The Data Science community has grown rapidly in the past decade, and with this growth has come a proliferation of data science degree programs. Increasingly, members of the ADSA community have been asking for resources to help navigate degree programs in data science. To help address this need, ADSA facilitated the Standardization and Transparency in Data Science (STIDS) working group, which has sought to bring some transparency to degree programs in the field.
STIDS working group members have created this intake survey for data science Masters degree programs to help us build a resource for the entire data science community. The goal is better program transparency to enable students, employers, and the universities themselves to understand the skills and student learning outcomes available across the spectrum of programs and degrees. By participating in this content creation, an additional, important benefit to you is that your responses will be published online together with other institutions - providing a new venue for highlighting your programs to prospective students, potential faculty hires, program administrators, and future employers of your students.
The Survey is organized into four overarching themes present in data science programs:
1. Foundations of Analytics
2. Systems and Implementation
3. Data Science Project Design
4. Data Science in Practice
We've broken each theme into subcategories covering major knowledge areas. For each subcategory, we have asked you to indicate whether coursework in the area is not required, offered as an elective, required for a specialization in the degree program, or required for the degree program. We also ask that, for each subcategory, you indicate what courses cover the topic. Last, we also ask for general information about the degree program and about proposed learning outcomes for the program.
Results of the survey will be shared on the ADSA website starting later this year, and we will work with the community to offer opportunities to update information as needed.
We would like to start processing responses in the next few months. Please submit survey responses by the end of the day on July 6.
Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns (info@academicdatascience.org).
Contributors:
Cathy Anderson, University of Virginia
Jan Dasgupta, Washington State University
H. V. Jagadish, University of Michigan
Alex Johnson, Washington State University
Purush Papatla, University Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Sungjune Park, UNC, Charlotte
Abani Patra, Tufts University
Hridesh Rajan, Iowa State
Brian Wright, University of Virginia