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Drew Hwang
dhwang@csupomona.edu
Louise Soe
llsoe@csupomona.edu
Computer Information Systems, Cal Poly Pomona
12/10/2011 1
Background of study
Literature Review
Research methods
Findings
Career Track Categories
Career Track Frequencies
Conclusions / Recommendations
Naming strategies & numbers
Career Track Structures
12/10/2011 2
Study began in 2006 when our department was
reviewing and changing its curriculum
What do other programs offer?
How do we compare?
What should we change?
Drew reviewed career tracks in 4-year schools
with MIS/IS/CIS majors or programs
“Career Track Design in IS Curriculum: A Case Study,”
Information Systems Education Journal, November 2007,
5(29), 1-18
Presented at ISECON 2007
Drew updated data for this paper in Feb-May
2009
12/10/2011 3
1. Normative – develop normative standards to
ensure “body of knowledge” and skill sets
are part of the curriculum
Model curricula
IS 2002
IT 2004
Working group on new model curriculum:
Topi, Valacich, Kaiser, Nunamaker, Sipior, de Vreede,
and Wright. “”Revising the IS Model Curriculum:
Rethinking the Approach and the Process.”
Communications of the Association for Information
Systems, Vol. 20, pp 728-740.
12/10/2011 4
2. Descriptive – describes what exists – our
study fits here
What exists
Longenecker & Feinstein (1989)
Gill and Hu (1999) looked at changes
AACSB school curricula
Chen, Danesh, Willhardt, 1991
Heinrichs and Banerjee (2002)
Kung, Yang and Zhang (2006)
Comparisons to model curricula
MacKinnon, 2003
Williams and Pomykalski (2006)
12/10/2011 5
Curriculum with diversity
Broad spectrum of knowledge and skills –
Curriculum with specificity
Concentrations in one or more subfields
Career track model falls within this part of the
spectrum
Other names for career tracks:
options, emphases, concentrations, specializations,
specialties, paths, certificates, clusters, support
areas
12/10/2011 6
“Generic IS curriculum is outdated” (Lee,
Trauth and Farwell (1995, p. 333)
“Single career track” IS professional is
“outdated” (Lightfoot, 1999)
Specialization occurs in graduate programs
(Ehie, 2002)
No relationship between IS course
specialization and initial full-time job
placement and starting salary (Ross, et. al
2004)
12/10/2011 7
Between February and May, 2009, Drew
reviewed curricula of 450 U.S. business
schools with baccalaureate IS programs
http://www.univsource.com/bus.htm
He looked at every school’s website to
identify those with career tracks or
specializations
Built a database
Analyzed his findings
12/10/2011 8
110 /450 (24.5%) had career tracks or
specializations
No standardized way to name career tracks
No standard way to define what courses
belong in a career track
No standard way to define how many courses
make up a track
• During our analysis, we clustered them into
categories based on names and what courses
they included
12/10/2011 9
IS Fields: Information Systems, Information
Technology, Computer Information Systems,
Management Information Systems
IS subfields: Networking, Decision Support
Systems
Referent disciplines: Accounting Information
Systems
Job names: Business analyst
12/10/2011 10
Track curriculum varied in size:
defined from beginning to end
Could be 2 to 5 courses beyond a common core
Could be very similar to other tracks within the
same program (sometimes one class
differentiated two tracks)
Could involve other programs (e.g., accounting)
Could be defined by student and an advisor
12/10/2011 11
First, based on Track name
Then looked at courses listed for career
tracks (since different schools defined this
differently) if we were unsure
Then classified them into groups – tried to hit
right granularity
12/10/2011 12
Category Number Category Number
IS Disciplines 75 Information Management 17
(CIS/CS/IT/MIS) –data + another word
Web Technologies / 44 (warehousing, structures,
E-commerce mining, database
management, etc.)
Applications 42
Development Business Systems 13
Analysis
Networking & 33
Telecommunications Specialized IS / Studies 14
(education, human
Information Assurance 28 factors, consulting,
Business Functional 24 spatial systems, etc.)
Applications (Accounting, End user support 8
Administration, ERP, /training
Finance, Operations
Management) Decision Support 8
12/10/2011 13
Number of Tracks Frequency of % of total
Programs
1 11 10.0%
2 55 50.0%
3 23 20.9%
5 5 4.5%
6 3 2.2%
7 2 1.8%
8 or 9 0 0
10 1 0.9%
TOTAL 110 100%
12/10/2011 14
Most schools (80.9%) with tracks have 1 to 3
Probably due to resources and complexity
Track naming is idiosyncratic – we assume it
is a faculty decision, probably influenced by:
Subfields in which they specialize –
In older subfields, track names vary less
In newer subfields, more variation for similar tracks
Names attractive to prospective employers
Representation of faculty areas of expertise
Schools seem to update tracks in line with new
technologies and opportunities for jobs.
12/10/2011 15
No consistent track structure among these
programs
Tracks with same name at 2 schools may vary widely
Highly structured (no choices) to highly flexible
(determined by student and advisor)
May be interdisciplinary in nature or not
2 tracks in same program may have courses that are
mutually exclusive or may vary by only one course
IS programs within business schools they may be
partnered with referent disciplines, which influences
curriculum offerings.
12/10/2011 16
7 categories represent standards in IS field – well
established
Applications Development, IS Disciplines, Systems /
Business Analysis, Networking / Telecommunications,
Information Management, Decision Support, End-user
computing – note the last two are dwindling.
2 categories represent more recent IT areas
Web Development / E-Commerce
Information Assurance
Business Functional Applications category
stresses individual business functional areas
Specialized Information Systems / Studies
a catchall category
12/10/2011 17
Programs reviewing their career tracks should
continue to scan the environment and the
career opportunities available to students
The newest model curriculum task force is
working in the area of a career track model
curriculum – their findings and
recommendations may influence future career
tracks.
12/10/2011 18
Longitudinal review in 2 years to see what is
changing, especially in this period of
uncertainty
Compare characteristics of schools with
career tracks with those that do not
Compare existing tracks with model curricula,
especially when new model with career
specializations is in place
Hwang & Soe, ISECON, 2009 12/10/2011 19
Comments?
Ideas?
Hwang & Soe, ISECON, 2009 12/10/2011 20
