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Proposal for the Creation of a New Bachelor of Science Degree

IT INNOVATION

"Symphonic thinking is the signature ability of composers and conductors, whose jobs involve corralling a diverse group of notes, instruments, and performers producing a unified and pleasing sound. Entrepreneurs and inventors have long relied on this ability. But today, Symphony is becoming an essential aptitude for a much wider swath of the population."

Author Daniel H. Pink

"A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age"

Goals - looking ahead five years: There are 100 students majoring in IT Innovation. The first class of seniors graduates this year. Sustainable corporate funding covers tuition for 5 students for each year, i.e., Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior. All scholarships are open competition each academic year. That means that if a student is awarded a scholarship for one year they might not keep it for four years. They will again compete with other students for the next year. One-quarter of the graduates are starting their own businesses, one-quarter are starting a PhD. Program, one-quarter are starting the MSc. Program in IT Innovation, and one-quarter are accepting job opportunities. Ninety five percent of the major's work as summer interns primarily in the Silicon Valley, California, Austin, Texas and with startups associated with campuses of Monterrey Tech in Mexico.

This paper is a condensed version of a full proposal prepared for the University of Nebraska, Omaha. I developed the degree concept, prepared the proposal and took it through the process for approvals including presentation to all college Deans and their faculties. It is planned to be presented to the Board of Regents for final approval during the April, 2009 meeting.

The rapidly-changing face of Information Technology (IT) presents a compelling and immediate need for a new kind of IT degree. Current graduates are often the product of rigid degree programs that do not produce the type of flexible, "symphonic-thinking" graduates needed to become tomorrow's IT leaders and creators.

Features of the New Degree

The factors that identify the new degree as being unique are the following:

• An Information Technology core including such as Computer Science and Management Information Systems.
• Students select 33 credit hours from any discipline of their choice(s) in support of their practice specialty.
• Students take a two semester entrepreneur capstone course where they invent and prototype a new IT product or service and carry it through to technical and market feasibility.
• Few or no new courses accept for the Capstone Course.
• Increased numbers of students with existing resources.
• The budget requirement is for a Director and administrative assistant.
• There is an attractive bridge to a 5 year program for a Masters Degree in IT Innovation.
• There is opportunity for collaboration with international centers for entrepreneurship.

Description and Purpose of the Proposed Program

Today's young people look not in one direction but in every direction. Technology has allowed them to become aware well beyond their immediate environment. They have access to information and ideas once deemed to be science fiction. They utilize the Internet for entertainment and as a learning tool. "Googling" is an accepted, immediate and useful research vehicle. Young people rely upon the Internet to support the traditional, classroom-based educational system. They have a thirst for the latest technologies. They want the most powerful iPod or the coolest phone and video game console. They want to be able to instantly text or send photos to their friends at any hour of the day. They want the freedom, independence, knowledge and opportunity technology provides.

Likewise, today's college-bound students have an informed perspective of their goals and educational needs. They want to be involved in designing a multidisciplinary curriculum to meet their career goals and match real-world computing opportunities. This new degree program in IT Innovation would allow them to "Design Their Own Destiny."

Whether their career goals are related to practice specialties such as music, art, business, education, foreign languages, anthropology, communication or other fields, the proposed IT Innovation degree program will offer students the unique opportunity to obtain a bachelor's degree with an IT core and the flexibility to nurture their own interests by selecting credit hours in a "Practice Specialty" of their choice. No such program exists elsewhere.

Interdisciplinary practice specialties could include but are not limited to management, marketing, finance, accounting, economics, mathematics, psychology, aviation, communication, fine arts, technical writing, graphic design, engineering and geography. Students will create a combined oral, visual and written proposal detailing their practice specialty, course selections, and their reasoning behind their course selections and defend their proposals before an approval committee.

The proposed degree program allows students to have freedom and independence - tempered by responsibility and guidance from faculty and advisors from across the University campus and from throughout the community - in choosing their college program. The new degree will attract new students, increase enrollments and better align the current curriculum with student career goals.

A bachelor's degree in IT Innovation will be unique among degree programs in the nation. This multidisciplinary program will better serve students and will enhance the University's reputation and ability to recruit high-caliber students from across the state, the nation and the world.

A state wide advisory committee - consisting of 25 people including faculty from participating UNO Colleges and departments, IT leaders from other Universities, IT practitioners, community leaders, business leaders and elected state officials - will be created to contribute to the overall guidance of the program. The advisory committee would meet twice yearly. They would take active roles in a data-driven process to measure the program's success, recommend new courses and changes to existing courses, and maintain connectivity within the academic community. Because of its statewide nature, the members of the advisory committee will serve within their own cities and regions as "ambassadors", sparking interest and helping to recruit the best and brightest new students.

The benefits of the proposed degree program are many. The program provides flexibility for curriculum to accommodate the rapidly changing technology environment. It offers a way for existing campus wide departments to become more integrated. It affords a means to simply "plug in" changing student interests and thus significantly reduces the need to add new degrees. It will produce a more career-specific graduate, one who is better prepared to deliver application-based solutions tailored to particular businesses or environments. And it will require faculty, advisors and mentors to spend more time working with students - because it is not your everyday cookie-cutter degree - which will open the door to new students, expanded frontiers and valuable discoveries.

An important benefit for the state is that the new degree is a grass roots initiative that is an addition to the entrepreneurial community in the state.

Program of Study

The new degree combines an IT core, a general education component and the opportunity for students to choose 33 credit hours in a practice specialty specific to their career interests and goals. This interdisciplinary element differs from the traditional concept of a concentration, track or minor where the courses are somewhat restricted and predetermined for all students.

The total number of credit hours is 127. The summary specifics are as follows:

• Thirty two (32) credit hours from natural & physical science, humanities and fine arts, social and behavioral science, and cultural diversity.
• Nine (9) credit hours of English.
• Eight (8) credit hours of mathematics.
• Three (3) credit hours of public speaking.
• Thirty six (36) credit hours of IT.
• Thirty three (33) credit hours in a practice specialty.
• Six (6) credit hours for the Capstone entrepreneur course.

Below are a few example practice specialties. The student has flexibility to choose whatever courses they want and from wherever they want. Approval is based upon the student convincing the approval committee that the choices are well thought out by the student and are aligned with their career goals.

• Electronic Imaging & Media Arts
• Technical Communications
• Graphic Communication Arts and Design
• Public Administration
• Aviation
• Fine Arts
• Music
• Foreign Languages
• Psychology
• Communication
• Criminal Justice

The proposed degree program will tap into the creative, innovative spirit so prevalent in today's young people by requiring a six-credit-hour capstone course during the last two semesters of a student's program. In the course, students will research and carry through to prototype stage an IT product or service from their original idea(s).

In the capstone course, students will partner with mentors. Mentors will be drawn from the business community. These mentoring relationships will provide the students real-world advice and experience. This will develop the master practitioners, consultants, entrepreneurs and "intrapreneurs" - innovators and entrepreneurs within larger corporations - deemed so valuable by today's corporate visionaries.

Creating an Entrepreneurial Awareness and Spirit

IT Innovation majors need to become entrepreneurially aware well before the Capstone course.

This will be achieved in a number of ways. One way is to attend the breakfast seminars I organize and are held at Gallup. This is covered in another briefing paper on this web site.

Another way is a summer internship program whereby students spend summers working with startup companies in technology startups. Examples are relationships with the PlugandPlayTechCenter.com in the Silicon Valley; TechBA- Austin in Austin, Texas; and Tecnologico de Monterrey in Monterrey Mexico and their other campuses throughout Mexico. I also have other entrepreneurial alternatives in the Northern California that will be excellent candidates to employ our students as summer interns.

Enrollment Projections

By the completion of the first year, the IT Innovation degree program is expected to have 15 students enrolled as majors. Another 25 will enroll in following fall semester. This results in close to 100 total students by the time of the first graduating class.

An active recruiting campaign will be utilized to reach and possibly surpass these enrollment projections. This includes on-site visits to state high schools. The visits would invite high school students, school faculty and local business people. An electronic brochure will be produced and used in mass mailings to high school advisors and students. A Web site for the degree program will be developed that appeals to young people.

Other universities are taking notice of students' evolving interests. Georgia Tech University has developed a "Threads" program to offer students a limited ability to personalize a computer science degree by selecting a concentration from among eight pre-set course options. It has had a distinct impact on enrollment, as Georgia Tech's incoming freshman class is up 33 percent. While the Georgia Tech program is similar in spirit, it differs greatly in the ultimate implementation of the proposed IT Innovation degree, its practice specialty and its capstone course.

Collaborations within the University

The multidisciplinary nature of the degree will involve departments throughout the University campus even beyond participation in the program's governance and providing courses. The colleges would be responsible for providing "adjunct advisors" to the individual students reflective of their interests. The adjunct advisors will meet with students in the new degree program in order to provide more information about specific courses. As the students prepare their course study proposals, the colleges would afford direct sources of information and encouragement. After a student's proposal is approved, the colleges would remain involved by answering student questions, providing advice and assisting with course revisions up to graduation.

Centrality to Economic Growth

The unique combination of flexibility and real-world opportunities will attract students from within the state as well as outside its borders, and it will yield technologically-savvy innovators, entrepreneurs and builders who can contribute greatly to the economic growth of the state and region.

Enhancing Statewide Goals for Education

One of the predominant goals of Postsecondary Education is to make certain that graduates can both contribute and succeed in a highly technological world. The proposed IT Innovation program strengthens that goal by producing not only highly-skilled graduates but also people who have the ability and proven record of assuming responsibility for their own decisions. Each graduate will have applied significant thought to the program's decision-making process and will complete their study with an accurate idea of what it takes to achieve success, as an individual and as part of a global community.

Partnering the students and the University with the business community in this process will yield graduates who are more fully prepared to enter the real-world, no matter whether they choose private industry, higher education, government or social services, or medical or scientific endeavor and research. These graduates, on their own, will be a source of new businesses for the state as they flex their entrepreneurial muscle in a market that welcomes spirit and vision.

The capstone course, which is in effect a research project of its own as it will not have been done before, will afford the opportunity to develop conference papers, published articles and presentations detailing the development and implementation of this ground-breaking new degree.