Using Internships and Input from Businesses to Guide the development of a Computer Technician Course

This paper discusses the process of developing a computer technician's course for the Associate degree program in computer systems.The paper discusses how the faculty perceived a need to develop such a course, and the process used to develop it.Students who had internships were asked to list the activities they did in their internships.And then this list was used to develop a survey that was then sent to department's advisory board, as well as to the heads of IT in different businesses, and also to a number of IT professionals.In this survey the respondents were asked to rate the skills and knowledge areas they believe are important for an intern or a fresh graduate to have.The results of this survey are then presented and discussed and key areas are highlighted.After the course was developed and taught for the first time, feedback was collected from the students who took the newly offered course.This feedback (will be presented in a future paper) was collected through an online survey that the students were asked to complete after they took their final exams.