1. 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

2. 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
One of 5 schools in the Completion by Design NC Cadre (includes: Guilford Tech CC, Central Piedmont CC, Davidson CC, and Martin CC)

3. 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

4. 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’.

5. 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”

6. 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

7. 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)

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

10. 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

11. 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 adjuncts)
Providing consultation/services to small/medium businesses

12. Contact us
Walter Martin Linkedin: martin/14/779/687 Tanya Scott Linkedin:

13. 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.
Completion by Design. (2013). Providing Structured Pathways to Guide Students Towards Completion.
CCRC. (2012). Structure in Community College Career-Technical Programs: A Qualitative Analysis. career-technical-programs.pdf

14. “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