Designing Curricula To Teach Concepts And Increase Employability

The software development curriculum in the Computer and Information Technology (CIT) Department at Purdue University was designed purposefully to provide students with marketable skills upon successful completion of each course. The software development curriculum currently includes four required courses and four elective courses. The focus of these courses is on software development concepts. Students are taught how to apply course concepts using specific technologies. These technologies are selected based on their effectiveness for illustrating important course concepts as well as on industry demand. The latter is directly related to the idea of equipping students with a new, marketable skill in each course. For example, after successful completion of the programming courses taken during the freshmen year, students will have learned HTML, introductory object-oriented programming using C#, and web application development using ASP.NET. Consequently, many freshman students have found summer internships which provide paid work experience developing static websites using HTML, Windows applications using C#, and dynamic websites using ASP.NET. In addition to using popular technologies to illustrate course concepts, some courses provide students with practical experience building software solutions to realistic problems, often submitted by local businesses and non-profit organizations. This experience further enhances their understanding of programming concepts and helps them gain greater confidence with their newly acquired skills. In addition, class projects give them practical experience in user requirements definition and working with agents who are external to the educational process. This paper describes CIT’s software development curriculum at Purdue and shares what aspects of each course contribute to increased employability for summer internships and for part-time jobs during the school year.