Software Development Educational Pathway: AS to BAS

Transcription

1 Software Development Educational Pathway: AS to BAS Colin Archibald 1, Richard Grant 2, Craig Tidwell 3, Ali Orooji 4 and Greg Garver 5 1 Information Technology, Valencia College, Orlando, FL, USA 2 Computer Programming, Seminole State College, Sanford, FL, USA 3 Regional Campuses, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA 4 Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA 5 Computer Science, Eastern Florida State College, Melbourne, FL, USA Abstract - A consortium of four state colleges and the University of Central Florida, has created a Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) in Software Development. The colleges offer a well established Associate in Science (AS) 2- year degree in Computer Programming. Graduates of this AS degree have had no logical pathway to a bachelor s degree until now. The bachelor s degree in Computer Science at UCF provides a pathway to a bachelor s degree for the Associate of Arts graduates, but is not appropriate, nor available, for the AS Computer Programming graduates. The missing link has been an applied bachelor s degree articulated with the AS program. Graduates of the AS program at the four partner colleges are guaranteed admission to UCF to pursue the BAS degree. The AS can be completed online or in traditional classrooms. The BAS is offered exclusively online. The BAS Software Development curriculum was developed with direction from industry partners. Keywords: software development, associates degree, applied bachelor s, applied science, articulated degrees 1 Introduction There are many career options available for software developers varying from mathematical to artistic. The curriculum for computing in the universities is frequently limited to a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BSCS) which is one of the more mathematical and rigorous undergraduate degrees available. There is significant potential for an additional program that would address workforce requirements and provide a pathway for students who choose to be software developers as opposed to computer scientists. Curricula for applied bachelor s degrees are beginning to appear around the US; most of them called Bachelor of Technology. In this paper we describe the creation of the Bachelor of Applied Science in Software Development. We know the job outlook for computer programmers and software developers is strong, growing at a rate of 12% and 30% respectively. [1,2] Anyone can examine the job requirements being posted online [3] and compare the requirements to the current academic curricula. The BSCS does not aim at the workforce, as it should not. However, graduates often have a hard time adjusting to software developer positions after completing a more theoretical science curriculum. [4] The partner institutions have agreed that there is a difference between Computer Science and Software Development. Bachelor s degrees in computer science (BSCS) have emphasized the theoretical underpinnings of computing, including higher mathematics, algorithm analysis, the creation of operating systems, the theory of data storage and retrieval, etc. Industry advertises for employees who can work on teams, create interactive web sites, design efficient databases, front-ends, with knowledge of usability, testing, and current tools and technologies, and of course the main requirement of several years of experience. [1] The argument has been that the graduates of the theoretical programs can learn these skills with on the job training. Some universities have addressed the issue by adding some applied courses, or an applied track, within the BSCS, while retaining the ABET accreditation requiring calculus and natural science courses. We arrived at this question: Is there room for, and a requirement for, an applied bachelor s degree in software, in parallel with the more scientific Bachelor of Science degree. 1.1 Associate of Arts vs. Associate of Science In Florida, more than half of high school graduates entering higher education attend the State College System (formerly the State Community College System). Arriving at the college, students considering a degree in computing choose between Associate of Arts (AA) and Associate of Science (AS). The AA degree prepares the student to enter the third year of the BSCS, and requires all general education for the BS degree to be completed in the first two years. This includes calculus, physics, natural science, social science, communication and humanities. In the first two years on this path, students can take a maximum of two or three courses in computing. The AS degree in Computer Programming is a workforce development degree including many technical classes in programming languages, web development, applied database, etc. and about six courses in general education.

2 Both of these paths have pros and cons. The 2-year AS degree does not articulate to the BSCS but it is a shorter path to the workplace than a bachelor s degree. The AA to BS articulation has existed in Florida law since the 1970s. Until recently the AS degree has been terminal and considered vocational. The notion that vocational or workforce development programs are all two years long is deeply engrained. Most employers require a bachelor s degree and although the graduates of the AS Computer Programming and Analysis (AS CP&A) degree have been successful at obtaining employment, they have not always been able to obtain the career they seek and the lack of a bachelor s degree limits their advancement. The AA program has a tendency to discourage students who do not have the willingness or capacity to complete calculus, physics, and chemistry / biology, before their first computing course. Students who had taken some computing in high school and choose to study computing in college are forced into general education when they would prefer to be studying computing. Two years is an eternity for college freshmen. Students without any computing classes in high school frequently find out well into their education they don t even like computing. This is something that would be better discovered in the first or second semester. Both situations result in a low retention rate for AA students who are aimed at the BSCS. 1.2 Academic Partners In 2009, four colleges in central Florida, and the University of Central Florida (UCF) formed a coalition to address this issue. All of the community college partners have been transformed into State colleges during this project. Valencia College (formerly Valencia Community College) Seminole State College (formerly Seminole Community college) Eastern Florida State College (formerly Brevard Community College) Lake-Sumter State College (formerly Lake-Sumter Community College). The National Science Foundation s Advanced Technology Education (NSF ATE) program funded the efforts to strengthen and align the AS Computer Programming degrees in central Florida and to create a new AS Computer Programming to BAS Software Development educational pathway. Although it is now possible for the Florida State Colleges (formerly Community Colleges) to offer bachelor s degrees, the number of graduates of the AS Computer Programming (fewer than 100 per year combined) did not provide the critical mass required to sustain a bachelor s degree within one college, and surely would not sustain multiple bachelor s degrees in Software Development within 100 miles. The decision to combine these four colleges efforts was encouraged by the agreement previously established called Direct Connect to UCF. That agreement guarantees the graduates of the four partner-colleges admission to UCF. The value of an Associate s degree greatly increased with that agreement, and the completion rates also increased. UCF is operating at, or near, the capacity of the main campus. A new division within the university called Regional Campuses has emerged to help provide access to UCF, outside of the main campus. Some programs are offered exclusively at Regional Campuses, including the Bachelor of Applied Science. UCF offices and classrooms are appearing on the campuses of the State Colleges in shared use facilities. Students who attend the four partner state colleges can visit the admissions offices and advisors for UCF without leaving their State College campus. Considering that this has occurred in the public higher-education domain, all of these changes have occurred with dizzying speed. 2 The Curriculum The curriculum is driven by industry partners. Every company that was approached has agreed to serve on the Industry Advisory Board (IAB). Large and small employers from the main industries in central Florida are represented on this board. Tourism, defense industries, entertainment, health care, space, are among the highly diverse employers of software developers in this region. All of them are represented, and we made some attempt to avoid a single industry from driving the curriculum content. By insisting the IAB consist of current practitioners in software development, there has been very little disagreement. A 2-day DACUM was held. Two or three IAB meetings per year allow us to ask the local industry what would be the most useful curricular topics. The messages from industry were unmistakable, and after examining existing curricula in software development, it was clear that a BAS curriculum articulating from the AS in Computer Programming would be unique. The recommendations included both broad and specific issues. The three general requirements are that the program must produce graduates who: A. Work well on teams. This includes communication skills, and experience using tools and techniques that facilitate software development in teams. B. Have significant depth of capabilities. This drove the decision to develop a progressive series of courses, where the same topics, and the same programming language, are carried from course to course, increasing in size and complexity, culminating in a capstone course called Software Development Project. C. Understand the importance of the business context in which the software development process exists. For almost all

3 Fig. 1 Required and elective courses on the Software Development track. companies, software does not have a purpose outside of the context of their business. The AS in Computer Programming is 63 credits. The BAS at UCF is 120 credits. Students take the 63 credits to UCF as a block, and additionally can take up to 15 credits from the college to the university as general education or electives. A minimum of 42 credits must be taken at UCF. They are not usually the last 42 hours the student completes, and it is common that students are taking courses at both institutions in the same semester. Details of the AS Computer Programming degree can be examined online. [5] The AS degree produces programmers, and the BAS produces developers. The difference between a programmer and a developer is somewhat arbitrary. A programmer is an expert in languages and coding, but somewhat less prepared for software design and business requirements analysis. The developer also has leadership roles within software groups. This roughly coincides with what the academic programs can achieve in two years, and four years respectively. The BAS program contains a Core and a Track. The Core courses include technical writing, business management, and ethics. The Track contains the new software development courses. 21 credits are required, and up to 12 elective credits in software. The details can be found in the UCF online catalog. [6] The sequence of courses is shown in Fig. 1. The courses with XXX are elective courses and are currently in the state course-numbering process. The seven courses with course numbers are the 21 credits required for the SD track. The Internship is elective. Although it seems that this would be valuable as a requirement, almost all of the students obtain employment in the field before they complete their degree, and are completing the program on a part-time basis. All of the new software development courses in the BAS were created at a week-by-week level of detail, and the design assumes it will only ever be delivered online. For the creation of the course content, a professor is paired with an industry representative to ensure the course material is reasonable from both the perspective of pedagogy, and industry requirements.

4 The courses are modified somewhat during the delivery, by the professor leading the course. These modifications are based on the feedback from the students, and the bi-annual advisory board meetings. 3 Progress in Online Education Some of the partner colleges offer all of the AS degree online. All of the courses required for the BAS are available online. Most are available exclusively online. The students remain living at home, and do not have to commute. The pros and cons of online higher-education are discussed widely in the literature. All of our students are software development majors, and are already comfortable interacting online. We are providing online communication mechanisms to mitigate the disadvantages of not being physically in the same room. These tools should be familiar, and without significant cost to either the university or the students. 3.1 Facebook Group The first mechanism created was a Facebook group. It was publicized before the program was actually offered, and we invited students to congregate in this online group to discuss the creation of the curriculum. There are currently more than 225 participants in this group. They are mostly students, but some faculty and advisors are participating. The original objective of discussing the curriculum was not the most valuable outcome from this group. As the students looked at the curriculum, they discussed other educational pathways they had discovered. The pros and cons of each option were discussed openly. As the students transitioned to UCF from the colleges, we discovered the articulation was not exactly seamless. Although UCF guarantees admission to the graduates of the colleges, the requirements to transition were unfamiliar to the students, and even a clear description of the transition was not always interpreted correctly by the online students. When students got stuck in the transition process, we knew on the same day because of the Facebook discussions. The students frequently solved the other students problems without need for faculty or advisors. The transition needs to happen very quickly. Admission to UCF cannot happen until the AS degree appears on the students transcript, and only then can the student request their transcript be sent to UCF, attend the online orientation, obtain proof of immunization, and some must deal with financial aid issues, veteran s administration issues, and finally, register for UCF courses. If a student graduates in December and needs to attend classes in January, there is a risk of losing an entire semester because the administrivia cannot be completed on time as the offices are closed for Christmas holidays. This situation is improving dramatically because it is discussed openly on the Facebook group. Everyone involved knows immediately when there is a snag. UCF admissions and advising personnel have responded and the loss of a semester due to process is now quite rare. 3.2 Skype Advising one-on-one at a distance is beginning to be implemented using Skype. All of the students at the partner colleges are issued a Microsoft Windows Live address. Since Microsoft purchased Skype, this has provided a standard way to explain to students how to contact their advisor using a webcam. Surprisingly, the advisors are more difficult to get onboard with this mechanism than the computer programming students. It is a cultural shift, and cannot be forced; only encouraged. Online student engagement hours (office hours), and supplemental instruction are also being introduced at the partner colleges using Skype. This varies among colleges and the individuals involved. Most colleges have a tutor available for the students in the AS courses. Making tutoring available for online students is a challenge, but not nearly as difficult as convincing the faculty their engagement hours should be accessible online when teaching online classes. Screen sharing with the student s computer is often a better way to discuss the snags in learning computer programming than an in-person visit to a professor s office. It is not possible for the student to describe what went wrong while creating a program. If they knew what went wrong they could simply fix it. It s very easy to talk through a problem while watching the student work. This is true for both professors and tutors. Fig. 2 Professor meeting with four students in a Google+ Hangout. As we move toward this more successful mode of engaging the students, we are frustrated with the pace of the cultural shift within the colleges. For example, professors must drive to their on-campus office to engage online students using Skype. There is no way to force the realization that this is not efficient.

5 3.3 Google+ Hangouts and YouTube During the class, much of the material is communicated through recorded video lecture supplementing the material from the textbooks, and keeps the students comfortable that they are engaged with their instructor. Synchronous communication with groups is achieved via Google+ Hangouts, and the Learning Management System, currently Canvas. The students have not had trouble using this technology. Presentation of project results is done using screencasts. Students record the presentation of their results, describing their documents and software in a video. The screencast is uploaded to YouTube, and the link is submitted to the professor, and sometimes to the other team members for discussion. Students have been finding their own screencast recording tools, and there are several free ones available. This simulates a live presentation, but doesn t fully capture the experience of making a presentation in front of a group. 4 Measuring the Impact The first measurable impacts of the new pathway are on the AS Program. Three questions were asked of the available data from the partner colleges. Question 1. What is the change in the number of declared majors in the AS Computer Programming? A desirable pathway to a bachelor s degree should increase the number of students who choose this AS program. Question 2. What is the impact of the new program and other project activities on retention among students who are declared in the AS CP&A? This was done using cohorts of students who are newly declared in this AS. Studying the data is only the first step toward understanding how to make an impact on retention. Question 3. What is the change in the number of students graduating with the AS Computer Programming? We need to know if the number of graduates and the pipeline of declared majors forms the critical mass required for a successful bachelor s program. These questions have formal definitions so each partner college can count in exactly the same way. The first declared majors in BAS SD were registered at UCF in the fall 2012 semester. The base year for all data is academic year. This is the last year the BAS was not being discussed with the students. 4.1 Question 1 The number of AS CP&A declared majors has been increasing quite dramatically since There are currently more than 1000 students in the AS CP&A. Fig. 3 includes only students who are registered for classes in the reporting year, as opposed to including the stop-outs. This is a sufficient number to support a bachelor s program needing around 50 new students transferring to UCF each year Fig. 3 Change in the number of declared majors in the AS Computer Programming program. 4.2 Question 2 AS CP&A Majors (Valencia+Brevard+Seminole) Change Change Valencia % % Brevard % % Seminole % % Total % % Retention is measured by collecting a cohort of students who are newly declared to be in the AS CP&A program in each fall semester. Each cohort is followed to the next spring, and the next fall. If the students are still declared in this program and taking classes, they are counted as retained. Fig. 4 shows the data for the Fall Spring retention for three cohorts. Getting through the first semester, and attending classes in the second semester is the largest single place where we can measure students leaving the program. With data combined from the three colleges, around 25% of the cohort does not reappear as registered AS Computer Programming students in the second semester. AS CP&A Fall to Spring Retention (Valencia+Brevard+Seminole) Change Change 75.0% 76.6% 1.6% 72.7% -3.9% Fig. 4 The one semester retention rates for 3 cohorts, combining data from all three colleges. The change in the retention rates is disappointing to some, and as usual, data tend to raise more questions. These retention rates are not bad when compared to other academic programs that have a significant quantitative component in the curriculum. There are multiple causes for the retention rates not improving. The increase in enrollment probably impacts this, as well as local economic factors, combined with the availability of student financial aid. Currently we are looking into the success rates in the first course in the AS curriculum; COP1000 Computer Programming Concepts. Hopefully the correlation between the relative success rates at the different colleges will provide some actionable information. The one year retention rates, measured fall-to-fall are shown in Fig 5. Only about one half of the students from the fall cohort are

6 enrolled in the following fall, and still declared to be in the AS Computer Programming. We don t have empirical explanations for why this is happening, but at least we know what needs to be explained. 4.3 Question 3 Graduates from the AS CP&A are increasing. The total of 67 graduates in academic year is approaching the critical mass required to achieve a sustainable BAS program. This completion rate is still very low. If we compare these numbers to the number of declared majors in the AS CP&A, it appears approximately 10% of the number of declared majors are completing two years later. With 693 declared majors in , and 67 graduates in , we can estimate around 90 graduates in , and 100 in This is speculative, but observers are generally accepting this is a conservative estimate. Fig. 6 shows the trend in AS Computer Programming completion. AS CP&A Fall to Fall Retention (Valencia+Brevard+Seminole) Change Change 57.4% 54.4% -3.0% 49.1% -5.3% Fig. 5 The one year retention rates for 3 cohorts, combining data from all three colleges. AS CP&A Graduates (Valencia+Brevard+Seminole) Change Change % % Fig. 6 The number of graduates from the AS CP&A program combining results from all three colleges. 5 Conclusion Computer Science departments are under some pressure to increase capacity to meet demand [7], and pressure from industry to produce a graduate prepared for the workforce, as opposed to prepared for graduate studies. We addressed these by creating an alternate educational pathway that does not weaken the BSCS, but instead provides a completely separate option aimed at the students who are interested in an applied program of study. The program is being offered online to allow students to remain in their current homes, and to set a study schedule that meets their personal requirements. of them have already accepted employment in the field simply on the basis of the AS degree and being enrolled in the BAS Software Development program. Providing an online, largely asynchronous program encourages these students to merge into the software development field. With a total of more than 1000 students attending the AS, and 67 graduates in , it is evident that there are enough students in the pipeline to support the BAS Software Development program, even though we have some serious issues to address in retention and completion. With three years of comparable data from three colleges, we believe that these issues can be addressed, and this work has already begun. 6 References [1] US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Computer Programmers, March [2] ibid, Software Developers. [3] SimplyHired.com [4] Struggles of New College Graduates in their First Software Development Job, Andre Begel, Beth Simon, Proceedings of SIGCSE [5] Details of the AS Computer Programming. technology/documents/valencia-college-computer- Programming-and-Analysis.pdf [6] Details of the BAS Software Development. ience_articulated_as_to_bas_track.pdf [7] Computing Research Associates Taulbee Survey, rollment_ pdf The first cohort will graduate in the Spring of It is too early to have statistics on retention and completion in year three and four of the BAS degree. We can observe that many