Juniata CollegeISECON An Information Technology Program for a Small Liberal Arts College: An Interdisciplinary Approach Loren K. Rhodes Michael L. Frandsen, Dennis L. Johnson, Donna S. Weimer, David J. Fusco Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA

Juniata CollegeISECON Juniata College 4 year liberal arts college, central Pennsylvania 1300 students, mostly residential Program of Emphasis (major) students encouraged to design own POE often interdisciplinary programs, double majors 50-60% individualize their POE’s 2 advisors approve

Juniata CollegeISECON Juniata College Regionally known for sciences: pre- medicine, biology and chemistry Education Computer Science since an alumni couple gave multi- million dollar endowment for an IT program

Juniata CollegeISECON Donor’s Vision for IT scholarship: leveraging communication and problem solving skills with IT courses internship: engage industry experience leadership: management skills entrepreneurship: build a technology product and successfully market it interdisciplinary: a collaboration among existing departments

Juniata CollegeISECON Design Process Pre-existing programs: Mathematics/Computer Science (Nat. Sci.) Accounting/Business/Economics (Soc. Sci.) English/Communications (Humanities) IT program was developed from on- campus committee from these departments External Advisory board was established

Juniata CollegeISECON Departmental Cooperation Information Technology Computer Science Math Business Accounting Economics Communication English Theatre Arts

Juniata CollegeISECON Advisory Board Development of the program Internship placements, on-site projects, equipment Membership (<20) alumni, big and local business, government AT&T, Nortel, Lucent, Microsoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Datatel, Eclipsys, Penn State IST, Fairfax County VA

Juniata CollegeISECON Curriculum Goals CS fundamentals, software development, database, network Communication skills, oral presentation and technical writing Business fundamentals, management, entrepreneurship Experiential - student teams working on industry projects for 3 semesters + internships Change management

Juniata CollegeISECON IT courses Principles of IT First course Web based, using WebCT or Angel Business, Communication and CS courses Innovations for Industry capstone sequence Three semesters, junior and senior years Team projects

Juniata CollegeISECON Computer Science CS 1 and CS 2 Software Design (Engineering) Networking Web Design Discrete Structures

Juniata CollegeISECON Business and Communication The Management Process Behavior Analysis of Organizations Business Strategies Art of Public Speaking Professional Presentations Technical Writing

Juniata CollegeISECON Challenge students with the past, present, future analysis of technology’s impact on society Can we predict new technologies? Can we anticipate their consequences? What is progress? How do we prepare for change?

Juniata CollegeISECON Innovations for Industry(I-4-I) The hallmark of our program A required, three semester experiential learning opportunity Places teams of students in organizations to identify and understand problems, and recommend and apply IT solutions

Juniata CollegeISECON I-4-I Goals To provide students with real-world experience in the needed technical, business and communications skills to function as members of an IT project team To provide service to partnering organizations To obtain real-world feedback for students and faculty

Juniata CollegeISECON I-4-I Process Combination of classroom, on campus, and in the field activities Emphasis on project management, flexibility, communication, team work, and problem solving Teams of 3-4 students Faculty sponsor for each team Evaluation by client, faculty, peers

Juniata CollegeISECON I-4-I Organization Three courses IT 300, IT 380, IT 480 All meet together Exception is IT 300 Focus on project management 5-Phase Project Management…,Weiss/Wysocki Case studies Teams are a cross section of the 3 levels

Juniata CollegeISECON I-4-I Technologies Project management Networking Web Development Handheld OS ASP Use cases XP Database/SQL Java C++ Visual Basic XML Linux

Juniata CollegeISECON I-4-I Student Comments "Maybe I learned more [in this class] than I learned in all the [other] classes I have taken.” "I don’t know how to describe to you how much I have learned in the last semester through words. My actions speak for themselves. I have grown because of this course and I feel that I will continue to grow in the semesters to come."

Juniata CollegeISECON I-4-I Client Comments "I do think that this was a great learning experience demonstrating the dynamic environment that they will have to operate in…. They reacted extremely well to these changes…. Based on the barriers they faced, they exceeded our expectations.” "I wanted to let you know your database has been tested and is now up and running …. You did a great job on meeting our requirements for the ASP. The people who have been through the training so far have been impressed. Thanks for the great work."

Juniata CollegeISECON Areas of Concentration Students choose three courses in various areas of application Digital Media Entrepreneurial Studies Communication Media Computer Science Business Individualized

Juniata CollegeISECON Integration of IT campus wide The application of IT naturally integrates into other disciplines Criminal Justice Biology (Bioinformatics) Environmental Science Education Psychology Political Science

Juniata CollegeISECON Staffing All current and planned IT faculty are joint appointments 2 Business / IT 2 Computer Science / IT Communication / IT 2 Environmental Science / IT Network Services Director / IT

Juniata CollegeISECON Facilities Faculty representing 3+ departments Teaching/Learning Technology Center Computer/Network Services Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Currently scattered across campus In 2004 all IT-related departments will be housed in one facility

Juniata CollegeISECON Summary Interdisciplinary Experiential Teamwork, project management Access to technologies Educational technology