Critical reflection of an integrated ICT curriculum ...
Transcript of Critical reflection of an integrated ICT curriculum ...
Critical reflection of an integrated ICT
curriculum designed to increase the quantity
of professionally competent graduates
By
Nicole Herbert BSc (Hons)
Discipline of Information and Communication Technology
School of Technology, Environments and Design
College of Sciences and Engineering
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
University of Tasmania December, 2019
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DECLARATION
This thesis is submitted to the University of Tasmania in fulfilment of the requirements
for the Doctor of Philosophy. I was primarily responsible for the design, execution,
analysis and reporting of the research although it was necessarily undertaken with the
assistance of others, who are duly acknowledged in the thesis.
This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the
University or any other institution, except by way of background information and duly
acknowledged in the thesis, and to the best of my knowledge and belief no material
previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgement
is made in the text of the thesis, nor does the thesis contain any material that infringes
copyright.
Nicole Herbert
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AUTHORITY OF ACCESS
The publishers of the papers in Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 6 hold the copyright for that
content and access to the material should be sought from the respective publishers. The
remaining non-published content of the thesis may be made available for loan and
limited copying and communication in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The curriculum work behind this thesis has taken a lifetime to complete and I need to
thank some amazing people.
This thesis would not be possible without the support of my PhD supervisors. It has
been a privilege to work with all of you. You have all provided a great deal of
encouragement, support and expertise and you have all influenced my development as a
researcher. Associate Professor Kristy de Salas, this would not have been possible
without your expert guidance and detailed critiques, you have been an inspiration to me
throughout the entire process. Associate Professor Erik Wapstra and Associate
Professor Tina Acuña, your insightful and constructive feedback from a non-ICT
perspective was invaluable.
I am extremely appreciative of my discipline colleagues, both past and present. I am
very fortunate to have worked with such a dedicated set of professionals. Thank you for
your hard work throughout the design, development and delivery of the renewed
curriculum, its success is due to your diligence and commitment. Thank you so much
for granting me the time this last year to focus on this thesis.
I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my family and friends. This would not
have been possible without your love, encouragement and wholehearted support. To my
parents, thank you for supporting me throughout my life, it was the work ethic you
instilled in me from childhood that motivated me to continue. To Dave and Sam, thank
you for giving me the space and time to complete this thesis, being there during the
difficult times and being here to celebrate at the end. It is finally finished!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CRITICAL REFLECTION OF AN INTEGRATED ICT CURRICULUM DESIGNED TO INCREASE THE QUANTITY
OF PROFESSIONALLY COMPETENT GRADUATES .................................................................................... I
DECLARATION .............................................................................................................................................. II AUTHORITY OF ACCESS .................................................................................................................................. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................................................................... V ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................. VII LIST OF RELATED PUBLICATIONS TO THIS RESEARCH .............................................................................................. X LIST OF LEARNING AND TEACHING AWARDS RELATED TO THIS RESEARCH ................................................................ XIV PUBLICATION STATEMENTS ........................................................................................................................... XV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 CHALLENGES FOR ICT HIGHER EDUCATION ........................................................................................... 2 1.3 PURPOSE OF THE THESIS ................................................................................................................ 10 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS FOR THIS THESIS ............................................................................................. 14 1.5 SYNOPSIS AND STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS .......................................................................................... 16 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS THESIS .......................................................................................................... 18
CHAPTER 2 DESIGN OF AN ICT CURRICULUM INFORMED BY INTENDED GRADUATE CAREER OUTCOMES
AND THE REQUIRED SKILL SETS TO ENHANCE THE EMPLOYABILITY OF GRADUATES ........................... 20
2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 21 2.2 A PROCESS TO GUIDE ICT CURRICULUM DESIGN .................................................................................. 22 2.3 PAPER 1: IDENTIFYING CAREER OUTCOMES AS THE FIRST STEP IN ICT CURRICULA DEVELOPMENT .................. 24 2.4 PAPER 2: STAKEHOLDER-LED CURRICULUM REDESIGN .......................................................................... 35 2.5 PAPER 3: CAREER OUTCOMES AND SFIA AS TOOLS TO DESIGN ICT CURRICULUM ...................................... 44 2.6 PAPER 4: ICT CURRICULUM AND COURSE STRUCTURE: THE GREAT BALANCING ACT .................................... 55
CHAPTER 3 DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AN ICT CURRICULUM WITH INTEGRATED PROFESSIONAL
SKILL DEVELOPMENT TO ENHANCE THE EMPLOYABILITY OF GRADUATES .......................................... 66
3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 67 3.2 UNDERSTANDING COMPETENCY AND PROFESSIONALLY COMPETENT ........................................................ 68 3.3 UNDERSTANDING THE EMPLOYABILITY SKILL SET .................................................................................. 70 3.4 UNDERSTANDING THE INTEGRATED APPROACH ................................................................................... 73 3.5 UNDERSTANDING THE CASE STUDY COURSE STRUCTURE ........................................................................ 73
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3.6 PAPER 5: A METHODOLOGY TO INTEGRATE PROFESSIONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT THROUGHOUT AN ICT
CURRICULUM ............................................................................................................................................. 77 3.7 PAPER 6: INTEGRATING THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL SKILLS THROUGHOUT A CURRICULUM IMPROVES A
GRADUATE'S COMPETENCY ........................................................................................................................... 85 3.8 PAPER 7: AN ASSESSMENT SCHEME FOR SHORT-TERM PLACEMENTS ....................................................... 93 3.9 PAPER 8: REFLECTIONS ON 17 YEARS OF ICT CAPSTONE PROJECT COORDINATION: EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR
MANAGING CLIENTS, TEAMS AND ASSESSMENT .............................................................................................. 100
CHAPTER 4 EVALUATION OF STRATEGIES TO INCREASE ICT COURSE COMMENCEMENTS AND REDUCE
ICT COURSE ATTRITION TO IMPACT ON THE QUANTITY OF GRADUATES .......................................... 107
4.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 108 4.2 PAPER 9: EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF STRATEGIES EMPLOYED WITHIN AN ICT CURRICULUM TO INCREASE THE
QUANTITY OF GRADUATES ......................................................................................................................... 110 4.3 PAPER 10: IMPACT OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT ON FIRST YEAR ICT PERFORMANCE ................................. 118 4.4 PAPER 11: IS THE ATAR A USEFUL PREDICTOR OF SUCCESS IN ICT: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ......................... 125 4.5 PAPER 12: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING ATTRITION WITHIN AN ICT DEGREE ............... 136
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION INCLUDING FINDINGS, IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE WORK ...................... 147
5.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 148 5.2 SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS ............................................................................................................... 154 5.3 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 164
CHAPTER 6 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................... 165
6.1 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................. 166 6.2 APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................................. 187
CHAPTER 7 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 228
7.1 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 229
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ABSTRACT
Rapidly evolving technology has resulted in a continuous demand for professionally
competent information and communication technology (ICT) graduates, both nationally
and internationally. In 2019, the Australian Computer Society (ACS) released figures
forecasting that Australia will require an additional 100,000 ICT specialist workers by
2024. A potential source of these specialist workers is tertiary ICT graduates. While the
ACS reported that ICT domestic undergraduate enrolments rose from a low of around
19,000 in 2010 to 30,000 in 2017, this growth is not large enough to meet the forecasted
demand. High attrition rates in ICT courses – caused by several factors relating to a lack
of student engagement, motivation, and academic success – also impact the number of
graduates. Despite the fact that the ACS reported there has been steady growth in
graduate completions since 2012, there were only 4400 domestic ICT graduates in
2017. This low number of ICT graduates is impacting the national economy by limiting
the growth and advancement of many industry sectors and constraining the nation’s
ability to compete in the global digital economy.
Previous research indicates that ICT graduates lack competence with some generic
employability skills that preclude them from functioning productively in the workplace.
Students graduating from ICT courses are generally strong in their technical ability but
weaker in their professional skills, in particular their ability to communicate and
collaborate effectively in the workplace. ICT graduates lack professional competence
with the employability skill set – the ability to combine technical and professional
knowledge, skills and attitudes to effectively perform professional tasks to industry
standards. The poor quality of ICT graduates has serious implications for the ICT higher
education sector as ICT industry employers were reportedly bypassing ICT graduates by
employing high-performing students from non-ICT courses and subsequently training
them in the required ICT technical skills. The growing demand for professionally
competent ICT graduates warrants the need for more effective ICT curriculum design.
The objective of this thesis is to address the core challenge for ICT higher education:
how to design ICT curriculum to increase the quantity of graduates professionally
competent with the employability skill set. This thesis provides a critical reflection and
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comprehensive evidence-based evaluation of an entire ICT curriculum. This case study
ICT curriculum incorporates the core knowledge and skills from the discipline fields of
computer science, information technology and information systems and the findings in
this thesis are relevant to all of those ICT disciplines.
The findings of this body of work will be of benefit to both ICT industry and ICT
higher education at a national and international level. There are three significant
findings:
1. An ICT curriculum that is aligned with the intended graduate career outcomes
and related skill sets can increase course commencements and enhance the
employability of graduates;
2. Professional skill development can be integrated within an ICT curriculum
without degrading technical skill development to result in professionally
competent graduates; and
3. Ensuring that students are engaged with academic learning activities and
motivated to complete the course by the career opportunities can reduce ICT
course attrition.
This thesis has made a substantive contribution to the body of knowledge and practice
in ICT curriculum design by identifying:
• A process to classify potential ICT career outcomes and the required skill sets
for ICT graduates for the purpose of designing a curriculum;
• A methodology to effectively include professional skill development throughout
an ICT curriculum to enhance the employability of graduates; and
• Effective strategies with implementation techniques to increase ICT course
commencements and reduce ICT course attrition to increase the quantity of
graduates professionally competent with the employability skill set.
This opportunity to evaluate an entire ICT curriculum has identified several key
implications for ICT higher education:
• Using a skills reference model in the curriculum design process, such as that
provided by the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), enables
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curriculum designers and industry representatives to ensure that an ICT
curriculum equips graduates with the required skill sets for the ICT industry;
• Integrating professional skill development within an ICT curriculum can result
in graduates professionally competent with the employability skill set; and
• Greater support mechanisms intentionally provided to sectors of the student
population that commence an ICT course could improve academic success and
reduce course attrition.
This thesis is presented as a series of academically peer-reviewed papers that reflect on
the design, implementation and empirical evaluation of an ICT curriculum designed to
increase the quantity of professionally competent graduates.
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LIST OF RELATED PUBLICATIONS TO THIS RESEARCH
Papers included in this thesis
These papers were first-authored by this thesis author and are grouped into chapters
throughout the thesis to present a coherent reflection of the research undertaken. The
Publication Statements can be found in the preface section of this thesis.
Nicole Herbert, Kristy de Salas, Ian Lewis, Michael Cameron-Jones, Winyu
Chinthammit, Julian Dermoudy, Leonie Ellis, and Matthew Springer. 2013. Identifying
Career Outcomes as the First Step in ICT Curricula Development. Proceedings of the
Fifteenth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2013), 29 January - 1
February 2013, Adelaide, Australia, pp. 31-40. ISBN 978-1-921770-21-0 (2013)
Nicole Herbert, Julian Dermoudy, Leonie Ellis, Michael Cameron-Jones, Winyu
Chinthammit, Ian Lewis, Kristy de Salas, and Matthew Springer. 2013. Stakeholder-
Led Curriculum Redesign. Proceedings of the Fifteenth Australasian Computing
Education Conference (ACE 2013), 29 January - 1 February 2013, Adelaide, Australia,
pp. 51-58. ISBN 978-1-921770-21-0 (2013)
Nicole Herbert, Ian Lewis and Kristy de Salas. 2013. Career outcomes and SFIA as
Tools to Design ICT Curriculum. Proceedings of the 24th Australasian Conference on
Information Systems, 4-6 December 2013, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 1-10. (2013)
Nicole Herbert, Kristy de Salas, Ian Lewis, Julian Dermoudy, and Leonie Ellis. 2014.
ICT Curriculum and Course Structure: the Great Balancing Act. Proceedings of the
Sixteenth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2014), 20-23 January
2014, Auckland, New Zealand, pp. 21-30. ISBN 978-1-921770-31-9 (2014)
Nicole Herbert. 2017. Impact of Student Engagement on First Year ICT Performance.
In 2017 International Conference on Computational Science and Computational
Intelligence (CSCI), Las Vegas, NV, USA, 2017 pp. 1085-1090.
Nicole Herbert. 2017. An Assessment Scheme for Short-Term Placements. 2017. In
International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence
(CSCI), Las Vegas, NV, 2017, pp. 1067-1072.
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Nicole Herbert. 2018. Reflections on 17 years of ICT Capstone Project Coordination:
Effective Strategies for Managing Clients, Teams and Assessment, Proceedings of the
49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, February 21-24,
2018, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Nicole Herbert and David Herbert. 2018. Is the ATAR a Useful Predictor of Success in
ICT?: An Empirical Study. In Proceedings of the 20th Australasian Computing
Education Conference (ACE '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 35-44.
Nicole Herbert, David Herbert, Erik Wapstra, Kristy de Salas, Tina Acuña. 2020. An
Exploratory Study of Factors Affecting Attrition within an ICT Degree. Accepted at
22nd Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE '20). ACM, New York, NY,
USA.
Nicole Herbert, Kristy de Salas, Tina Acuña, Erik Wapstra. 2020. A Methodology to
Integrate Professional Skill Development throughout an ICT Curriculum. 25th Annual
ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education
Conference (ITiCSE '20). ACM, New York, NY, USA.
Nicole Herbert, David Herbert, Erik Wapstra, Kristy de Salas, Tina Acuña. 2020.
Integrating the Development of Professional Skills throughout an ICT Curriculum
Improves a Graduate’s Competency, 2020 International Conference on Computational
Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI), Las Vegas, NV, USA, 2020.
Nicole Herbert, Erik Wapstra, David Herbert, Kristy de Salas, Tina Acuña. 2020.
Empirical Analysis of Strategies Employed within an ICT Curriculum to Increase the
Quantity of Graduates, 2020 International Conference on Computational Science and
Computational Intelligence (CSCI), Las Vegas, NV, USA, 2020.
Papers related to the content of this thesis
These papers were not first-authored by this thesis author and were written to present
the research related to the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) in Chapter
2 of this thesis to an international audience using a different perspective. These papers
are included in Appendix A.
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Ian Lewis, Kristy de Salas, Nicole Herbert, Winyu Chinthammit, Julian Dermoudy,
Leonie Ellis, and Matthew Springer. 2013. Development of ICT curricula through
graduate career outcomes and required skills. Proceedings of the 2013 International
Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering,
22-25 July 2013, Las Vegas, USA, pp. 1-7. ISBN 1-60132-235-6 (2013)
Kristy de Salas, Ian Lewis, Julian Dermoudy, Nicole Herbert, Leonie Ellis, Matthew
Springer and Winyu Chinthammit. 2013. Designing the modern ICT curriculum:
Opportunities and challenges. Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on
Information Systems (ICIS 2013), 15-18 December 2013, Milan, Italy, pp. 1- 12. (2013)
Papers indirectly related to this thesis
These papers were first authored by the thesis author before this doctoral study
commenced, and provide details of some of the initial research in collaborative capstone
project experiences that form the basis for creating engaging and motivating learning
experiences and incorporating professional skill development within an ICT curriculum.
These papers are included in Appendix B.
Nicole Herbert. 2007. Quantitative Peer Assessment: Can students be objective.
Proceedings of the Ninth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE2007),
30 Jan - 2 Feb 2007, Ballarat, Victoria, pp. 63-71. ISBN 1-920-68247-3 (2007)
Nicole Clark.1 2005. Evaluating student teams developing unique industry projects.
Proceedings of the Seventh Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE2005),
January 2005, Newcastle, Australia, pp. 21-29. ISBN 1-920682-24-4 (2005)
Nicole Clark, Pamela Davies, and Rebecca Skeers. 2005. Self and Peer Assessment in
Software Engineering Projects. Proceedings of the Seventh Australasian Computing
1 Clark was Nicole Herbert’s maiden name
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Education Conference (ACE2005), January 2005, Newcastle, Australia, pp. 91-100.
ISBN 1-920682-24-4 (2005)
Nicole Clark. 2004. Peer Testing in Software Engineering Projects. Computing
Education 2004 Sixth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2004)
Australian Computer Science Communications, January 2004, Dunedin, New Zealand,
pp. 41-48. ISBN 1-920682-12-0 (2004)
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LIST OF LEARNING AND TEACHING AWARDS RELATED TO THIS
RESEARCH
2017 Australian Awards for University Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning
Australian Government Award for leading the design, development and delivery of an
industry-engaged curriculum that integrates professionalism with technical skills to
enhance the employability of ICT graduates.
2016 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, University of Tasmania
For outstanding contributions to learning and teaching in the ICT discipline over a
sustained period of time.
2014 Vice Chancellor’s Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, University of Tasmania
For outstanding contributions to student learning for sustained commitment to ICT
curriculum development that enhances student learning and work readiness by
incorporating in-demand industry skills.
2014 iAwards Tasmanian ICT Educator of the Year, Australian Information Industry Association
Awarded by ICT industry for the work on the ICT curriculum development and the
delivery of the capstone projects
Teaching Merit Certificates, University of Tasmania
• 2014 for approaches to ICT curriculum development
• 2013 for approaches to assessment in the capstone ICT project units
• 2011 for approaches to student learning in the capstone ICT project units
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PUBLICATION STATEMENTS
Publication Statement for Paper 1: Identifying Career Outcomes as the First Step in ICT Curricula Development
Statement from co-authors confirming the authorship contribution of the PhD candidate.
Nicole Herbert, Kristy de Salas, Ian Lewis, Michael Cameron-Jones, Winyu Chinthammit, Julian Dermoudy, Leonie Ellis, Matthew Springer. 2013. Identifying Career Outcomes as the First Step in ICT Curricula dDevelopment. Proceedings of the Fifteenth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2013), 29 January - 1 February 2013, Adelaide, Australia, pp. 31-40.
As co-authors of the paper “Identifying Career Outcomes as the First Step in ICT
Curricula Development” we confirm that Nicole Herbert’s contribution to the paper is
consistent with her being named first author. In particular, the candidate’s contribution
to the following items should be noted:
• Definition of the process and constraints• Conducting the sessions with the industry members to identify roles• Analysis and interpretation of the role data• Collating the SFIA skills and review• Identifying the levels of responsibility• Writing of the first draft of paper and significant contribution to other drafts• Critical appraisal of its content after contributions from colleagues
Signature Date
Nicole Herbert 19/11/2019
Kristy de Salas 11/11/2019
Ian Lewis 11/11/2019
Julian Dermoudy 1/12/2019
Leonie Ellis 19/11/2019
Matthew Springer 19/11/2019
Winyu Chinthammit 19/11/2019
Mike Cameron-Jones 19/11/2019
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Publication Statement for Paper 2: Stakeholder-Led Curriculum Redesign
Statement from co-authors confirming the authorship contribution of the PhD candidate.
Nicole Herbert, Julian Dermoudy, Leonie Ellis, Michael Cameron-Jones, Winyu Chinthammit, Ian Lewis, Kristy de Salas, and Matthew Springer. Stakeholder-Led Curriculum Redesign. Proceedings of the Fifteenth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2013), 29 January - 1 February 2013, Adelaide, Australia, pp. 51-58.
As co-authors of the paper “Stakeholder-Led Curriculum Redesign” we confirm that
Nicole Herbert’s contribution to the paper is consistent with her being named first
author. In particular, the candidate’s contribution to the following items should be
noted:
• Organising the forums and interviews• Leading the meetings to identify the questions• Conducting the forums along with other working party members• Collating the interview data• Leading the meetings to analyse the data• Incorporating the outcomes into the first draft of the curriculum• First draft of the paper and significant contribution to other drafts• Critical appraisal of its final content after significant contributions from
colleaguesSignature Date
Nicole Herbert 19/11/2019
Kristy de Salas 11/11/2019
Ian Lewis 11/11/2019
Julian Dermoudy 1/12/2019
Leonie Ellis 19/11/2019
Matthew Springer 19/11/2019
Winyu Chinthammit 19/11/2019
Mike Cameron-Jones 19/11/2019
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Publication Statement for Paper 3: Career Outcomes and SFIA as Tools to Design ICT Curriculum
Statement from co-authors confirming the authorship contribution of the PhD candidate.
Nicole Herbert, Ian Lewis, Kristy de Salas. 2013. Career Outcomes and SFIA as Tools to Design ICT Curriculum. Proceedings of the 24th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, 4-6 December 2013, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 1-10. (2013)
As co-authors of the paper “Career outcomes and SFIA as Tools to Design ICT
Curriculum” we confirm that Nicole Herbert’s contribution to the paper is consistent
with her being named first author. In particular, the candidate’s contribution to the
following items should be noted:
• Analysis and interpretation of the career outcomes data
• Identifying the SFIA skills and levels of responsibility
• Incorporating the skills into the first draft of the curriculum
• Mapping the skills and career outcomes across the final curriculum
• Writing of the first draft of paper and significant contribution to other drafts
• Critical appraisal of its content after contributions from colleagues
Signature Date
Nicole Herbert 19/11/2019
Kristy de Salas 11/11/2019
Ian Lewis 11/11/2019
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Publication Statement for Paper 4: ICT Curriculum and Course Structure: the Great Balancing Act
Statement from co-authors confirming the authorship contribution of the PhD candidate.
Nicole Herbert, Kristy de Salas, Ian Lewis, Julian Dermoudy, Leonie Ellis. 2014. ICT Curriculum and Course Structure: the Great Balancing Act. Proceedings of the Sixteenth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2014), 20-23 January 2014, Auckland, New Zealand, pp. 21-30. ISBN 978-1-921770-31-9 (2014)
As co-authors of the paper “ICT Curriculum and Course Structure: the Great Balancing
Act” we confirm that Nicole Herbert’s contribution to the paper is consistent with her
being named first author. In particular, the candidate’s contribution to the following
items should be noted:
• Analysis and interpretation of the career outcomes data
• Identifying the SFIA skills and levels of responsibility
• Mapping the skills and career outcomes across the final curriculum
• Leading the review of ACM curricula and national and international providers
• Developing the first draft of the curriculum
• Mapping the new curriculum to UTAS course structure
• Writing of the first draft of paper and significant contribution to other drafts
• Critical appraisal of its content after contributions from colleagues
Signature Date
Nicole Herbert 19/11/2019
Kristy de Salas 11/11/2019
Ian Lewis 11/11/2019
Julian Dermoudy 1/12/2019
Leonie Ellis 19/11/2019
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Publication Statement for Paper 5: A Methodology to Integrate Professional Skill Development throughout an ICT Curriculum
Statement from co-authors confirming the authorship contribution of the PhD candidate.
Nicole Herbert, Kristy de Salas, Tina Acuna, Erik Wapstra. 2020. A Methodology to Integrate Professional Skill Development throughout an ICT Curriculum. 25th Annual ACM Conference on InnovaFon and Technology in Computer Science EducaFon Conference (ITiCSE '20). ACM, New York, NY, USA.
As co-authors of the paper “A Methodology to Integrate Professional Skill Development
throughout an ICT Curriculum” we confirm that Nicole Herbert’s contribution to the
paper is consistent with her being named first author. In particular, the candidate’s
contribution to the following items should be noted:
• Leading the review of literature on curriculum design and incorporating
professional skill development
• Leading the design, development and delivery of the curriculum
• Developing the methodology for integrating professional skills
• Collation of previous and new course data
• Analysis and interpretation of the data
• Writing of the first draft of paper and significant contribution to all other drafts
• Critical appraisal of its content after contributions from colleagues
Signature Date
Nicole Herbert 19/11/2019
Kristy de Salas 11/11/2019
Erik Wapstra 30/11/2019
Tina Acuna 9/12/2019
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Publication Statement for Paper 6: Integra\ng the Development of Professional Skills throughout an ICT Curriculum improves a Graduate’s Competency
Statement from co-authors confirming the authorship contribution of the PhD candidate.
Nicole Herbert, David Herbert, Erik Wapstra, Kristy de Salas, Tina Acuna. 2020. Integracng the Development of Professional Skills throughout an ICT Curriculum improves a Graduate’s Competency. Submieed to the 25th Annual ACM Conference on InnovaFon and Technology in Computer Science EducaFon Conference (ITiCSE '20). ACM, New York, NY, USA.
As co-authors of the paper “Integrating the Development of Professional Skills
throughout an ICT Curriculum improves a Graduate’s Competency” we confirm that
Nicole Herbert’s contribution to the paper is consistent with her being named first
author. In particular, the candidate’s contribution to the following items should be
noted:
• Leading the review of literature on curriculum design and incorporating
professional skill development
• Leading the design, development and delivery of the curriculum
• Developing the methodology for integrating professional skills
• Collation of previous and new course data
• Analysis and interpretation of the data
• Writing of the first draft of paper and significant contribution to all other drafts
• Critical appraisal of its content after contributions from colleagues
Signature Date
Nicole Herbert 19/11/2019
Kristy de Salas 11/11/2019
Erik Wapstra 30/11/2019
Tina Acuna 9/12/2019
David Herbert 20/11/2019
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Publication Statement for Paper 9: Empirical Analysis of Strategies Employed within an ICT Curriculum to Increase the Quantity of Graduates
Statement from co-authors confirming the authorship contribution of the PhD candidate.
Nicole Herbert, Erik Wapstra, David Herbert, Kristy de Salas, Tina Acuna. 2020. Empirical Analysis of Strategies Employed within an ICT Curriculum to Increase the Quantity of Graduates. Submitted to the 25th Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Conference (ITiCSE '20). ACM, New York, NY, USA.
As co-authors of the paper “Empirical Analysis of Strategies Employed within an ICT
Curriculum to Increase the Quantity of Graduates” we confirm that Nicole Herbert’s
contribution to the paper is consistent with her being named first author. In particular,
the candidate’s contribution to the following items should be noted:
• Leading the design of the curriculum based on career outcomes
• Leading the review of literature to increase quantity of graduates
• Leading the design, development and delivery of the curriculum
• Collation of previous and new course data
• Analysis and interpretation of the data
• Writing of the first draft of paper and significant contribution to all other drafts
• Critical appraisal of its content after contributions from colleagues
Signature Date
Nicole Herbert 19/11/2019
Kristy de Salas 11/11/2019
Erik Wapstra 30/112019
Tina Acuna 9/12/2019
David Herbert 20/11/2010
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Publication Statement for Paper 11: Is the ATAR a Useful Predictor of Success in ICT?: An Empirical Study
Statement from co-authors confirming the authorship contribution of the PhD candidate.
Nicole Herbert and David Herbert. 2018. Is the ATAR a Useful Predictor of Success in ICT?: An Empirical Study. In Proceedings of the 20th Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 35-44.
As co-authors of the paper “Is the ATAR a Useful Predictor of Success in ICT?: An
Empirical Study” we confirm that Nicole Herbert’s contribution to the paper is
consistent with her being named first author. In particular, the candidate’s contribution
to the following items should be noted:
• Collation of ATAR related data
• Analysis and interpretation of the data
• Writing of the first draft of paper and significant contribution to all other drafts
• Critical appraisal of its content after contributions from colleague
Signature Date
Nicole Herbert 19/11/2019
David Herbert 20/11/2019
xxiii
Publication Statement for Paper 12: An Exploratory Study of Factors Affecting Attrition within an ICT Degree
Statement from co-authors confirming the authorship contribution of the PhD candidate.
Nicole Herbert, David Herbert, Erik Wapstra, Kristy de Salas, Tina Acuna. 2020. An Exploratory Study of Factors Affecting Attrition within an ICT Degree. 22nd Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE '20). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 35-44.
As co-authors of the paper “An Exploratory Study of Factors Affecting Attrition within
an ICT Degree” we confirm that Nicole Herbert’s contribution to the paper is consistent
with her being named first author. In particular, the candidate’s contribution to the
following items should be noted:
• Leading the design, development and delivery of the curriculum
• Collation of course data
• Analysis and interpretation of the data
• Writing of the first draft of paper and significant contribution to all other drafts
• Critical appraisal of its content after contributions from colleagues
Signature Date
Nicole Herbert 19/11/2019
Kristy de Salas 11/11/2019
Erik Wapstra 30/11/2019
Tina Acuna 9/12/2019
David Herbert 20/11/2019
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
2
1.1 INTRODUCTION
This thesis is presented as a series of peer-reviewed papers, grouped into related topics
that reflect on the design, implementation, and evaluation of an information and
communication technology (ICT2) curriculum designed to increase the quantity of
graduates professionally competent3 with the employability skill set4.
In late 2011 the School of Computing and Information Systems at the University of
Tasmania in Australia was externally reviewed and it was a recommendation of the
review panel that the existing two undergraduate courses5 (degrees) be discontinued,
and a single undergraduate course be created in their place. This presented an
opportunity to conduct a thorough ICT curriculum renewal process and while
undertaking this process some significant challenges for ICT higher education were
identified that needed to be investigated and resolved.
1.2 CHALLENGES FOR ICT HIGHER EDUCATION
At the commencement of the curriculum renewal process in 2012, there was growing
local and national level concern within the ICT industry and within government
agencies about the quantity and quality of the ICT graduates [9, 14, 12, 77].
With regards to quantity, in 2012 the Australian Computer Society (ACS) predicted
strong growth in the demand for ICT technical and professional staff [9]; since then the
2 Within this thesis, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a discipline field that incorporates the core knowledge and skills from the fields of Computer Science, Information Technology and Information Systems [7]. 3 Professional competence is the ability to perform a task to industry standard and is indicative of a quality graduate [7]. 4 Within this thesis, the ICT employability skill set is a combination of ICT technical, non-technical (business), and professional (generic, soft, graduate) skills, suitable for a range of ICT career outcomes. 5 Within this thesis, the term course represents an entire degree and the term unit represents a subject. To graduate from a three-year course a student must pass 24 units.
3
ICT workforce has doubled from 300,000 to 792,000 [40] in 2019 and the ACS is
currently forecasting that Australia will require an additional 100,000 ICT specialist
workers by 2024 [40]. Female representation in the ICT workforce is low and this lack
of qualified females to contribute ideas and steer technology developments is a major
concern for the industry [36, 100]. Due to the high demand for qualified ICT personnel,
skilled migrants play a significant role in filling skilled ICT positions.
With regards to quality, prior to the curriculum renewal in 2012 there were reports that
potential employers considered ICT graduates to be deficient in necessary skills,
particularly professional skills such as communication and interpersonal skills [77, 3,
27, 56, 14, 61]. ICT graduates lacked professional competence in the ICT employability
skill set. In a recent study completed by Palmer et al. [92] using the 2017 Australian
national census data, they found that one third of ICT bachelor graduates do not work in
professional ICT roles, even though there is significant demand for ICT professionals.
The low quantity and poor quality of ICT graduates has serious implications for the
Australian ICT industry as it limits its ability to provide a timely response to the
growing demand for ICT-related products and services [9].
The core challenge for ICT higher education, therefore, is how to design ICT curriculum
to increase the quantity of graduates professionally competent with the employability
skill set. The first part of the core challenge relates to the quantity of students
completing ICT courses. This challenge will now be explored in detail.
1.2.1 Understanding the factors that influence the quantity of ICT graduates
Rapidly evolving technology has resulted in a continuous demand for capable ICT
graduates, both nationally and internationally [29]. The low number of ICT graduates is
impacting the national economy and the growth of many industry sectors, as the use of
ICT is fundamental to their technological modernisation [9, 114]. When the curriculum
renewal began in 2012, the ACS released figures indicating there had been a 31%
growth in ICT industry employment since 2003. While undergraduate course
commencements had slowly begun to increase from 2009 to 2013, the number of
domestic students (Australian citizens) graduating from ICT courses had halved over
the previous decade; down from 9093 in 2003 to 4547 in 2013 [9, 12]. At the time, the
4
growth in international student commencements in ICT courses had stagnated and
started to decline [11]. Increasing the domestic and international appeal of Australian
ICT courses was essential to meet the future demands of the industry. Low
commencements and high attrition in ICT courses were serious problems for higher
education as there were funding implications, which were resulting in a lack of
resources (facilities and staff) to create experiences that would attract and retain
students and to design courses that would enhance a graduate’s employability6 [30].
With regards to improving the quantity of available graduates, ICT higher education
faced two major challenges: how to increase the ICT course commencements and how
to reduce the attrition rate for ICT courses.
1.2.1.1 Understanding the factors that influence a decision to commence an ICT course
When the curriculum renewal began in 2012, ICT courses rank poorly on the list of
preferred courses for applicants for university places [11]. Potential students had poor
perceptions of the field of ICT [32] and this resulted in low commencement rates for
ICT tertiary courses in comparison to other disciplines [11]. For example, there were
increases in the number of admissions across most broad fields of education in 2011
compared with the same period in 2010, except in ICT which was down 1.3% [11] –
indicating that ICT had an image problem [32]. Enrolments in pre-tertiary ICT subjects
– at years 11 and 12 – were also low and typically did not attract high-achieving
students [12] and this was having a flow-on effect at the tertiary level. Applications to
commence study in the broad field of Information Technology were very low in
comparison to other fields of education [41]. To grow commencements in ICT courses,
it was imperative to improve the perceptions of the field of ICT and to appeal to a
diverse range of potential applicants irrespective of their prior academic history with
ICT.
6 Employability is defined as a set of achievements, which includes skills, knowledge and personal attributes that make them attractive to an employer [127].
5
Carter [32] provided significant evidence that students chose not to study ICT due to
their perceptions of the field. A career in ICT was perceived as male-dominated,
repetitive, isolated, and focused on the technical rather than the professional [32, 14].
While this perception was accurate in the past, the rapidly changing nature of the ICT
sector was driving a transformation of career outcomes and employers were demanding
a much wider range of skills beyond ICT technical skills, including communication,
collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking [96, 111, 56]. As a result, the narrow
focus of ICT careers was broadening, yet these poor perceptions remained. To improve
the perceptions of the transforming field of ICT, all stakeholders (potential applicants,
ICT teachers, ICT academics and employers) needed to be more informed of the range
of available ICT graduate careers [29] and these career opportunities needed to direct
ICT curriculum design [29, 117] to result in competent graduates for the range of ICT
career outcomes available currently and into the future [40, 14, 13].
To ensure competent graduates for the broad range of ICT career opportunities
available, ICT curriculum designers7 needed to embrace a career focus within the design
process. In doing so, the old perceptions of ICT careers could be countered and result in
attracting a larger and more diverse range of applicants. To achieve this outcome, a
relevant question for higher education ICT curriculum designers is:
• What is a process to identify a range of graduate career outcomes that can
direct the design of an ICT higher education curriculum to attract new
applicants?
This question will be explored in Chapter 2 of this thesis.
The other challenge to explore to increase the quantity of graduates to meet the growing
demand is the reasons why current students do not complete their studies.
7 Within this thesis, ICT curriculum designers should be viewed as ICT academics who are content knowledge experts working together with generic academic curriculum developers and ICT industry representatives to design and develop ICT curricula.
6
1.2.1.2 Understanding the factors that influence a decision to withdraw from an ICT course
To increase the quantity of ICT graduates it is necessary to not only increase the
commencements in ICT courses but also reduce the rate of course attrition. The term
‘attrition’ is used here to indicate the loss of students from an ICT course, either as a
result of transferring out of the course and into another course or leaving the university
altogether [100]. When the curriculum renewal began in 2012, national course attrition
across all disciplines was at 17% [11], while there was a significantly higher national
course attrition rate of 45% for ICT courses [9]. There have been several studies
exploring the contributing factors for high attrition rates in ICT courses:
• poor course choice due to student misconceptions of the ICT discipline and what
was involved in studying ICT [19, 20, 23, 32, 86];
• lack of motivation to complete [95, 106, 20, 100, 99, 101, 36];
• poor time management and study skills [19, 58, 109, 95, 106];
• lack of academic success [4, 109, 58, 93, 99, 100, 103]; and
• a multitude of factors that were all causing a lack of student engagement [31,
104, 28, 86]:
o poor quality teaching or feedback [19, 58, 126, 100, 78, 103];
o poor course and subject structure and teaching style [58, 75, 100, 99, 78,
86];
o badly designed practical work and non-alignment with professional
practice [19, 126, 75, 86, 96, 99, 100, 78]; and
o low levels of interaction with peers and staff [15, 23, 86, 95, 100, 99].
With regards to misconceptions about ICT, Beaubouef and McDowell [20] summarised
a number of misconceptions that were held about studying ICT: nature of the field –
ICT is much wider than producing reports and collating data and infiltrates a wide range
of industries; ICT is easy – ICT requires mathematics and problem-solving skills and a
disciplined approach to solve complicated problems; social issues and communication
skills – ICT careers are not solitary positions and require written and oral
communication skills to convey ideas and concepts to develop systems that meet user
7
requirements; and programming – while it is essential that all ICT graduates have some
ability to program, it is only one of the many important skills required.
With regards to motivation, Petersen et al. [95] and Shell et al. [106] found the main
difference between students who complete their course and students who withdraw from
their course is their motivation to study. Biggers et al. [23] found that, although the
primary reason students gave for withdrawing from their course was allegedly a “loss of
interest”, the underlying explanation was often related to the undesirability of a
programming career. Students, in particular female students, are motivated by prospects
of satisfying and financially rewarding careers [100, 99, 101, 36].
With regards to a lack of academic success, many studies have found that failure was a
major factor in the decision to withdraw from a course and ICT students who pass
subjects were more likely to continue [4, 109, 58, 93, 99, 100, 103]. Core introductory
programming subjects had one of the highest failure rates [18, 23, 122]. Numerous
studies had identified prior learning of ICT as having an impact on success within an
ICT course, particularly in introductory programming [15, 76, 125, 80, 72, 104, 126, 55,
83]. Sheard et al. [104] found that students with English as a second language (ESL)
were likely to achieve lower results in introductory programming. Horton and Craig
[72] found that students with ESL were more likely to fail introductory programming
and withdraw from the course. Research has shown that when both novice and
experienced programmers are enrolled in the same introductory programming subject,
the experienced programmers lack engagement due to repetition of material [31, 28],
and the novice programmers lose confidence due to their low results [90, 23, 93]. A lack
of confidence was a core factor in the decision to withdraw from a course [99, 23].
With regards to the issues of engagement, research had identified a link between student
engagement and attrition [28] and had identified that student engagement can be defined
as incorporating three different aspects: behavioural, cognitive and affective [86].
• Behavioral engagement relates to the extent to which students participate in the
learning activities (such as attendance at class, accessing material, attempting
learning/assessment tasks).
8
• Cognitive engagement refers to the intellectual effort deployed in the learning
activities, recognising that some approaches such as active learning and
reflection activities require deeper levels of cognitive effort.
• Affective engagement (or emotional engagement) relates to such things as the
level of enthusiasm displayed, interest in the material, sense of belonging, or
interaction with peers and staff.
A study by Morgan et al. [86] found students tended to perceive their level of
engagement by measuring mainly affective aspects closely followed by behavioural
aspects, while staff overwhelmingly only use behavioural aspects to measure student
engagement. This difference resulted in staff neglecting aspects of delivery that would
improve student engagement. The same study [86] also found that most academic staff
believed that students were responsible for their level of engagement, whereas students
were divided with equal numbers believing it was the responsibility of students or staff.
This resulted in staff developing learning activities without considering how they could
make them more engaging, as they believed the onus is on the student to engage.
The lack of student engagement in ICT courses was a major cause for concern as it lead
to withdrawal from a course, particularly for first-year students [31, 104, 28, 86].
Pappas et al. [93] found that the students that were more engaged in their studies had a
greater intention to continue their studies. When the curriculum renewal began, ICT
courses were still largely being delivered using traditional methods – chalk and talk –
rather than incorporating new technology and delivery styles. ICT academics were
found to be conservative about embracing new teaching practices and technology-
enhanced delivery that would allow a student-centred learning experience which has
been shown to reduce attrition [102]. A lack of collaborative active learning
opportunities and a lack of practical application to professional practice such as that
provided by work-integrated learning were affecting attrition rates [100, 15, 23, 99, 96].
To address course attrition issues for a diverse range of students, a relevant question for
higher education ICT curriculum designers is:
9
• How can an ICT curriculum be designed, developed and delivered that amends
misconceptions of the field of ICT, improves engagement and motivation, and
increases academic success?
This question will be explored in detail in Chapter 4 of this thesis.
The second part of the core challenge to meeting the increasing demand for ICT
graduates relates to the quality of those students completing ICT courses, and ensuring
they are professionally competent with the employability skill set to meet the needs of
industry. This challenge will now be explored in detail.
1.2.2 Understanding the factors that influence the quality of ICT graduates
When the curriculum renewal began in 2012, even though there was significant jobs
growth in the Australian ICT industry, many ICT graduates were not being employed in
a professional position in the ICT industry [92]. Studies had found that nearly a third of
ICT bachelor graduates were not working in professional ICT roles [88, 92]. Norton and
Cakitaki [88] indicated deficient undergraduate ICT curricula was one contributor to the
poor employment outcomes for graduates and that curriculum should be better designed
such that graduates can acquire the knowledge and skills for the intended ICT career
outcomes [117]. When the curriculum renewal began in 2012, previous research had
indicated that students graduating from ICT courses were generally strong in their
technical skills but weaker in their ability to communicate and collaborate effectively in
the workplace [77, 27, 3, 5], and so were not well placed to meet the needs of their
employers. As part of a national ICT scoping study, Koppi and Naghdy [77] found ICT
employers held widespread views of deficiencies in the workplace readiness of new
graduates, particularly the essential professional skills – also known as generic, soft, or
graduate skills – such as interpersonal and professional communication, business
awareness and problem-solving abilities. Research undertaken for the Council for
Industry and Higher Education [5] highlighted that graduates lacked generic
employability skills – teamwork, communication, problem solving and self-
management – that were crucial to enable graduates to function effectively in the
workplace [73]. Research by Hamilton et al. [56] exploring the views of ICT employers
about graduate employability skills found that employers were more concerned about
10
the professional skills than the technical skills, which they believed were vital for
sustained, successful careers in the ICT industry.
As a consequence of ICT industry employers identifying deficiencies in the
employability of ICT graduates [96, 77, 27, 3, 5, 73, 56], there were serious
repercussions for the ICT higher education sector as the industry employers preferred to
employ high-performing graduates from non-ICT courses and train them in ICT
technical skills [14] rather than employ graduates with poor professional skills. These
professional skills were considered to be untrainable in the work environment and a
critical hurdle for employment [111, 73, 56]. It is now recognised that both technical
and professional skill development is required to equip ICT graduates for the 21st
century digital economy [2]. To enhance the employability of ICT graduates it is
necessary to achieve professional competence with the employability skill set, which is
a combination of ICT technical, non-technical (business), and professional skills [64].
For a course to result in graduates with professional competence with the employability
skill set, a relevant question for higher education ICT curriculum designers is:
• How can an ICT curriculum effectively include professional skill development to
enhance the employability of the graduates?
This question will be explored in detail in Chapter 3 of this thesis.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE THESIS
The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the body of knowledge in ICT curriculum
design by addressing the core challenge outlined above for ICT higher education: how
to design ICT curriculum to increase the quantity of graduates professionally competent
with the employability skill set.
While numerous studies – that will be reviewed throughout the thesis – have suggested
potential solutions to the problem, these solutions are often untested or implemented
and analysed at the subject level only [3, 15, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 36, 38, 39, 42, 45,
46, 47, 50, 51, 52, 57, 59, 71, 72, 76, 78, 86, 90, 96, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104, 105,
11
106, 109, 112, 117, 120, 123, 124, 126]. This doctoral study is different however, as it
is a comprehensive evidence-based evaluation at the course level of an ICT curriculum
that implemented a variety of solutions, which has now been completed by several
cohorts of graduates.
The main aims for this thesis are to address the challenges for ICT higher education
related to the quantity and quality of graduates and to contribute to ICT curriculum
design knowledge and practice by identifying:
1. A process to classify potential ICT career outcomes and the required skill sets
for ICT graduates for the purpose of designing a curriculum;
2. A methodology to effectively include professional skill development throughout
an ICT curriculum to enhance the employability of graduates; and
3. Effective strategies with implementation techniques to increase ICT course
commencements and reduce ICT course attrition to increase the quantity of
graduates professionally competent with the employability skill set.
Poor curriculum design has serious implications for ICT graduates and the ICT
industry. ICT curriculum designers desire a positive outcome for commencing students
and assurance that the approaches adopted will result in professionally competent
graduates for the ICT industry. The impact and effectiveness of the knowledge
contributions from this thesis will be evaluated within the context of a specific ICT
curriculum case study implemented at the School of Computing and Information
Systems at the University of Tasmania (described below) that was endeavouring to
improve the quality and quantity of graduates. This comprehensive example is likely to
be relevant to other higher education providers with the same concerns and motivations.
1.3.1 Case study context
The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is the only university in the state and the (then)
School of Computing and Information Systems was responsible for developing
competent graduates for the local ICT industry. In 2014, the broad Tasmanian ICT
sector employed over 4500 people and generated industry value-add of more than $640
million, representing less than 1.6% of the Australian ICT sector total [114]. The
growth of the Tasmanian ICT sector had been constrained by skills shortages and lack
12
of qualified personnel consistently over the previous decade [114]. A potential source of
skilled personnel was tertiary ICT graduates from UTAS.
The School of Computing and Information Systems had been externally reviewed in
late 2011 and it was a recommendation of the review panel that a new undergraduate
ICT course be implemented. This presented an opportunity to address the issues related
to the supply of competent graduates for the local industry.
A curriculum design working party was formed consisting of eight academics, which
was led by Nicole Herbert, this thesis author, who had 14 years of teaching experience
with a focus on work-integrated learning and capstone experiences. Figure 1.1
illustrates the design timeline culminating in the evaluation. The curriculum renewal
design process started in 2012, and the resultant course was first offered in 2014. This
doctoral study is a critical reflection of the design and implementation of this ICT
course and its resultant impact on improving the quantity and quality of graduates.
Figure 1.1: Timeline of curriculum design and evaluation
1.3.1.1 UTAS quantity issues
As had been the case for tertiary ICT courses nationally, the ICT student numbers at
UTAS had stagnated and the course attrition rates were high; shown in Table 1.1 for the
Bachelor of Computing (BComp) and the Bachelor of Information Systems (BIS). In
2010 there were only 131 students that commenced the UTAS ICT undergraduate
courses, and by 2013 it had only risen to 167 students. It was imperative that the
courses attract more students to cover local skill shortages. As Tasmania is an island
state with a small population of around half a million people there is a limited domestic
market of tertiary applicants, so there was reliance on international enrolments to meet
local industry demand for skilled personnel and to supplement university income to
offer courses. International enrolments were in decline, with around 31% in 2011
dropping to 22% in 2012 – while the national average across all courses had only
2012-2013Course Structure Design
and Development
2014-2016Subject Iterative Design
and Development
2017-2019Course and Subject
Evaluation
13
declined to 27% [11]. Local industry was concerned by the low female participation in
the ICT courses, around 9%, whereas the national average across all courses was 56%
[11].
At the time, when there was low student growth, the focus needed to be on retention of
the existing students. Attrition rates in regional universities are notoriously high. UTAS
had a high attrition rate, above 33% [11]. In 2012, the attrition rates in the ICT courses
at UTAS were high, around 60% for the BComp and 83% for the BIS. This was
significantly higher than the national average of around 43% for ICT courses [12]. It
was imperative that experiences were improved and the course attrition rates reduced to
produce more graduates to meet industry demand.
Table 1.1: Student numbers for the BComp and BIS at UTAS from 2010-2013
BComp BIS
2010 2011 2012 2013 2010 2011 2012 2013
Commencing students 116 121 123 140 15 16 12 27
Withdrawal rate 55% 55% 60% 75.7% 47% 44% 83% 63%
International student ratio 22% 28% 21% 15.7% 60% 56% 25% 59.3%
Female student ratio 8% 11% 10% 7.9% 20% 25% 0% 11.1%
Graduate rate 45% 45% 40% 24.3% 53% 56% 17% 37.0%
1.3.1.2 UTAS quality issues
The 30+ Tasmanian ICT industry members that were consulted as part of the
curriculum renewal process indicated that while UTAS graduates were strong in
foundational technical ICT skills, there was desire for an improvement in their business
skills and in their professional skills [61, 62]. They indicated a clear demand for ICT
graduates with effective professional skills (particularly communication and teamwork
skills) along with other non-technical (business) ICT skills (including project
management, business analysis, sourcing and integrating systems) in addition to broad
technical ICT domain skills (such as programming, networking, security and databases)
[61]. Due to the shortage of skilled ICT personnel, employers were not interested in
extending the duration of study for students to acquire business and professional skills,
nor in solutions that lowered a graduate’s technical foundation to acquire professional
skills [64]. The industry members were in favour of including the professional skill
14
development throughout the curriculum because they believed the students needed
opportunities to practice these skills [64].
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS FOR THIS THESIS
To achieve the aims for this doctoral study as described in the purpose of this thesis, the
overarching research question explored in this thesis is:
RQ: How can an ICT curriculum be designed to increase the quantity of ICT
graduates professionally competent with the employability skill set?
To develop a coherent and comprehensive answer to this research question, it was
necessary to explore two sub-questions.
The first research sub-question is related to the desire to identify processes and
strategies to create an ICT curriculum that enhances the employability of graduates by
achieving professional competence with the employability skill set.
SRQ1: How can an ICT curriculum be designed to enhance the employability of
a graduate?
The second research sub-question is related to the desire to increase course
commencements and reduce course attrition to increase the quantity of graduates to
meet industry demand.
SRQ2: How can an ICT curriculum be designed, developed and delivered to
increase the quantity of graduates?
This thesis is presented as a series of peer-reviewed papers, with each paper exploring a
research question that helps reach an answer to these research sub-questions. The
hierarchy of research questions explored in this thesis are presented in Table 1.2.
15
Table 1.2: Hierarchy of research questions for the thesis
SRQ1: How can an ICT curriculum be designed to enhance the employability of a graduate?
RQ1.1: How can an ICT curriculum be designed, informed by the attainable ICT graduate careers, to enhance the employability of a graduate?
RQ1.1.1: What is a process to identify a range of graduate career outcomes that can direct the design of an ICT higher education curriculum to attract new applicants?
RQ1.1.2: What is a process to identify the essential skills for an ICT graduate for them to gain employment in the ICT industry?
RQ1.1.3: How can ICT career outcomes relevant to local and national ICT industry and the related SFIA skills directly inform the development of an integrated ICT curriculum?
RQ1.1.4: How can an ICT curriculum be designed, informed by the attainable ICT graduate careers to enhance the employability of a graduate, while adhering to all the constraints imposed by the ICT industry and the tertiary institution?
RQ1.2: How can an ICT curriculum effectively include professional skill development to enhance the employability of the graduates?
RQ1.2.1: How can professional skill development be integrated within an ICT curriculum to enhance the employability of a graduate?
RQ1.2.2: How does integrating the development of professional skills across an ICT curriculum impact on a graduate’s competency?
RQ1.2.3: What are effective strategies to ensure academic rigor in the assessment process of an industry placement experience included in an ICT curriculum to enhance the employability of graduates?
RQ1.2.4: What are effective strategies for coordinating team-based industry capstone experiences included in an ICT curriculum to enhance the employability of graduates?
SRQ2: How can an ICT curriculum be designed, developed, and delivered to increase the quantity of graduates?
RQ2.1: How can an ICT curriculum be designed, developed and delivered that amends student misconceptions of the field of ICT, and improves student perceptions, engagement, motivation, and academic success?
RQ2.1.1: What is the impact of strategies designed to amend misconcepcons and improve percepcons, mocvacon, engagement and academic success on the quancty of graduates?
RQ2.1.2: What is the impact of increasing student engagement in the first-year of an ICT course on academic success?
RQ2.1.3: What ATAR cut-off is useful for predicting the academic success of students in an ICT course?
RQ2.1.4: What pre-tertiary factors, in combination with a lack academic success, affect when a student is likely to withdraw from an ICT course?
16
1.5 SYNOPSIS AND STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS
This thesis is comprised of peer reviewed papers that are presented as they were
published or submitted for publication. The chapters along with the supplementary
material in the appendices have been combined with the peer-reviewed papers to
present a coherent thesis. An outline of the thesis structure is provided in Table 1.3 that
illustrates the relationship between the research questions and peer-reviewed papers in
blue and supplemental material in grey.
Table 1.3: Structure of the thesis with peer-reviewed work highlighted
Chapter 1: Introduction
Desig
n
Chapter 2: Design of an ICT curriculum informed by intended graduate career outcomes and the required skill sets to enhance the employability of graduates
RQ1.1.1 Paper 1: Identifying career outcomes as the first step in ICT curricula development
RQ1.1.2 Paper 2: Stakeholder-led curriculum redesign
RQ1.1.3 Paper 3: Career outcomes and SFIA as tools to design ICT curriculum
RQ1.1.4 Paper 4: ICT curriculum and course structure: the great balancing act
Qua
lity
Chapter 3: Design and development of an ICT curriculum with integrated professional skill development to enhance the employability of graduates
RQ1.2.1 Paper 5: A methodology to integrate professional skill development throughout an ICT curriculum
RQ1.2.2 Paper 6: Integrating the development of professional skills throughout an ICT curriculum improves a graduate's competency
RQ1.2.3 Paper 7: An assessment scheme for short-term placements
RQ1.2.4 Paper 8: Reflections on 17 years of ICT capstone project coordination: effective strategies for managing clients, teams and assessment
Qua
ntity
Chapter 4: Evaluation of strategies to increase ICT course commencements and reduce ICT course attrition to impact on the quantity of graduates
RQ2.1.1 Paper 9: Empirical analysis of strategies employed within an ICT curriculum to increase the quantity of graduates
RQ2.1.2 Paper 10: Impact of student engagement on first year ICT performance
RQ2.1.3 Paper 11: Is the ATAR a useful predictor of success in ICT: an empirical study
RQ2.1.4 Paper 12: An exploratory study of pre-tertiary factors affecting attrition within an ICT degree
Chapter 5: Conclusion including findings, implications and future work
Chapter 6: Appendices
Chapter 7: References
17
This introduction contains a statement of the problem with a summary of the relevant
literature, outlines the purpose of this thesis, and identifies the research questions for
this thesis. Additional relevant literature is reviewed in the papers and chapter
introductions.
Chapter 2 contains a brief explanation of the design process and four papers that are
presented as they were published. They provide the detail on the processes that were
used to identify the intended career outcomes and relevant skill sets using the Skills
Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) [108] and how this informed the
development of the case study ICT curriculum designed to enhance the employability of
the graduates.
Chapter 3 contains an explanation of the goals that were set during the subject design
phase and an overview of the case study course structure. The chapter includes four
papers that are presented as they were submitted for publication. The first two papers
provide a methodology to integrate professional skill development throughout an ICT
curriculum and an evaluation of the impact of integrating professional skill development
on a graduate’s competency. The last two published papers then focus on the
implementation of two subjects designed by this thesis author that incorporate work-
integrated learning to further professional skill development to increase the
employability of the graduates and motivate the students towards an ICT career.
Chapter 4 evaluates the academic outcomes of students that have commenced the case
study curriculum to analyse the impact on the quantity of graduates. The first of four
papers presented in this chapter provides an empirical analysis of the strategies adopted
to increase course commencements and reduce course attrition. The second paper
explores a first-year subject developed by this thesis author that employed strategies to
improve student engagement. The third paper was a preliminary empirical analysis into
the entry requirements for domestic students entering the course to determine if changes
were possible that could increase course commencements. The fourth paper is an
empirical analysis that explores when a student is likely to withdraw from the course
and identifies appropriate intervention measures to apply to reduce course attrition.
18
The thesis concludes with a summary of the significant findings of this research and
identifies further research that could be undertaken.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS THESIS
This doctoral study addresses the challenge: how to design ICT curriculum to increase
the quantity of graduates professionally competent with the employability skill set. The
findings in this thesis will be of benefit to both the ICT industry and ICT higher
education at a national and international level. The growing demand for professionally
competent ICT graduates justifies the need for more effective ICT curriculum design.
The critical reflection of an ICT curriculum design process that involved significant
interaction with industry to align the resultant curriculum with the intended graduate
career outcomes has resulted in an augmentation to the ACS recommended curriculum
design process [8]. Practical “how to” guidance has been identified along with example
constraints, resources and outputs, to illustrate a process that enables the classification
of potential ICT career outcomes and the required skill sets for ICT graduates for the
purpose of designing a curriculum. A strategy has been developed to use that
information to design and structure an ICT curriculum based on attainable career
outcomes and related skill sets. This doctoral study found that an ICT curriculum that is
aligned with the intended graduate career outcomes and related skill sets can increase
course commencements and enhance the employability of graduates. This opportunity
to design an ICT curriculum using a skills reference model, such as that provided by
SFIA, has found that the approach equips graduates with the necessary skill sets for the
intended career outcomes.
The case study analysis has resulted in the identification of a methodology to integrate
professional skill development within an ICT curriculum to enhance the employability
of graduates. The experience reports from the implementation of work-integrated
learning experiences within the ICT curriculum have provided effective implementation
techniques for strategies to increase engagement and motivation to reduce course
attrition. This doctoral study found that professional skill development can be integrated
19
within an ICT curriculum without degrading technical skill development to result in
professionally competent graduates.
The empirical evaluation has provided a substantive contribution to the body of
knowledge in ICT curriculum design by identifying effective strategies with
implementation techniques to increase course commencements and reduce course
attrition to increase the quantity of graduates. This opportunity to evaluate an entire
curriculum has given rise to several implications for the entry pathways of commencing
students and the need for greater support mechanisms intentionally provided to sectors
of the student population to improve academic success and reduce course attrition. This
doctoral study found that ensuring students are engaged with academic learning
activities and motivated to complete their course by the career opportunities can reduce
ICT course attrition.
20
CHAPTER 2
Design of an ICT curriculum informed
by intended graduate career
outcomes and the required skill sets
to enhance the employability of
graduates
21
2.1 INTRODUCTION
As described in the introductory chapter, Chapter 2 of this thesis describes the process
for designing a new information and communication technology (ICT) curriculum that
is aligned with the intended career outcomes in order to enhance the employability of its
graduates. Within this chapter, four published papers are presented to describe this
process in detail.
The need to design a curriculum aligned towards the intended career outcomes is a
response to the rapidly changing nature of the ICT sector, and the transformation of ICT
career outcomes and skills that employers are demanding [13, 32, 14, 101]. In order to
meet this demand ICT curriculum designers need to acquire a thorough knowledge of
current ICT career opportunities and link the ICT curriculum with specific career
outcomes [29, 117] to result in professionally competent graduates for the range of
graduate career outcomes available [21, 14, 101, 117] and attract a larger and more
diverse range of applicants.
This chapter will address the research questions:
SRQ1: How can an ICT curriculum be designed to enhance the employability of
a graduate?
RQ1.1: How can an ICT curriculum be designed, informed by the attainable ICT
graduate careers, to enhance the employability of a graduate?
The chapter will contribute to ICT curriculum design knowledge and practice by
identifying:
1. A process to classify potential ICT career outcomes and the required skill sets
for ICT graduates for the purpose of designing a curriculum; and
2. A strategy to design and structure an ICT curriculum based on career outcomes
and skill sets to enhance the employability of graduates.
22
2.2 A PROCESS TO GUIDE ICT CURRICULUM DESIGN
As previously described, in 2012-2014 the University of Tasmania (UTAS) was
undergoing an ICT curriculum renewal process. During the process a comprehensive
study of national and international ICT curriculum was undertaken to ensure alignment
with externally-endorsed curriculum in the discipline fields of computer science,
information technology and information systems [7] and the inclusion of fundamental
ICT knowledge that was informed by experts in ICT curriculum design. The
development process to renew the curriculum was informed by the seven-step approach
recommended by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) [8], shown in Table 2.1, that
focused on career outcomes and related skills sets to design a course that produced
graduates with the desired skills for specific ICT roles.
Table 2.1: ACS seven-step approach to curriculum design [8]
1 Identify potential ICT roles that could be undertaken by graduates of a given program of study.
2 Identify the skills required by professionals in a given ICT career role.
3 Identify the level of autonomy and responsibility developed.
4 Identify the ICT Role-Specific Knowledge required to practice the skills.
5 Identify Complementary Knowledge that supports the skill set or that broadens student employability.
6 Design a course structure that incorporates ICT Role Specific Knowledge with the Core Body of Knowledge and other Complementary Knowledge as part of a holistic program of study.
7 Collect artefacts to demonstrate that skills have been developed by students to an appropriate level.
Step 2 of the ACS approach requires the identification of the necessary skills for the
career outcomes identified in step 1. The ACS recommended using the Skills
Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) [108] in the identification of ICT skills.
SFIA is a framework for describing and managing the skills needed by ICT
professionals. SFIA provides a common reference model and nomenclature which
allows an international understanding of ICT skills and enables the identification of skill
sets for different career outcomes. Unfortunately, there is limited literature available on
23
how to identify career outcomes and related SFIA skill sets and how to use that
knowledge in the development of ICT curricula [56, 117, 120].
The four papers in this chapter address this problem and augment steps one to six of the
ACS approach [8], shown in Table 2.1, with specific techniques for identifying potential
ICT career outcomes and the required ICT skill set. These four papers were
acknowledged in an ALTA8 good teaching practices study [105] as being a well-
documented approach to adopting SFIA in curriculum design.
The papers included in this chapter of the thesis clearly articulate the process followed
to identify the potential ICT career outcomes and the strategy used to design an ICT
curriculum based on the intended career outcomes to enhance the employability of the
graduates. SFIA was used to identify the technical and non-technical skills of the
employability skill set. The development of these skills was then integrated throughout
the curriculum using a process described in the papers and in Chapter 3 of this thesis.
8 ALTA is the ACDICT Learning and Teaching Academy. ACDICT is the Australian Council of Deans of ICT.
24
2.3 PAPER 1: IDENTIFYING CAREER OUTCOMES AS THE FIRST STEP IN ICT CURRICULA DEVELOPMENT
When the School of Computing and Information Systems’ case study curriculum
renewal process started in 2012 it had been hypothesised by researchers [1, 87, 117, 8]
that basing ICT curriculum on intended career outcomes would improve employment
prospects for graduates but there was very little literature describing how to identify
relevant career outcomes and the related skills required by graduates. This paper
addresses that problem and describes the process used to complete the first three steps
of the ACS approach [8], shown in Table 2.1, during an ICT curriculum renewal effort.
The ACS steps are augmented with specific techniques for identifying potential ICT
career outcomes and the required ICT skill set and the skill level of responsibility,
including details on how feedback from each step was used to refine the list of career
outcomes and skills. The research question explored in this paper is:
RQ1.1.1: What is a process to identify a range of graduate career outcomes that
can direct the design of an ICT higher education curriculum to attract new
applicants?
This paper was written at 8 months into the first-year of the design process and was
published in early 2013. The Publication Statement signed by the co-authors can be
found in the preface section of this thesis.
Some significant research papers on using career outcomes and SFIA in curriculum
development have referenced the approach outlined in this paper [105, 119, 120]. Von
Konsky et al. [119] proposed an alternative approach to the use of tables for
representing the SFIA skills to be embedded in the curriculum and demonstrated that
their extended radar diagrams provide a compact visual representation of skill sets.
Diagrams can facilitate dialogue between academics and industry representatives to
ensure that an ICT curriculum equips graduates with the necessary skill sets for the ICT
profession [119].
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
35
2.4 PAPER 2: STAKEHOLDER-LED CURRICULUM REDESIGN
The fast-changing nature of ICT and the impact this has on the expectations of
employers suggests that there needs to be close communication between universities
and industry to identify relevant ICT skills for graduates of a curriculum [87]. ICT-
specific knowledge and skills, however, are not the only requirements of professionally
competent graduates. In a national ICT scoping study, Koppi and Naghdy [77] found
ICT employers held widespread views of deficiencies in the workplace readiness of new
graduates particularly regarding the development of essential professional skills such as
interpersonal and professional communications, business awareness and problem-
solving abilities.
As part of the School of Computing and Information Systems’ case study curriculum
renewal process over thirty industry members were interviewed to identify what skills
employers want to see in ICT graduates. This paper describes the outcomes from steps
four and five of the ACS approach [8], shown in Table 2.1, and reports on the process
used to identify these desired skills and the knowledge acquired about future career
opportunities. These interviews identified strong demand for graduates to possess
professional skills (such as communication and teamwork) coupled with other non-
technical skills (such as business analysis and project management) in addition to the
traditional ICT domain skills (including programming, networking and databases).
Employers desired ICT graduates with a broad range of ICT-specific knowledge and
with a depth of competency in at least one ICT technical area. It was these findings that
directed the development of the initial integrated curriculum. The research question
explored in this paper is:
RQ1.1.2: What is a process to identify the essential skills for an ICT graduate for
them to gain employment in the ICT industry?
This paper was written at 8 months into the first-year of the design process and was
published in early 2013. The Publication Statement signed by the co-authors can be
found in the preface section of this thesis.
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
44
2.5 PAPER 3: CAREER OUTCOMES AND SFIA AS TOOLS TO DESIGN ICT CURRICULUM
Curriculum should be designed such that graduates can attain the skills for the
advertised ICT career outcomes [117]. The Skills Framework for the Information Age
(SFIA) is the world's most comprehensive definition of information technology skills
and provides a standardised view of a wide range of professional skills needed by
people working in ICT [108]. SFIA provides a framework for defining the skill set
required by graduates, but it has not yet been fully integrated into ICT curricula [56]. As
a result, there is limited literature focussing on how to relate an ICT curriculum to
identified career outcomes and the related SFIA skill sets.
This paper addresses that problem and describes how career outcomes and SFIA skills
were used as inputs for the School of Computing and Information Systems’ case study
curriculum design. SFIA was employed during the design process as it provides a
common reference model to communicate the value of a course to potential employers
so that they can comprehend the capability of graduates. It also enables potential
applicants to see how the course relates to the advertised career outcomes [118].
This paper reports on how step six of the ACS approach [8], shown in Table 2.1, was
completed to create an integrated curriculum that combines the required knowledge and
skills for the intended career outcomes with the ACS core body of knowledge and the
other essential skills. This paper summarises the information in Papers 1 and 2 and
illustrates how career outcomes and SFIA skills were used to construct an integrated
ICT curriculum. The research question explored in this paper is:
RQ1.1.3: How can ICT career outcomes relevant to local and national ICT
industry and the related SFIA skills directly inform the development of an
integrated ICT curriculum?
This paper was written at 6 months into the second-year of the design process and
published in late 2013. The Publication Statement signed by the co-authors can be
found in the preface section of this thesis.
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
55
2.6 PAPER 4: ICT CURRICULUM AND COURSE STRUCTURE: THE GREAT BALANCING ACT
A study undertaken to investigate the drivers of curriculum change [54], discovered that
change is predominantly driven by outspoken individuals, budgetary constraints,
institutional requirements, current trends, and student demand. While attempting to
respond to such constraints and ever-changing technology it is easy to lose sight of the
focus on career outcomes for graduates when designing curricula [117].
The School of Computing and Information Systems’ case study curriculum renewal
process was instigated by an external school review that recommended the
implementation of a single course as well as limiting the number of coursework subjects
(due to a shrinking staff profile). The curriculum had to be attractive to domestic and
international applicants to increase course commencements. The course structure had to
adhere to the then University’s course structure policy and include the ACS core body
of knowledge for accreditation [8], which was essential to attract international students.
Finally, the renewed curriculum had to develop the necessary skills for a range of ICT
graduate career outcomes identified by the local and national ICT industry.
This paper summarises the information in papers 1-3 and provides a detailed account of
the process that was used to complete step six of the ACS approach [8], shown in Table
2.1, to design a course structure based on all the gathered information while adhering to
resourcing constraints. The research question explored in this paper is:
RQ1.1.4: How can an ICT curriculum be designed informed by the attainable ICT
graduate careers to enhance the employability of a graduate, while adhering to
all the constraints imposed by the ICT industry and the tertiary institution?
This paper was written at 8 months into the second-year of the design process and was
published in early 2014. The Publication Statement signed by the co-authors can be
found in the preface section of this thesis.
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
66
CHAPTER 3
Design and development of an ICT
curriculum with integrated
professional skill development to
enhance the employability of
graduates
67
3.1 INTRODUCTION
As described in the introductory chapter of this thesis, Chapter 3 focuses on the core
challenge of improving the quality of ICT graduates to achieve professional competence
with the employability skill set to enhance the employability of the graduates. The focus
of this chapter will be on improving a graduate’s ability with professional skills. Four
papers are presented to describe the design approach at the curriculum level and provide
examples of how authentic learning experiences can be incorporated at the subject level
to enhance the employability of the graduates.
The necessity to design a curriculum that improved the quality of graduates was a
response to the growing national level concern that ICT graduates, while being strong in
foundational technical ICT skills, were weak in their professional skills, particularly in
relation to communication and teamwork skills [3, 27, 61, 77, 96, 14]. The 30+ ICT
industry members consulted at the start of the School of Computing and Information
Systems’ case study curriculum renewal process desired an “all-rounder” graduate with
a broad range of ICT knowledge covering the discipline fields of computer science,
information technology and information systems, but with a depth of competency in at
least one ICT technical area [61, 14]. Breadth of knowledge allows graduates to have
the ability to understand the diverse needs of clients and depth of technical capability
adds value to the employer’s business. The ICT industry employers that were consulted
indicated a clear demand for graduates to be ICT professionals with effective
professional skills (particularly communication and teamwork skills) along with other
non-technical (business) ICT skills (including project management, business analysis,
sourcing and integrating systems) in addition to technical ICT domain skills (such as
programming, networking, security and databases) [61].
As discussed in Chapter 2, SFIA was used in this curriculum renewal process to
facilitate the discussions between academics and ICT industry members to identify the
relevant career outcomes and to identify the technical and non-technical skills of the
employability skill set [62]. Von Konsky et al. [120] referenced this approach while
reviewing the role of SFIA in ensuring industry relevance in ICT curricula. Their study
68
participants were critical of SFIA’s limited ability to address the professional skills
required for the ICT profession, particularly communication and teamwork.
This limitation will be addressed in this chapter, which will address the research
questions:
SRQ1: How can an ICT curriculum be designed to enhance the employability of
a graduate?
RQ1.2: How can an ICT curriculum effectively include professional skill
development to enhance the employability of the graduates?
The chapter will contribute to ICT curriculum design knowledge and practice by
identifying a methodology to effectively include professional skill development
throughout an ICT curriculum to enhance the employability of graduates.
To allow the reader to develop a deeper understanding of the School of Computing and
Information Systems case study curriculum, the purpose of the rest of this introduction
is to provide a brief explanation of the following critical concepts:
• Competency and professionally competent;
• Employability skill set;
• Integrated approach; and
• Case study course structure.
3.2 UNDERSTANDING COMPETENCY AND PROFESSIONALLY COMPETENT
In order to develop quality graduates, we must first understand the issue of competence.
The term competence links education with work-readiness and is the ability to perform a
task to a predetermined standard [7]. The 2017 Association for Computing Machinery
(ACM) Information Technology (IT) curriculum provides a succinct definition of IT
competence [7], illustrated in Figure 3.1.
69
Figure 3.1: IT Competency = (Knowledge + Skills + Dispositions) in Professional
Context [7]
Competency is a series of abilities that when combined make a competent person within
a professional context [7]. Knowledge is an understanding of core concepts in ICT and
the ability to know what to do in new contexts. Skills refer to ICT capabilities that
demonstrate ability in how to apply knowledge. Skills develop over time with practice
and interaction with others. Dispositions are attitudes such as motivation and sensitivity
towards when and why to carry out tasks. Professional contexts can be simulated in a
learning environment by providing authentic experiences such as placement
experiences, projects with real clients, a reflective report on a complex project, or
presentations judged by external assessors [7]. Frezza et al. [49] are developing the
Competency Learning Framework (CoLeaF) to provide an international tool for
modelling graduate competencies linked to ICT courses. Their work adds to the above
definition of competency by recognising the presence of a “virtual or invisible
characteristic” that emerges during the performance of a challenging discipline task.
They identify competency as including “The personal qualities causally related to
effective performance in an area of work”.
Professional Context
Skills•How to•Know how
Knowledge•What to•Know what
Dispositions•Want to•Why to•When to Competency
• Ability
70
A professionally competent ICT graduate can perform their duties within the ICT
profession to the required standard (quality) on graduation [7]. The ICT graduate has
acquired the ability to combine disciplinary knowledge with a range of skills and
appropriate dispositions to effectively accomplish real-world professional tasks using
the employability skill set.
3.3 UNDERSTANDING THE EMPLOYABILITY SKILL SET
A goal of the renewed curriculum was to enhance the employability of graduates by
increasing their professional competence with the employability skill set. Employability
is defined by Yorke and Knight [128] as “a set of achievements—skills, understandings
and personal attributes—that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be
successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the
community and the economy”.
The employability skill set for the renewed curriculum is a combination of ICT
technical, non-technical (business), and professional skills, suitable for a range of career
outcomes. As discussed in Chapter 2 of this thesis, the design process for the case study
curriculum identified 18 possible graduate career outcomes and 37 distinct SFIA skills
[62]. SFIA was used to identify the technical and non-technical skills of the
employability skill set for the renewed curriculum [62]. As discussed above, the
framework fails to address the professional skills required for the ICT profession [120].
A recent study by Hamilton et al. [56] found that the ICT employers involved in their
study thought that the graduates who they interviewed for jobs had the necessary
foundational technical skills. The ICT employers were more concerned about gauging
the professional skills of candidates, which they believe are vital for sustained,
successful ICT careers [111, 56].
Professional skills are transferrable skills that can be applied across disciplines,
industries and roles [44,56] and generally take longer to acquire as they require more
practice in different contexts than specific technical ICT skills [111]. The professional
skills are considered an essential component of employability by employers [44, 47],
and include such skills as problem solving, lifelong learning, critical thinking, logic,
71
creativity, digital fluency, communication and teamwork skills [44, 37, 13]. One of the
key findings from an investigation conducted by Stevens and Norman [111] into how
the ICT industry defines a new recruit as ‘work-ready’ and ‘productive’ was that most
employers consider professional skills to be untrainable in the work environment and
consider them a critical hurdle for employment.
A mandatory requirement for the ACS accreditation process [8] is that an ICT course
include a final-year capstone project, as these projects require students to combine the
application of their technical and professional skills in a professional context. The
industry members that participated in the case study curriculum renewal process were
however, insistent that the graduates be articulate professionals and emphasised the
importance of including the professional skill development throughout the curriculum.
They believed the professional skills need more guided and deeper development and
that the students needed more opportunities to practice these skills than just the capstone
experience in their final-year [61, 64, 56].
Including development of the full employability skill set within a curriculum,
particularly professional skills, can be difficult [2, 111]. Within ICT there is a tension
between balancing discipline-specific content and professional skill development within
a standard timeframe of three years [2]. Due to the shortage of skilled ICT personnel,
Herbert et al. [61] and Stevens and Norman [111] found that employers were not
interested in extending the duration of study for students to acquire professional skills,
nor were they interested in solutions that lowered graduate’s technical foundation to
acquire professional skills.
Many researchers, whose work will be summarised in the first paper in this chapter,
have provided examples of how professional skills can be developed at the subject
level; however, most do not expand their approaches beyond one or two subjects and do
not identify the potential of a curriculum-wide approach [3, 22, 25, 38, 39, 42, 46, 50,
51, 52, 59, 71, 97, 99, 101, 27, 45, 47, 57, 106, 112, 124]. This doctoral study is
examining the hypothesis that developing professional skills throughout a curriculum
improves professional competence with the employability skill set and enhances the
employability of a graduate.
72
Figure 3.2: Professional skills developed in ICT curriculum at UTAS
In the School of Computing and Information Systems’ case study curriculum, the
employability skill set development has been incorporated throughout a student’s
learning journey to allow the students numerous opportunities to practice these skills
across many ICT domains (such as system development, networks, databases, project
management) to develop depth of experience [38, 45, 71]. Introducing the development
of a professional skill into the early years of a curriculum can result in the students
being more confident and adept with that skill on graduation [56, 79]. The professional
skills identified during the curriculum design [62], using the process outlined in Chapter
2, for inclusion in the renewed curriculum are shown in Figure 3.2.
In the case study curriculum, professional skill development was integrated both
horizontally across units (subjects) within a year level, and vertically up through units at
each year level. A unit is a subject, and an undergraduate three-year course requires the
students to complete 24 units. A minimal number of units was identified, and each unit
maximizes its contribution by simultaneously developing a graduate’s competence in
the essential technical and/or non-technical ICT skills along with the required
professional skills. The integration approach meant it was not necessary to introduce
additional professional skill-based units.
•Problem-Solving•Analysing/Evaluating•Planning/Organisation•Lifelong Learning
•User-centred•Entrepreneurship•Independence•Initiative
•Teamwork•Leadership•Conflict resolution•Respect
•Written•Oral•Digital Fluency•Listening
Communication Collaboration
Critical ThinkingCreativity
73
3.4 UNDERSTANDING THE INTEGRATED APPROACH
The cornerstone of the approach utilised was to create an integrated curriculum. The
development of an identified skill is not restricted to a single unit, rather it is spread
across a set of integrated units. When a skill is integrated within a unit, knowledge for
the skill is typically taught and practiced together with other knowledge and skills to
complete domain specific activities. Within a curriculum, it is not sufficient to have
activities that require students to practice a skill, including professional skills, without
providing the knowledge and guidance to help students develop the skill [27]. A focus
of the integrated approach is that the application of technical, non-technical and
professional skills is inextricably woven together to complete activities, just as they are
in professional practice [71, 2]. Competence in the professional, non-technical and
technical skill are assessed using the outputs from the activity and observed student
behaviours by assessors and using tools such as peer assessment [34]. Students are
provided with both formative and summative feedback on assessment items allowing
for continuous improvement [66].
The term “integrated” is also used here to describe how the curriculum is made up of
many components, be they the individual units or majors (8 units of integrated study) or
minors (4 units of integrated study), combined to form the three-year course. Integration
of skill development across a curriculum provides opportunities for practice and
reflective development, allowing students to obtain depth of learning and to make
connections across ICT domains (such as programming, networks, security, business
analysis) into professional practice [38, 45]. As discussed in Chapter 2 of this thesis, an
initial possible set of units was identified based on integrating the development of the
required SFIA skill set [62, 63] to achieve the identified graduate career outcomes.
3.5 UNDERSTANDING THE CASE STUDY COURSE STRUCTURE
A course structure was devised that included a compulsory ICT Professional major (8
units of integrated study spread across three years) that along with incrementally
developing the professional skills, shown in Figure 3.2, includes the development of
foundational technical knowledge (in the areas of programming and mathematics) and
74
non-technical business skills (such as project management and business analysis)
necessary to be employable in the ICT industry. This major culminates in the capstone
experience for final-year students. In this capstone experience students gain industry
experience by designing and implementing software for industry clients. This software
development project combines the application of the technical skills the student has
developed throughout their course and provides an authentic experience for the further
development of professional skills in a professional context.
Knowledge and skills developed in the ICT Professional major are also applied,
practiced and developed in learning and assessment activities in the domain context of
units in an accompanying minor and major. For example, the students practice
teamwork in many units across the curriculum. Developing a skill across domains
allows a student to develop a habitual use of the skill resulting in a competent graduate
who can quickly adapt to a professional context in industry [23, 36].
The ICT Professional major sits alongside the IT minor (4 units of integrated study
across two years) providing the technical skills in databases, web systems, networks,
and operating systems with cybersecurity integrated within each unit. Students choose
their second major from either a Software Development (SD) major or Games and
Creative Technology (GCT) major. Both majors provide depth in programming,
software design and development, and user experience; though the GCT major is
targeted towards game-related career outcomes (such as games developer, games
designer) using programming languages and development processes more suited to
those careers. The SD major aimed for a much broader range of career outcomes, such
as software developer, software designer, system administrator, network designer,
systems analyst, or business analyst. The range of topics in the final-year of the SD
major allow the broad range of career outcomes. The course structure also includes four
elective units, allowing students to pursue their individual interests. This structure
creates graduates with broad ICT knowledge and deep technical expertise, and with
significant professional skills to ensure professionally competent graduates [67].
Figure 3.3 illustrates the structure of the case study curriculum with the SD major [116]
(shown in yellow), the ICT Professional reversed major (shown in green), and the IT
minor (shown in blue). Figure 3.4 is an illustration of the case study curriculum with the
75
GCT major [116] (shown in lavender). The ICT Professional major is a reversed major
as it has four units at the first-year level providing a broad foundation of knowledge and
skills, while a non-reversed major has four units at the third-year level providing depth
with technical skills.
Year 1, Semester 1
KIT105 ICT Professional Practices
KIT101 Programming Fundamentals KIT102 Data Science
KIT108 Artificial Intelligence
Year 1, Semester 2
KIT106 ICT Impact and Emerging Technology
KIT103 Computational Science
KIT104 ICT Architecture and Operating Systems
KIT107 Programming
Year 2, Semester 1
KIT203 ICT Project Management and
Modelling
Four electives
KIT202 Secure Web Programming
KIT205 Data Structures and Algorithms
Year 2, Semester 2
KIT204 ICT Solutions Analysis for Business
KIT201 Data Networks and Security
KIT206 Software Design and Development
Year 3, Semester 1 KIT301 ICT Project A
KIT304 Server Administration and Security Assurance
KIT305 Mobile Application
Development
Year 3, Semester 2
KIT302 ICT Project B KIT303 ICT Systems Acquisition and Integration
Major elective
Figure 3.3: Case study course structure with Software Development major
Year 1, Semester 1
KIT105 ICT Professional Practices
KIT101 Programming Fundamentals
KIT102 Data Science KIT109 Games Fundamentals
Year 1, Semester 2
KIT106 ICT Impact and Emerging Technology
KIT103 Computational Science
KIT104 ICT Architecture and Operating Systems KIT107 Programming
Year 2, Semester 1
KIT203 ICT Project Management and
Modelling
Four Electives
KIT202 Secure Web Programming
KIT205 Data Structures and Algorithms
Year 2, Semester 2
KIT204 ICT Solutions Analysis for Business
KIT201 Data Networks and Security
KIT207 Games Design and Production
Year 3, Semester 1 KIT301 ICT Project A
KIT307 Computer Graphics and Animation
KIT305 Mobile Application
Development
Year 3, Semester 2
KIT302 ICT Project B KIT308 Multicore Architecture and
Programming Major elective
Figure 3.4: Case study course structure with Games and Creative Technology
major
This chapter consists of four papers. The first paper describes a broadly applicable
methodology to integrate the development of the professional skills within an ICT
curriculum. The second paper reports on a longitudinal study to explore the impact of
76
the integrated approach on the professional competence of graduates. The last two
papers describe the development and delivery of the capstone experience units within
the ICT Professional major and an elective industry placement unit, designed to
incorporate work-integrated learning experiences for professional skill development.
77
3.6 PAPER 5: A METHODOLOGY TO INTEGRATE PROFESSIONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT THROUGHOUT AN ICT CURRICULUM
ICT curriculum needs to result in professionally competent graduates that will be able to
find employment in their chosen industry on graduation. Several studies have reported
growing concern that ICT graduates, while being strong in technical ICT skills, are
weaker in their professional skills, in particular their ability to communicate and
collaborate effectively in the workplace [14, 77, 96]. Many researchers provide
examples of how professional skills can be developed at the subject level; however,
most do not expand their approaches beyond one or two subjects [3, 22, 25, 38, 39, 42,
46, 50, 51, 52, 59, 71, 97, 99, 101]. While it had been hypothesised that integrating
professional skill development throughout a curriculum would improve the
employability of graduates based on outcomes from these studies, there was no
comprehensive example of a curriculum-wide approach that had been thoroughly
quantitatively analysed to identify the extent of inclusion necessary to achieve
professionally competent graduates.
The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology to assist ICT curriculum
designers to include professional skill development across an ICT curriculum without
degrading the development of technical skills. The efficacy of this methodology is
demonstrated with the case study ICT curriculum that has integrated professional skill
development throughout the curriculum. The provision of a comprehensive case study
and a methodology could act as an evidence-based exemplar for ICT curriculum
designers to integrate professional skill development throughout an ICT curriculum,
leading to professionally competent and employable ICT graduates. The research
question explored in this paper is:
RQ1.2.1: How can professional skill development be integrated within an ICT
curriculum to enhance the employability of a graduate?
This paper will be published in 2020. The Publication Statement signed by the co-
authors can be found in the preface section of this thesis.
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
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3.7 PAPER 6: INTEGRATING THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL SKILLS THROUGHOUT A CURRICULUM IMPROVES A GRADUATE'S COMPETENCY
While it had been hypothesised that integrating professional skill development
throughout a curriculum would improve the competency of graduates, there was no
comprehensive example of an entire curriculum approach that had evidence of its
effectiveness. The provision of such a case study could reassure curriculum designers
that the approach can lead to professionally competent graduates suitable for
employment in the ICT industry.
This paper reports on a longitudinal study from 2012 to 2018 that provided strong
evidence that integrating professional skill development across an entire ICT curriculum
significantly improved a graduate’s competency with professional skills without having
a detrimental impact on their competency with ICT technical skills. The research
question explored in this paper is:
RQ1.2.2: How does integrating the development of professional skills across an
ICT curriculum impact on a graduate’s competency?
This paper has been submitted for publication and the Publication Statement signed by
the co-authors can be found in the preface section of this thesis.
Addendum: Post submission of this thesis, this paper was reformatted and submitted to a
different international conference and published in mid-July.
Nicole Herbert, David Herbert, Erik Wapstra, Kristy de Salas, Tina Acuna.
2020. Integrating the development of professional skills throughout a curriculum
improves a graduate’s competency. 2020 International Conference on
Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI), Las Vegas, NV,
USA, 2020.
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
93
3.8 PAPER 7: AN ASSESSMENT SCHEME FOR SHORT-TERM PLACEMENTS
There has been significant research conducted into the benefits of work-integrated
learning (WIL) for improving the student learning experience and its impact on their
confidence, motivation and professional skill development [96, 94, 80, 17, 24]. Pilgrim
[96] conducted a survey of WIL practices in Australian ICT courses in 2012 and made
several recommendations on implementing WIL experiences. Jackson [73] has
produced some seminal work in the areas of WIL and graduate employability and noted
that placement experiences give students a better understanding of roles and
expectations of their chosen occupation. Billet [24] identified that merely providing
practice-based experiences for students is insufficient unless those experiences are
enriched through preparation, engagement and opportunities to reflect on what they
have learnt by these experiences.
During the curriculum design discussions for the School of Computing and Information
Systems case study curriculum, industry members expressed interest in providing
placement type experiences to the students as they saw potential for such an experience
to increase the employability of the graduates by providing them with opportunities to
apply their learning in a professional context. As part of the design and development
phase of the renewed curriculum this thesis author undertook to design a short-term
placement experience for students that they could undertake over the Australian summer
between second- and third-year of an undergraduate course. The challenge was to
incorporated academic rigor so that it was compliant with university and government
policy and procedures for inclusion within a tertiary curriculum.
This paper was published in 2017 and is a detailed account of the short-term placement
experience that has been developed to improve professional skill development and
enhance the employability of graduates. The research question explored in this paper is:
RQ1.2.3: What are effective strategies to ensure academic rigor in the assessment
process of an industry placement experience included in an ICT curriculum to
enhance the employability of graduates?
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
100
3.9 PAPER 8: REFLECTIONS ON 17 YEARS OF ICT CAPSTONE PROJECT COORDINATION: EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING CLIENTS, TEAMS AND ASSESSMENT
Capstone projects provide a solution to the problem of increasing the employability of
graduates by embedding authentic experiences within the learning environment that
enables them to transition successfully to employment. Capstone projects are often
included within an ICT curriculum to develop essential employability skills but there
are many challenging aspects in coordinating a team-based capstone experience to
ensure the necessary skill development.
Capstone experiences are essential within an accredited ICT course [8], and there are
seminal resources available for coordinators [48, 35]. There have been numerous
resources published since these seminal works, including research undertaken by this
thesis author who has a long scholarly history in designing and developing ICT
capstone project experiences for final-year students – Appendix B contains four such
scholarly articles that were published mid-career. Those articles summarise the research
that had been undertaken in the areas of teamwork, testing, project assessment, and self
and peer assessment. This prior research heavily influenced the implementation
techniques adopted for the inclusion of professional skill development, particularly
teamwork and communication, throughout the renewed curriculum.
This paper reflects on 17 years of capstone project coordination and is a paper that was
published in 2018. The research question explored in this paper is:
RQ1.2.4: What are effective strategies for coordinating team-based industry
capstone experiences included in an ICT curriculum to enhance the
employability of graduates?
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
107
CHAPTER 4
Evaluation of strategies to increase
ICT course commencements and
reduce ICT course attrition to impact
on the quantity of graduates
108
4.1 INTRODUCTION
As described in the introductory chapter of this thesis, Chapter 4 focuses on the core
challenge of improving the quantity of information and communication technology
(ICT) graduates. Within this chapter, four papers are presented that evaluate the
strategies adopted throughout the School of Computing and Information Systems case
study curriculum to increase ICT course commencements and reduce ICT course
attrition to determine if they had an impact on the quantity of graduates.
As previously discussed, rapidly evolving technology has resulted in a continuous
demand for competent ICT graduates, both nationally and internationally [29]. There
has been some significant growth in ICT course commencements nationally in recent
years, with a 19% increase from 2015 to 2016 which was followed by a 28% increase
from 2016 to 2017 [11]. International student commencements in ICT courses have had
a huge influence on this growth, with a 38% rise in international student
commencements in ICT courses from 2016 to 2017 [11], a significant turnaround since
the start of this study in 2012. Even with these recent increases there is still concern
about the quantity of the ICT graduates not meeting the industry demand. As previously
discussed, in 2019 the Australian Computer Society (ACS) released data forecasting
that Australia will require an additional 100,000 ICT specialist workers by 2024 [40].
The ACS also reported that domestic undergraduate enrolments increased from a low of
around 19,000 in 2010 to 30,000 in 2017, however, this growth is not large enough to
meet the forecasted demand for graduates and it is further degraded by a high course
attrition rate [40]. Even though there has been steady growth in completions since 2012,
nationally there were only 4,400 domestic undergraduate completions in 2017 [40]. The
low quantity of ICT graduates will impact on the growth of all sectors and reduce
Australia’s ability to compete in the future digital economy [36]. It is imperative that
completion rates in ICT courses improve for the continued growth of the ICT sector.
This chapter will address the research questions:
SRQ2: How can an ICT curriculum be designed to increase the quantity of
graduates?
109
RQ2.1: How can an ICT curriculum be designed, developed and delivered that
amends student misconceptions of the field of ICT, and improves student
perceptions, engagement, motivation, and academic success?
The chapter will contribute to ICT curriculum design knowledge and practice by
identifying effective strategies with implementation techniques to increase ICT course
commencements and reduce ICT course attrition to increase the quantity of
professionally competent graduates.
The four papers included in this chapter of the thesis contrast in their evaluation of the
School of Computing and Information Systems case study curriculum. The first paper
provides an empirical analysis of the impact of strategies to increase ICT course
commencements and reduce ICT course attrition by comparing the academic outcomes
for students who had undertaken the renewed curriculum with those who completed the
previous curriculum. The second paper explores a first-year unit that employed
strategies to improve student engagement and academic success. The third paper was a
preliminary empirical analysis undertaken early in the evaluation phase (mid-2017 of
this study) into the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) entry requirements for
domestic students to determine if a change was warranted to increase course
commencements. The final paper is a more comprehensive empirical analysis that
explores a range of pre-tertiary demographic factors – such as gender, citizenship, age,
and entry qualification – to determine if any could be used to predict student withdrawal
from the course and hence inform the development of intervention measures to improve
student retention.
110
4.2 PAPER 9: EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF STRATEGIES EMPLOYED WITHIN AN ICT CURRICULUM TO INCREASE THE QUANTITY OF GRADUATES
As described in the introduction to this thesis, the low quantity of ICT graduates is of
concern to the ICT industry as it reduces Australia’s ability to compete in the digital
economy [36]. The School of Computing and Information Systems case study
curriculum employed various strategies to amend student misconceptions and improve
student perceptions, motivation, engagement, and academic success within an ICT
curriculum with the intent to increase the number of ICT graduates without reducing
graduate competency to meet the local industry demand [114].
The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical analysis using data collected over a
significant time period to evaluate the collective changes to course commencements and
course attrition. This doctoral study found there was evidence of a significant reduction
in course attrition and of a partial increase to course commencements. The results of this
evaluation are valuable to ICT curriculum designers who need strategies and effective
implementation techniques to positively impact on the quantity of graduates. The
research question explored in this paper is:
RQ2.1.1: What is the impact of strategies designed to amend misconceptions and
improve perceptions, motivation, engagement and academic success on the
quantity of graduates?
This paper will be published in 2020. The Publication Statement signed by the co-
authors can be found in the preface section of this thesis.
Addendum: Post submission of this thesis, this paper was reformatted and submitted to a
different international conference and published in mid-July.
Nicole Herbert, Erik Wapstra, David Herbert, Kristy de Salas, Tina Acuna.
2020. Empirical Analysis of Strategies Employed within an ICT Curriculum to
Increase the Quantity of Graduates. 2020 International Conference on
Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI), Las Vegas, NV,
USA, 2020.
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
118
4.3 PAPER 10: IMPACT OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT ON FIRST YEAR ICT PERFORMANCE
As previously discussed, there is widespread concern about the lack of student
engagement and academic success, particularly at first-year, and the influence of this on
attrition rates in ICT courses [28, 31, 86, 95, 96, 85, 58, 109].
KIT105 ICT Professional Practices is a first-year unit (subject) within the School of
Computing and Information Systems case study curriculum. This unit is undertaken by
most students in their first semester and introduces a range of ICT topics and
professional skills: communication, teamwork, ICT careers and SFIA, user-centred
design, entrepreneurship, cybercrime, cybersecurity, ethics and professional standards.
The unit uses a flipped-classroom approach [83] to improve student engagement by
facilitating a significant amount of interaction between students and their peers. The
flipped-classroom takes learning from being an individual activity to one where the
student is engaged by cooperative tasks [83]. The social nature of flipped-classroom
reduces the social isolation of students, which has been shown to lead to withdrawal
from a course [100, 22, 99, 95, 23].
This paper was published in 2017 and is an experience report for this unit that was
developed and refined over four years by the thesis author and evaluates the impact of
increasing student engagement on academic performance. The research question
explored in this paper is:
RQ2.1.2: What is the impact of increasing student engagement in the first-year of
an ICT course on academic success?
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
125
4.4 PAPER 11: IS THE ATAR A USEFUL PREDICTOR OF SUCCESS IN ICT: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
In 2017, declining domestic commencements in the renewed curriculum triggered a
review of the domestic entrance requirements for the course. There was concern that
lowering the entrance requirements would simply increase the course attrition rate [123,
11]. There were also discussions about raising the entrance requirements as there was
evidence that the entry scheme cut-off rank was perceived by potential applicants as a
proxy for perceived quality [74], and historically, ICT tertiary courses were not
attracting high performing pre-tertiary year 12 students [12].
This study, conducted in early 2017, explored the academic outcomes for students that
had entered the School of Computing and Information Systems’ case study curriculum
with an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR). The ATAR is a measure of a
student's overall pre-tertiary academic achievement [115]. While there are some studies
that indicate the ATAR is not a reliable predictor of future academic success for
students with scores below 70 [89, 91], for most tertiary courses across Australia, the
selection of year 12 domestic applicants is based on an ATAR, on the premise that
selection based on a student’s overall academic achievement prior to university is a
predictor of success for tertiary study [26]. This study also explored the impact of prior
learning in programming or mathematics on the academic outcomes. The purpose of the
study was to investigate if a change to the current ATAR entry requirement or
expectations of prior learning in the fields of programming or mathematics could result
in increased course commencements without impacting the course attrition rate. The
research question explored is:
RQ2.1.3: What ATAR cut-off is useful for predicting the academic success of
students in an ICT course?
This paper was published in 2018 and the Publication Statement signed by the co-
authors can be found in the preface section of this thesis.
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
136
4.5 PAPER 12: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING ATTRITION WITHIN AN ICT DEGREE
As previously explored, academic success is a major factor in course attrition and ICT
students who pass subjects are more likely to continue [109]. Tertiary institutions are
increasingly implementing intervention measures to improve academic success such as
mentoring, academic progression interviews, and additional study sessions [28]. These
intervention measures are time and resource intensive and are mostly limited to the
students identified as in need after repeated failure.
This paper is an empirical analysis that explores whether different pre-tertiary factors,
including gender, citizenship, age, and entry qualification, affect academic success. This
study seeks to establish that if there is a relationship between these pre-tertiary factors
and a student’s level of academic success, how long such a relationship impacts on their
success. This paper explores whether these different pre-tertiary factors, influence when
intervention measures could have a greater impact on a student’s ability to pass or
decision to withdraw from the course. Academic advisors can use this information to
apply appropriate intervention measures at times when they are most likely to be
effective at reducing course attrition. The research question explored in this paper is:
RQ2.1.4: What pre-tertiary factors, in combination with a lack academic success,
affect when a student is likely to withdraw from an ICT course?
This paper has been accepted for publication in early 2020 and the Publication
Statement signed by the co-authors can be found in the preface section.
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
147
CHAPTER 5
Conclusion including findings,
implications and future work
148
5.1 INTRODUCTION
As previously discussed, there is concern within the ICT industry about the quantity of
ICT graduates professionally competent with the employability skill set [9, 14, 12, 77].
The low quantity and poor quality of ICT graduates has serious implications for the
Australian ICT industry as it limits the growth and advancement of many industry
sectors and is constraining the nation’s ability to compete in the 21st century digital
economy [9]. There are also funding implications for ICT higher education that result in
reduced resources to create courses that attract and retain students and to design
learning experiences that enhance a graduate’s employability [30].
The purpose of this doctoral study was to contribute to the body of knowledge in ICT
curriculum design by addressing the research question:
Thesis Research Question: How can an ICT curriculum be designed to
increase the quantity of ICT graduates professionally competent with the
employability skill set?
To reach a coherent and comprehensive answer to this research question a series of
peer-reviewed papers explored a hierarchy of research questions – shown in Table 1.2
in the introductory chapter.
As discussed in Chapter 2, the first section of the research question hierarchy was
investigating a series of questions related to designing an ICT curriculum informed by
the attainable ICT graduate career outcomes to enhance the employability of a graduate;
a summary of the answers to these research questions is displayed in Table 5.1.1. The
responses to the research question for each paper in Chapter 2 underpin the proposed
answer to address the Chapter 2 research question, RQ1.1.
149
Table 5.1.1 Answers to research questions related to using attainable career
outcomes in ICT curriculum design
RQ1.1: How can an ICT curriculum be designed, informed by the attainable ICT graduate careers, to enhance the employability of a graduate? Answer RQ1.1: An ICT curriculum can be designed that will equip the graduates with the technical and non-technical skills required for the employability skill set by employing the proposed processes to identify the attainable graduate career outcomes via extensive discussions with industry members, and use those career outcomes to identify the relevant technical and non-technical skills by using a skills reference model, such as SFIA [62,63]. Followed by employing the proposed strategies to identify a set of possible subjects by using international curriculum guidelines in combination with the relevant skills [63, 64] and by integrating the skill development across the subjects within the curriculum [64, 70].
RQ1.1.1: What is a process to identify a range of graduate career outcomes that can direct the design of an ICT higher education curriculum to attract new applicants?
Answer RQ1.1.1: A four-stage process for identifying attainable career outcomes was developed that can be used to guide subsequent curricula design decisions. The illustrated process includes practical “how to” guidance along with example constraints, resources and outputs that are necessary to successfully implement the process [62]. By following the stages of this process, career outcomes can be identified that are informed by employer needs and supported by industry-standard skill definitions.
RQ1.1.2: What is a process to identify the essential skills for an ICT graduate for them to gain employment in the ICT industry?
Answer RQ1.1.2: A process was developed to gather information about essential skills whose development should be included in an ICT curriculum. The process involved a series of structured interviews with a range of industry representatives [61]. Face-to-face communication in small groups is recommended, to encourage everyone to participate, with each group being asked the same set of questions [62]. By following this process, essential employability skills, including technical, non-technical and professional skills, can be identified to guide the development of an ICT curriculum.
RQ1.1.3: How can ICT career outcomes relevant to local and national ICT industry and the related SFIA skills directly inform the development of an integrated ICT curriculum?
Answer RQ1.1.3: A strategy was defined that uses the identified career outcomes and related SFIA skills in combination with curricula guidelines, such as the ACM curricula guidelines [7], to develop an ICT curriculum that ensures the graduates develop the relevant skills [63]. The SFIA descriptions of each identified skill are used to identify the subjects for the ICT curriculum using the relevant content frameworks within the curricula guidelines [7, 63]. Each subject should provide knowledge towards the development of the required skills. Integrating the development of a skill across a number of subjects over multiple levels of the course is recommended to relate the skill to a wide-range of ICT topic areas to develop depth of experience and facilitate the transition to professional practice [64, 70].
RQ1.1.4: How can an ICT curriculum be designed, informed by the attainable ICT graduate careers to enhance the employability of a graduate, while adhering to all the constraints imposed by the ICT industry and the tertiary institution?
Answer RQ1.1.4: When developing an ICT curriculum that involves responding to a number of constraints, it is easy to lose sight of the focus on career outcomes for graduates when designing curricula. A strategy was defined for designing an ICT curriculum focused on a set of attainable career outcomes that results in employable competent graduates [64, 67]. The resultant curricula are aligned to curricula guidelines and the course can be structured to appeal to different student populations based on career interests.
150
As discussed in Chapter 3, the second section of the research question hierarchy was
investigating a series of questions related to including professional skill development
within an ICT curriculum to enhance the employability of graduates; a summary of the
conclusions to these research questions is displayed in Table 5.1.2. The responses to the
research question for each paper in Chapter 3 underpin the proposed answer to address
the Chapter 3 research question, RQ1.2.
Table 5.1.2 Answers to research questions related to including professional skill
development within an ICT curriculum
RQ1.2: How can an ICT curriculum effectively include professional skill development to enhance the employability of the graduates? Answer RQ1.2: An ICT curriculum can be developed that will equip the graduates with the professional skills for the employability skill set to enhance the employability of a graduate by using the methodology outlined in this doctoral study to identify the essential professional skills [61] and integrate their development throughout the subjects within an ICT curriculum to create breadth and depth of experience [70]. RQ1.2.1: How can professional skill development be integrated within an ICT curriculum to enhance the employability of a graduate? Answer RQ1.2.1: A seven-step methodology was developed that can assist curriculum designers in the difficult task of integracng professional skill development within an ICT curriculum and create breadth and depth of experience to the extent necessary to achieve professionally competent graduates [70, 67]. The methodology adapted, extended and combined proven approaches of others at the subject level and demonstrated how these can be integrated together across a course curriculum to improve the employability of graduates. RQ1.2.2: How does integrating the development of professional skills across an ICT curriculum impact on a graduate’s competency? Answer RQ1.2.2: A longitudinal study from 2012 to 2018 provided empirical evidence that integracng professional skill development across an encre ICT curriculum significantly improved a graduate’s competency with professional skills [67]. There was no degradation in a graduate’s technical ability after integrating professional skill development and retaining a course duration of three years [67]. RQ1.2.3: What are effective strategies to ensure academic rigor in the assessment process of an industry placement experience included in an ICT curriculum to enhance the employability of graduates? Answer RQ1.2.3: Assessment of student performance is challenging in a short-term placement, as student focus during a short placement needs to be on completing tasks for a sponsor. An assessment scheme is outlined that is aligned to learning outcomes that address employability. Industry sponsors and academics both assess a student’s work to ensure academic rigor. The assessment scheme uses reflective practice and both formative and summative assessment by the sponsor to ensure learning outcomes are achieved during the placement to enhance the employability of the graduate. Six important components of a rigorous assessment scheme for a short-term industry placement were identified [130]. RQ1.2.4: What are effective strategies for coordinating team-based industry capstone experiences included in an ICT curriculum to enhance the employability of graduates? Answer RQ1.2.4: Capstone projects provided by external clients facilitate authentic experiential learning opportunities for students that develop professional skills to increase student employability. Four effective strategies for managing the more challenging aspects of coordinating capstone projects were identified: sourcing projects and client management, team formation and management, assessing student learning against generic learning outcomes, and ensuring individual accountability [66].
151
Having arrived at answers for the Chapter 2 and 3 research questions, Table 5.1.1 and
Table 5.1.2, enables an answer to be proposed for the first research sub-question:
SRQ1: How can an ICT curriculum be designed to enhance the employability of
a graduate?
Answer SRQ1: An ICT curriculum can be designed to enhance the
employability of a graduate by identifying the intended graduate career
outcomes and the related technical and non-technical skills [62,63] and
identifying the essential professional skills [61]. International curriculum
guidelines are then combined and compared with the technical and non-
technical skills to identify possible subjects [63, 64]. Finally, by using the
methodology to integrate the professional skill development throughout the
subjects to ensure breadth and depth of experience [70], an ICT curriculum can
be designed that can result in graduates that are professionally competent with
the employability skill set [67].
This doctoral study provided evidence that these approaches enhanced the
employability of graduates by improving the competency with professional skills
without degrading their proficiency with technical skills [67].
As discussed in Chapter 4, the third section of the research question hierarchy was
investigating a series of questions related to evaluating the impact of strategies to
increase the quantity of graduates; a summary of the conclusions to these research
questions is displayed in Table 5.1.3. The responses to the research question for each
paper in Chapter 4 underpin the proposed answer to address the Chapter 4 research
question, RQ2.1.
152
Table 5.1.3 Answers to research questions related to evaluating the impact of
strategies to increase the quantity of graduates
RQ2.1: How can an ICT curriculum be designed, developed and delivered that amends student misconceptions of the field of ICT, and improves student perceptions, engagement, motivation, and academic success? Answer RQ2.1: An ICT curriculum can be designed, developed and delivered that amends student misconceptions, and improve student perceptions, motivation, engagement, and academic success by employing the strategies along with the practical implementation techniques outlined in this study [66, 69, 129, 130]. In particular, using graduate career outcomes as a basis for curriculum design to amend misconceptions and improve perceptions and motivation; modernising teaching styles, allowing interaction with staff and peers, and introducing work-integrated learning to improve engagement, perceptions and motivation; creating distinct entry points for introductory programming to separate beginner and experienced programmers, introducing a range of topics at first year, and reviewing teaching styles and assessment strategies for introductory programming to improve motivation, engagement and academic success at first year. RQ2.1.1: What is the impact of strategies designed to amend misconcepcons and improve percepcons, mocvacon, engagement and academic success on the quancty of graduates? Answer RQ2.1.1: Data collected over an extended period was used to evaluate the changes to the quancty of graduates [69]. A career-focused approach to curriculum design was shown to increase course commencements. Employing curriculum-wide strategies to amend student misconcepcons and improve student percepcons, mocvacon, engagement, and academic success significantly reduced course aericon. RQ2.1.2: What is the impact of increasing student engagement in the first-year of an ICT course on academic success? Answer RQ2.1.2: A flipped-classroom approach and continuous assessment increases student engagement in first-year, which improved course attrition and academic performance [129]. RQ2.1.3: What ATAR cut-off is useful for predicting the academic success of students in an ICT course? Answer RQ2.1.3: The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) is a measure of a student's overall pre-tertiary academic achievement. An empirical analysis showed that the ATAR is a significant indicator that a student will complete first-year of an ICT degree and first-year introductory programming. An ATAR cut-off of around 71 would give a 50% probability of passing first-year of an ICT degree, and an ATAR cut-off of around 61 would give a 50% probability of passing introductory programming. RQ2.1.4: What pre-tertiary factors, in combination with a lack academic success, affect when a student is likely to withdraw from an ICT course? Answer RQ2.1.4: Pre-tercary factors, such as gender, ciczenship, age, and entry qualificacon, are useful in deteccng when a student is likely to withdraw from an undergraduate ICT degree [68]. Three key findings are: • Gender and entry qualification can be used to predict the probability that a student will continue
to the second semester, failing female students and TAFE entry students are less likely to continue; • Age and entry qualification can be used to predict the probability that a student will continue to
second-year, failing mature age students and TAFE entry students are less likely to continue; and • Citizenship and entry qualification can be used to predict the probability that a student will
withdraw from the degree, with domestic students and TAFE entry students more likely to withdraw in the latter years of a degree.
Having arrived at answers for the Chapter 4 research question, Table 5.1.3, enables an
answer to be proposed for the second research sub-question:
153
SRQ2: How can an ICT curriculum be designed, developed, and delivered to
increase the quantity of graduates?
Answer SRQ2: An ICT curriculum can be designed, developed and delivered
that will have positive returns on the number of ICT graduates by basing the
design on intended career outcomes [64], implementing the strategies identified
to improve the learning experiences for the students within an ICT curriculum
[66, 69, 129, 130], and by using the findings about when to apply appropriate
intervention measures so that they are most likely to be effective [68].
These strategies were based on recommendations from prior research which were often
untested or evaluated over only a few subjects or short trial periods. An empirical
analysis using data collected over a significant time period has evaluated the collective
changes to course commencement and attrition rates and found there was significant
evidence of improvement [69, 129].
Having arrived at answers for the entire research question hierarchy, an answer can be
proposed for the thesis research question:
Thesis Research Question: How can an ICT curriculum be designed to
increase the quantity of ICT graduates professionally competent with the
employability skill set?
Thesis Answer: Curriculum design is a complex process that must be informed
by industry members and considered at both a course and subject level.
Integrating the development of professional skills [61, 70] alongside the
development of the technical and non-technical ICT skills identified based on
intended graduate career outcomes [62, 63, 64] can improve graduate
competency with the employability skill set [67]. Basing the curriculum around
the intended graduate outcomes can attract more students to commence the ICT
course [69], and improving student perceptions of ICT, motivation to study,
engagement with learning and academic success can increase the number of
graduates by reducing course attrition [66, 69, 129, 130].
154
As a result of thoroughly exploring this research question, there are three significant
findings that will be of benefit to the ICT industry and ICT higher education.
5.2 SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS
This section will summarise the significant findings in relation to the literature to
identify the significant contributions to ICT curriculum design knowledge and practice.
5.2.1 Finding 1: An ICT curriculum that is aligned with the intended graduate career outcomes and related skill sets can increase course commencements and enhance the employability of graduates
ICT curriculum designers need to link ICT curricula with specific career outcomes and
the related skill sets [29, 117] to result in professionally competent graduates for the
range of intended career outcomes [12, 4, 23, 29]. As part of the School of Computing
and Information Systems case study curriculum renewal process a range of intended
career outcomes were identified after extensive consultation with industry. SFIA was
used to ensure that the ICT curriculum equipped graduates with the necessary
employability skill set (including the technical, non-technical and professional skills)
for those careers. The evaluation of a curriculum designed around career outcomes by
integrating the required skill set development across the curriculum confirmed that the
approach can enhance the employability of graduates, as evidenced by the improved
professional competency of the graduates from the case study curriculum [67, 70].
Curriculum design needed to embrace a career focus to attract a larger and more diverse
range of applicants [29, 117]. The evaluation confirmed that aligning a curriculum with
the intended career outcomes can attract a larger and more diverse range of applicants,
as evidenced by the number of students commencing the games and creative technology
major in the case study curriculum [69].
Ensuring the alignment between curricula and career outcomes, as well as providing
evidence using SFIA that the graduates can attain the required skill sets for the intended
career outcomes is currently a large component of the Australian Computer Society
(ACS) ICT curriculum accreditation process [8]. Unfortunately, there is limited material
available on how to identify career outcomes and related SFIA skill sets and how to use
155
that knowledge in the development of ICT curricula [56, 117, 120, 62, 63]. The critical
reflection of the design process for the School of Computing and Information Systems
case study curriculum has addressed this problem with the identification of a process to
design and structure an ICT curriculum that is aligned with the intended graduate career
outcomes and related skill sets that will enhance the employability of graduates [64].
The identified process from this doctoral study allows ICT curriculum designers and
industry representatives to employ a skills reference model, such as that provided by
SFIA, to classify potential ICT career outcomes and the required skill sets for ICT
graduates for the purpose of designing a curriculum. The identified process has resulted
in an augmentation to the ACS recommended curriculum design process [8]. Practical
“how to” guidance has been identified along with example constraints, resources and
outputs. The study then builds on this process with a strategy to design and structure an
ICT curriculum aligned with the intended career outcomes and related skill sets to
enhance the employability of graduates. Practical “how to” guidance is provided for
integrating the development of the identified SFIA skills throughout an ICT curriculum.
In summary, this thesis has made a substantive contribution to the body of knowledge
and practice in ICT curriculum design by identifying:
• A process to classify potential ICT career outcomes and the required skill sets
for ICT graduates for the purpose of designing a curriculum;
• A strategy to design and structure an ICT curriculum based on career outcomes
and related skill sets to enhance the employability of graduates.
The outputs from this doctoral study [61, 62, 63, 64] were acknowledged in an ALTA9
good teaching practices study [105] as being a well-documented approach to adopting
SFIA in ICT curriculum design.
9 ALTA is the ACDICT Learning and Teaching Academy. ACDICT is the Australian Council of Deans of ICT.
156
5.2.1.1 Implications of this finding
This finding has given rise to a significant implication for ICT curriculum design:
Using a skills reference model, such as that provided by SFIA, enables curriculum
designers and industry representatives to ensure that an ICT curriculum equips
graduates with the required skill sets for the ICT industry.
ICT curricula should not be allowed to stagnate and should be reviewed in consultation
with industry to ensure alignment with current or near-future career outcomes [21, 92]
to attract students to meet the demands of industry. ICT is constantly evolving, and this
creates a challenge for ICT curriculum designers to ensure the ICT fundamentals are
sufficiently covered as well as ensuring the curriculum addresses important emerging
areas of ICT practice [92]. Graduate ICT technical skills should be shaped by new
technologies and market demands [56]. ICT curriculum designers need to remain in-
touch with the changing nature of ICT and seek regular input from the industry to
ensure that an ICT curriculum equips graduates with the necessary skill sets for the
available ICT career outcomes. Using a skills reference model, such as that provided by
SFIA, aids ICT curriculum designers and industry representatives to identify these skill
sets for the evolving career roles within the ICT industry.
5.2.1.2 Future directions for research and practice
The analysis of the impact of career-based pathways was limited due to only having one
career focussed major. While the Games and Creative Technology (GCT) major was
focused on games related career outcomes such as games designer/developer, the
Software Development major was much broader with career outcomes ranging from
software designer/developer to system administrator to business analyst, with a broad
range of subjects available in the final-year of the major to satisfy the knowledge and
skill requirements for those career outcomes. Further research into the impact of career-
based pathways is warranted on the back of the success of the GCT major.
ICT courses need to equip graduates for professional ICT roles that do not currently
exist or are only just emerging [21, 92]. A recent report on Australia’s digital economy
identified that modern technologies, particularly those related to data science and
157
artificial intelligence, are causing significant operational changes to Australian business,
industry and employment [40].
Based on the impact of identifying games-related career outcomes in attracting students
and the rapidly evolving industry [40], the career approach was utilised again as part of
the 2018 ICT curriculum review undertaken at the University of Tasmania. After
extensive consultation with the local ICT industry more specialist career outcomes were
identified and additional majors constructed. As part of this review, there was
significant demand for security specialists, software developers and data scientists.
There was enough demand to continue with the game designer/developer role and
introduce a separate business analyst role. The skill sets for these career outcomes were
identified using SFIA and the new majors were offered in 2019. An empirical
evaluation will be conducted as part of the three yearly course review cycle to analyse
the impact on course commencements and attrition. Overall the total student
commencements for 2019 have improved on 2018, but as the previous curriculum
experienced yearly fluctuations it is necessary to do a longer-term study before drawing
any conclusions.
5.2.2 Finding 2: Professional skill development can be integrated within an ICT curriculum without degrading technical skill development to result in professionally competent graduates
The challenge for ICT curriculum designers was how to resolve the tension between
balancing discipline-specific technical content and professional skill development to
result in professionally competent ICT graduates. While it had been hypothesised by
researchers that integrating professional skill development throughout a curriculum
would improve the competency of graduates [3, 22, 25, 38, 39, 42, 46, 50, 51, 52, 59,
71, 97, 99, 101, 27, 45, 47, 57, 106, 112, 124], there was no comprehensive example of
a course-level curriculum approach that had evidence of its effectiveness. The
longitudinal study of the academic outcomes of students that have completed the School
of Computing and Information Systems case study curriculum provided evidence that
integrating professional skill development across an entire ICT curriculum significantly
improves a graduate’s competency with the highly-valued professional skills enhancing
158
the employability of graduates, without having a detrimental impact on their
competency with ICT technical skills [67].
The case study analysis has resulted in a substantive contribution to the body of
knowledge in ICT curriculum design practice with the identification of a methodology
to integrate professional skill development within an ICT curriculum [70], an approach
that has been evaluated as effective in improving graduate competency by the
longitudinal study [67]. The methodology identified as part of this thesis allows ICT
curriculum designers to integrate professional skill development throughout an ICT
curriculum aligning the intended learning outcomes (ILOs) towards the course learning
outcomes (CLOs).
5.2.2.1 Implication of this finding
This opportunity to evaluate an entire ICT curriculum has given rise to a significant
implication for ICT curriculum design:
Integrating professional skill development within an ICT curriculum can result
in graduates professionally competent with the employability skill set.
It has recently been shown that obtaining meaningful employment on graduation is the
greatest concern of students commencing an ICT course [107]. Norton and Cakitaki
[88] indicated deficient undergraduate ICT curricula could be one contributor to the
poor employment outcomes for graduates. While ICT employers are generally satisfied
with the foundational ICT technical skills developed by graduates, proficiency in
professional skills has become the main determining factor when considering a
graduate’s employability [56]. Palmer et al. [92] has recently confirmed that even
though there is significant jobs growth in the ICT industry a third of ICT graduates do
not find employment in the industry, indicating that ICT courses need to equip
graduates for productive work in other industries and professional skills are universally
required in most professions [92]. Graduates who lack proficiency with professional
skills will find it increasingly difficult to find employment in the ICT industry or any
industry. The growing demand for professionally competent ICT graduates warrants the
need for more effective ICT curriculum design to ensure that students are given
opportunities to develop the professional skills that will improve their employment
159
outcomes [56]. ICT curriculum needs to result in professionally competent graduates
that will be able to find employment in their chosen industry on graduation. This
doctoral study has shown that it is possible to integrate the development of professional
skills alongside the development of technical skills throughout a curriculum to improve
a graduate’s overall competency.
5.2.2.2 Future directions for research and practice
A limitation of this doctoral study is that there has not been a comprehensive
investigation of the employment outcomes of graduates from the School of Computing
and Information Systems case study curriculum, nor has there been an evaluation of the
industry impression of the employability of the graduates. National employment
outcome surveys have reported very high employment rates for computing and
information systems graduates, 76% in full-time employment [131]. While anecdotal
evidence is that the graduates are highly prized, and many of them gain meaningful
employment before graduation, a full study of the employment outcomes of UTAS ICT
graduates and industry impressions of employability of graduates needs to be
conducted.
A limitation of the professional skills analysis was that it only considered
communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. While these skills were
some of the most in-demand professional skills prior to 2014, recent research in this
area has identified a myriad of generic skills that employers would like to see in
graduates. Some of the more prevalent skills identified that are starting to appear in
industry reports and research literature are: computational intelligence, digital literacy,
global citizenship, social responsibility, and emotional intelligence [13, 37]. To ensure
that the graduates are professionally competent with these skills it would be valuable to
apply the methodology to evaluate the level of inclusion and, if gaps are identified,
expand the development of these skills within the new curriculum.
160
5.2.3 Finding 3: Ensuring that students are engaged with academic learning activities and motivated to complete the course by the career opportunities can reduce ICT course attrition.
The number of students commencing an ICT course has grown over the last few years,
unfortunately the high attrition rate in ICT courses is still a major concern. While it had
been hypothesised by researchers that improving student perceptions, engagement,
motivation and academic success could reduce course attrition, the challenge for higher
education ICT curriculum designers was how to design, develop and deliver such an
ICT curriculum. Many researchers had identified potential strategies to impact on
perceptions, engagement, motivation and academic success, though evaluation in many
cases was limited to single subjects or were yet to be tested in practice [15, 21, 23, 28,
36, 72, 76, 78, 86, 90, 96, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104, 105, 109, 117, 120, 123, 126]. The
curriculum renewal at UTAS provided an opportunity to identify curriculum-wide
implementation techniques for several strategies [69].
The empirical evaluation of the School of Computing and Information Systems case
study curriculum examined the academic outcomes of students over an extended period.
This doctoral study confirmed that a career-focussed approach to ICT curriculum design
can have a positive impact on course attrition by improving the student perceptions and
motivation to finish, as evidenced by the significant improvement in retention of
domestic students [69]. A recent study by Morgan et al. [86] found staff
overwhelmingly look towards changing behavioural aspects (such as enforcing
attendance and participation) to improve student engagement, whereas this doctoral
study confirmed that student engagement could be influenced by changing affective
aspects of engagement (such as increasing interaction with peers) [69]. Creating distinct
entry points for students with and without programming experience can have a positive
impact on academic success [69]. Improving student perceptions, engagement,
motivation and academic success across a curriculum can have a positive impact on
course attrition [69].
This thesis has made a substantive contribution to the body of knowledge in ICT
curriculum design practice by identifying effective strategies with implementation
techniques to increase ICT course commencements and reduce ICT course attrition to
161
increase the quantity of graduates professionally competent with the employability skill
set. This study has discussed six implementation techniques:
• Utilising career outcomes to identify distinct pathways through a curriculum, to
increase motivation and engagement;
• Modernising teaching styles to create a more student-centered learning
experience to increase engagement;
• Introducing greater interaction with peers to enable active learning to increase
engagement;
• Identifying distinct entry points for introductory programming for beginners and
experienced programmers to improve academic success and engagement;
• Improving academic success at first-year, by covering distinct ICT topics and
varying teaching styles to increase motivation and engagement; and
• Incorporating industry interaction via work-integrated learning (such as
placements, capstone projects) to increase motivation.
The results of this doctoral study are valuable to ICT curriculum designers who require
effective implementation techniques for strategies that can be applied curriculum-wide
that have been shown to have a positive impact on increasing the quantity of graduates.
5.2.3.1 Implications of this finding
This opportunity to evaluate the case study ICT curriculum has given rise to two
implications for ICT higher education:
1. To increase the supply of ICT graduates, applications should be sought from a
diverse range of students because a lack of prior learning in ICT does not
indicate that a student will fail introductory programming, and a relatively low
Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) of 62 indicates that a student has a
50% possibility of passing their first semester including introductory
programming; and
2. Greater support mechanisms intentionally provided to sectors of the student
population that commence an ICT course could improve academic success and
reduce course attrition.
162
Siegal et al. [107] found that fear of failure was the second highest concern of students
entering ICT higher education. Unfortunately for many students this fear proves a
reality. The comprehensive analysis of the academic outcomes of numerous cohorts of
students, focusing on the impact on different student demographics, has implications for
increasing course commencements and reducing course attrition.
To increase course commencements, this doctoral study has found that applications
should be sought from a diverse range of students, not just those who have previously
studied ICT nor those who have previously achieved high results.
The findings regarding the timing of course withdrawal are consistent with previous
studies that have found the first-year of studies is where the largest course attrition
occurs [4, 109, 58, 93, 103], though there are some demographics that make the
decision very early in that year, while others do persist longer even after failure. Student
advisors can use this information to apply appropriate intervention measures at times
when they are most likely to be effective at reducing course attrition. For example,
female, international and Technical and Further Education (TAFE) students should be
provided academic assistance intervention measures (such as extra tutorials) during
their first semester (before failure), particularly with introductory programming.
5.2.3.2 Future directions for research and practice
This doctoral study was limited in that it only considered the academic outcomes of
students and not the employment outcomes. Given the national shortage of skilled ICT
workers, ICT students anecdotally find employment prior to graduation and this could
be significantly impacting on retention rates and time taken to complete [68, 65]. It
would be valuable to investigate the employment outcomes of not only graduates, but
the students that leave before graduation.
This doctoral study was focused on the academic outcomes of students enrolled in the
case study curriculum. It would be interesting to apply the empirical analysis of pre-
tertiary factors to other institutions to explore whether the issues are discipline or
regionally based.
163
To continue this research on course attrition and the impact of intervention measures,
the next phase of the study is to apply the intervention measures at the identified
optimal times and analyse the impact on course attrition.
5.2.4 Summary of the findings, limitations and direction for future research
This study had three significant findings in relation to the literature that together made a
significant contribution to ICT curriculum design knowledge and practice:
1. An ICT curriculum that is aligned with the intended graduate career outcomes
and related skill sets can increase course commencements and enhance the
employability of graduates
2. Professional skill development can be integrated within an ICT curriculum
without degrading technical skill development to result in professionally
competent graduates
3. Ensuring that students are engaged with academic learning activities and
motivated to complete the course by the career opportunities can reduce ICT
course attrition.
While the analysis of the impact of career-based pathways on attracting students was
limited, as part of the 2018 ICT curriculum review the career approach was utilised
again and three new career focussed majors were implemented in 2019. To continue the
research on course attrition the intervention measures will be applied at the identified
optimal times for the commencing students. As an extension to this study an empirical
evaluation will be conducted to analyse the impact of the new majors and the
intervention measures on course commencements and course attrition.
A limitation of this study was that there has not been an analysis of the employment
outcomes of graduates, nor has there been an evaluation of the industry reaction to the
employability of the graduates from the case study curriculum. A further study of the
employment outcomes of UTAS ICT graduates and industry impressions of
employability of graduates will be conducted.
164
5.3 CONCLUSION
This doctoral study aimed to address the core challenge for ICT higher education: How
can an ICT curriculum be designed to increase the quantity of ICT graduates
professionally competent with the employability skill set? Based on an evidence-based
empirical evaluation of an ICT curriculum, it can be concluded that by integrating the
development of professional skills alongside the development of technical and non-
technical ICT skills graduate competency with the employability skill set can be
improved. The results of the empirical evaluation also indicate that basing a curriculum
around the intended graduate outcomes has the potential to attract more students to
commence an ICT course, and that improving student perceptions of ICT, motivation to
study, engagement with learning, and academic success has the potential to increase the
number of graduates by reducing course attrition. This thesis has made a substantive
contribution to the body of knowledge in ICT curriculum design practice by identifying:
• A process to classify potential ICT career outcomes and the required skill sets
for ICT graduates for the purpose of designing a curriculum;
• A methodology to effectively include professional skill development throughout
an ICT curriculum to enhance the employability of graduates; and
• Effective strategies with implementation techniques to increase ICT course
commencements and reduce ICT course attrition to increase the quantity of
graduates professionally competent with the employability skill set.
165
CHAPTER 6
Appendices
166
6.1 APPENDIX A
These papers were not first-authored by this thesis author and were written to present
the research related to the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) in Chapter
2 of this thesis to an international audience using a different perspective.
6.1.1 Designing the Modern ICT Curriculum: Opportunities and Challenges
Abstract: In the current University economic environment, ICT Schools are under
pressure to reduce the scope of their offerings and to simultaneously increase research
output. The UTAS School of Computing and Information Systems was recently
administratively reviewed and it was recommended to replace the current undergraduate
degrees, a Bachelor of Computing and a Bachelor of Information Systems, with a single
degree and that the number of undergraduate units be reduced from fifty to thirty. This
paper describes a process developed to meet these requirements through stakeholder-led
curriculum development efforts that clearly identifies career roles and required skills
appropriate for a modern ICT university degree.
Kristy de Salas, Ian Lewis, Julian Dermoudy, Nicole Herbert, Leonie Ellis, Matthew Springer and Winyu Chinthammit. 2013. Designing the modern ICT curriculum: Opportunities and challenges. Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2013), 15-18 December 2013, Milan, Italy, pp. 1- 12. (2013)
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
179
6.1.2 Development of ICT Curricula through Graduate Career Outcomes and Required Skills
Abstract: Career outcomes are widely used by Universities to market their programs
but there is scant evidence that they are attainable by graduates or if they inform
curriculum design. This paper reports on a process for designing a University ICT
curriculum that is directly informed by the career outcomes relevant to both local and
national ICT industry. Outputs from this process are a set of classified attainable
graduate career outcomes and a set of graduate skills that are the basis for the further
stages of the curriculum development.
Ian Lewis, Kristy de Salas, Nicole Herbert, Winyu Chinthammit, Julian Dermoudy, Leonie Ellis, and Matthew Springer. 2013. Development of ICT curricula through graduate career outcomes and required skills. Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering, 22-25 July 2013, Las Vegas, USA, pp. 1-7. ISBN 1-60132-235-6 (2013)
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
187
6.2 APPENDIX B
These papers were first authored by the thesis author before this doctoral study
commenced, and provide details of some of the initial research in collaborative capstone
project experiences that form the basis for creating engaging and motivating learning
experiences and incorporating professional skill development within an ICT curriculum.
Note: Clark was a maiden name of the thesis author.
6.2.1 Quantitative peer assessment: can students be objective?
Abstract: Team work can have a positive impact on student learning and commitment,
but it is challenging to determine a method of assessment that does not require lecturers
to involve themselves intimately with each team. Team members are often the best
source of meaningful data, and as a result, lecturers are including self and peer
assessment. One method of peer assessment is to have team members quantify their
own contribution and that of team members. Concerns have been raised in the literature
about distribution patterns with this method of peer assessment. An online peer
assessment system has been capturing data from a capstone project course for three
years with over 24 teams and 100 students each year. This paper analyses the following
questions: do students take the easy option of equal distribution to avoid conflict, are
students honest about their own contribution, are females treated fairly and are
international students unfairly discriminated against.
Nicole Herbert. 2007. Quantitative Peer Assessment: Can students be objective. Proceedings of the Ninth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE2007), 30 Jan - 2 Feb 2007, Ballarat, Victoria, pp. 63-71. ISBN 1-920-68247-3 (2007)
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
197
6.2.2 Evaluating student teams in unique industry projects
Abstract: Real industry projects and teamwork can have a great impact on student
learning and commitment, but provision of these features also produces significant
challenges for academic assessment. This paper describes an approach to evaluate teams
and individuals who develop unique industry projects. The paper documents several
years of experimentation with different approaches, including both failures and
refinements to successful approaches. The final approach adopted allows application of
the same criteria to all students even though they are working on different projects. It
structures individual accountability to ensure all members of a team contribute.
Assessment data is collected from multiple assessors linking them to the learning
outcomes and providing the students with an understanding of personal strengths and
weaknesses.
Nicole Clark. 2005. Evaluating student teams developing unique industry projects. Proceedings of the Seventh Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE2005), January 2005, Newcastle, Australia, pp. 21-29. ISBN 1-920682-24-4 (2005)
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
208
6.2.3 Self and Peer Assessment in software engineering projects
Abstract: Team software engineering projects can enhance student learning and
commitment, but it is challenging to determine a method of assessment that assesses the
intended learning outcomes; particularly when assessing teamwork and an individual's
contribution to the team's work. The students themselves are often the best source of
meaningful data, and self and peer assessment is a valuable part of the whole
assessment scheme. To ensure the integrity of the final grade it is necessary to use a
variety of tools and to check the correlation between data from different sources. To
increase the learning opportunities, it is useful to repeat some assessment tasks during
the course. However, this can be time-consuming for the lecturer to collate and analyse,
and providing timely feedback to the students is difficult. Web-based peer assessment
offers an opportunity to provide quality, timely feedback in a way that is manageable by
the lecturer.
Nicole Clark, Pamela Davies, and Rebecca Skeers. 2005. Self and Peer Assessment in Software Engineering Projects. Proceedings of the Seventh Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE2005), January 2005, Newcastle, Australia, pp. 91-100. ISBN 1-920682-24-4 (2005)
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
219
6.2.4 Peer testing in Software Engineering Projects
Abstract: For the last six years, students in the Software Engineering Project course at
the University of Tasmania have undertaken projects in teams of four or five members.
Since 1998 peer testing sessions have been conducted in two different formats: paired
peer code reviews and group peer inspections. The critique that the testers perform can
help the development team to identify problems before assessment hence increasing the
quality of the work submitted. The peer testing sessions also provide many different,
but valuable, benefits such as serving as milestones, increasing learning, and increasing
collaboration between students in different teams.
Nicole Clark. 2004. Peer Testing in Software Engineering Projects. Computing Education 2004 Sixth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2004) Australian Computer Science Communications, January 2004, Dunedin, New Zealand, pp. 41-48. ISBN 1-920682-12-0 (2004)
This article has been removed for copyright or proprietary reasons.
228
CHAPTER 7
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229
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