Drew Hwang
dhwang@csupomona.edu
Louise Soe
llsoe@csupomona.edu
Computer Information Systems, Cal Poly Pomona
3/23/2016
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


Background of study
Literature Review
Research methods
Findings
Career Track Categories
Career Track Frequencies

Conclusions / Recommendations
Naming strategies & numbers
Career Track Structures
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
Study began in 2006 when our department was
reviewing and changing its curriculum
What do other programs offer?
How do we compare?
What should we change?

Drew reviewed career tracks in 4-year schools
with MIS/IS/CIS majors or programs
“Career Track Design in IS Curriculum: A Case Study,”
Information Systems Education Journal, November 2007,
5(29), 1-18
Presented at ISECON 2007

Drew updated data for this paper in Feb-May
2009
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1. Normative – develop normative standards to
ensure “body of knowledge” and skill sets
are part of the curriculum
Model curricula
IS 2002
IT 2004
Working group on new model curriculum:
Topi, Valacich, Kaiser, Nunamaker, Sipior, de Vreede,
and Wright. “”Revising the IS Model Curriculum:
Rethinking the Approach and the Process.”
Communications of the Association for Information
Systems, Vol. 20, pp 728-740.
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2. Descriptive – describes what exists – our
study fits here
 What exists


Longenecker & Feinstein (1989)
Gill and Hu (1999) looked at changes

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
Chen, Danesh, Willhardt, 1991
Heinrichs and Banerjee (2002)
Kung, Yang and Zhang (2006)


MacKinnon, 2003
Williams and Pomykalski (2006)
 AACSB school curricula
 Comparisons to model curricula
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
Curriculum with diversity
Broad spectrum of knowledge and skills –

Curriculum with specificity
Concentrations in one or more subfields
Career track model falls within this part of the
spectrum
Other names for career tracks:
options, emphases, concentrations, specializations,
specialties, paths, certificates, clusters, support
areas
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“Generic IS curriculum is outdated” (Lee,
Trauth and Farwell (1995, p. 333)
“Single career track” IS professional is
“outdated” (Lightfoot, 1999)
Specialization occurs in graduate programs
(Ehie, 2002)
No relationship between IS course
specialization and initial full-time job
placement and starting salary (Ross, et. al
2004)
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
Between February and May, 2009, Drew
reviewed curricula of 450 U.S. business
schools with baccalaureate IS programs
http://www.univsource.com/bus.htm

He looked at every school’s website to
identify those with career tracks or
specializations
Built a database
Analyzed his findings
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110 /450 (24.5%) had career tracks or
specializations
 No standardized way to name career tracks
 No standard way to define what courses
belong in a career track
 No standard way to define how many courses
make up a track
• During our analysis, we clustered them into
categories based on names and what courses
they included

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IS Fields: Information Systems, Information
Technology, Computer Information Systems,
Management Information Systems
IS subfields: Networking, Decision Support
Systems
Referent disciplines: Accounting Information
Systems
Job names: Business analyst
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
Track curriculum varied in size:
defined from beginning to end
Could be 2 to 5 courses beyond a common core
Could be very similar to other tracks within the
same program (sometimes one class
differentiated two tracks)
Could involve other programs (e.g., accounting)
Could be defined by student and an advisor
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First, based on Track name
Then looked at courses listed for career
tracks (since different schools defined this
differently) if we were unsure
Then classified them into groups – tried to hit
right granularity
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Category
Number
IS Disciplines
(CIS/CS/IT/MIS)
75
Web Technologies /
E-commerce
44
Applications
Development
42
Networking &
Telecommunications
33
Information Assurance
28
Business Functional
Applications (Accounting,
Administration, ERP,
Finance, Operations
Management)
24
Category
Number
Information Management
–data + another word
(warehousing, structures,
mining, database
management, etc.)
17
Business Systems
Analysis
13
Specialized IS / Studies
(education, human
factors, consulting,
spatial systems, etc.)
14
End user support
/training
8
Decision Support
8
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Number of Tracks
Frequency of
Programs
% of total
1
11
10.0%
2
55
50.0%
3
23
20.9%
5
5
4.5%
6
3
2.2%
7
2
1.8%
8 or 9
0
0
10
1
0.9%
TOTAL
110
100%
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
Most schools (80.9%) with tracks have 1 to 3
Probably due to resources and complexity

Track naming is idiosyncratic – we assume it
is a faculty decision, probably influenced by:
Subfields in which they specialize –
In older subfields, track names vary less
In newer subfields, more variation for similar tracks
Names attractive to prospective employers
Representation of faculty areas of expertise
Schools seem to update tracks in line with new
technologies and opportunities for jobs.
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
No consistent track structure among these
programs
Tracks with same name at 2 schools may vary widely
Highly structured (no choices) to highly flexible
(determined by student and advisor)
May be interdisciplinary in nature or not
2 tracks in same program may have courses that are
mutually exclusive or may vary by only one course
IS programs within business schools they may be
partnered with referent disciplines, which influences
curriculum offerings.
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
7 categories represent standards in IS field – well
established
Applications Development, IS Disciplines, Systems /
Business Analysis, Networking / Telecommunications,
Information Management, Decision Support, End-user
computing – note the last two are dwindling.

2 categories represent more recent IT areas
Web Development / E-Commerce
Information Assurance

Business Functional Applications category
 stresses individual business functional areas

Specialized Information Systems / Studies
a catchall category
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
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Programs reviewing their career tracks should
continue to scan the environment and the
career opportunities available to students
The newest model curriculum task force is
working in the area of a career track model
curriculum – their findings and
recommendations may influence future career
tracks.
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Longitudinal review in 2 years to see what is
changing, especially in this period of
uncertainty
Compare characteristics of schools with
career tracks with those that do not
Compare existing tracks with model curricula,
especially when new model with career
specializations is in place
Hwang & Soe, ISECON, 2009
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Comments?
Ideas?
Hwang & Soe, ISECON, 2009
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