Abstract
The buildings in which people work, live, and spend their leisure time are increasingly embedded with sophisticated information technology (IT). This article describes the approach of Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Omaha, Nebraska of the United States to provide an occupational context to some of their IT coursework by organizing IT instruction around the context of building automation systems (BAS). This contextualization allows IT students not only to study IT as a standalone discipline but also to study its integrated use within a specific occupational context. The article also describes MCC’s focused curriculum design efforts funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program. These efforts toward BAS-contextualization of the IT curriculum have become a catalyst for systematic contextualization of IT instruction at MCC and support the institution’s broader efforts to become a national model in IT instruction and interdisciplinary engagement within the United States. The research-based approach, activities, and outcomes of this project are all described here, as well as the lessons learned by one community college seeking to make their IT program increasingly relevant to their students and the IT workforce of today.
Highlights
1.1 Building Automation SystemsWalk into many of the modern, new buildings of today, and you may well experience work spaces that are visually appealing, comfortable, and optimized for productivity, but you may glimpse an evolving new field of information technology (IT)—that of building automation systems (BAS)
Industry engagement was informal, with business partners typically providing input through one-on-one communications. These relationships were quickly formalized into the Automate Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) composed of business partners who participated in a Developing a Curriculum (DACUM) process (Adams, Hogan, Steinke, 2015) focused on analyzing the occupational competencies required of building automation technicians
In the Automate project, eight Metropolitan Community College (MCC) staff and faculty participated in an initial DACUM training, and they lead industry panels in the development of occupational profiles and related curriculum maps
Summary
1.1 Building Automation SystemsWalk into many of the modern, new buildings of today, and you may well experience work spaces that are visually appealing, comfortable, and optimized for productivity, but you may glimpse an evolving new field of information technology (IT)—that of building automation systems (BAS). IT-based BAS have evolved to address the local, national, and international industry need for integrated management of power, security, communications, and other automated facility systems, and there is a growing need for technicians who can use BAS to effectively manage such systems (Allied Business Intelligence, 2011). The local need for BAS technicians, as identified by MCC in its Omaha, Nebraska setting, cuts across industry sectors, as one might imagine for this interdisciplinary context.
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