CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE GOALS OF THE GLOBAL CC2020 PROJECT: INTERACTIVE TUTORIAL

The purpose of this tutorial is to give the conference participants an update on the current status and future goals of the global CC2020 project. It will also provide the SIGED community with an opportunity to participate in a discussion that gives the CC2020 steering committee qualitative feedback, contributing directly to the outcomes of the project. The tutorial will actively solicit participant contributions and serve as an important mechanism for interaction between the project and the SIGED community. The topics will include a) general introduction to the project and its goals; b) use of competencies as common currency for curriculum analysis; c) use of visualization to compare computing degree programs; and d) lessons for the information systems discipline from the CC2020 project

Information Systems in CC2020: Comparing Key Structural Elements of Curriculum Recommendations in Computing

This paper describes the characteristics of the Computing Curricula 2020 process, discusses the reasons why it is essential for information systems to be involved, and explores the core structures of existing computing curriculum recommendations, particularly from the learning outcome and competency perspective. The two main categories are the knowledge area – knowledge unit structure used by CE, CS, and SE and the competency structure used by IT and MSIS. Finding a way to express the competency expectations of all degree program types in computing at the same level of abstraction will be a key to the success of the CC2020 project. The upcoming process to develop a new IS undergraduate recommendation will also benefit from CC2020 work and contribute to it

Strengthening Undergraduate Information Systems Education in an Increasingly Complex Computing Disciplines Landscape

There are concerns that even at times when overall computing degree enrollments are increasing, IS bachelor’s degree programs and enrollments continue to decline. IS programs differ from other computing programs in that they include highly interrelated business and technology components. This inherent interdisciplinarity is the source of its value but also one of its challenges. This paper uses the Australian higher education sector as a case study to examine overall computing degree offerings including IS offerings using the ACM/AIS curriculum models and classification of computing disciplines. We find that IS program offerings are indeed trending down and that computing offerings are dominated by Computer Science and Information Technology degrees. IS is not widely present as a “base” discipline, nor is it providing a platform for the integration of new technologies, such as AI and Cyber Security into “business” settings. To strengthen UG IS programs and perceptions, we recommend that higher education providers develop structure and processes that support interdisciplinary UG IS program development and delivery and that professional bodies and curriculum models be revised to reflect and recognize the business outcome focus of IS. These actions, together with clearer messaging around the value of IS competencies, will improve the image of IS

What is Skill? (and why does it matter?).

This Research-to-Practice Full Paper seeks to investigate the concept of Skill within a Competency Framework, such as that described by the CC2020 document. The notion of skill is fundamental to modern educational discourse. As educators, we strive, not only to impart knowledge, but to help students acquire the skills that they need to flourish in the modern academic and professional environments. We admire skillful practitioners and strive to become more skilled at what we do, recognising that skill is tied to an aesthetic sense - that there is something attractive and deeply satisfying about the process and output of skillful practice. Together with knowledge and disposition, the term is also used to denote one of the constituent components of competence. In computing, for example, the CC2020 document proposes curricular development models which promote skills as key ontological elements and emphasises skill acquisition as a major focus in the educational process. While this is undoubtedly an important, evolutionary development in discipline-based pedagogical practice, we feel that there are still foundational questions to be asked about precisely what is meant by definitional terms that form the core vocabulary of this approach. In this paper, we look at the notion of skill and provide a conceptual analysis which tries to distinguish it from other related ideas. We provide an overview of how skill has been seen historically as both a philosophical and sociological construct and what this means for using the term in educational theory. We examine how to usefully define skill, discuss the part it plays in teaching and assessment, and make recommendations for how it can be viewed operationally within a competency framework, such as that proposed by CC2020

IS2020 A Competency Model for Undergraduate Programs in Information Systems: The Joint ACM/AIS IS2020 Task Force

The IS2020 report is the latest in a series of model curricula recommendations and guidelines for undergraduate degrees in Information Systems (IS). The report builds on the foundations developed in previous model curricula reports to develop a major revision of the model curriculum with the inclusion of significant new characteristics. Specifically, the IS2020 report does not directly prescribe a degree structure that targets a specific context or environment. Rather, the IS2020 report provides guidance regarding the core content of the curriculum that should be present but also provides flexibility to customize curricula according to local institutional needs

USING COMPETENCIES FOR SPECIFYING OUTCOME EXPECTATIONS FOR DEGREE PROGRAMS IN COMPUTING: LESSONS LEARNED FROM OTHER DISCIPLINES

This essay reviews the use of the competency concept in various educational and professional development contexts. Its key purpose is to identify the lessons that computing education and practice can learn from disciplines that have explored and evaluated the use of competency-based approaches much longer than computing. The review reveals a broad variety of definitions and uses of the competency concept in a number of fields but no single unifying success formula emerges. The key recommendations of the essay are as follows: the efforts in computing education that use a competency-based approach should 1) carefully consider ways to specify competencies in an integrated, holistic way instead as a simple combination of components (such as knowledge, skills, and attitude); 2) recognize the purpose and timeframe for which competencies are specified, specifically avoiding a sole focus on short-term professional competencies; and 3) explicitly and transparently communicate whether or not the intent of any effort that uses a competency-based approach is to transform the entire educational model (instead of simply using competencies for specifying outcome expectations)

It graduates’ first year of employment experiences and recommendations for the curriculum design

Employment issues in South Africa (SA) are a significant problem. Ongoing discussions in SA revolve around the employability challenges facing South African graduates, particularly in the Information Technology (IT) sector. IT graduates’ skill sets and employability status as well as the validity of the IT curriculum meeting industry needs have been questioned. A descriptive case study on graduates from an accredited, private higher education institution in SA using questionnaires and interviews was done to understand the experiences of employers, employed graduates and recruitment personnel upon employing the graduates, using qualitative analysis. This study investigated, determined and confirmed recommendations to adapt the institution’s curriculum to improve the productivity of their IT graduates upon employment, which may be of value for other higher education institutions offering IT training.Institute for Science and Technology Education (ISTE

The ACM/AIS IS2020 Competency Model for Undergraduate Programs in Information Systems: A Joint ACM/AIS Task Force Report

The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Association of Information Systems (AIS) along with the ISCAP EDSIG, recently released a joint taskforce report IS2020: A Competency Model for Undergraduate Programs in Information Systems. In this paper, the co-chairs of IS2020, the latest Information Systems curriculum guidelines, provide their insight on the problems presented with existing guidelines, illustrate the issue, and share their opinions that led to the release of these latest guidelines

Demonstrating the use of a professional skills framework to support the assessment of dispositions in IT education

The skills and competencies of IT professionals are often described using employer-led skills frameworks. They express competencies as technical knowledge and skills combined with a range of personal qualities. Employers have indicated the importance of developing such qualities for new graduates. In response, recent ACM/IEEE curricular recommendations have shifted their emphases from bodies of knowledge to the development of competencies. The IT2017 ACM/IEEE Curriculum Guidelines for Baccalaureate Degree Programs proposed a model of IT competency comprising three interrelated components: content knowledge, skills, and dispositions, where dispositions represent personal qualities desirable in the workplace. The ACM/IEEE Computing Curricula 2020 (CC2020) report enriched the IT2017 disposition concept by identifying eleven dispositions that all computing programs should include for the career preparation of their graduates. However, developing and assessing dispositions in a degree program remain challenges, often involving internships, work placements and similar student opportunities. A recent mapping of the eleven CC2020 dispositions to the responsibility characteristics of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), a widely used professional skills framework, suggested a promising approach to addressing this challenge. Inspired by this mapping, this paper aims to help educators assess students' achievement of CC2020 dispositions by mapping real-world experiences they have recorded in individual portfolios against the SFIA responsibility characteristics. First, the selection of SFIA to operationalize the CC2020 dispositions is validated by demonstrating that alternative frameworks pose significant challenges for any assessment approach that needs to be independent of particular technical skills. A tool is described that maps demonstration of SFIA responsibility characteristics to CC2020 dispositions, applying a simple, consistent assessment algorithm. Finally, the assessment process and outcomes are illustrated using a fictional student portfolio, constructed to reflect one author's experience of work placement students' achievements

Reflections on the Current State and Future of Information Systems Education

This essay discusses the current state of and potential future directions for information systems education structured around several key themes that have emerged as central in several large-scale IS education initiatives over the past 15 years. The core idea that connects all of these themes is the centrality of IS as a transformative enabler for virtually all goal-directed human activities. The essay emphasizes the role of IS as the initial integrative discipline that for decades has prepared its students to identify opportunities to fundamentally change multiple target domains with computational capabilities. Furthermore, the discussion recognizes the distinctive focus of IS on bringing multiple technologies together into systems that serve organizational and societal goals and underscores the responsibility to carefully consider implications and potential consequences of technology- based solutions. The essay also acknowledges the essential roles of formal quality assurance mechanisms (such as accreditation) and education-focused research as essential resources for the future of the discipline