Intended Learning Outcomes of Seven Finnish B.Sc. in IT Programs

Abstract

Defining the intended learning outcomes is a significant part of curriculum design. Especially,the program-level competence requirements outline the objectives of the education, align the more detailed program structures and content of the curriculum, and create the basis for constructive alignment. Several different bodies aim at defining the goals of engineering programs on different levelsof abstraction.Some of these documents can be considered as statements of the 'minimum threshold'.Respectively, others provide detailed guidelines to support the design of post-secondary programsin specific engineering fields. For example, the CDIO Initiative has defined a general reference syllabus aiming at creating a taxonomy of engineering learning rationalized against the norms of contemporary engineering practice.While designing new engineering programs, it is interesting to study how different universities have documented the intended learning outcomes of their programs in related domains. In this paper, the program-level learning objectives of seven FinnishB.Sc. in Information Technology programs are discussed and reflected withthe CDIO Syllabus based on the information available on the public curriculumdescriptions.