Speakers
Matt Gull, Department Chair of Business and School of IT, Ivy Tech Community College
Violet Hawkins, Dean of Business and School of IT, Ivy Tech Community College
Matthew Cloud, Department Chair/Associate Professor, School of IT, Ivy Tech Community College
Alf Sanford, III, Professor, School of IT, Ivy Tech Community College
Transcript
How to Crosswalk Competency Models for Curriculum Development.
Alignment of Industry-Based Credentials (IBCs) Competencies with Academic Curriculum.
The reason we align our curriculum with industry based competencies is because employers know those certifications. They know what an MSSC certification means or a CompTIA or a CISCO certification means, so by aligning our courses to the certifications it shows employers that those students, those prospective employees, have those skills that employers are looking for.
Most employers are not interested in whether or not you have an associate degree, they are really interested in what skills sets you have and how and how you demonstrate those skills sets besides them observing you is if you have industry certifications. So they are much more interested in industry certifications and sets of skills then they are "collegiate jargon".
Competency models help align with industry-based certifications.
When the TAACCCT grant came about from the Department of Labor, it was a way for us to go back to that competency model and look at are we meeting the objectives needed such as the NICE framework, which was being developed at the time, and how do we make sure we are all working together to meet the industry need and academic needs at the same time. Using the DOL competency models is a great example of how we can start that discussion.
We actually have a very in depth process of matrix development that we do between a number of different competency models. And so we use in particular in our cyber security program, the NICE framework to make sure we are meeting everything within the NICE framework which also meets the competency model from Department of Labor for cyber security our programs.
So we have become a Center for Academic Excellence with the Department of Homeland Security, National Science Foundation, and the FBI. It is a model that makes it easier for our students to become employed in those organizations because we are meeting exactly what they want. Not only does it help our program outcomes and to get students credentials, we getting students employed for those perfect student outcomes for them to get the degree from us as well as the job they want. So it's a beautiful situation for everyone.
Faculty Involvement
I think the industry based competencies help to standardize curriculum across the program in the school of IT in a sense that we still have academic freedom as instructors from course to course campus to campus, but we know there is a minimum level of knowledge that we want students to gain and attain with the end result being the attainment of those certifications.
One of the other roles I have at the college is to lead the Instructor Training Center. So we have several of the courses that we teach that require instructor training and require a credential from the organization that provides that curriculum to us.
It could be CISCO or CompTIA, but we provide that training to instructors so that we can ensure the instructors have that foundation of competencies that they can pass on to students.
To hear more from your peers on “How to Crosswalk Competency Models with Curriculum”, please visit the Competency Model Clearing House. Click on "Get Started" at www.careeronestop.org/CompetencyModel.