A Curriculum for a Master of Science in Information Quality

Journal of Information Systems Education, Summer 2007 by Lee, Yang W, Pierce, Elizabeth, Talburt, John, Wang, Richard Y, Zhu, Hongwei

ABSTRACT

The first Master of Science in Information Quality (IQ) degree is designed and being offered to prepare students for careers in industry and government as well as advanced graduate studies. The curriculum is guided by the Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Graduate Degree Programs in Information Systems, which are endorsed by the Association for Computing Machinery and the Association for Information Systems. The curriculum integrates two key educational innovations: (1) an interdisciplinary approach to curriculum design, and (2) a balance between theoretical rigor and practical relevance. In response to the demand from industry, the curriculum aims to educate students who can lead the effort to solve current and future information quality problems. As such, problem-based learning is balanced with foundation-building learning to effectively deliver the intellectual contents of the curriculum. Much of the individual course content is based on cumulated research results and practices developed over the last two decades. The curriculum is designed to balance information quality theory with industry best practices using modern tools and technology. It includes the skill sets that are critical to succeed as IQ professionals. Since IQ is an inter-disciplinary field, the curriculum draws upon total quality management, database, core knowledge of IQ, change management, project management, and IQ policy and strategy. The courses are delivered using case studies, hands-on laboratories, theory building, and team projects to enhance the student's learning experience. Upon completing the program, students will be equipped with sufficient breadth and depth in the IQ field to solve real world problems and pursue further studies.

Keywords: Information Quality, Data Quality, Curriculum, MSIQ, Learning, TQM, Data Integrity

1. INTRODUCTION

The field of information quality (IQ)1 has matured significantly over the last two decades. Much of the focus of early academic research and the current data quality industry is on utilizing the Total Data Quality Management cycle (Madnick and Wang, 1992; Wang et al., 1995) or the Deming Cycle (Deming, 1986; Shewhart, 1931) for improving data quality. In the rapidly changing global economy with fast-growing volumes of structured and unstructured data being created, stored, mined, and used for business, developing capabilities that will deliver relevant and meaningful information from both the internal and external data available to an organization is a vital issue facing information providers and users with perspectives ranging from a single application to an entire enterprise or even a nation. Increasingly, leading organizations are posing questions such as

* "How do we leverage information quality strategically to achieve and sustain competitive advantage in our business?"

* "I have heard complaints about information quality in our organization. How do I systematically measure and improve information quality?"

* "What tools are available and useful for information quality management?"

* "Are there any general theories and rigorous methodology that I can apply to solving problems in my organization?"

* "Where can I learn about success (or failure) stories of other organizations in their information quality management?"

* "Where can I send my staff for formal systematic education on information quality?"

Unlike other disciplinary areas such as computer science, accounting, or finance, an academic program that provides a rigorous education to those interested in pursuing a career in the information quality field did not exist until 2006. Although various academic and industry forums exist, their purposes are often to share new development in IQ research and practices. To meet the increasing demand for highly qualified IQ professionals, it is important to establish a graduate-level program with a well-designed curriculum to provide comprehensive, systematic, and high-quality education on IQ. Graduates from this program will become the leaders and problem solvers in organizations facing IQ problems. They will also be equipped with the knowledge and skills to pursue advanced studies in the IQ field.

The development of a rigorous and practical curriculum for a Master of Science in Information Quality (MSIQ) is a pioneering and challenging undertaking. As there has been no prior effort in developing such a curriculum, one can only draw upon previous work that addresses certain aspects of IQ education. In this paper, we present an effort to offer the first MSIQ degree. Section 2 describes previous efforts to incorporate information quality topics into the Information Science curriculum. Section 3 presents the guiding philosophical discussions on the program's pedagogy. Section 4 presents the curriculum for an MSIQ Program. We present the rationales for the curriculum, as well as the structure and the contents of the curriculum. We further discuss how the proposed courses map to model curriculum for general graduate degree programs in Information Systems. Section 5 highlights the career options for individuals with degrees specializing in IQ. Finally, concluding remarks are made in Section 6.