Our Information Technology Program was developed to give students from all majors sufficient depth of training in Information Technology to become the next-generation drivers of our knowledge-based economy. These students will comprise the innovators, managers, users, and consumers of information technology in Massachusetts, so we must reach out to a broad spectrum of students.
Our approach is to encouage students to major in a field they are passionate about, and then supplement that with an IT Minor. The framework of the IT Minor ensures that students have technical training, understand the human dimensions of IT, and understand how IT impacts, or might impact, their fields. Within this framework, students can choose from a set of 55 courses (and growing) the six courses that are most relevant to them.
We've been at this for two years now, and are continually impressed by the students that draw from the resouces at this great university to contruct a cohesive IT Minor, and then careers that nicely integrate IT and their majors. Some of our students end up in the IT track, but many others seek to excel in their chosen fields with an IT skill set and conceptual understanding that sets them apart.
We are also pleased with the appeal of our program to a broad mix of students. In spite of mostly passive, word-of-mouth promotion of our startup period, we have enrolled students from a full array of majors. The representation of underrepresented minorities in our program exceeds the percentages that exist in our campus population. Our enrollment of women is at 42%, not where we'd like to be, but much better than other technology programs on campus. And our general enrollment is growing—this fall up 86% over last fall—at a time when computing-related majors are seeing enrollment drop. last. Promotional efforts to be launched this spring should improve these already promising numbers.
IT Capstone
The Information Technology Capstone is a 6-credit, 2-semester course that is designed to fulfill the culminating experience requirement of Commonwealth College and also meets requirements for the IT Minor. The course organizes seniors from any major into multidisciplinary teams to address real-world community needs through IT. This is a Community Service Learning experience that engages students in partnerships with grassroots organizations in nearby Holyoke, Massachusetts. Teams of students work with a community organization over the course of two semesters to assess their IT needs, propose a multifaceted project , and then implement the project. The projects are carried out with sustainability as high priority; the student teams conduct staff training sessions and leave full documentation and project specific training manuals behind for the organizations. The course has been a major success with students being challenged and growing their skills, application of those skills to the real world and involvement with non-profit organizations leaving the organizations able to promote their services and meet the needs of their constituents in new ways through the implementation of new technology.
Take a glimpse at recent student Capstone projects:
Nuestras Raices
Holyoke Unites
Juntos Collaborative
Community Education Project
Enlace de Familias
