What’s In and What’s Out: Defining an Industry-Aligned IS Curriculum Using Job Advertisements

Abstract

Information Systems (IS) curricula need to provide students with skills that match industry requirements. This study examined online Information Technology (IT) job advertisements, compared them to the IS 2010 Model Curriculum, and recommended nine courses for an IS curriculum. The study found that programmer, network administrator, and database administrator were the top three jobs and that programming, database, and design were the top three qualification types. The data does not support 41% of the career tracks, nor 28% of the courses, in the IS 2010 Model Curriculum. The nine recommended courses deliver 76% of the qualifications suggested by the data.