Integration of information technology certifications into undergraduate computing curriculum

This innovative practice full paper describes our experiences of integrating information technology certifications into an undergraduate computing curriculum. As the technology landscape evolves, a common challenge for educators in computing programs is designing an industry-relevant curriculum. Over the years, industry practitioners have taken technology certifications to validate themselves against a base level of technical knowledge currently in demand in industry. Information technology (IT) certifications can also offer paths for academic computing programs to stay relevant to industry needs. However, identifying relevant IT certifications and integrating it into an academic curriculum requires a careful design approach as substantial efforts are needed by educators to design and deliver courses. This paper describes our proposed approach and experiences of identifying and mapping IT certifications for an undergraduate Information Systems (IS) curriculum. We first review our IS curriculum with an academic standard and an industry skills framework to identify relevant job roles for students. Next, we perform a web search in the Google Job Search engine for job postings relevant to these job roles and apply text analytics techniquesto identify the IT certifications referenced in these job postings. We also share our implementation experiences of integrating two highly referenced IT certifications - Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Practitioner and Solutions Architect - Associate certification exams in two undergraduate computing courses. We learnt that there is a need to allocate efforts for the faculty to manage the logistics matters. Students appreciate the teaching efforts and are motivated to train themselves for the certifications. In the first year of the implementation, we achieved 90% and 96% exam pass rates in AWS CloudPractitioner certification and Solutions Architect - Associate certification, respectively. We hope that our approach and the lessons learnt can help other educators consider ...