Collaboration to Create an IT Bachelor's Degree: Bachelor of Applied Science in Web Design and Development

Abstract

The creation of this bachelor's degree was a series of innovations for us: a new model for degree creation. This is a bachelor's degree created by a community college. It is a degree program that does not exist anywhere else in the state, and it was built on collaboration between the college and local industry, and by collaboration between faculty and staff in different departments in the college. Usually, students are trained in front-end (client-side) skills or back-end (server-side) skills. When determining the need for the degree, the companies contacted indicated that they wanted students trained in both front-end and back-end skills or "full-stack" skills. At the college, web design (front-end) is housed in the School of Arts and Sciences, and web development (back-end) in the School of Business and Applied Technologies. The faculty in these disciplines collaborated with each other, industry partners, and various departments across the college to create a new applied bachelor's degree, a Bachelor of Applied Science in Web Design and Development. The applied nature of the degree was critical to student success and to filling workforce development needs. We wanted students to be trained in current technologies so they would be immediately employable upon graduation. The curriculum requires students to create real-world projects and work with the industry partners as they complete the degree program. This paper outlines our collaborative two-year journey in creating the degree, getting it approved and accredited, and making it available to students.