Information Science curriculum design based on community outreach projects

Abstract

This paper creates an approach for an Information Science curriculum design based on Community Outreach Projects (COPs). An ICT-based COP in Radboud University Nijmegen (RUN), the Netherlands, is used as a part of the competence development of the students, especially prospective computer engineers. The geographic scope of the study includes RUN and several developing countries. The authors propose a model for a successful Community Outreach Project. The proposed model serves the main goal, while running educational ICT-based COPs, to introduce ICT effectively in a relatively short period of time to people who have never used computers before. The proposed model of a successful COP combines features of Community Based Service Learning, the Three Level Approach, the Competency Development Model, and Community Informatics. The authors also reflected on the sustainability of COPs and identified how the students can contribute to different kinds of sustainability. Students' activities in COPs have been related to their learning outcomes of ACM model curricula for computing specialties. The proposed model has been used for designing the curriculum of the COP training course in RUN, as well as developing the overall strategy of running ICT-based COPs in developing countries. Potential users of the results of this research include COP coordinators in institutions of higher learning, practitioners involved in COPs, and policymakers in charge of developing outreach strategies for local communities in developing countries.