health care support of the modern health care. The MET CIS-HI program was accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM) in 2017

The Education Quality Measuring: American Experience

The US Higher Education Reform is due to certain processes of competitiveness, market orientation, the tendency to form a single space for education. The American system of Higher Education has integrated the best in the education of other countries and thus helped the country overcome crises, to some extent solve the problems of racial discrimination, unemployment, poverty, improved the situation of women, people with disabilities, national minorities. The historical events, socio-economic transformations, aspiration to be a leader in the world market respectively have influenced the development of Higher Education. Due to reforms in American society, education has become more open, various, versatile. The Americans highly value the Higher Education and believe that education is necessary for a conscious political life, the functioning of a democratic government, the development of economic and political International relations. The American education serving the dynamic and global economy is effective and capable of developing in the conditions of limited public resources. This article focuses on the measurement of education quality and accreditation of Higher Learning Institutions in the USA; the analysis of educational activities of American universities; the coverage of accreditation and education performance of Higher Learning Institutions in the United States; these indicators usage in the process of education quality assessing in American universities; the essence disclosure of measurement the education quality with helping "added value" on the basis by American scientists research; the borrowing American experience into the Higher Learning Institutions in Ukraine

Latin American perspectives to internationalize undergraduate information technology education

The computing education community expects modern curricular guidelines for information technology (IT) undergraduate degree programs by 2017. The authors of this work focus on eliciting and analyzing Latin American academic and industry perspectives on IT undergraduate education. The objective is to ensure that the IT curricular framework in the IT2017 report articulates the relationship between academic preparation and the work environment of IT graduates in light of current technological and educational trends in Latin America and elsewhere. Activities focus on soliciting and analyzing survey data collected from institutions and consortia in IT education and IT professional and educational societies in Latin America; these activities also include garnering the expertise of the authors. Findings show that IT degree programs are making progress in bridging the academic-industry gap, but more work remains

Multinational perspectives on information technology from academia and industry

As the term \u27information technology\u27 has many meanings for various stakeholders and continues to evolve, this work presents a comprehensive approach for developing curriculum guidelines for rigorous, high quality, bachelor\u27s degree programs in information technology (IT) to prepare successful graduates for a future global technological society. The aim is to address three research questions in the context of IT concerning (1) the educational frameworks relevant for academics and students of IT, (2) the pathways into IT programs, and (3) graduates\u27 preparation for meeting future technologies. The analysis of current trends comes from survey data of IT faculty members and professional IT industry leaders. With these analyses, the IT Model Curricula of CC2005, IT2008, IT2017, extensive literature review, and the multinational insights of the authors into the status of IT, this paper presents a comprehensive overview and discussion of future directions of global IT education toward 2025