Maintaining a Quality Cumculum in Information Technology at Nicolet Area Technical College using the Wisconsin Technical College Systems Quality Review Process BY Scott Biscobing A Research Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Science Degree in Technology Management Amroved: 3 Semester Credits A Dr. ith ha el J. Galloy, M.D. The Graduate School University of Wisconsin-Stout August, 2006
The Graduate School University of Wisconsin-Stout Menomonie, WI Author: Biscobing, Scott D. Title: Maintaining a Quality Curriculum in Information Technology at Nicolet Area Technical College using the Wisconsin Technical College Systems Quality Review Process Graduate Degree1 Major: MS Technology Management Research Adviser: Dr. Michael J. Galloy, Ph.D. MonthNear: August, 2006 Number of Pages: 49 Style Manual Used: American Psychological Association, 5th edition ABSTRACT This study analyzes the Quality Review process within the Wisconsin Technical College System that Nicolet Area Technical College used to review the IT Network Specialist program. The study explores how the Quality process is used in an educational environment. The process was used to identify problems within the program and to investigate the IT field slulls necessary for graduates to be successful in the IT industry. A plan to address the problems identified is developed to meet the needs of district employers and to meet the standard established by the Wisconsin Technical College System.
The Graduate School University of Wisconsin Stout Menomonie, WI Acknowledgments: I would like to acknowledge my wife and family for their continued support of my pursuit of an advanced degree. Also special thanks to Dr. Michael J. Galloy Ph.D. for his continued support and encouragement through my educational pursuits.
TABLE OF CONTENTS....Page..... ABSTRACT 11...... List of Tables 111... Chapter 1 : Introduction 1... Statement of the Problem -5... Purpose of the Study 5... Research Objectives 5... Limitations of the Study 6... Chapter 2: Literature Review 7... IT Skill sets for entry Level Positions 7... IT Industry Standards 8 Quality Initiatives in Education... 10 Wisconsin Technical College Quality Review Process... 12... Curriculum Development 16 Chapter 3 : Methodology... 19... Subject Selection and Description 19... Instrumentation 20... Data Collection Procedures 20... Data Analysis -20... Chapter 4: Results -22... QRP Data 22... Focus Group Data 24
Areas of Improvement... 25... Chapter 5: Discussion 27... Summary 27... Conclusions and Recommendations 30 Additional Recommendations... 34 References... 36 Appendix A: IT Industry Exam Objectives... 38 Core Requirements for MCSA Exam 70-290... 38 Core Requirements for MCSA Exam 70-291... 39 Core Requirements for MCSA Exam 70-270... 40 Cisco core Objectives for the CCNA Exam... 42 A+ Core Objectives for the Hardware Exam... 43 A+ Core Objectives for the Software/OS Exam... 45 Network + Exam Objectives... 46 Appendix B: Follow-up Survey... -49 WTCS Graduate Follow- Up Survey... 49
List of Tables Table 1 : Scorecard Indicators and Definitions.................................................15 Table 2: QRP Scorecard Data................................................................... -23
Chapter 1 Introduction The field of Information Technology (IT) is a new and emerging profession. In the late nineteen-eighties and the early nineteen-nineties, the internet became a reality in the business world. This made the computer an essential tool at every desk. It has become as important, if not more important, than telephones. Today, e-mail and computer applications take up a high percentage of the average employee's time in any given day. It used to be that only office assistants and specialty employees needed to know how to use computers; now every employee needs to have knowledge of computers and the software used on them. Computers have taken over the office environment and almost every aspect of the work place. This has created a new profession called Information Technology. Businesses have an ever-changing environment that demands that computers and computer infiastructure be working at all times. When a system is down a company is losing money. For example, look at a sales department. A typical sales person may take a phone call and order. The next step is to enter the order into the computer system. Once entered the computer system transfers it to the appropriate area to be filled or manufactured, and then the final product delivered. In many cases, people can enter their own orders via a web site. If the web site is down, orders are not taken and the company loses money and customers to the competition. When a computer or computer system fails, IT gets the call to fix the problem. There are companies whose business is to support IT systems. These companies dispatch support staff to the problem site. Support
2 and parts can be hours away. Business has become so dependent on technology that the need for in-house staff to support and maintain the technology is essential. The field of Information Technology is in a constant state of change. In the broadest sense, information technology refers to both the hardware and software that are used to store, retrieve, and manipulate information. At the lowest level, there are servers with an operating system. Installed on these servers are items such as database or web serving software. The servers are connected to each other and users via a network infrastructure. Users accessing these servers have their own hardware, operating system, and software tools (Mariosalexadrou, 2006). Information Technology can literally be broken down in to four main areas of interest. Hardware entails managing and maintaining the physical components, servers, routers, wireless technology, IP phone services, and the basic computer network infrastructure in place to support the business. Software, developed to support the organization to be more profitable and productive, includes software program development, modification and maintenance to support the users and the company. Another area of interest is database. It deals with the system's ability to provide specific information on demand and to maintain and protect the integrity of the company's data. People in this area will have the ability to manipulate and gather specific data for individualized needs. Last is support, which is the ability to support and maintain the systems used by the end users. This includes things like the workstation, printers, or any peripheral equipment needed to perform a job. Technologies change, including such things as new software, new versions of computer operating systems or new hardware requiring businesses to stay on the leading edge in order to remain competitive. If businesses can maintain an edge over the competition it can
literally mean the difference between a good financial year and potentially going out of business. Information Technology is an integral part of day-to-day business success. This research focuses on the training and the quality of that training of IT workers to ensure that businesses have a strong and reliable workforce. The Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) is a major supplier of IT professionals to the workforce. The Wisconsin Technical College System is a network of technical colleges through out the state of Wisconsin. The state is arranged into 16 districts of which each has a technical college. The technical college's first loyalty is to the population base and employers of their district. They are responsible to supply educational programs to citizens to make them marketable for the employers of the district (WTCS Web, 2006). Nicolet Area Technical College (NATC) serves the district that includes Vilas, Oneida, Forest, part of Lincoln and part of Langlade counties in northern Wisconsin. Their responsibility is to provide programs that are viable to the district to support the businesses that reside within the district. Nicolet Area Technical College is also responsible to the employment base that resides in the district to provide viable options for students to maintain, upgrade skills, or gain employment. A challenge facing all Technical Colleges is to supply current up-to-date technology to students. This is a difficult venture as students are in school for a period of up to two years or four semesters of rigorous curriculum to prepare them for a job in the industry. As technology changes the curriculum and program offerings also need to change. In order to accomplish this, much research and sometimes-educated speculation come together to try to anticipate upcoming changes that may influence business as we know it.
Every WTCS program is required to have an advisory committee. The Technical College System requires that two advisory committee meetings be held each year. An advisory committee, made up of employers and employees in the workforce, works with the faculty to anticipate trends and act upon them so that the businesses and students of the district may benefit. This collaboration, it is intended to allow the schools to offer the most up to date technology so that employers will find graduates appealing to hire full time. Employer satisfaction is high as long as they have access to a skilled local workforce. The Technical College System maintains a system to ensure that the programs are accomplishing their goals. This process is called a quality review process. Quality Review Process (QRP) is a model that assists WTCS colleges by establishing statewide benchmarks. It includes quality indicators and an archive of best practices that recognizes and shares successes of other colleges' efforts (Johnson, et al., p.6). QRP is a process that is required by all WTCS programs every five years. It is designed to ensure that all technical college schools supply quality students with up-to-date skills to the employers of the district. This system creates a scorecard for each program and compares results to other schools with similar programs. The scorecard includes a mean score from the top four schools and a mean score from the bottom four schools that are used to create the statistical standards for comparison. The individual programs can look at their results and compare them to the state standards numbers. This allows the schools to see how they rank against other schools in the state and to ensure that students throughout the state are gaining a comparable skill set. This process is very specific in how it is implemented and maintained. The results identify key areas in general topics such as employment statistics,
graduation statistics, and part time and full time student graduation rates. This information is then tabulated and put into a scorecard to be reviewed by a quality review team, who can then determine a course of action to take to improve or solve any problem areas. The results are used to make curriculum adjustments to ensure that programs are teaching the right things to make graduates successful in the business word.. Statement of the Problem The IT Program at Nicolet Area Technical College has gone through the QRP process. The results show that its graduates score low when compared to QRP statewide IT statistics. There needs to be a study to determine why the scores are low and determine if the curriculum needs adjustment. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to review QRP standards and compare them to the IT program standards at NATC. This study will focus on the IT Network Specialist Program. This study will identify the needs of the district employers in conjunction with the Quality Review Process to determine deficiencies and develop a plan to overcome them. It should help to produce quality graduates and align the Nicolet Area Technical College IT programs with the state standards. The results of the study will help determine if statewide QRP standards are consistent with the local needs as determined by the NATC IT Program advisory committee. Research Objectives The research questions for the study are: 1. How did the NATC IT program score on the QRP state scorecard?
2. What are the IT industry skills identified by the NATC IT Program advisory committee? 3. What can the IT Network Specialist program do to improve on the QRP scorecard? Limitations of the Study The limitations of this study are that the WTCS mandates that every five years each program is to under go the QRP process. IT changes so quickly in technology that five years may be too long of a span for these programs. The nature of an educational institution, in this case a technical college with a two-year associate degree, is to graduate students on an annual basis. For this reason, the results will take at least a two-year period to determine if the established standards are what the employers of the district are demanding. The data is dependent on the participation of graduates in filling out the post graduation surveys and returning them to the WTCS. Another limitation to this study is the economy. In the past couple of years, the economy has slowed. IT areas are non-revenue producing so when things are tight companies do not spend much money or hire new staff in non-revenue areas.
Chapter 2: Literature Review To understand how quality measures are used in an Information Technology Program at a Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) school, the field of IT needs to be investigated. With a working understanding of the skill sets needed for entry level IT positions, quality of the programs can be compared to state standards set by the WTCS for all schools. Curriculum in the Network Specialist IT program may need to change to improve the program and support the needs of the employers. IT Skill Sets for Entry Level Positions The program that went under quality review is the Network Specialist program at Nicolet Area Technical College. This program is set to position students for a job in IT. The college has determined that students who graduate from the program should be qualified for the following entry-level positions: Network Specialist Network Technician Network Administrator Network Coordinator (Nicolet, 2005, p. 56) On Monster.com, investigation of these positions reveals a core set of skills sought of new recruits in the job force. Applicants must be able to: Maintain PC Workstations. Maintain the internal network. Setup new user accounts.
Administer Microsoft server software. Maintain system, network and software documentation. Demonstrate experience with Cisco Switches, Routers, and TCPIIP protocol. Demonstrate a working knowledge of wireless technologies. This is a list of job skills required to satisfy the needs of employers across the country in the various fields of IT (Monster, 2006). IT Industry Standards There are four core industry standards that are highly recognized as skill sets desired by employers of potential employees. These industry standards support the above main requirements that are being sought by current employers today. They are Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA), A+ Certification for workstation hardware and operating system support, Cisco Certified Networking Associate (CCNA) for Cisco hardware support and configuration, and Network + Certification for local area network support. Microsoft Certification or MCSA requires the completion of three core exams. The first exam is Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment (Exam 70-290,2006). The second exam is Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure (Exam 70-291, 2006) and the third exam is Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Exam 70-270,2006). With the completion of the above exams and one elective exam of the person's choice, MCSA certification is attained. This industry certification is valid until the next Microsoft Server Operating System release,
which at that time the individual would need to upgrade to the newest version. The core requirements objectives tested can be found in Appendix A. A+ certification is focused on the workstation support. A+ certification requires two exams. One of the exams is the A+ Operating Systems Technologies exam and the second is A+ Core Hardware Service Technician exam. Each exam has its own core competencies. The Operating System exam deals with different operating system possibilities from Windows XP Professional to Windows 98 to Linux at the desktop. Its main purpose is to test the competencies dealing with configuring, manipulating, troubleshooting, and setting up a workstation environment. The Core Hardware exam deals completely with troubleshooting, installing and reconfiguring a PC from the standpoint of hardware components (Andrews, 2004, p. 4). The combination of passing both exams will give the individual A+ Certification. The core requirements can be found in Appendix A. Cisco, whom dominates the IT market in hardware solutions, is a key player in the industry requirements. Cisco boasts a solid set of standards needed to maintain, configure and implement the many appliances that Cisco manufactures. The main certification offered is the Certified Cisco Network Administer (CCNA) exam. This exam is a twopart exam that has a written portion covering the theory. It has a hands-on portion that covers configuration scenarios of Cisco hardware. This is a highly regarded certification and not easily attained. Passing this exam shows a strong working knowledge of Cisco routers and switches in a Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) environment (Cisco, 2006). This exam covers the core requirements which can be found in Appendix A.
The final industry standard is Network + Certification. Certification demonstrates that a candidate can describe the features and functions of networking components and possesses the knowledge and skills needed to install, configure and troubleshoot basic networking hardware, protocols and services (CompTIA, 2006). This is more of a general knowledge as compared to the Cisco certification, which is very vendor specific. The core requirements covered in this exam can be found in appendix A. Two of the certifications mentioned, Microsoft and Cisco, are vendor specific standards that require skills necessary to completely administer, configure, and troubleshoot their specific product. The remaining two, A+ and Network+, are more general certifications that demonstrate a basic knowledge of the concepts, and to adapt them to whatever components are implemented into a specific computer network. Quality Initiatives in Education Quality is a term that is typically associated in some form or fashion with production. For instance, a buyer often refers to the quality ratings of products when making a decision on which vendor's product to buy. It is also a term that can be applied to educational programs and institutions. Results of quality initiatives in education indicate that fulfilling state evaluation mandates, satisfying effectiveness criteria of regional accreditation bodies, and demonstrating accountability to funding bodies are important reasons for community colleges to undertake program review (Barak & Mets, 1995). Quality has become an important part of education and a priority of the Wisconsin Technical College System and particularly to Nicolet Area technical College. Today more than 82 percent of colleges and universities have a formal program review process. Barak also identifies four basic types of reviews: a formative review, a
summative review, public relations review, and an authoritative review (Barak & Breier, 1990). A formative review is conducted primarily by faculty members that are directly associated with the program being reviewed. The goals of this are simple, to find ways to improve the program. Since the faculty knows the program, it is a logical way to do program review. The faculty rarely conducts a summative review; rather a department, district, state or institution conducts them. Public relations reviews are also conducted primarily by faculty, departments or the institution itself. The primary purpose is promotional. Leaders of an institution or state conduct the authoritative review. The primary purpose of this type of review is simply to express the power of the reviewing agency. A program review can be broken down into three main steps: (1) develop a plan, (2) conducting the review, and (3) the post review or report on the outcomes. The first step is to develop a review plan. Is the review intended to resolve a particular problem or to address a particular need? Typically, a committee is formed to find out this information. It consists of faculty, institutional research staff, academic administrators, consultants, and sometimes students (Barak, 1990, p. 15). These are the people associated with the review. This committee initially asks questions as to the purpose of the review, what problems have been identified, and are there alternatives to solve the problems identified or should the review process continue. If the review is identified as the proper form of action then a list of significant criteria needs to be identified and ranked according to importance to the program. Criteria indicators need to be identified and to establish a baseline to determine if the review was successful or not.
The second step is to conduct the review. The committee collects data that supports the indicators. This can be done through surveys, consultants, or self studies. The third step is post review or report on the outcomes. In this step, the committee analyzes the data and uses that data to develop a plan to meet the criteria identified in step one. Barak, (1990) suggests that these steps lend themselves best to either a formative or a surnmative review, which are the two most common approaches to educational program review. Wisconsin Technical College Quality Review Process This review process is a data driven system. The data collected by the colleges is used to track progress and reporting as to the evaluations conducted. The philosophy of the process is to strengthen organizational excellence. This process is designed to give colleges the ability to compare their institution to the rest of the system. The review can look at historic data, compare current data to historic data to show improvement or identify a decline in performance. The data can be used to highlight problem areas to be addressed within the program. The QW model developed is to be used by all colleges in the WTCS. The QRP process is comprised of four phases, plan, review, study, and adjust. The phases are associated with four questions to be answered. The questions are: What is important? (Plan) What needs improvement? (Review) What should be done to improve? (Study) What are the results? (Adjust) These questions are the basis for the WTCS QRP process.
The first question, what is important, will establish the indicators, how the indicators will be measured, and create the scorecards. This phase is the plan phase of the QRP process. The second phase review will investigate what is important. This involves analyzing the scorecards and launching the quality review teams. The third phase, study, will research, conduct quality review, and develop a improvement plan for the program. The fourth phase, adjust, will implement improvements, monitor improvement progress, and evaluate the process and adjust. The steps and phases are as follows: Plan: What is important? Step 1 : Establish Indicators Step 2: Establish Indicator Measurement Process Step 3: Create Scorecards Review: What needs improvement? Step 4: Analyze the Scorecards Step 5: Launch Quality Review Teams (for Program) Study: What can be done to improve? Step 6: Research (for Program) Step 7: Conduct Quality Review (for Program) Adjust: What are the results? Step 8: Develop Improvement Plan (for Program) Step 9: Implement Improvement Plan (for Program)
Step 10: Monitor Improvement Plan Step 11 : Evaluate process and Adjust (Johnson, 2003, p. 10). These steps make up of the college-wide Quality Review Process. The program level review process is concerned only with steps five through eleven. The reason for this is that the WTCS determine the indicators for the state. Phase one or steps one through three are determined at the state level. They determine the specific indicators that they deem as important. The scorecards are generated and data filled in from the surveys that they issue to graduates. The state and college as a result of the data collected will determine areas of improvement. The QRP process to examine the program can then begin. The remaining steps, five through eleven, in the QRP process are divided up into a nine-step process that the program will undergo. They are broken down into nine steps as follows for the program level implementation of QRP: Step 1 : Scorecard Review Step 2: Further Data Collection and Trend Analysis Step 3: Create the Quality Review Team Step 4: Examine the Program Step 5: Conduct the Quality Review Step 6: Create Improvement Plan Step 7: Implement Improvements Step 8: Monitor and Report Progress Step 9: Evaluate Process and Adjust
1 (Johnson, 2003, p. 12). The process from the program level begins with the evaluation of the scorecard. The WTCS has established indicators that are for each of the sixteen schools. The indicators and definitions are as follows: QRP Statewide Indicators and Definitions: Table 1 : Scorecard Indicators and Definitions 1 1 1 least 80% of the courses they took the previous year 1 / Course Completion I b Minority Student Same as all student course completion 2 Course Completion Second Retention ' Percent of FIRST TIME STUDENTS still enrolled or 1 graduated from the program in the most current record for the program after two years 3 Third Retention, Percent of FIRST TIME STUDENTS still enrolled or ' 1 1 1 1 graduated from the program in the most current record I I ~ 1 for the program after three years I I I 4 Third Year ) Percent of FIRST TIME STUDENTS graduating in 1 1 Graduation 1 three years 1 1 5 Fifth Graduation 1 Perce t of FIRST TIME STUDENTS graduating in 1 1 Employment 1 graduate follow up survey, a; in the labor market, and are employed Job Placement- ' What percent of most recent graduates respond to the ~ 1 Related graduate follow up survey, reported employment and ( Employment 1 employed in training related employment 1 8 Nontraditional Percent of students in program are of the gender 1 Gender Enrollment designated as 'nontraditional' for the occupation (will 1 be N/A for some programs) (Johnson, 2003, p. 13)
Data is evaluated using the scorecards. This information will reveal any indicators that are below threshold in comparison to the rest of the schools in the WTCS. With this information, areas to research and issues dealing with the indicators that have been identified can then take place. Once issues are identified, a plan to overcome the identified problems can then be developed. The proposed plan can then be reviewed and implemented. Once the plan is implemented, it will take two years to be able to gather information to validate the plan. With new data, the new scorecard can be compared to the old and see if improvements were truly achieved. If the plan achieved its goals, did any new conditions appear resulting from the implementation of the new plan? This is a continuous improvement plan to make each program the best that it can be and to keep continuity from program to program within the WTCS. Curriculum Development Curriculum is developed for two reasons in the IT programs. One is as the QRP process completes and a plan is developed. Typically, in an educational program, the main way to improve a program is to adjust or develop new curriculum to meet the needs of the plan developed. Secondly, as hardware and software changes, curriculum needs to change to match the new technology used. NATC has standardized with a program called Worldwide Instructional Design System or WIDS. This is a Performance-Based learning design. The goal of learning design is to arrive at a soundly designed and well-planned course (Mashburn & Neill, 2002). The software will systematically help an instructor to create performance-based curriculum in the form of a whole program and the courses that make up the program. The software asks four simple questions to base the curriculum upon. Who? What?
When? and How? Who, simply identifies the learners. The learners are the students that are enrolled in the It programs. "What" identifies the skills the student will gain from the course, core abilities, competencies, and learning objectives are identified here. The core abilities reference what the student should achieve. These are established at the college level for all courses. Core abilities are defined as macro outcomes comprised of transferable skills, attitudes and abilities to be mastered by learners completing a degree (Mashburn & Neill, 2002 p.533). Competencies are defined as the skills necessary in a course to master the topic. Learning objectives determine what things the student will do to master the competencies. These determine the curriculum content. "When" identifies when the student has mastered a particular topic. It is divided into two areas, performance standards and assessment activities. The performance standards allow the instructor and the student to know exactly what needs to be completed. For instance, the performance standard may state the task needs to be completed to a level of 70 percent or better. A rubric is developed so the student knows exactly what to do and how the instructor will check it. An assessment activity is simply how will the student be checked on the skill or competency. For example, the student may be given a written exam or have to perform a specific task to prove that the competency has been accomplished before moving on to the next competency. "How" helps the instructor to determine learning activities for students. This can be confused with learning objectives. Remember that learning objectives are what the student needs to learn to accomplish the competency. Learning activities are what the student will actually do to learn the objective. For instance, in a course for Microsoft
server 2003, a student will have to be able to establish user rights. This is a learning objective. The learning activities may be things such as having to create a user in the software, assign rights to the user and assign the user to groups to accomplish appropriate permissions for the user. This common activity needs to be mastered. WIDS is a software package that is used so that once the course is created any instructor can look at the design and should be able to teach the course to meet the competencies established. If multiple teachers are teaching the same course, it should ensure that all students meet the same competencies. In general, it ensures consistency within the curriculum.
Chapter 3: Methodology This chapter discusses the methodology used for this study. The purpose of this study is to review QRP standards and compare them to the IT program standards at NATC. This study will focus on the IT Network Specialist Program. It will identify the needs of the district employers in conjunction with the Quality Review Process to determine deficiencies and develop a plan to overcome them. It should help to produce quality graduates and align the Nicolet Area Technical College IT programs with the State standards. This chapter details the process used to collect the data, and the data that addresses the research questions. The Research questions were: 1. How did the NATC IT program score on the QRP state scorecard? 2. What are the IT industry skills identified by the NATC IT Program advisory committee? 3. What can the IT Network Specialist program do to improve on the QRP scorecard? Subject Selection and Description The WTCS encompasses sixteen districts throughout the State. Each district has a Technical College serving the district population. NATCYs district includes the following counties: Forest, Oneida, Iron, Vilas, and parts of Lincoln and Langlade Counties. The subjects for this study are two fold; it will compare graduates in IT Network Specialist program from the entire state to the graduates in the IT Network Specialist program from Nicolet Area Technical College.
Instrumentation The instrumentation used is a survey that was created by the WTCS to poll all students after they graduate from a program in the WTCS. The last data collection method is a focus group. Data was gathered from a focus group brought together to discuss the IT field in NATC's district. Enrollment and graduate data will determine graduation rates, program capacities, and course completion numbers. Data Collection Procedures The survey issued by the WTCS is a twelve-question survey. The survey asks questions dealing with topics like program satisfaction, current employment, employment in the program job area, salary information, employer information, and various questions relating to their educational experiences. The survey can be found in its entirety in Appendix B. A focus group, made up of IT professionals from within IVATC's district, was brought together to discuss IT trends and skills necessary for NATC IT graduates to be successful. This qualitative data can then be used to determine if curriculum changes in the Network Specialist program need to take place. Data Analysis Data collected from the WTCS surveys is kept separated by school and by question. The data collected from the survey from each school is averaged. This data is the actual results for a school and that data can then be placed into the scorecard. Each indicator has its own data determined from the survey. The results for each indicator are noted for each school. The scorecard has three main headings for data, a target, threshold, and actual. The scores of the upper four schools for each indicator will determine the
target value on the scorecard. The target value for each indicator is the mean value of the upper four schools score. The scores of the lower four schools for each indicator will determine the threshold value on the scorecard. The threshold value for each indicator is the mean value of the lowest four schools score. The actual data is the mean value, by indicator, determined from the survey results from only the NATC graduates. The scorecard is now filled in by heading and indicator. This data will be used to answer research question one. Data collected from the focus group is itemized according to like objectives. This data will identify core areas of needed skills and identify individual skills within the respective core areas. The data will reveal a list of what competencies and skills IT employers need to fill positions. This data will be used to answer research question two. The data collected from the swey will reveal areas in the IT program that fall below the threshold. The focus group data should reveal the specific skills employers of the NATC district are looking for. The data needs to be analyzed to find a common thread that can deliver a higher quality graduate and improve the scores that NATC receives on the QRP scorecard. The combination of the two will be used to answer research question three.
Chapter 4: Results The purpose of this study is to review QRP standards and compare them to the IT program standards at NATC. This study will focus on the IT Network Specialist Program. This study will identify the needs of the district employers in conjunction with the Quality Review Process to determine deficiencies and develop a plan to overcome them. It should help to produce quality graduates and align the Nicolet Area Technical College IT programs with the State standards. The results of the study will help determine if statewide QRP standards are consistent with the local needs as determined by the NATC IT Program advisory committee. QRP Scorecard Data Research question one asked how did the NATC IT program score on the QRP state scorecard? The data collected from the survey is analyzed and mean values determined. Data is entered into one of three headings per indicator within the scorecard. Actual data is the actual mean values scores of each question from NATC graduates. Target is the mean value of the top four schools answers to the survey questions. The mean value of the bottom four schools answers determines threshold values on the scorecard. All data is represented as a percentage score. This data representation will give details to each school to see how it compares to the rest of the WTCS schools in the same programs. The scorecard data is as follows:
1 I Table. 2: QRP Scorecard Data Indicator Name Course completion Fifth vear Graduation 1 5 s 1 Job Placement- All Employment 1 77.78 1 97.73 74.80 1 1 Job Placement - Related Em~lovment 22.22 1 72.16 1 26.15 1-3.93 1 I Minority Course Completion 1 75.00 1 83.09 1 48.21 1 Non-Traditional gender 0.00 0.00 0.00 1 1 Second Year Retention 1 57.58 1 68.69 1 49.72 1 a 1 + 4 74.29 35.00 + a, C b 75.27 42.17 s z 0-6, 3 b 59.86 24.85 72.78 53.44 Third ye& Graduation 37.21 34.67 15.00 1 The ird Year retention 1 65.12 1 62.13 1 35.95 1 s 2 0-5 b l 3 0 4 2 --- This data shows how NATC compares to the target and threshold values for each indicator. NATC fairs quite well in areas such as third year retention, third year graduation, special populations course completion, minority course completion, and course completion. These indicators show that NATC values are above or quite close to target values. This would indicate that NATC's IT network Specialist program is doing an above average job in the five above mentioned indicator areas. The indicator, Job placement-related employment are graduates employed in an IT related field, shows over three percent below the threshold. The rest of the indicators fall somewhere in the middle between the target and threshold values set by the WTCS.
This data shows the deficiency in Job placement by NATC graduates in an IT related field. The scorecard allows for an accurate comparison of NATC to the rest of the Technical Colleges in the state. Focus Group Data Research question two asked what are the IT industry skills identified by the NATC IT Program advisory committee. A focus group, made up of advisory committee members and additional IT professionals from within NATC's district, identified the basic skills they wanted from a new IT employee. The focus group revealed the following: Majority of the businesses represented at the meeting agreed there would be growth in IT over the next five years Tremendous people skills set-needs to be part of core course Microsoft Server skills Cisco knowledge Soft skills - appease customer Remote control capabilities Protecting equipment & data An increasing level of IT Security issues Patch deliveries Work with routers/switches/lan/wan Securing access to datalconfiguration of active directories Back up and disaster recovery plans Policies & procedures
PC troubleshooting and configuration Preventiodintrusion Citrixlimaging machines Wireless technology Voice & data integration Keeping up with technology The data indicates a vast array of skills necessary for IT professionals entering the field. Core skills revealed by the focus group are very similar to the IT Industry exam competencies. Skills such as Microsoft server, router and switch configuration, PC troubleshooting, knowledge of wireless technology, and LAN and WAN support match up well with IT certifications. The focus group identified several areas that were non-technical in nature compared to most IT skills such as soft skills, policies and procedures, keeping up with technology or the need to, and tremendous people skills. The data generated by the focus group identified a positive action in the economy and that several employers are planning to hire IT positions in the near future. It identified very specifically what kind of employee that they are looking for. They want a person with the typical industry IT skills but also with strong communication and general people skills. These skills are not necessarily part of an IT curriculum. These skills are normally associated with general education coursework. The focus group data makes it quite clear that they regard people skills quite high.
Areas of Improvement Research question three asked what the IT Network Specialist program could do to improve on the QRP scorecard. To answer that question, data from the QRP scorecard and data from the focus group combined will need consideration. Looking at the main results from the QRP scorecard, it revealed that Job Placement in a related field is a troubled spot as compared to the other schools in the Technical College system. The focus group identified several key skills that they look for when interviewing potential candidates for employment in IT. The data from both sources will give direction as to curriculum adjustments in the program. The data reveals that curriculum adjustments need attention in the areas of people skills and non-technical related areas. If this can be improved upon and maintain the current level of technical skills such as Microsoft, Cisco, Networking, and A+ competencies, the IT graduates will be more appealing to district employers. This should lead to improvement on the QRP scorecard.
Chapter 5: Discussion Summary The IT industry is in a constant state of change. As new technologies are developed, the industry adopts and implements these technologies in an attempt to stay ahead of the competition. The new technology demands a workforce of individuals that understand the characteristics of the technology and posses the knowledge to alter and adapt the technology to meet the needs and demands of business today. In chapter one, three questions are asked to form the basis of this study. The questions asked are: 1. How did the NATC IT program score on the QRP state scorecard? 2. What are the IT industry skills identified by the NATC IT Program advisory committee? 3. What can the IT Network Specialist program do to improve on the QRP scorecard? In order to attempt to answer these questions the fields of IT needed to be defined. It brought forward the importance of the IT professional in the workforce. IT can be broken down into four key areas, hardware, software, database, and computer support. Each area supports a part of the IT infrastructure. The computer system is such a key part of almost every position inside the workplace that day-to-day business cannot function without the computer system working properly. In order to accomplish this task, businesses need a source of IT professionals to hire to maintain the computer infrastructure. To help with this task the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) is in place to do just this. In
this field, technology changes so rapidly that it is hard to stay on top of technology and to keep the latest on demand technologies as part of the curriculum in the IT programs. The WTCS has implemented a Quality review process that each program has to complete every five years. This process from the state has several indicators that determine the state of the program as compared to the other WTCS schools with similar programs. The data generated fiom surveys given to graduates of the programs, is used to complete a scorecard. This scorecard will reveal any indicators that need improvement. The scorecard data with the QW process helps improve the program and when complete the plan generated should improve scores on the scorecard in the future. Chapter two identified the main IT industry standards, the QW process steps, and curriculum development that is used to improve programs in the WTCS. These are the key areas of research used in this study. The IT industry standards revealed are Microsoft certifications dealing with server and PC operating system support and configuration. Cisco certifications revealed skills used to configure and maintain Cisco switches and routers implemented in the LAN and WAN IT infrastructure. A+ certification shows skills for PC hardware and software support, configuration, and upgrade of the workstation. Last was Network +. The skills revealed here help to support the IT infrastructure and are a non-vendor specific certification. The steps for the QW process were also revealed. The research identified eleven steps that make up the process, which are listed in chapter two. This study focuses on the QW implemented on the NATC IT program. The last nine steps of the process deal directly with the program. The first few steps in the process, the WTCS completes to
identify indicators on the scorecard. These indicators and the data will compare the schools to each other. When problems are identified in an educational program, the most logical solution is curriculum. NATC has standardized with a program called Worldwide Instructional Design System or WIDS. This is a Performance-Based learning design. The software helps to maintain consistency within the program. It identifies the key competencies that a graduate should master when the program is completed, as well as the competencies a student should master in each course upon completion of that course. The software will illustrate to the faculty and the student exactly how competencies will be mastered and how the tasks will be measured to prove that a student has mastered the competency. Chapter three revealed exactly where the data for this study will come from and how it will be analyzed for use in this study. The two main sources of data used to help answer the research questions are a survey and a focus group. The survey is a set of questions that will directly generate data for each indicator on the scorecard. The survey is given to all graduates of a WTCS program. For each indicator three data values are generated. The actual data is the actual mean values from the survey for each indicator specific to each school. The target is the mean value for each indicator of the top four scoring schools. The threshold is the mean value for each indicator of the bottom four scoring schools. This data will identify problem areas. A group of IT professional from within the NATC district generated the focus group data. General questions identified what skills they seek from new hires. This data determines if the program is teaching the right skills to serve the needs of the employers within the district.
In chapter four, the actual scorecard data and the data from the focus group is identified. Each research question was again asked and the data to support each was presented. The scorecard data will answer research question one. The data will reveal any trouble areas and areas of excellence in the program at NATC compared to the other WTCS schools with similar programs. The data collected from the focus will answer research question two. It identifies the skills that local employers are seeking in IT professionals. The data fiom both the scorecard and the focus group will determine what action to be taken to improve scorecard scores in the future. Conclusions and Recommendations Research question one asked how NATC did in comparison to the rest of the WTCS schools on the QRP scorecard. The scorecard data presented in chapter four revealed that in course completion NATC was very near the target. In retention and graduation, NATC falls near the middle when compared to the rest of the WTCS schools. In job placement in general, are the graduates employed, the data was 77.78 %, which is nearer to the threshold of 74.80% than the target of 97.73%. In job placement in a related field, are graduates employed in an IT related field, the data was 22.22%. This is 3.93% below the threshold of 26.15%. Based on the scorecard data it can be concluded that the IT program at NATC falls below the threshold, when compared to the rest of the IT program in the WTCS, in job placement in a related field. Research question two asked what are the IT industry skills identified by the NATC advisory committee. The focus group, which is made up of advisory committee members and other IT professional, was used to answer this question. It revealed that the basic IT skills are very necessary. Data from the focus group highlighted some interesting
items. The technology taught was relatively close to the skills employers were looking for. The focus group offered a vast amount of different skills that were appealing to them. The group would like to see the program offer more advanced Microsoft concepts and technologies that use a Microsoft base. The program was on track with the Cisco, A+, and basic network skills currently taught. The group unanimously stated more emphasis is to be put into IT security issues. The big surprise of the focus group was that graduates lacked a solid foundation in soft skills. Employers in the district have noticed through recent hires and through the interview process that graduates did not handle interaction with people very well. This was a skill the group stated was extremely important and they would hire an individual with fewer IT skills and stronger soft skills over a strong IT person lacking people skills. Based on the data it can be concluded that skills in the area of communication, people skills, and IT security need to be incorporated into the program. The overall technology skills are good and keeping up with trends and new technology is important. Research question asks what can the IT Network Specialist program do to improve QRP scorecard scores. In order to develop a plan the conclusions from both research question one and two need consideration. Research question one concluded that a deficiency existed in job placement in a related field fell below threshold. Research question two concluded that IT graduates were lacking in the area of soft skills. Based on the data it can be concluded that a curriculum change in the IT Network Specialist program is needed. Based on the conclusions of the three research questions, the recommendations would be to make curriculum modification to fill the needs of the IT Advisory