Paper The E-literate society Paradigm shifts in education and professional life

Modern curriculum development for informatics (computing science)

Tom J. van Weert Expert Center for Educational Technology Cetis Hogeschool van Utrecht P.O. Box 85029 3508 AA Utrecht The Netherlands Tel: +31 30 258 6296 Fax: +31 30 258 6292 Email: t.vweert@cetis.hvu.nl Fred Mulder Open University of the Netherlands

Keywords
Curriculum Policies, Developing Countries, Globalisation, Higher Education, Society,

Abstract
Modern curriculum development should fulfil specific requirements which reflect developments in society. A set of possible requirement is proposed. This set of requirements is confronted with two curriculum development initiatives in practice aimed at curriculum development for informatics (computing science). The two initiativew are: Computing Curriculum 2001 (IEEE-CS/ACM) en ICF-2000 (IFIP/UNESCO). Comparison shows that the principles used in these two initiatives more or less cover the proposed requirements. Examples are given of how some of these requirements can be realised in practice using examples from ICF-2000.

Traditional curriculum development

There is a long tradition in curriculum development in higher education. The common approach is to make a list of topics from the discipline involved, ordered by increasing complexity. Didactic guidelines will then be added to specify how these topics should be taught to the students. The curriculum effort is driven by the content of the discipline and many curriculum discussions focus on how important specific topics are to the curriculum. In many cases these discussions are influenced by who is stakeholder in the topic. Education is there to serve society, to supply society with capable graduates for its workforce and to assure common values. This is what mass education for industrial society did when it started, in its overt and hidden curriculum. However, mass education today has become a complex system with high inertia. It is more involved with its own, internal problems than with what is happening in society. Thus you may find many curriculum developers taking more account of the needs of the educational system and its hierarchy than of the needs of society.
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Developments in society
We live in societies that are affected by the trend of globalisation, where English is becoming the world Esperanto and the job market is becoming global. Professionals may therefore be active in several different cultures and business settings. Our societies have a fast pace of change and innovation is a must. Knowledge as such has become a common commodity; access to knowledge and reproduction of that knowledge is becoming easier and easier. On the other hand development of knowledge has become a common activity of the new professional. Time to market is essential and therefore there is a need to develop new knowledge which is applied at once in innovative situations. Life Long Learning is nothing special, but a characteristic of professional life. Modern society has many problems that need a multi-disciplinary team approach. Professionals therefore work in such teams in which hierarchy is not of importance and respect is earned by achievement. The developments sketched above have repercussions for traditional education and curriculum development.

Requirements for curriculum development

Why and to what purpose is a curriculum developed? In modern society a first requirement for modern curriculum development is accountability: curriculum developers should be clear about the requirements the curriculum has to meet. A first requirement therefore is accountability. The following list of requirements may be constructed as a first refinement of this accountability. Why, for whom, what and how Why should the curriculum be developed? For whom is the curriculum primarily developed? What should the curriculum address? Requirements 0. Accountability 1. Meet demands of globalisation 2. Solve the need of society for professionals 3. Students developing their professional competences at 4. Specific competence levels 5. Application of knowledge 6. Core competences in the domain 7. Professional competences 8 Interdisciplinarity 9. With a didactic approach 10. Cost-effective 11. Flexible in implementation 12. Up to date and sustainable

How should the curriculum be realised?

Here the word `competence` is used with the broad interpretation that is common in the British tradition.

Informatics curriculum development in practice

TWO INFORMATICS CURRICULA

At the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) World Conference Computers in Education (WCCE2001) in Copenhaben two curriculum efforts were discussed: 1. Computing Curricula 2001, Steelman Draft (August 1, 2001), produced by the Joint Taskforce on Computing Curricula of IEEE Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2. Informatics Curriculum Framework 2000 (ICF-2000), produced by Technical Committee 3 of the International Federation for Information Processing on behalf of UNESCO. Both curriculum effort have been based on a set of principles which can be compared with the requirements for curriculum development as introduced above. Principles used to develop Computing Curricula 2001 The CC2001 Task Force has articulated the following principles to guide their work [1]: 1. Computing is a broad field that extends well beyond the boundaries of computer science. 2. Computer science draws its foundations from a wide variety of disciplines. 3. The rapid evolution of computer science requires an ongoing review of the corresponding curriculum. 4. Development of a computer science curriculum must be sensitive to changes in technology, new developments in pedagogy, and the importance of lifelong learning. 5. CC2001 must go beyond knowledge units to offer significant guidance in terms of individual course design. 6. CC2001 should seek to identify the fundamental skills and knowledge that all computing students must possess. 7. The required body of knowledge must be made as small as possible. 8. CC2001 must strive to be international in scope. 9. The development of CC2001 must be broadly based. 10. CC2001 must include professional practice as an integral component of the undergraduate curriculum. 11. CC2001 must include discussions of strategies and tactics for implementation along with high-level recommendations. Principles used to develop ICF2000 The set of principles used for the development of ICF2000 can be derived from the introduction of ICF-2000 [2] and the boundary conditions in the Guidelines for Authors [3]: 1. The curriculum framework is developed for implementation in different countries and different cultural and economic environments 2. Professional categories are to be identified for which the curriculum should provide education; these categories should take account of other disciplines 3. Graduate profiles are to be identified to cater for the educational needs of the professional categories in an efficient way; these profiles should take account of other disciplines 4. Graduate profiles should build one upon the other allowing for efficient and flexible implementation in different educational environments 5. Implementation of the curriculum should be possible within several resource situations 6. Curriculum units should address competences of students 7. Core informatics themes (competences) are to be identified and addressed in curriculum units; these themes should include personal and inter-personal skills 8. Levels of competence should be specified for graduate profiles and curriculum units 9. Learning approaches are to be specified for curriculum units

10. International curriculum sources should be used for building an actual curriculum assuring that the curriculum is State of the Art and easy to maintain, and also allowing for use of existing learning materials in many languages. REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS Comparison of the list of requirements with the principles used in the construction of Computing Curricula 2001 and Informatics Curriculum Framework 2000 produces the result shown below. The classification is not straightforward and is open to debate. Also the author is biased by his involvement in the development of ICF-2000. However, the comparison shows that the requirements identified in the beginning of this paper by and large are met in practical curriculum development for informatics.
Requirements 0. Accountability 1. Globalisation 2. Need of society for professionals 3. Student professional competences 4. Levels of competence 5. Application oriented, operational 6. Core competences in domain 7. Professional competences 8. Interdisciplinary 9. Didactic guidelines 10. Cost-effective education 11. Flexible implementation 12. Up to date and sustainable CC2001Principles Yes, there are principles 8 (9) (10) (10) 6 10 1, 2 5 7 11 3, 4 ICF-2000 Principles Yes, there are principles 1, 10 2 6, 7 8 6, 7 7 2, 6 2, 3 9 3,4 4, 5 10

A principle shown in parenthesis indicates that it might possibly include the requirement.

How to meet the requirements: example ICF-2000

As an illustration of how requirements for curriculum development can be met examples from the Informatics Curriculum Framework 2000 (ICF-2000) will be given. This curriculum framework was developed for UNESCO by IFIP Technical Committee 3 to specifically meet the needs of developing countries. REQUIREMENT 2 NEED OF SOCIETY FOR PROFESSIONALS ICF-2000 identifies the following categories of professionals [ICF-2000, chapter 4]: A Informatics Use (I-User) A1 Instrumental I-users Instrumental I-users use computer technology or software packages in their work. Examples can be found in word processing, using databases, making spreadsheets, preparing presentations, graphical drawing, communicating by email, retrieving information through internet, videoconferencing, etc. Informatics appliers (I-appliers) B1 Conceptual I-appliers

Conceptual I-appliers apply specific knowledge from the informatics domain or typical informatics skills in their own area that is increasingly infused by informatics. Examples are teachers who design computer supported education, chemists doing molecular modelling, computer artists, the media specialists applying internet technology, economists introducing electronic commerce, etc. B2 Interfacing I-appliers Interfacing I-appliers combine knowledge and skills from their own area or profession with informatics knowledge and skills, in an interfacing role linked to I-professionals. Examples are the business consultant advising in the development process of computer based information systems, the mechanical engineer participating in industrial automation projects, the sociologist supporting the introduction of large scale work computerisation, the ethicist advising on privacy matters, the lawyer collaborating on the formulation of software contracts, etc. B3 Researching I-appliers Researching I-appliers combine knowledge and skills from their own research areas with informatics knowledge and skills, in research efforts that connect and integrate informatics with other disciplines. In general such interdisciplinary research projects show fruitful collaborations with informatics researchers (see category C3) and are supposed to open up new horizons. Examples can be found in research on distance learning, human-computer interaction, cognition, computational science, telematics & multimedia, linguistics, information science, knowledge technology, logistics, etc. B4 Directing I-appliers Directing I-appliers are well equipped and skilled by a general understanding and broad overview of informatics, to play a policymaking, supervising or managing role in the areas of I-technology and I-applications. Examples are the project manager running a project in which new I-technologies are introduced into an organisation or in which a tailored I-application is being developed, the information (policy) manager supervising the contents of information processing within an organisation, the communication (policy) manager responsible for creating, updating and exploiting an internet site of substantial volume, the (I-oriented) manager of an I-department, etc. C Informatics workers (I-workers) C1 Operational I-workers Operational I-workers have a thorough understanding of and well-developed skills in informatics as a broad discipline, more specifically in the area of exploitation, control and maintenance of available I-technology and Iapplications. Clearly this category contains a large portion of lower level Iprofessionals, for example computer operators, network operators, application administrators, database administrators, helpdesk employees, etc. But also university-level I-professionals will be required in directing, supervising and managing roles with respect to this area (note that there may be overlap with category B4). C2 Engineering I-workers Engineering I-workers have a thorough understanding of and well-developed skills in informatics as a broad discipline, more specifically in the area of analysis, design and implementation of I-systems. Examples are the

information systems analyst, the software engineer, the knowledge engineer, the scientific programmer, the database developer, the IC designer, etc. C3 Researching I-workers Researching I-workers have a thorough understanding of and well-developed skills in informatics as a broad discipline, more specifically in research. They are supposed to further develop the I-discipline and its concepts, both on its own and in relation with other disciplines, in the latter case collaborating with researchers from category B3.

REQUIREMENT 6 CORE COMPETENCES IN THE DOMAIN ICF-2000 identifies the following core themes (competences) in the domain of informatics [ICF-2000, chapter 6]: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Representation of information Formalism in information processing Information modelling Algorithmics System design Software development Potentials and limitations of computing and related technologies It goes without saying that all informatics practitioners need a keen appreciation of the capabilities of the computing paradigm. They will be adding to those capabilities during the course of a career. In addition the whole person practitioner should be at least aware of limitations of the paradigm, from both theoretical and pragmatic points of view. Computer systems and architectures Computer-based communication Social and ethical implications Personal and interpersonal skills It has been stated that the era of the solo asocial programmer has come to an end. Through a maturing of the field, as well as the awesome complexity of the problems to be solved, effective teamwork has become crucial in the construction of the resulting extremely complex systems. Examples of skills required are: communication, team work, critical thinking, leadership, working with users, interdisciplinary environments, written specifications and documentation, dealing with ambiguity. Broader perspectives and context (includes links with other disciplines) Some knowledge and understanding may not be directly relevant to the design of an information system yet is still considered as core to informatics. This would be similar to an acknowledgement that a solid grounding in the liberal arts is core to any educated person. Examples of areas to be linked to are: history, philosophy, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, linguistics, scientific modelling.

8 9 10 11

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REQUIREMENT 10
COMPETENCE

COST-EFFECTIVE EDUCATION/ REQUIREMENT 4

LEVELS OF

To allow efficient education of all 8 professional categories ICF-2000 identifies the following 4 graduate profiles [ICF-2000, Section 5, Section 8]:
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1. 2. 3. 4.

BIP, Basic Instrumental I-Profile BCP, Basic Conceptual I-Profile MIP, MInor I-Profile MAP, MAjor I-Profile

Professional Category A1 B1 B2, B3, B4 C1, C2, C3

ICF-2000 [Section 9]; [Section 10]; [Section 11]; [Section 12].

The professional categories grouped in a graduate profile have characteristics that lead to differences within the graduate profiles. These differences are related to: The coverage of informatics core themes (see example of requirement 6); the coverage of the themes is a 'fingerprint' of the curriculum specification fitting a specific category of professionals The orientation in terms of goals and competencies to be reached. Orientations AW AWareness (know or use): Aiming at developing basic knowledge as well as skills that allow students to act basically literate with respect to informatics in general and to perform standard operations using computer technology or software packages; AP APplication: Aiming at developing a basic conceptual understanding of informatics and of some more advanced informatics skills which allow students to apply basic informatics to other disciplines or areas; DM Design and Modelling: Aiming at developing a general understanding and broad overview of informatics, especially with respect to the modelling and the design of informatics applications; CA Conceptualisation and Abstraction: Aiming at developing a thorough understanding of and well-developed skills in informatics as a broad discipline, the essence being to further develop the capability of students to abstract and to conceptualise. Example of a graduate profile curriculum specification from ICF-2000 Curriculum specification of BIP
Graduate I-profile Categories of professionals BIP A1 BASIC INSTRUMENTAL I-PROFILE Instrumental I-users credit points (total) 20 credit points (generic) 16 credit points (discipline specific) 4

Size of educational program Prerequisites

BIP none

Constituting units code title [--- generic ---] BIP-01 Context for informatics applications [1] BIP-02 Hands-on with software packages [1] BIP-03 Hands-on with software packages [2] BIP-04 Hands-on with networking [1]

size [cp] 3-5 3-5 3-5 3-5

orien- -------------------- themes -------------------tation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 AW AW AW AW x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

[--- discipline(X) specific --- X may be I ---] BIP/X-01 Operating software in area X [1] Total size & theme fingerprint
1 credit point (cp) = 1 day of study

4 20

AW AW 4 3 2 1

x x

5 3 2 1 4 2

FLEXIBLE IMPLEMENTATION Flexible implementation of ICF-2000 is made possible in differing educational environments and resource situations because the 4 graduate profiles build one upon the other and [ICF2000, Section 0]:

REQUIREMENT 11

Educational environment The educational institution offers a Minor or Major in another discipline than informatics, but including: BASIC INSTRUMENTAL I-PROFILE (BIP) [ICF-2000, Section 9] The institution offers no Minor or Major programme in informatics The educational institution offers a Minor or Major in other discipline than informatics including: BASIC INSTRUMENTAL I-PROFILE (BIP) [ICF-2000, Section 9] BASIC CONCEPTUAL I-PROFILE (BCP) [ICF-2000, Section 10] The institution offers no Minor or Major programme in informatics The educational institution specialises in informatics and has an informatics department that offers a Minor programme in informatics: MINOR I-PROFILE (MIP) [ICF-2000, Section 11] The institution offers no Major programme in informatics The educational institution specialises in informatics and has an informatics department that offers both a Minor and a Major programme in informatics: MINOR I-PROFILE (MIP) [ICF-2000, Section 11] MAJOR I-PROFILE (MAP) [ICF-2000, Section 12]

Available technical and human resources There is some, not very advanced, hardware and software Several staff members have pioneered in using computers No staff has graduated in informatics There is some, not very advanced, hardware and software Several staff members have a Minor in informatics

There is more hardware and software of good quality There is an ICT-support centre At least some staff members in the informatics department have a Major in informatics

There is a good quantity of hardware and software of good quality There is an ICT-support centre Most staff members in the informatics department have a Major in informatics; the other staff members in the department have a Minor in informatics

How to find CC2001 and ICF-2000

The Steelman Draft of Computing Curricula 2001 can be found at: www.acm.org The full ICF-2000 document is posted on the IFIP web site: http://www.ifip.or.at/

The current location can be accessed by clicking on 'announcements' and then on 'projects' Direct access is possible at: http://www.ifip.or.at/pdf/ICF2001.pdf.

References
1. Computing Curricula 2001, Steelman Draft (August 1, 2001), The Joint Taskforce on Computing Curricula, IEEE Computer Society & Association for Computing Machinery, IEEE CS/ACM, 2001. Mulder, F., van Weert, T.J. (2000) Informatics Curriculum Framework 2000 for higher education [ICF-2000], Paris, UNESCO. Weert, T. J. van (2000) Guidelines for Authors, Informatics Curriculum Framework 2000 for higher education [ICF-2000], Paris, UNESCO. Mulder, F., van Weert, T.J. [eds] (1998) Informatics in higher education: Views on informatics and noninformatics curricula, Proceedings of the IFIP/WG3.2 Working Conference on Informatics (computer science) as a discipline and in other disciplines: what is in common?. London, Chapman & Hall.

2. 3. 4.