Big Bend to restructure computer curriculum

MOSES LAKE — Big Bend Community College staff are making plans to restructure the college’s computer science program by next fall.

“We started looking at our program a year ago to see if the courses we are offering are meeting the needs of the students and seeing if the students graduating from the program are getting employed,” said Clyde Rasmussen, dean of professional technical education programs. “Our main focus has been to get help from experts in the industry to see if we’re on the right track in looking at ways to improve our current structure.”

The end result is to offer courses to students that are easily transferable to a four-year university and allow students to become easily employed. The main improvement Big Bend is making is to have more technical classes.

“One of our goals as a community college is to have great technological training,” Rasmussen said. “We are in the process of looking to do some kind of technical training for two years so that students can go into the work force equipped to get a job.”

Some jobs of a technician involve setting up network labs at businesses, working with servers, creating Web sites and going to classrooms to repair malfunctioning technology at schools.

“We want to give our students a focus on a degree as a technician,” Rasmussen said. “There is always going to be a demand in that area.”

Administrators are talking to universities around the area to see what their requirements are for computer science programs. They are also discussing general university requirements so students can make an easy transition.

“Our hope is to put together the best packet we can for our students,” Rasmussen said. “We want to put new programs in place by March so students can have great options in the fall.”

A research associate from Bellevue’s Center of Excellence is helping out by giving suggestions on programs and talking about current industry demands. Big Bend administrators are putting together an outline for new courses in the program and sending it to the Center of Excellence for review.

“They will then make suggestions and send those back to us for review,” Rasmussen said. “We will have our first daft done by mid-December.”

A committee is being put together to add input as well. It consists of community college workers and staff from other colleges and universities.

“We are doing this update to our computer science so we can stay current with the training the industry requires so students can get jobs,” Rasmussen said. “Part of the process is to modify and improve our programs so we can make them better.”

Rasmussen said the downward economy has caused the college to see an increase of students the past few years.

“More people are needing to come here because they are out of jobs and need to train for another one,” Rasmussen said. “This is an exciting time for new updates in programs because the bad economy makes it all the more important to have as many options as we can for people.”