Delivering Business Analytics Competencies and Skills: A Supply Side Assessment

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-254
Author(s):  
Kala C. Seal ◽  
Linda A. Leon ◽  
Zbigniew H. Przasnyski ◽  
Greg Lontok

This paper investigates the alignment of the demand side of business analytics (based on advertised job positions) with the supply side (based on the university curricula of U.S. business analytics programs). We text-mined job advertisements and core and elective course descriptions to identify the competencies demanded by business analytics–related jobs and those being taught in graduate analytics programs that include a business component. A comparative analysis of the competencies reveals that, although some of the competencies required by the jobs are taught adequately at the universities, a few key concepts and topics are not covered at sufficient depth as needed by the jobs. The research also shows that many traditional analytics topics are being over-taught at the universities when compared with the demand, whereas some key soft skills are not addressed at a sufficient level in many programs. The study provides a basis for future comparison of data-science positions and programs with the jobs and programs in business analytics.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena S. Wisniewski

With companies now recognizing how artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, the internet of things (IoT), and data science affect value creation and the maintenance of a competitive advantage, their demand for talented individuals with both management skills and a strong understanding of technology will grow dramatically. There is a need to prepare and train our current and future decision makers and leaders to have an understanding of AI and data science, the significant impact these technologies are having on business, how to develop AI strategies, and the impact all of this will have on their employees’ roles. This paper discusses how business schools can fulfill this need by incorporating AI into their business curricula, not only as stand-alone courses but also integrated into traditional business sequences, and establishing interdisciplinary efforts and collaborative industry partnerships. This article describes how the College of Business and Public Policy (CBPP) at the University of Alaska Anchorage is implementing multiple approaches to meet these needs and prepare future leaders and decision makers. These approaches include a detailed description of CBPP’s first AI course and related student successes, the integration of AI into additional business courses such as entrepreneurship and GSCM, and the creation of an AI and Data Science Lab in partnership with the College of Engineering and an investment firm.


Impact ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (10) ◽  
pp. 18-20
Author(s):  
Akimichi Takemura

Shiga University opened the first data science faculty in Japan in April 2017. Beginning with an undergraduate class of 100 students, the Department has since established a Master's degree programme with 20 students in each annual intake. This is the first data science faculty in Japan and the University intends to retain this leading position, the Department is well-placed to do so. The faculty closely monitors international trends concerning data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and adapt its education and research accordingly. The genesis of this department marks a change in Japan's attitudes towards dealing with information and reflects a wider, global understanding of the need for further research in this area. Shiga University's Data Science department seeks to produce well-trained data scientists who demonstrate a good balance of knowledge and skills in each of the three key areas of data science.


Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Ilyas Mohammed

Decolonisation of knowledge over the past few years has gained much traction among scholars and students in many countries. This situation has led to calls for the decolonisation of knowledge, academia, the university, and university curricula. That said, the knowledge production side of the terrorism industry, which sits inside academia, so far has escaped calls to decolonise. This situation is somewhat surprising because the terrorism industry has had a tremendous impact on many countries, especially Muslim majority ones. The 9/11 terrorist attacks have resulted in a tremendous amount of knowledge being produced and published on terrorism and counterterrorism. However, little is known about “who is publishing on terrorism and where they are based”. To this end, this paper adopts a decolonial approach and addresses the questions of “who is publishing on terrorism and where they are based” by analysing seven terrorism journals. It argues that most of the publications and knowledge on terrorism in the seven terrorism journals are produced by scholars with Western heritage and are based at Western institutions, which is connected to the coloniality of knowledge.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda A. Leon ◽  
Kala Chand Seal ◽  
Zbigniew H. Przasnyski ◽  
Ian Wiedenman

The explosive growth of business analytics has created a high demand for individuals who can help organizations gain competitive advantage by extracting business knowledge from data. What types of jobs satisfy this demand and what types of skills should individuals possess to satisfy this huge and growing demand? The authors perform a content analysis of 958 job advertisements posted during 2014-2015 for four types of positions: business analyst, data analyst, data scientist, and data analytics manager. They use a text mining approach to identify the skills needed for these job types and identify six distinct broad competencies. They also identify the competencies unique to a particular type of job and those common to all job types. Their job type categorization provides a framework that organizations can use to inventory their existing workforce competencies in order to identify critical future human resources. It can also guide individual professionals with their career planning as well as academic institutions in assessing and advancing their business analytics curricula.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 74
Author(s):  
Ekpenyong E. Ekanem ◽  
Comfort R. Etor ◽  
Nse N. Ukpong

This study investigated university output soft skills and blue economy strategy as mechanisms for sustainable development in Cross River State of Nigeria. The study was a descriptive survey research design. The population included all university graduate workers in sea ports in the state. A purposive sampling techniques was used to select 250 respondents from the port locations. The instrument designated ‘Soft Skills In Blue Economy Strategy Questionnaire (SSIBESQ)’ was designed to collect data for the study. The instrument was validated and had a reliability co-efficient of 0.872. The data collected were analyzed using frequency counts and percentage score. The study revealed that university output soft skills were beneficiary to the graduate workers economically and encouraged multitasking in human and material resources for sustainable development of Cross River State, Nigeria. Blue economy strategy, through a dynamic environmental sustainable principles, assisted the university output at workplace. This included to boost new employment, innovation and growth in marine production and other port industries, thereby improving the state economic stand. Some of the recommendations made were: universities should give more attention to soft skills development, government should support policies on university output soft skills and blue economy strategy as sine-qua-non for utilization of business opportunities and economic development in the state.


Author(s):  
Bruno Bertaccini ◽  
Riccardo Bruni ◽  
Federico Crescenzi ◽  
Beatrice Donati

Logical abilities are a ubiquitous ingredient in all those contexts that take into account soft skills, argumentative skills or critical thinking. However, the relationship between logical models and the enhancement of these abilities is rarely explicitly considered. Two aspects of the issue are particularly critical in our opinion, namely: (i) the lack of statistically relevant data concerning these competences; (ii) the absence of reliable indices that might be used to measure and detect the possession of abilities underlying the above-mentioned soft skills. This paper aims to address both aspects of this topic by presenting the results of a research we conducted in the period October – December 2020 on students enrolled in various degree courses at the University of Florence. To the best of our knowledge, to date this is the largest available database on the subject in the Italian University System. It has been obtained by a three-stage initiative. We started from an “entrance” examination for assessing the students' initial abilities. This test comprised ten questions, each of which was centered on a specific reasoning construct. The results we have collected show that there is a widespread lack of understanding of basic patterns that are common in the everyday way of arguing. Students then underwent a short training course, using formal logic techniques in order to strengthen their abilities, and afterwards took an “exit” examination, replicating the structure and the questions difficulty of the entrance one in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the course. Results show that the training was beneficial.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuryadi Wijiharjono

This title of article is Business Analytics for Higher Education Institutions. By taking a case study at the Universitas Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. Hamka (UHAMKA), this article aims to analyze and provide recommendations for the plan to establish a new academic of undergraduate degree program. Analysis of the institutional and technical environment that affects the legitimacy and sustainability of the university. This study uses the SWOT analysis method in the perspective of Business Analytics, where data availability plays a key role.


Author(s):  
Jim Wallace ◽  
Harpreet Dhariwal

MIE 515, Alternative Energy Systems, an engineering technical elective course open to senior undergraduates and graduate students, was delivered as an on line course for Fall 2011. This is the first time an undergraduate engineering course at the University of Toronto has been offered online. The course is also one of five pilot online courses across the University. The move online is being accomplished in two steps. For Fall 2011, a small lecture section of 25 students was used as a setting for video capture and the remaining 110 students accessed the course lectures online asynchronously. A live tutorial was offered once a week. All students were physically present for the midterm examination and the final examination. For Fall 2012, the course will be delivered entirely online, with the exception of student physical presence for the two examinations. Pedagogical and technical lessons learned during this transition year will be presented. The benefits and drawbacks of online delivery will be discussed from the perspective gained this year and compared with our expectations. Student feedback will also be presented and discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-211
Author(s):  
Thu Anh Nguyen ◽  
Nhung Thi Cam Phan

Self-study skills are one of the soft skills that play an extremely important role for students in the university environment. However, some universities in Vietnam, at present, have not introduced this skill into teaching soft skills, including Tra Vinh University. Self-study skills determine the majority of students’ learning outcomes, but in fact, not many students are aware of this. By questionnaires and in-depth interviews conducted in May 2019, the authors wish to present the current situation of self-study skills of students of the Department of State Management, Office Administration and Tourism, thereby proposing solutions of integrating self-study skills into specialized knowledge teaching in order to improve the learning quality of students of the Faculty in particular and Tra Vinh University in general.


2021 ◽  
pp. 183933492110617
Author(s):  
Paul Harrigan ◽  
Rebecca Dolan ◽  
Michael S. W. Lee

Marketing is one of the fastest-growing employment areas within commerce. Most of the growth lies in the role of digital technologies and in promoting sustainability rather than consumerism. However, students with mostly theoretical knowledge, even if in these areas, may not necessarily satisfy this demand, nor will students armed with strategic knowledge that is not required in entry-level jobs. There is increased demand from the marketing industry for job-ready graduates with both technical and multidisciplinary soft skills. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to reflect on the relevance of marketing education in universities in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region. At the beginning of this new decade and following a global health pandemic that has severely impacted the university sector, the time is right for such a reflection. Specifically, we reflect on how we teach and what we teach. Under how we teach, we consider two main issues: online learning and the role of industry certifications. Under what we teach, we consider three main issues: content relevance, soft skills and industry experience. We conclude with key questions for individual educators and marketing departments, and we provide some recommendations as to how, collectively, we can deal with the question we pose.


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