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Session 2650

Designing an IT Curriculum: The Results of the First CITC Conference

Barry M. Lunt, Edith A. Lawson, Gordon Goodman, C. Richard G. Helps Brigham Young University/Rochester Institute of Technology

Abstract The CITC (Conference on Information Technology Curriculum) in December 2001 included representatives from 15 Information Technology (IT) programs at four-year schools in the United States. Also in attendance were representatives from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). The purpose of this conference was to discuss many important topics in IT education, including a discussion of what constitutes an IT curriculum.

Because of the wide representation at the CITC, it is felt that the outcome of this curriculum discussion is of wide interest to all those in related programs or at institutions considering forming a similar program. This paper discusses the details of the results of the curriculum discussion, how decisions were made, and what the proposed curriculum includes and does not include.

Introduction In the first week of December of 2001 representatives from 15 undergraduate Information Technology (IT) programs from colleges/universities across the country (see appendix), gathered together in Aspen Grove, Utah, to develop a community and begin to establish academic standards for this rapidly growing discipline. The Conference on Information Technology Curriculum (CITC) was also attended by representatives from two professional societies, the Association for Computing Machine (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE), and also the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET). This invitational conference was the culmination of an effort begun several months earlier by five of these universities who had formed a steering committee to organize a response from existing IT programs to several initiatives to define the academic discipline of IT. The steering committee wanted to ensure that the input of existing programs played a significant role in the definition of the field.

There are several efforts underway. The Technology Accreditation Commission of ABET (TAC- ABET) has proposed guidelines for Information Engineering Technology and the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC-ABET) was discussing the relevance of its initiatives to this area. The TAC-ABET proposal concentrated on a narrow segment of the field as we saw it, while the CAC-ABET initiative, although they are working on accreditation standards for Information Systems (IS), was in only in the early stages of discussion. ACM and Computing Research Associates (CRA) formed a board of “IT” deans in 2000 [3] that meets twice a year

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Goodman, G., & Lawson, E. A., & Helps, C. R., & Lunt, B. (2002, June), Designing An It Curriculum: The Results Of The First Citc Conference Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10415