Agile Response to Rapid Changes in Masters Program Student Demography

Abstract

National University (NU) has experienced an influx of students who differ significantly in background and culture from ‘traditional’ NU students who are “working adults” with 5-10 years of work experience in their degree field. Their experience has strengthened their technical capabilities; improved their communication and other ‘soft’ skills; taught them how to work on teams; and how to reach solutions within existing constraints.  NU’s master’s programs in computer science and in wireless communications have been particularly affected by the large influx of international students. The new demographic of students are typically much younger and inexperienced and a large percentage are international students. Visa requirements limit their options for working full time. Knowledge gained in undergraduate coursework has not been reinforced by real world challenges; neither have there been multiple years of reinforcement or learning of teamwork, communications, and other skills. Their previous studies have been in semester or quarter timeframes, vastly different from our accelerated one month per course format.  Optimizing learning for these  students has required changing program structures and prerequisite requirements, filling gaps in critical skills, increasing  real world exercises and case studies, frequency and timing of classes, assistantship and internship opportunities, number and nature of project and team experiences, building communications skills, and others. This paper discusses changes made to optimize learning for this new student population, including both how required changes were identified and how they were implemented. The nature and processes experienced at NU for adapting programs to changing student populations may be usefully applied at other institutions experiencing rapidly changing student populations.