Computing educators strive to align curricula with workforce needs yet rarely articulate how professional competencies, behaviors, and responsibilities develop across different educational pathways. As the community moves beyond the 2027 curriculum revision cycle, bridge pathways spanning vocational, undergraduate, graduate, and non-computing entry routes are rapidly expanding. At the same time, widespread AI use requires curricula to more explicitly address professional judgment, accountability, and ethical reasoning, in addition to technical skills. This working group brings participants together to map, compare, and synthesize real curriculum and pathway artifacts using shared academic and workforce frameworks. Participants will build a competency-oriented pathway framework, identify recurring bridge pathway designs and gaps, and produce practical, post-2027 guidance that supports coherent, scalable, and internationally transferable computing curricula.

Professional dispositions are important in numerous fields, including computing. However, strategies to promote dispositions are not yet well understood. In this experience report, we share what students suggest to promote five dispositions: being collaborative, meticulous, persistent, responsive, and self-directed. To get a broad perspective of students' voices, we gathered feedback over two terms in four courses at three institutions.

Dispositions are valued by employers and promoted by recent computing curricular recommendations. Yet, fostering and assessing dispositions are not well understood. In a multi-institutional study, students were asked to assess their dispositions in terms of behaviors that were identified in prior literature for those dispositions, both at the start and the end of a term. During the term, instruments were used to have students reflect on their dispositions. The research questions of the study are: 1) Do students associate behaviors with the dispositions for which they were identified in prior work? 2) Does reflecting on dispositions change how students assess themselves in terms of the behaviors? and 3) Is there a difference between introductory and upper-level students in how they assess themselves in terms of the behaviors? The findings of the study are that 1) at least 60% of the students associated the behavior statements with the dispositions for which they were identified; 2) students lowered their self-assessment of some behaviors after reflecting on dispositions; and 3) upper-level students assessed themselves more positively on some behaviors than introductory students. These results support a model of development of dispositions in which self-assessment of behaviors associated with dispositions improves with academic level, but at each level, gets revised lower after reflection.

The academic preparation of computing graduates ready for successful long-term careers remains challenging due to a variety of factors, with most universities still unable to incorporate competencies into their education. Competencies refer to the knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions expected from these graduates during task performance. This panel presents three different perspectives on how work experiences may be incorporated into the program curriculum to develop the needed competencies.

Lifelong learning is essential in computing, given the dynamic nature of the field. Employers and curricular reviewers recognize the value of being self-directed in support of becoming a lifelong learner. The ACM/IEEE-CS Computing Curricula 2020 report identifies self-directed as having elements of self-motivation, determination, and independence. Little is known, however, about how to cultivate this disposition in computing courses. The motivation of this study is to better understand what behaviors computing students believe are self-directed. This study's research questions are: 1) What do students describe as their self-directed practices in computing? and 2) What do students report are factors that prevent them from being self-directed? Assignments in five undergraduate computing courses from four institutions included prompts to elicit student's reflections on how they were self-directed (or not). Thematic content analysis using the constant comparative method produced eight categories of self-directed behaviors (utilizing external resources, learning necessary material, working independently, assessing oneself, planning ahead, applying useful techniques, completing the assigned work, and reviewing against expectations). Thematic analysis also resulted in five categories of factors that impeded the self-directed behavior (assignment structure, unsuccessful effort, self-sufficiency, insufficient motivation, and insufficient time). Understanding how students describe self-directedness can help educators design pedagogical and assessment approaches that facilitate self-directed student behaviors in the classroom.

A growing number of institutions choose to apply for and maintain ABET accreditation to distinguish their computing programs in terms of curriculum, academic rigor, and overall quality. Such programs need to track ABET accreditation criteria changes to ensure their programs remain continually compliant.

This work-in-progress research paper shares the findings of a survey of computing professionals regarding the importance of various dispositions on the job. Survey findings from recent graduates also include their perception of how well each disposition was covered in their undergraduate courses. Dispositions are beliefs, attitudes, or values, such as being ethical, being persistent, and valuing collaboration. Dispositions impact whether individuals will apply their knowledge and skills appropriately in any given situation. There is increasing recognition of the importance of dispositions in the realm of computing education, as evidenced by recent computing curricular guidelines (e.g., IT2017 and CC2020). However, few existing studies of professionals explicitly discriminate between dispositions and other types of competencies (e.g., cross-disciplinary or “soft” skills). Furthermore, little research has been focused on the degree to which professionals believe that dispositions have been adequately covered by computing education in the United States. This study will present the findings of a survey of computing professionals, utilizing items based on on a list of 30 dispositions derived from earlier studies. It will present practitioners' perceptions of the importance of each of the 30 dispositions and will also present the satisfaction recent graduates (who have graduated with an undergraduate degree within the last 5 years) have with the coverage of these dispositions during their undergraduate experience. Findings of this paper may reveal not only of the importance of dispositions in general, but which dispositions are most important, and which are most or least covered in current educational programs. The research team recommends that higher education administrators, curriculum designers and individual faculty members use the data-informed disposition list, in conjunction with college/university and departmental vision and values, to select a small number of dispositions to purposefully incorporate across their program. Findings may also be of interest to curricular guideline committees and scholars interested in dispositions, competency-based education, character education, or virtue ethics.

This full research paper contributes to current work on fostering professional dispositions in computing and engineering education by identifying the categories of behaviors that students associate with dispositions while doing course work. Professional dispositions, demonstrated through desirable behaviors in the workplace, such as being persistent or self-directed, are explicitly sought by employers. Fostering dispositions among students has been identified in various curricular recommendations as an important goal. In prior work, the authors used reflection exercises, in which students were presented with the definition of a disposition and asked to answer an open-ended reflection prompt on how they applied the disposition in their own work. Thematic analysis of student responses to reflection exercises resulted in categories of behaviors that students associated with dispositions. In the work discussed in this paper, the authors used vignette exercises to collect and analyze similar data and gain further insight into behavioral categories and students' perceptions of dispositions. Vignettes include short scenarios that demonstrate the application of dispositions in real life. A vignette exercise involves students reading a vignette scenario, identifying the disposition demonstrated by the scenario, and answering the same open-ended reflection prompt as in the reflection exercises from the earlier studies. The research question for this study is: Which behavioral categories obtained from analyzing student responses to reflection exercises were confirmed using vignette exercises (and which were not confirmed), and which behavioral categories were refined? To answer this question, researchers from four different institutions of higher education collected data in multiple courses over two semesters. The student open-ended responses to vignettes were thematically analyzed to identify behavioral categories for four dispositions: collaborative, meticulous, persistent and self-directed. The ultimate goal of this work is to create classroom inter-ventions and learning activities that foster dispositions among students based on behavioral categories. This study supports this goal in two ways. It provides another iteration of behavioral category analysis and introduces vignettes to encourage students to reflect candidly and communicate clearly how they apply dispositions in terms of behaviors. The study results and their implications for fostering dispositions in a classroom setting are presented and discussed.

Dispositions, skills, and knowledge form the three components of competency-based education. Moreover, dispositions are considered crucial for students to succeed in the workplace. Few studies investigate how dispositions manifest in the form of observable behaviors, which causes challenges for both students and educators. Computing students, for example, may not understand what is expected of them, and how to achieve dispositions. This paper presents the results of a qualitative, multi-institutional study on students' understanding of the dispositions adaptable, persistent, self-directed, meticulous, and professional. Perceptions were gathered by asking for exemplary situations of students applying each of the five dispositions in the context of assignments within computing courses. Students who indicated they did not apply the disposition were asked to describe the hindering circumstances. The data was evaluated by using Mayring's content analysis technique, resulting in the development of deductive-inductive categories of observable behaviors reflecting the student's perspective. For meticulous and professional, new categories representing observable behaviors were developed. For adaptable, persistent, and self-directed, the authors confirmed and extended prior work. Moreover, factors hindering students in applying the investigated dispositions are identified. The resulting categories with observable student behaviors are an important step toward the operationalization of competency-based learning outcomes including dispositions. A common understanding of dispositions will also help with the design of new forms of instruction and measures to foster the application of dispositions in the context of computing education.

Competencies are knowledge, skills, and dispositions that enable professionals to successfully perform a goal-oriented task. A traditional education model focuses primarily on presenting and assessing knowledge, with student performance represented by grades. The Competency-Based Education (CBE) model focuses on each student developing and demonstrating knowledge, skills, and dispositions. This implies a difference in the approach towards curriculum (content), pedagogy (teaching methods), and assessment. This workshop will introduce basic concepts of competencies and CBE. We will present a competency list derived from research on computing professionals' experiences. Participants will develop a spiral curriculum and (re)design a course to purposefully integrate cross-disciplinary skills (e.g., communication) and dispositions (e.g., perseverance), along with computing skills. Takeaways will include: (1) an understanding of what competencies and CBE are, and what pedagogical and assessment approaches may align with CBE; (2) a document that integrates competencies across a spiral curriculum; and (3) a plan for (re)designing one of their courses. Collaborative ideation will be used to help generate ideas for each participant's unique context and goals. Higher education faculty/instructors and administrators who would like to learn more about competencies and apply CBE practices to their own program/course will find the most benefit from this workshop. Multiple people from the same program are encouraged to attend, allowing them to consider how they can plan for integrating competencies across their program-level curriculum. Please bring internet-enabled laptops/comparably sized devices, choose a course to (re)design, and have access to relevant course materials.

This special session proposal provides participants with hands-on experience in finding and making explicit the dispositional aspects of active learning. Many faculty develop interactive, active learning experiences to better support student learning; an oft-cited rational includes the notion that students will be ‘better prepared’ or more ready to go into industry. Course learning goals framed on the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy or other cognitive learning frameworks often fall short of capturing the breadth of learning and the full learning goals intended. This difference is an example of what is often termed a ‘hidden curriculum.’ Participants should bring to the session a syllabus for a course they teach which includes some aspect of competency development. We especially welcome participants who currently use project-based or other active-learning approaches in their courses.

Vignettes are short stories along with a set of questions that engage the reader to comment on the story. Vignettes have been used in professional academic programs (e.g., teacher preparation and medical education), for professional development in various fields (e.g., teaching ethics in psychology and medicine), and in various research fields for data collection. In this work, vignettes are used to elicit students' understanding of dispositions in computing education. Professional dispositions enable behaviors that are valued in the workplace, such as adaptability or self-directedness. They are often explicitly stated in computing job postings. While the relevance of dispositions is widely recognized in the workplace, only recently have curricular guidelines for computing programs recognized professional dispositions as an integral part of competencies and as complementary to knowledge and skills. There is scarce literature on the use of vignettes in teaching undergraduate computing, or on how best to foster dispositions in students. In this project, four faculty from four diverse institutions in the U.S., along with three consulting experts, have collaborated to design and evaluate the use of vignettes in the classroom. This paper documents researchers' efforts to gain insights into students' perceptions of dispositions through the use of vignettes. Such insights may guide educators to identify pedagogical strategies for fostering dispositions among students. This paper presents an iterative process for vignette design with continuous review by researchers and focus group members. The vignettes in this study use stories of situations which demonstrate the application of a disposition, drawn from various fields and walks of life to represent diverse groups and experiences. Students are presented with the vignette story and asked to identify the disposition illustrated. To elicit students' understanding of dispositions in terms of their personal behaviors, students are asked to describe a situation in which they have experienced the disposition. Lessons learned in the design and use of vignettes are discussed.

This paper explores Computing and Engineering (C&E) educators' perceptions about dispositions and investigates their readiness to integrate dispositions into their teaching. Dispositions are the underlying beliefs, attitudes, and values that influence how individuals apply their knowledge and skills. Employers recognize the importance of dispositions in the workplace, yet in C&E education the cultivation and assessment of dispositions is not frequently emphasized. Recent guidelines and frameworks in C&E education require dispositional competencies. However, implementing these guidelines requires pedagogical and curricular transformations, including authentic teaching and learning experiences and innovative assessment techniques. This study aims to address an important gap in C&E education by investigating educators' perceptions and readiness for integrating dispositions into curricula, thereby contributing to the ongoing efforts to align educational programs' objectives with industry needs to foster graduates' success in their careers. This work is guided by the Agency Influence Framework, adapted to incorporate educators' worldview (epistemology) in addition to their beliefs, abilities, and motivations towards their readiness for change. The study provides preliminary insights and serves as a foundation for future research in educators' perception about dispositions.

Background and Context. Dispositions are personal qualities including values, beliefs, and attitudes that impact an individual's actions and behaviors. Dispositions help a person identify why and when things need to be done and motivate them to follow through in action using their knowledge and skills. A person may have the appropriate skills and knowledge to perform a task and yet may not be able to perform due to the lack of suitable disposition. Objective. As part of a larger multi-institutional project aimed at improving computing education through a competency-based approach, we plan to create a research-informed competency model that includes knowledge, skills, and dispositions valued by computing professionals in the field. The objective of this paper is to report our findings on dispositions based on the National Research Council (NRC) framework. Method. We collected data from conducting a systematic literature review (SLR) and interviewing computing professionals from the United States. For the SLR, we started with 4949 articles from prominent databases (ERIC, SCOPUS, ACM, IEEE) which were filtered down to 52 research papers using rigorous inclusion-exclusion criteria. For conducting the semi-structured interviews, we used criterion and chain-link sampling to recruit 31 computing professionals, including software developers, network administrators, systems analysts, web developers, engineering managers, and others. Findings. Based on the aggregate findings from the SLR and interviews, in this paper we present the dispositions that are deemed necessary by computing professionals or employers to any computing career. The dispositions were categorized into the themes of Collaborative Orientation, Conscientiousness, Intellectual Openness, Self-Regulation, and Lifelong Learning Orientation. Implications. We discuss the importance of incorporating dispositions in computing curricula, interrelationship between skills and dispositions, and possible pedagogical techniques that can be used to cultivate dispositions.

Dispositions, along with skills and knowledge, form the three components of competency-based education. Moreover, studies have shown dispositions to be necessary for a successful career. However, unlike evidence-based teaching and learning approaches for knowledge acquisition and skill development, few studies focus on translating dispositions into observable behavioral patterns. An operationalization of dispositions, however, is crucial for students to understand and achieve respective learning outcomes in computing courses. This paper describes a multi-institutional study investigating students' understanding of dispositions in terms of their behaviors while completing coursework. Students in six computing courses at four different institutions filled out a survey describing an instance of applying each of the five surveyed dispositions (adaptable, collaborative, persistent, responsible, and self-directed) in the courses' assignments. The authors evaluated data by using Mayring's qualitative content analysis. The result was a coding scheme with categories summarizing students' concepts of dispositions and how they see themselves applying dispositions in the context of computing. These results are a first step in understanding dispositions in computing education and how they manifest in student behavior. This research has implications for educators developing new pedagogical approaches to promote and facilitate dispositions. Moreover, the operationalized behaviors constitute a starting point for new assessment strategies of dispositions.

In Fall 2021, a preliminary study was conducted to gain insight into students' perceptions of the importance of professional dispositions to their computing courses and career. Students filled out a pre-survey, post-assignment reflection exercises, and a post-survey. We found that 1) students rated dispositions as being maximally important for the course and their career on the pre- and post-surveys; 2) students rated dispositions not relevant to the course lower than those that were relevant; and 3) students rated their application of dispositions in course assignments lower than they had rated the importance of the dispositions for success in the course in the pre-survey.

Dispositions are cultivable behaviors desirable in the workplace. Examples of dispositions are being adaptable, meticulous, and self-directed. The eleven dispositions described in the CC2020 report should not be confused with the professional knowledge of computing topics, or with skills, including technical skills, along with cross-disciplinary skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, or communication. Dispositions, more inherent to human characteristics, identify personal qualities and behavioral patterns important for successful professional careers.

In the past decade, academic computing curricular guidelines have shifted from specifying knowledge and occasionally technical skills to establishing the overall competence expected of graduates. For instance, Computing Curricula 2020 (CC2020) guidelines identify competency as knowledge, skills, and dispositions where “dispositions” correspond to the behavioral and professional characteristics driven by employer needs and captured by industry-driven frameworks, such as the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). Computing programs thus must also ensure that graduates have these characteristics to improve initial employment and long-term career prospects. This paper aims to understand and achieve consistency between academia and industry curricular frameworks. The CC2020 dispositions map to the responsibility characteristics for SFIA Level 3, the level appropriate for a new graduate. As the mapping is not one-to-one, the paper reviews the extent to which each SFIA responsibility characteristic requires and enables the CC22020 dispositions, identifying potential shortcomings and, conversely, the importance of each disposition as it supports the responsibility characteristics. The developed mapping is validated by relating the CC2020 dispositions to the SFIA behavioral factors, the principal 21st Century Skills and relevant competency-based educational frameworks. Thus, dispositions in competency-focused curricula map to the actual competencies sought by employers. Finally, the paper postulates that future computing curricula must further develop the CC2020 dispositions and relate them to SFIA to guide academic programs in their preparation of career-ready graduates to reduce the current “skills gap”.

This Innovative Practice Full Paper addresses the assessment of dispositions which, along with knowledge and skills, form the three legs of competency needed to perform a task in context, as described in recent computing curricular reports, particularly ACM/IEEE Computing Curricula 2020 (CC2020). Here, dispositions in CC2020 express the behavioral characteristics of competence, such as being adaptable, collaborative, or inventive. Instructors have assessed knowledge from the start of computing programs and have paid increased attention to assessing skills in recent decades. However, dispositions and their role within competency is relatively new, with little guidance available for assessing dispositions. Lately, computing instructors have begun to understand the importance of evaluating dispositions during the performance of tasks in the real world or in the context of the industry-based global Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). Hence, this paper develops a criterion-based approach for use by educators in assessing competence based on a reflective portfolio of "real-world" achievements. Building on concepts developed by the UK Institute of Coding and other recent reports, this work demonstrates how this assessment approach relates to industry-based competency frameworks such as SFIA and the European e-Competence Framework (eCF). The paper also explores using the criterion-based approach in a classroom environment to help students focus on particular dispositions. Its main contribution is to advance the competency focus in academic computing programs and future computing curricula.

This work contributes to a better understanding of computing teachers' perceptions of themselves as role models. Role models are described as important to address under-representation, yet there is little in-depth research on how role modeling works and what university teachers in computing can model to broaden participation in the discipline. We will analyze teachers' reflections on how they may, or want to, be perceived by their students, particularly in terms of professional competencies, emotions and attitudes towards well-being. We will use and further develop an already existing framework on role modeling in computing, and we will relate our findings to existing research on computing and science identities. Modeling aspects outside the computing norm can help provide students with a wider notion of what it means to be a computer scientist. Besides developing the theoretical understanding of computing teachers as role models , our work can support various ways of developing computing teachers' competences and departments' teaching culture. The results are one way to contribute to student diversity and equitable access, and more broadly increase the relevance of computing education for sustainability.

No abstract available.

Since the early 21st century, ABET's accreditation criteria have focused on learning outcomes (what students learn) rather than what professors teach. Such accreditation criteria bring to bear the need for programs to establish clear learning objectives and assessment processes that ensure that program graduates have the requisite technical and professional preparation. To this end, ABET defines student outcomes as "what students are expected to know and be able to do by the time of graduation," further noting that these outcomes "relate to the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that students acquire as they progress through the program." With the recent release of Computing Curricula 2020 (CC2020), the competencies of computing program graduates have received additional attention. CC2020 describes competency as "comprising knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are observable in accomplishing a task within a work context."

The COVID-19 pandemic created a host of issues for institutions of higher education over the past year, including the issue of how to effectively assess student learning when courses are taught remotely. In this work-in-progress paper we present our experience using remote oral assessments in five introductory courses in two subject areas: computing and mathematics. We discuss our motivation for adopting this new assessment format and how to successfully implement remote oral assessments to replace traditional written final exams. We conducted a post-assessment student survey to understand how students responded to the oral exam format. The purpose of the survey was to gather feedback on students' emotions during and after the assessment. Our preliminary quantitative results show that overall students experienced more positive than negative emotions in all courses, though students responded differently in computing and mathematics courses. Students generally favored the oral format, and those who did not have previous experience with this type of assessment had a similar positive response to students who were more familiar with the format. We expect to shed more light on students' experience with the oral assessment as we will continue our research and conduct a qualitative study of the open-ended responses in the survey.

Competency-based learning has been a successful pedagogical approach for centuries, but only recently has it gained traction within computing education. Building on recent developments in the field, this working group will explore competency-based learning from practical considerations and show how it benefits computing. In particular, the group will identify existing computing competencies and provide a pathway to generate competencies usable in the field. The working group will also investigate appropriate assessment approaches, provide guidelines for evaluating student attainment, and show how accrediting agencies can use these techniques to assess the level of competence reflected in their standards and criteria. Recommendations from the working group report are intended to help practical computing education writ large.

In this experience report paper we present our experience with the development of oral assessments as final examinations in three introductory computing courses. The choice of this type of summative assessment was prompted by the emergency remote instruction instituted in the middle of the Spring 2020 semester, across colleges and universities in the U.S., due to the coronavirus pandemic. The principles that guided our oral assessment design were: to develop a more comprehensive measure of student competence and mitigate exam cheating; to facilitate communication and workplace skills through student-teacher interaction; and to alleviate negative emotions associated with traditional summative assessments.

Version control systems are widely used in industry and form a staple of modern software development, and this panel addresses the benefits and difficulties of introducing version control in education. Version control systems such as Git, and software development platforms such as GitHub, Bitbucket and GitLab are industry standards for which there is an increasing appeal within education. In general, students and teachers are motivated to use these tools in the classroom to increase graduates' competitiveness in the job market. Although highly desirable, the adoption of version control is hindered by a steep learning curve for both teachers and students, a lack of resources tailored to specific instructional and learning needs, as well as inadequate integration and alignment with the learning outcomes in the program curricula. The panel will analyze these challenges, solicit feedback from the audience's experience with version control tools, and facilitate discussions around promising strategies that could benefit student learning and graduates' professional competencies expected in the workplace.

The Association for Computing Machinery and the IEEE Computer Society have launched a new report titled, Curriculum Guidelines for Baccalaureate Degree Programs in Information Technology (IT2017). This paper discusses significant aspects of the IT2017 report and focuses on competency-driven learning rather than delivery of knowledge in information technology (IT) programs. It also highlights an IT curricular framework that meets the growing demands of a changing technological world in the next decade. Specifically, the paper outlines ways by which baccalaureate IT programs might implement the IT curricular framework and prepare students with knowledge, skills, and dispositions to equip graduates with competencies that matter in the workplace. The paper suggests that a focus on competencies allows academic departments to forge collaborations with employers and engage students in professional practice experiences. It also shows how professionals and educators might use the report in reviewing, updating, and creating baccalaureate IT degree programs worldwide.

This working group contributes to formulating a framework for modeling competencies in the current and future disciplines that comprise computing education. We draw upon the innovative approach taken in the curricular document for information technology (IT2017), curricular competency frameworks, other related documents such as the software engineering competency model (SWECOM), the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), current research in competency models, and elicitation workshop results from other computing conferences. The outcomes contribute to the Computing Curricula 2020 (CC2020) project, and include the formulation and review of sets of disciplinary-relevant competencies for use in computing education. This work directly informs the CC2020 project sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society.

ACM and IEEE Computer Society released new curriculum guidelines for baccalaureate degree programs in Information Technology, also known as the IT2017 report. Built on the foundation of the first ACM/IEEE IT2008 report, the new report, published in December 2017, stands out by its focus on employer-informed competencies that IT graduates should have in order to meet technological challenges of the workplace in the next decade. This poster highlights elements of the IT2017 curricular framework that help academic departments apply a competency-based approach to IT program development. Although competencies are prevalent in many areas of professional practice, placing competencies at the center of IT curriculum development requires rethinking of how we design learning environments in which students achieve IT competencies. In this poster I present some challenges with implementing the IT2017 curricular framework and discuss opportunities for turning the IT2017 report into a living document that learns from IT programs' implementation experiences.

ACM and IEEE have developed a computing curriculum report titled Information Technology Curricular 2017: Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Technology, also known as IT2017 [4]. The development of this report has received content contributions from industry and academia through surveys as well as many international conferences and workshops. Open online publication of the report became available in fall of 2017. In this special session, five members of the IT2017 executive committee will present a digest of the content of the report, describe the proposed IT curricular framework, and facilitate open and vigorous discussion of the report/s guidelines for developing new information technology programs or enhancing existing ones. The novelty of the report is its focus on industry-informed competencies that IT graduates should have to meet the growing demands of a changing technological world in the next decade. The experience should provide a better understanding of IT in a modern age.

This paper addresses the progress made by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) in developing a competency model and curricular guidelines for four-year degree programs in information technology. The authors are members of an international task group representative of academic institutions, industry, and professional organizations. The task group is to develop a competency model, called IT2017, for information technology education within two years based on earlier guidelines and other perspectives. This paper provides a brief background of the project, some activities undertaken, the progress made, and expectations for future developments. IT2017 seeks to produce a futuristic model of academic excellence so information technology graduates will be prepared for new technological challenges in a global economy.

The term "information technology" has many meanings for various stakeholders and continues to evolve. This discussion presents an overview of the developing curricular guidelines for rigorous, high quality, bachelor's degree programs in information technology (IT), called IT2017. Panel participants will focus on Latin American academic and industry perspectives on IT undergraduate education. Discussion will seek to ascertain commonalities and differences between the current draft IT2017 report and perspectives from Latino/a professional and academic communities. It also addresses ways in which this endeavor contrasts with current practices in Latin America industry and academia.

We present preliminary experiences in designing a Computer Science Principles undergraduate course for all majors that is based on physical computing with the Arduino microprocessor platform. The course goal is to introduce students to fundamental computing concepts in the context of developing concrete products. This physical computing approach is different from other existing CS Principles courses. Students use the Arduino platform to design tangible interactive systems that are personally and socially relevant to them, while learning computing concepts and reflecting on their experiences. In a previous publication [1], we reported on assessment results of using the Arduino platform in an Introduction to Digital Design course. We have introduced this platform in an introductory computing course at the University of Hartford in the past year as well as in a Systems Fundamentals Discovery Course at the University of New Hampshire to satisfy the general education requirements in the Environment, Technology, and Society category. Our goal is to align the current curriculum with the CS Principles framework to design a course that engages a broader audience through a creative making and contextualized learning experience.

At the direction of the ACM Education Board, the IT2017 Task Group was formed with the charge of updating the joint ACM and IEEE Computer Society Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Technology, known as IT2008. The revised document, called IT2017, should be appropriately forward looking given the significant advances in information technology that have occurred since 2008. Participants attending the BOF will contribute their insights and assist with the revision process to update IT2008. Discussions will center on delineating knowledge areas and learning outcomes specific to IT; exploring the current and future roles of IT in computing disciplines; recommending changes to improve the usefulness of the report; and planning further communications to fully engage the academic and professional community in the revision process. The objective is to ensure that the updated document is a forward-looking curriculum framework of the disciplinary content and practices in the field of information technology and remains relevant into 2020 and beyond for incoming students, computing departments with IT programs, accreditation bodies, and employers in the U.S. and anywhere else in the world.

There is no standard model at the service layer. However, fault management to distributed services and applications needs to construct and utilize complex models of the participating objects and their interdependencies. Thus, model-based fault management tools can predict the correct behavior of diagnosed systems and use the resulting predictions to identify faults. When used on-line in real systems, diagnostic tools based on such models should be able to provide prompt response and accurate, comprehensive explanations of the root causes of faults. In this paper we propose to address these requirements: modeling, proactive diagnosis, and explanation. We apply a recent extension to the constraint satisfaction paradigm, called composite constraint satisfaction, to facilitate modeling of complex systems, and we use constraint propagation techniques to support proactive diagnosis and explanation. We demonstrate the applicability of our approach on an example of a basic groupware service, namely, distributed database replication.