The Alignment Between Formal Education and Software Design Professionals' Needs in Industry: Faculty Perception

Abstract

Secil Caskurlu is a doctoral candisate in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Learning Design and Technology program at Purdue University. Ms. Iryna Ashby, Purdue UniversityIryna Ashby is a Ph.D student in the Learning Design and Technology Program at Purdue University with the research interests focused on program evaluation and competency-based education. She is also part of the program evaluation team for the Transdisciplinary Studies in Technology -a new initiative at Purdue Polytechnic aimed to redesign undergraduate student experiences through offering a combination of deep liberal arts experiences with student-driven, hands-on project-based learning. Dr. Marisa Exter, Purdue UniversityMarisa Exter is an Assistant Professor of Learning Design and Technology in the College of Education at Purdue University. Dr. Exter's research aims to provide recommendations to improve or enhance university-level design and technology programs (such as Instructional Design, Computer Science, and Engineering). Some of her previous research has focused on software designers' formal and non-formal educational experiences and use of precedent materials, and experienced instructional designers' beliefs about design character. These studies have highlighted the importance of cross-disciplinary skills and student engagement in large-scale, real-world projects. AbstractGiven the competitive global market for computing professionals and increased undergraduate enrollment rates in computing majors in the US, it is important to continually review how computing education programs prepare their graduates for success after graduation.This study aims to explore faculty perceptions about the degree to which computing-related programs meet the needs of software design professionals in the job. The Alignment between Formal Education and Software Design Professionals' Needs inIndustry: Faculty Perception

Everything but Programming; Investigating Academics’ Perceptions of Embedded Soft Skills in Computer Science Undergraduate Education

“…To close the soft skills gap, students must reflect on their own goals and recognise the role of soft skills [13].…”

Designing Dissemination and Validation of a Framework for Teaching Cloud Fundamentals

“…The ranking of the OEIS curriculum topics was based on the mean values to categorise topics as very important and important. Caskurlu et al [20] identified that the issue of disconnect between software design knowledge and skills taught in formal education and job needs could be explored through perceptions of faculty, industry and recent graduates. In their study they used a phenomenological approach to explore the perceptions of faculty, although it is not clear whether that approach was to be extended to the other groups.…”

Faculty Views on the Goals of an Undergraduate CS Education and the Academia-Industry Gap

“…They found many faculty believe CS programs prepare students well for industry jobs, citing the fact that the majority of their graduates have no problems finding high paying jobs. However, faculty also mentioned that soft skills are under-taught and that some topics such as software maintenance are hard, if not impossible, to teach [7].…”

“…Faculty are important to study, as they design and implement the curriculum (e.g., choosing to what extent to realize the ACM Curricula Recommendations [11]). Faculty views were recently studied focusing on the alignment between CS education and industry needs [7], assuming faculty see industry preparation as a primary goal. Our work explores faculty views more broadly, canvassing their views on the goals of an undergraduate education and a CS major to ultimately answer the question: "Are faculty views on undergraduate CS a potential cause for the persistence of the academia-industry gap?…”