In its effort to develop a curriculum for cybersecurity analyst, Bronx Community College in New York City recently turned to the Eastern Kentucky University Facilitation Center for assistance.
The EKU center trained 12 faculty and staff from BCC on how to conduct a DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) occupational analysis. Eastern is one of only two universities in the nation known for offering the DACUM training.
“It is a highly sought-after process for analyzing any occupation, and is proven to be an efficient and effective process for developing and updating curriculum,” said Karen Russell, director of the EKU Facilitation Center.
The training at BCC included two days of demonstration, using the fish bowl technique, where the trainees observed a DACUM initial two-day workshop for a cybersecurity analyst. On the third day, trainees were given the opportunity to practice what they had observed and learn more about how to utilize the information in their curriculum development.
Tamecca Tillard, with the BCC Office of Academic Affairs, said BCC had “three major objectives” when developing its new Cybersecurity and Networking Program: create an industry-relevant curriculum, recruit adjunct faculty from the industry, and create a bridge between non-credit certificates and credit-bearing programs to offer students “stackable” credentials.
“DACUM facilitation and training proved to be the right solution and investment to help the College thoughtfully accomplish our objectives,” Tillard said. “Cybersecurity has become our ‘test case’ for the application and value of DACUM. Now that we have members of our Workforce and Continuing Education and Academic Affairs divisions trained, we have a common language to facilitate future curriculum development and methods to validate or invalidate our assumptions.”
According to Russell, colleges and corporations nationwide seek the training, or contract with the EKU Facilitation Center to conduct the occupational analysis on their behalf. In addition to the cybersecurity analyst position, other recent occupational profiles have included civil engineering, cosmetologist, global logistics, graphic design, mechanical engineering technician and sales positions. The EKU center is currently negotiating with an organization in Pennsylvania to profile mixed vegetable farmers later this year.
“This process works for any occupation and provides valuable information from high-performing, incumbent workers,” Russell said. “Our clients, especially our community college clients, tell us what they learn from the Facilitation Center has allowed them to do great work over the years – the kind of work that changes the system.”
For more information about the DACUM occupational analysis and all the other services provided by the EKU Facilitation Center, visit facilitation.eku.edu.
Bottom of photo: Karen Russell (left) and Stefanie Ashley of the EKU Facilitation Center at Bronx Community College in New York City.