The IT model curriculum: a status update

ABSTRACT

The first complete draft of the IT model curriculum was posted on the ACM website in October 2005. Since then, a number of comments and requests for changes have been received, the most significant of which occurred in January 2007. In response to these comments, a number of meetings and discussions have been held. In addition, committee membership has evolved. During the review process it became clear that there were clarity issues in the writing, structural issues in the curriculum and also that the release of the CC2005 document included information that needed to be correlated with the IT document. In order to address these issues the following updates were integrated into the current revision, IT2008:

1. Potential areas of misunderstanding were revised.

2. The IT2008 was more closely tied to the CC2005 document.

3. Math was moved from the "rounding the curriculum" section to become part of the core and one of the Knowledge Areas.

4. Outcomes were fully aligned with ABET program outcomes for IT programs.

5. The relationship between the core IT material, the advanced material, and the overall IT curriculum was revised.

6. The concept of pervasive themes was integrated more completely into the overall document.

7. The curricular example was revised and another example was added.

8. The Body of Knowledge was updated structurally and the learning levels were revised.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the reasoning and context of the revisions present in the IT2008 from the perspective of two participants in the process from its inception.

REFERENCES

• 1: COMPUTING Curricula 2005: The Overview Report; publication of the ACM, at http://www.acm.org/education/curricula-recommendations.
• 2: Computing Curricula: Information Technology Volume, Oct 2005; no longer available publicly.
• 3: Ekstrom, J., Gorka, S., Kamali, R., Lawson, E., Lunt, B., Miller, J., and Reichgelt, H. Defining the IT Curriculum: The Results of the Past 2½ Years. In Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference and Exposition. (Salt Lake City, UT, June 20-23, 2004).
• 4: Ekstrom, J., Gorka, S., Kamali, R., Lawson, E., Lunt, B., Miller, J., and Reichgelt, H. 2004. Defining the IT Curriculum: The Results of the Past 2½ Years. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering Education and Research (iCEER), (Olomouc, Czech Republic, June 27-30, 2004).
• 5: Ekstrom, J., Gorka, S., Kamali, R., Lawson, E., Lunt, B., Miller, J., and Reichgelt, H. Defining the IT Curriculum: The Results of the Past 2½ Years. In Proceedings of the World Engineer's Convention (WEC), (Shanghai, China, Nov 2-6, 2004).
• 6: Ekstrom, J., Gorka, S., Kamali, R., Lawson, E., Lunt, B., Miller, J., and Reichgelt, H. Defining the IT Curriculum: The Results of the Past 3 Years, In Proceedings of the InSITE 2005 Annual Conference, (Flagstaff, AZ, June 16-19, 2005).
• 7: Ekstrom, J., Gorka, S., Kamali, R., Lawson, E., Lunt, B., Miller, J., and Reichgelt, H. "Defining the IT Curriculum: The Results of the Past 3 Years", The Journal of Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology, vol 2, 2005; online journal (no page numbers).
• 8: Ekstrom, J., Gorka, S., Kamali, R., Lawson, E., Lunt, B., Miller, J., and Reichgelt, H. Options in Computing Education in the United States, In Proceedings of the Fourth LACCEI International Latin American and Caribbean Conference for Engineering & Technology, (Mayagüüez, Puerto Rico, June 21-23, 2006).
• 9: Bailey, M., Lunt, B., and Romney, G. Computing Curricula: The History and Current Status of 4-Year Computing Programs, In Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference and Exposition, (Chicago, IL, June 18-21, 2006).
• 10: Ekstrom, J., Gorka, S., Kamali, R., Lawson, E., Lunt, B., Miller, J., and Reichgelt, H. The Information Technology Model Curriculum, In Proceedings of the ISECON (Information Systems Education Convention) 2005, (Columbus, OH, Oct 6-9, 2005).
• 11: Ekstrom, J., Gorka, S., Kamali, R., Lawson, E., Lunt, B., Reichgelt, H., and Miller, J. "The Information Technology Model Curriculum", Journal of Information Technology Education, vol 5 (2006), pp 343--361.
• 12: Ekstrom, J., Gorka, S., Kamali, R., Lawson, E., Lunt, B., Miller, J., and Reichgelt, H. "The Information Technology Model Curriculum", The Information Systems Education Journal, 79:4 (2006).
• 13: Ekstrom, J., and Lunt, B. Changing Times: The Status of Computing Education in the United States, In Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference and Exposition, (Chicago, IL, June 18-21, 2006).

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  A. General Literature
  A.2 REFERENCE

General Terms:
Standardization

Keywords:
curriculum, information technology