Enroute to making an IT baccalaureate program

ABSTRACT

Several major factors have contributed to the birth of the new IT baccalaureate degree program at the University of Cincinnati. Of course the timing of IT emerging as an academic discipline has been a major one. Since CITC II several faculty members from the University of CINCINNATI have participated actively in SITE, later, SIGITE. With the arrival of new and exciting integrated technology, the stipulation to design an IT program meeting the needs of our society has become most important. Although originated by the entire group of Computer Science/Information Engineering Technology faculty, the project to step-by-step develop the IT program based on SIGITE's most current guidelines fell onto three such faculty members. The project also coincides with the University of CINCINNATI Collegiate Restructuring Initiative, mandated by the Provost. During the past 12 months, a comprehensive plan containing specific tasks with time-line for each was developed. This paper is to discuss the entire process including implementation, lessons learned, pitfalls to be avoided, opportunities encountered, inspirations found, enthusiasm subtended, etc.

References

1. Denning, P.J. The Profession of IT. Communications of the ACM, Volume 44, No 8, August 2001.
2. Information Technology Curriculum at UC CAS, <http://it.cas.uc.edu>
3. Kreppel, M.C., and Rabiee, M., University Community Partnership through Senior Design Projects, Proceedings of the 2003 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition (Nashville, TN, June 2003)
4. Leung, S., Said, H., Stockman, M., Enroute to making an IT baccalaureate program, submitted for publication at the 2004 SIGITE conference, UT, October 2004
5. Lunt, B.M., Ekstrom, J.J., Lawson, E.A., Kamali, R., Miller, J., Gorka, S., and Reichgelt, H. Defining the IT Curriculum: The Results of the Past 21/2 Years. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition (Salt Lake City, US, June 21-23, 2004)
6. Lunt, B.M., Lawson, E.A., Goodman, G., Helps, C.G.R, Designing an IT Curriculum: The Results of the First CITC Conference. Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition.
7. Reichgelt, H., Zhang, A., Price, B. Designing an Information Technology Curriculum: The Georgia Southern University Experience, Journal of Information Technology Education, Volume 1, No. 4, 2002.
8. Said, H., et al, An Implementation of a Software Development Track in an Information Technology Degree Program, submitted for publication at the 2004 SIGITE conference, UT, October 2004
9. Said, H., et al, An Implementation of Secondary Tracks in an Information Technology Degree Program, submitted for publication at the 2004 SIGITE conference, UT, October 2004
10. SIGITE curriculum guidelines: <http://www.sigite.org>
11. Stockman, M., et al, "An Implementation of a Networking Track in an Information Technology Degree Program", submitted for publication at the 2004 SIGITE conference, UT, October 2004
12. UC General Education Program: <http://www.uc.edu/gened>

Index Terms

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Computing education

      • Accreditation

      • Model curricula