Innovative Curriculum Approaches in BBA-MIS Department Review

COB: MIS Department Curricula Review BBA-MIS Spring 2015

COB: MIS Department Example of informal review: 2010-2012: three MIS and one CS faculty met with three key Acxiom employees for an assessment of curricula Examined business needs with respect to our curricula Included some actual training with Acxiom s ETL tools Conducted a gap analysis In part, this resulted in: New courses A new concentration (Business Analysis) Large grant ($150k)

COB: MIS Department 1. Alignment with Mission/Vision 2. Current Curricula a. Ours b. Other Schools c. Guidelines d. Pedagogies Used

COB: MIS Department 3. New Major: BS in Information Systems 4. Where Does MIS Go From Here?

COB: MIS Department Our Goal is to Provide a Current, Responsive and Innovative Curriculum We consider this critical in IT

COB: MIS Department We do this by the following: Monitoring industry IT trends Meeting often with stakeholders Employers Students and alumni Examining curricula at other universities IT/IS Curricula Guides

COB: MIS Department We must prepare students in two ways: 1. Enduring IT concepts and practices used throughout one s career a) Strategic deployment & development of IT b) Data storage/retrieval c) Networking communications d) Project management? Foundation & Core Courses

COB: MIS Department We must prepare students in two ways: 2. Latest tools and technologies to help get first job a) Relational DBs b) LAN/WAN & wireless networks c) Data analysis tools (Visible Analyst, etc.) d) Latest programming languages

COB: MIS Department Number of majors and graduates 2010/11 2011/12 Majors 116 112 Grads 31 29 2012/13 126 36 2013/14 133 36 2014/15 148 40? Percentage of grads. by concentration (since 2012) Percentage of Graduates Business Analysis Networking Programmer Analyst E-Commerce GIS 35% 32% 21% 11% 1%

COB: MIS Department Major curricular initiatives (10 yrs): Established four concentrations 2008 Added Business Analysis concentration 2012 About to establish a new major, BS-IS Developed ten new courses, eight in last five years; revised many others

COB: MIS Department New Courses MIS 4366 Adv. Web Development (2007) MIS 4367 Adv. Web Design w/ DBs (2010) MIS 3343 Adv. Spreadsheets (2011) MIS 4355 Project Management (2011) MIS 4360 Information Security (2011) MIS 4380 Business Intelligence (2013)

COB: MIS Department New Courses MIS 3335 Scripting Languages (Python) (2014) MIS 4339 Java II (2014) MIS 4364 Comp. & Network Security (2014) QMTH 4341 Quant. Analytical Methods (2014)

MIS-Current Curricula Three Concentrations (BBA-MIS) Application Development E-Commerce Track Programmer/Analyst Track GIS Track (3 GEOG courses) Networking Business Analysis

MIS-Current Curricula Business Analysis Newest concentration (2012) Direct result of industry stakeholder input Required four new courses MIS 4355 Project Management MIS 4380 Business Intelligence MIS 4360 Information Security QMTH 4341 Quantitative Analytical Methods All of these courses also taught in MBA

MIS-Current Curricula Core Courses MIS 3363 Networking I MIS 3365 Database Applications MIS 3328 Sys. Analysis & Design All concentrations require a programming class All have two MIS electives Two courses are concentration-specific

MIS-Current Curricula How We Compare Eight colleges in AR. offer MIS Six are BBAs; two are BS (but in COB) Only one other has concentrations (UA- Fayetteville) All are similar in curricula, though most req. more MIS courses (27-33 hours) Add more to compete?

MIS-Current Curricula Curricula Standards Only one standard available: IS 2010 Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Programs in IS By ACM/AIS Interestingly, they are shifting toward a less technical curriculum; the programming course is no longer a core course (now an elective)

MIS-Current Curricula Pedagogies MIS uses traditional, hybrid and online course pedagogies Both COB Foundation Courses online MIS 2343 QMTH 2330 COB Core Course online (MIS 3321)

MIS-Current Curricula Pedagogies Some advanced level classes online MIS 4363 Networking II MIS 4380 Bus. Intelligence MIS 3343 Adv. Spreadsheets Most others are traditional courses

MIS: New Major BS-Information Systems Conceived and developed as a result of indirect assessments Formal meetings with multiple employers Met with alumni & students Examined other universities

MIS: New Major BS-Information Systems Companies need CS/MIS developers Companies need MIS majors But for many roles, both have problems Therefore companies need a combination of the two

MIS: New Major BS-IS: Curriculum Interdisciplinary degree between MIS and Computer Science Includes a required minor in CS, plus business/MIS courses BS: at UCA this requires a two- course lab sequence in some science (CS I and CS II)

MIS: New Major BS-IS: Curriculum Requires all COB Foundation except ACCT 2311 and MIS 2343 (choice in math/stats) Requires all COB Core except MGMT 3344 and MGMT 4347 Many tech. courses either CS or MIS

MIS: New Major BS-IS: Curriculum BS-IS Course of Study Business Hours (non-MIS): 30 Min/Max CS Hours: 21-36 Min/Max MIS Hours: 9-30

MIS: New Major BS-IS: Other Schools Multiple other schools have non- MIS technical degrees: BS-Computer Science BS-Information Technology BS-Information Systems Others: Comp. Engineering (UA), SW Dev. (Harding)

MIS: New Major BS-IS: Other Schools BS-CS (8): some schools have multiple CS degrees: AR State: E-Comm., IT, Gen. Bus UA-Fayetteville.: BS/BA in CS UALR: CS-Game BS-IT (2): AR. Tech, UA-Ft. Smith BS-IS (2): UALR, AR. Tech

MIS: New Major BS-IS: Other Schools All CS degrees have 48+ hours of CS courses; most have 10-30 hours math UCA: 48 hours CS/19 hours math Two BS-IT curricula have 74-75 hours CS; not much math Two BS-IS curricula have 50/62 hours CS

MIS: New Major BS-Information Systems BS-IT/IS has as much or more CS courses than BS-CS Most require few business hours BS-CS most require none BS-IT requires 0 or 3 BS-IS requires 15 or 18 (this is max for any non-MIS tech. degree

MIS: New Major BS-IS: Value Added Bottom line: this degree is unlike any other in the state It has a minimum of 40 hours of business (including MIS courses), plus a minimum of 21 hours of CS

MIS-Future Where do we go from here? Continue to build/maintain relationships with employers and companies We want our graduates to be their first choice Helps to maintain an responsive, current and innovative curriculum Results in additional funding Added 2 scholarships in last 2 years

MIS-Future Where do we go from here? Upgrade labs/Add new portable lab BS-IS: track and manage well; develop solid relationship with CS

MIS-Future Where do we go from here? Curricula improvements? Include Unix/Linux Additional required course in major? New concentration(s)? Security? Data analysis?

MIS-Future Where do we go from here? New courses this upcoming year: MIS 3335 Scripting Languages (Python) QMTH 4341 Quant. Methods MIS 4339 Java II MIS 4364 Computer & Network Security

MIS-Future We want to be the best MIS program in the state We want our graduates ready to assume important roles in companies We want employers to seek out our graduates first

MIS-Future Questions?