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A design-based research approach for developing data-focussed business curricula

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Abstract

Although existing data science educational programmes develop talent and produce graduates, business-focused data science curricula comprising essential skills oriented to business and managerial data with associated analysis, remain underserved. Current pedagogy has focused either on data science or on purely analytic technical aspects. There is therefore, an opportunity to rethink how institutions can develop innovative data-focussed education programmes, addressing both modern industry and community demands. As both academia and industry strive to integrate applied learning, transferable and enterprise skills into business and sciences, this paper proposes a design based research approach (DBR) for designing such a new interdisciplinary data science teaching curriculum as a foundation to deliver business undergraduate degrees in Business Data Science. Adopting a design science method our proposed DBR illustrates effective utilities for conceptualising and evaluating a fully functional new degree programme - Bachelor of Business Data Science. Ten senior business information systems academics and five analytics industry practitioners in Victoria, Australia were interviewed in three iterative prototyping phases followed by a final focus group session with business information systems students that evaluated the proposed structure. The findings suggest that proposed DBR ensures the design of an innovative data science degree that may meet growing industry and interdisciplinary demands. The paper concludes by discussing overall feasibility of the proposal in the Australian higher education sector, particularly for the case context of an Australian University.

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Notes

  1. DBR helps create and extend knowledge focusing on “designing and exploring the whole range of designed innovations: artefacts as well as less concrete such as activity structures, institutions, scaffolds, and curricula” (Design-Based Research Collective 2003, 5–6) (Design-Based Research: An Emerging Paradigm for Educational Inquiry, Educational Researcher, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 5–8p.5) http://www.designbasedresearch.org/reppubs/DBRC2003.pdf

  2. An artefact is always made with a purpose, it can be a construct, model, framework, solution instantiation, or theory that serve defined or particular purpose (Gregor and Hevner 2013; Vaishnavi and Kuechler 2008).

  3. Jaafar, N. (2018). The Rise of the Data Scientist, URL: https://www.launchrecruitment.com.au/news/rise-of-data-scientist/

  4. Christian, R. (2018). Wesfarmers To Open Data Analytics Centre For Retail Growth, URL: https://www.channelnews.com.au/wesfarmers-to-open-data-analytics-centre-for-retail-growth/

  5. Way and Whidden (2014) defined the loosely coupled approach for developing a new interdisciplinary course for computer science that brings together student needs and faculty preferences in order to maximizing the chances for successful and demand oriented learning. The approach creates multiple merging points so that faculty members can effect an interdisciplinary learning experience.

  6. URL: http://handbook.westernsydney.edu.au/hbook/course.aspx?course=3734.1

  7. URL: https://study.unimelb.edu.au/find/courses/major/data-science/what-will-i-study/

  8. URL: https://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/futurestudents/data-science-and-decisions

  9. The research is conducted under the ethics approval bearing a reference number: Ref: HRE18–184

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Fellowship Programme 2019 (ethical approval ref.: HRE18-184) under the Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities, Victoria University, Melbourne. Authors are thankful to the Institute for funding this work and also to all of the participants who provided their valuable time, views and thoughts for establishing the outcome presented in this work.

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  1. Victoria University, Footscray Park Campus, Footscray, Melbourne, Australia

    Shah J. Miah & Ian Solomonides

  2. College of Technological Innovation at Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    John G. Gammack

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  1. Shah J. Miah
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Appendix

Appendix

Table 6 Degree structure (Proposed structure of the programme is mainly based on all internal resources and modification of existing subjects in order to reduce extra costing of developing new subjects)
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Miah, S.J., Solomonides, I. & Gammack, J.G. A design-based research approach for developing data-focussed business curricula. Educ Inf Technol 25, 553–581 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-09981-5

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