Renewing undergraduate IT education
Thomas, Richard N. (2010) Renewing undergraduate IT education. In HERDSA 2010 : Reshaping Higher Education, 6-9 July 2010, Hilton on the Park, Melbourne, VIC.
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Abstract
Information Technology (IT) education is in crisis. Enrolments have dropped by up to as much as 70% at some universities (Markoff, 2009). This coupled with traditionally high attrition and failure rates (Biggers et al, 2008) is resulting in the number of graduates nationwide being far lower than industry demand (Queensland Government SkillsInfo Report, 2009). This work reports on a radical redesign of the Bachelor of IT degree at QUT. The initial results are very promising with attrition in first year dropping from being one of the highest at QUT for an undergraduate degree to being one of the lowest. The redesign followed an action research model to reflect on issues and problems with the previous version of the degree and to introduce changes to attempt to rectify some of these problems. The resulting degree intends to produce "business savvy" graduates who are capable of using their IT knowledge and skills within cross-functional teams to solve complex problems.
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| ID Code: | 52901 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Conference Item (Poster) |
| Keywords: | curriculum, information technology, IT, attrition, retention, computational thinking, computationalist thinking |
| Subjects: | Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES (080000) > OTHER INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES (089900) > Information and Computing Sciences not elsewhere classified (089999) Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > EDUCATION (130000) > CURRICULUM AND PEDAGOGY (130200) > Science Technology and Engineering Curriculum and Pedagogy (130212) |
| Divisions: | Current > QUT Faculties and Divisions > Science & Engineering Faculty Current > Schools > School of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences |
| Copyright Owner: | Richard N. Thomas |
| Copyright Statement: | Copyright © 2010 Richard N. Thomas. The authors assign to HERDSA and educational non-profit institutions a non-exclusive license to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive license to HERDSA to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web (prime site and mirrors) and within the portable electronic format HERDSA 2010 conference proceedings. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the authors. |
| Deposited On: | 03 Aug 2012 08:38 |
| Last Modified: | 03 Aug 2012 09:30 |
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