'Responsiveness' and 'responsibility': Determining what matters in a computer engineering curriculum.

This article is a research study related to the restructuring of a four-year Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) undergraduate degree programme. The article focuses on the method by which collaborators from local industry and research institutions provided curricul...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 28; no. 3; pp. 983 - 1003
Autor principal: Winberg, S.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Sabinet Online Limited 2014
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:This article is a research study related to the restructuring of a four-year Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) undergraduate degree programme. The article focuses on the method by which collaborators from local industry and research institutions provided curriculum requests, and how these requests were organised and prioritised with the objective of defining the knowledge that matters most to the degree programme. The study is part of an on-going department wide curriculum renewal process that started in 2009. Analysis of the data obtained led to the development of a model to guide the curriculum project in identifying ways to prioritise changes that both protect the fundament disciplinary knowledge and cater for the dynamic nature of professional practice and changing technologies. The article argues that two concepts, namely, 'responsiveness' to the needs of industry and 'responsibility' to the disciplinary knowledge bases, are necessary aspects of an effective engineering curriculum.