ERIC Number: EJ1140807
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-May
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1545-679X
EISSN: N/A
The Market for Career Tracks in Undergraduate IS Curricula in the U.S.
Hwang, Drew; Curl, Steven S.
Information Systems Education Journal, v12 n3 p4-17 May 2014
The use of Information Technology (IT) in organizations is broad and rapidly growing. With so many technology topics to cover, Information Systems (IS) educators are faced with the challenge of having to design and develop an IS curriculum that best serves both students and industry. IS curricula often adopt a breadth-first and specialization-second approach in which students take a set of core courses in a fundamental body of knowledge followed by a number of electives in a specialization either by their own preference or by a track design offered by the program. The subject of track design has not been a traditional focus of information systems curriculum study, despite the IS Model Curricula 2010's effort to introduce a separation between core and track courses. The current study examines career track data from IS programs in business and management within the United States. The study performed a content analysis of the websites and university catalogs of 401 IS undergraduate programs and identified 241 career tracks in 82 programs. These tracks are analyzed to better understand their composition and anatomy. The results should help current information systems programs to better understand and structure their own curricula.
Descriptors: Content Analysis, Undergraduate Students, Information Science Education, Information Systems, Career Choice, School Catalogs, Information Technology, Curriculum Development, Management Development, Business Administration Education, Comparative Analysis, Specialization, Majors (Students), Web Sites, Universities
Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals. Box 488, Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480. e-mail: publisher@isedj.org; Web site: http://isedj.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A