How Has IT Education Evolved to Support Project Delivery?
- 1. How Has IT Education Evolved to Support Project Delivery? Sarah “The Awesome” LaCroix Business Information Technology Student, Red River College @punkrockgoth www.linkedin.com/in/sarahelacroix/
- 2. A shoutout to our sponsors! They’re the real MVPs
- 3. Hi. I’m Sarah. I’m awesome. True story. Here’s a picture of a bunny and kitty being best friends for you to enjoy while I introduce myself.
- 4. An overview of the next hour: Part 1: A brief history of IT education in Manitoba Part 2: Tales from the “real world” our teachers and parents kept talking about Part 3: Where do we go from here?
- 5. Part 1 A brief history of IT education in Manitoba
- 6. I visited 3 post secondary institutions I consulted the academic records from 3 different institutions: ● University of Manitoba ● Red River College ● University of Winnipeg I wanted to find out: ● What did early IT programs look like? ● How have course offerings changed?
- 7. A brief history of IT education in Manitoba Computer education programs started to appear in Manitoba in the late 1960’s-early 1970’s ● 1966 at University of Manitoba ● 1968 at Red River College (Manitoba Institute of Applied Arts at the time) ● 1971 at University of Winnipeg Offered through already established departments ● Faculty of Science at UoM ● School of Business at MIAA ● Math department at UofW Promotional photo for the new Computer Analyst/Programmer diploma used in the 1968-1969 Manitoba Institute of Applied Arts (now Red River College) course calendar.
- 8. ● Heavy focus on math ● Only 1 or 2 actual computer courses What did these early programs look like?
- 9. University of Manitoba Course Offerings 1965
- 10. Red River College Course Offerings 1968 How about that physical education requirement?
- 11. University of Winnipeg - 1971
- 12. A brief timeline of CompSci programs in Manitoba
- 13. By the decade... ● 60’s ○ Establishment of CompSci as a field of study ● 70’s ○ Course offerings grow ○ Still math and programming heavy ● 80’s ○ Subtle shift towards computers as a professional practice ○ Relational databases start being taught ● 90’s ○ Schools shift towards Object Oriented models ● 2000’s ○ Schools adjust to growing number of areas of study ● 2010’s ○ IoT, security and people skills getting emphasis Programs tended to make big shifts and then spend the following years growing into those changes. This is reflective of the industry in general.
- 14. Some gems from the Wayback Machine: Part 1 Snapshot taken: August 2, 2002
- 15. Some gems from the Wayback Machine: Part 2 Snapshot taken: September 25, 2001
- 16. Some gems from the Wayback Machine: Part 3 Snapshot taken: December 16, 2000
- 17. What has been removed to make room for new stuff? Insert video here
- 18. This brings us to today*... ● 4 undergraduate degrees ● 2 Masters options ● 6 continuing education programs ○ +1 to be launched this winter ● 2 diplomas ● 1 diploma prep program ● 8 certificates ● 1 post-graduate diploma ○ +1 TBA ● 7 undergraduate degree*** options ● 3 joint programs ● 7 areas of specialization ● 2 Masters options ● PhD program ● 1 continuing education program ***5 CS, 2 Computer Engineering *”Today” meaning as published in 2017-2018 course calendars for the schools.
- 19. Part 2 Tales from the “real world” our teachers and parents kept talking about
- 20. I sent out a survey! I wanted to hear from different people: ● Current students ● Recent graduates ● Educators ● People who have been working for awhile I wanted to know: ● What was their most useful and useless class? ● What was the important skill gained through education? ● What skills would they add to curriculums if they could? ● What advice do they have for students and employers? A lot of really awesome people responded!
- 21. How I thought students would respond: ● Most useful class: programming or networking ● Most useless class: accounting or humanities ● Most desired skill: programming I expected recent graduates to respond similarly. Assumptions - The survey answers I was expecting How I thought experienced people would respond: ● Most useful class: business or communication ● Most useless class: accounting or humanities ● Most desired skill: management or communication I expected instructors to respond similarly.
- 22. What I learned: Most hated class: ● Technical Writing Most valuable classes: ● Web Development ● Programming Most important skill: ● Working with people Nearly all respondents understand the importance of strong interpersonal skills, however they also don’t feel that schools are adequately addressing these critical skills.
- 23. Only 1 respondent said that students are stupid, lazy and getting dumber with time. I expected more people to share this attitude, but overall, people were excited to mentor students and work with new graduates.
- 24. PSA More than half of survey respondents made mention to harassment, sexism and discrimination. This is particularly noteworthy because I did not ask about this. Be nice to people. All people.
- 25. Part 3 Where do we go from here?
- 26. How has IT education evolved to improve project delivery? ● Courses are now including project management both from the managing side and being part of a team working with a project manager. ○ Project management is an elective at all institutions studied, however it does get mentioned in other courses ● Programs include more exposure to different areas of IT (business, web, development, databases, etc) ● Students are forced to consider opportunity costs for every decision they make. This is an unintended consequence of the structure of post secondary education, but it does prepare students for business decisions. ○ Downfall may be that students might not necessarily make this connection ● Instructors are forced to teach in such a way that all course takeaways may not be immediately obvious. This includes group projects, writing proposals for assignments that were going to be assigned regardless, and incorporating different styles of teaching. ○ Downfall may be that unless students make the connection, getting value from this may be difficult
- 27. Where does it fall short? ● Students don’t get the opportunity to get good at anything. Course loads are so heavy to compensate for the increase of material that learning outside of the classroom is difficult ● Programs change so fast that teams working with students or fresh graduates don’t really know what knowledge is already there ● Despite having high school be the base entrance requirement for these programs, these programs are not beginner friendly. People who already have experience end up doing better in these programs (which makes sense), but it often means that people without that background get left behind. This is particularly problematic in cases where grading is done on a curve. This also continues the idea that newcomers are not welcome to IT. Can someone without any existing knowledge succeed in their programs? Yes, but the cards are stacked against them and it is an uphill battle.
- 28. What can we do to improve? Students/Fresh Graduates… ● Understand that teaching and training are hard jobs. The person training may or may not have a lot of experience with students and fresh graduates. ● Don’t assume your colleagues are familiar with your knowledge base even if they came from the same program as you. ● Be willing to be malleable. Businesses will likely do things differently than you were taught. Not wrong, just different. Experts… ● Understand that even if students learned a technology, they will still likely need coaching. ● Have patience for people who are new to the industry. Early experiences have a lot of impact on how people will grow in their careers as well as their attitudes towards the workplace or even the entire industry. ● Don’t minimize what students are being taught. A lot of this is a case of “it is what it is”, especially because curriculums take time to change. The best that we will likely be able to do as individuals is be compassionate, have patience and don’t assume.
- 29. Questions? Comments? Thoughts? @punkrockgoth #prdcdeliver
- 30. Thank you for being here! There were lots of great talks to choose from, and you chose mine. It is truly an honour. @punkrockgoth https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahelacroix/