Building a Business Analytics Program DOL TAACCT Round 2 Grantee Walter Martin, Dean, Business and Public Services Technologies Division Tanya Scott, Director Business Analytics Associate Dean, Business and Public Services Technologies Division

A little about us- Wake Technical CC Located in Raleigh, NC Largest community college in the state Approximately 70,000 students; approximately 30,000 curriculum students Business and Public Services Technologies Division is the largest division under Career Programs, projected to fill 12,000 seats Fall 2015. One of 5 schools in the Completion by Design NC Cadre (includes: Guilford Tech CC, Central Piedmont CC, Davidson CC, and Martin CC)

AAS Business Analytics DOLTAA funded; received grant in October 2012; end of the third year of a 4 year grant. FOCUS: employability in analytics fields First and only (still) AAS Degree in Business Analytics in the country Official Launch Fall 2013; just ended second year of the two-year program

Student population Vast majority of students have undergraduate and graduate course work completed and are employed. Looking for upward mobility or career transition. Only 8 students from High School or GRE. Average age of students is 39 (range 18-61). Small majority of women. Career transition or upgrading skills. Some taking courses for ‘fun’.

Initial Challenges No other AAS program or the like to benchmark: Traditionally offered at the graduate level Traditionally statistics and/or IT-Database tracked Employability in a field that typically hires individuals with at least a Bachelor degree, usually a graduate degree Program is open enrollment and requires little to no prerequisites (developmental math and English). Online/hybrid most popular. Accelerated online most popular. Difficult to find qualified faculty (at our salary range). Lack of industry consensus “what is analytics”

Strategies Year 1 held a DACUM with industry representatives to identify competencies (which led to other challenges) Industry partnerships (SAS and other industries) Networking and attending specialty group meetings Student-centric program hosted events Internships and adopting real-world projects Focus on problem solving and application versus theory Boot camps and other resources Accelerated program/certificates Structured pathways Latticed credentials Industry certifications

Structured Pathways Clear program structure with a balance between flexible and prescriptive options Provide timeline and sequence that keeps students on track to completion Align courses with transfer and articulation options Encourage degree and credential declaration early Limit elective choices More is not better: Too many options actually creates confusion and hinders goal attainment (completion) for students. Especially true for at risk, non-traditional students: Difficulty in identifying educational and career goals Not sure how to select appropriate classes or programs to attain goals Provide clear instructional programs so that students can complete a program as quickly as possible. Increasing program alignment with employment and transfer opportunities. Structure benefits: Help to guide more students to enroll in general education courses that count toward a wide range of associate degrees as well as transfer requirements. Vocational degree programs should be aligned to transfer requirements so that more students would have the option of pursuing a bachelor’s degree if they decide to do so. Lead students to commit to an instructional program relatively quickly and complete that program efficiently. Balance between flexibility and prescription in student selection of courses and majors: -encourage students to select a program of study and provide them with clearly specified course sequences with limited electives. This implies that encouraging or even requiring students to declare a major may help them overcome the tendency to procrastinate. Limited number of general education courses that count toward several majors. Having clear course and program requirements, course sequences and availability, electives, and career or transfer opportunities. This likely includes making information about the programs clearer and easily accessible to students. Part of the process: Accreditation is driving better defined learning outcomes, better curriculum alignment across departments. Development of student pathways appear to be spurring changes in curriculum within programs. Faculty working together on learning outcomes and reviewing courses can make the courses fresh and creative. Ensure that programs are aligned with labor-market and/or transfer requirements. In relation to labor-market requirements, many colleges provide information to students about occupations or jobs that are associated with each instructional program and that are generally available locally. Faculty in each program may need to compare the skills provided in their program with the skills required by these jobs, and make adjustments when needed. (EXAMPLE: BUSINESS ANALYTICS DACUM) One of the central challenges in creating more structured pathways for students involves finding a balance between creating structure in course-taking and program selection and allowing flexibility for exploration. Currently the status quo in most community colleges allows for widespread flexibility in taking courses without providing structured guidance to support student decision-making in entering a program and achieving a degree. Need to take the lead in developing curriculum maps for each program and in deciding how the courses required for specific programs flow from broad streams of core requirements. (current college-wide initiative to develop curriculum maps, identify PLOs, SLOs, and Core Competency assessment)

Prescribed Electives Each set of electives is tailored for student potential areas within Business Analytics such as: Marketing Finance Web Technologies Logistics

Successes First AAS degree student graduated May 2015, two more in Spring 2015 75 students have completed certificates Enrollment grows every semester: Fall 2013 headcount: 78 Fall 2014 headcount: 178 Fall 2015 headcount: 186+ 255 students have declared the associate degree Six students have passed the SAS Base Programmer Certification after completing the Business Intelligence Certificate; 100% pass rate Accelerated program highly successful with the most enrollment

Looking to the Future Discipline specific focuses Dual-majors Customized training for industry- Supply Chain and Distribution Articulation Curriculum revision and expansion Standardization with other new programs Ever changing industry needs/obsolescence Recruiting more faculty to meet program growth (from 1 full time faculty to 3FT + 3-4 adjuncts) Providing consultation/services to small/medium businesses

Contact us Walter Martin wmartin@waketech.edu 919-866-5385 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/walter- martin/14/779/687 Tanya Scott tescott1@waketech.edu 919-866-7106 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyaescott

References Dietrich, S. & Forbes, T. (2013). Presentation: Progress Toward Retention Success and Completion. Wake Technical Community College. Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. (2012). Pathways to Success. http://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/acsfa/ptsreport2.pdf Completion by Design. (2013). Providing Structured Pathways to Guide Students Towards Completion. http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/resource1280.pdf CCRC. (2012). Structure in Community College Career-Technical Programs: A Qualitative Analysis. http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/media/k2/attachments/structure- career-technical-programs.pdf

“This workforce solution was funded by a grant awarded by the U. S “This workforce solution was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. The solution was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership.” Except where otherwise stated, this work by Wake Technical Community College Building Capacity in Business Analytics, a Department of Labor, TAACCCT funded project, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/