Volume 10, Number 3

Data Science Curriculum: Current Scenario

  Authors

Duaa Bukhari, Taibah University, Saudi Arabia

  Abstract

Companies desires for making productive discoveries from big data have motivated academic institutions offering variety of different data science (DS) programs, in order to increases their graduates' ability to be data scientists who are capable to face the challenges of the new age. These data science programs represent a combination of subject areas from several disciplines. There are few studies have examined data science programs within a particular discipline, such as Business (e.g. Chen et al.). However, there are very few empirical studies that investigate DS programs and explore its curriculum structure across disciplines. Therefore, this study examines data science programs offered by American universities. The study aims to depict the current state of data science education in the U.S. to explore what discipline DS programs covers at the graduate level. The current study conducted an exploratory content analysis of 30 DS programs in the United States from a variety of disciplines. The analysis was conducted on course titles and course descriptions level. The study results indicate that DS programs required varying numbers of credit hours, including practicum and capstone. Management schools seem to take the lead and the initiative in lunching and hosting DS programs. In addition, all DS programs requires the basic knowledge of database design, representation, extraction and management. Furthermore, DS programs delivered information skills through their core courses. Moreover, the study results show that almost 40 percent of required courses in DS programs is involved information representations, retrieval and programming. Additionally, DS programs required courses also addressed communication visualization and mathematics skills.

  Keywords

Data Science, Information Retrieval, Curricula, Master’s Programs, DS curriculum.