Provide the citation and attach a pdf of the article
Cummings, J., & Janicki, T. (2021). Survey of Technology and Skills in Demand: 2020 Update. Journal of Information Systems Education, 32(2), 150.
Survey_of_Technology_and_Skill
What is the abstract of the article?
In the fields of information technology and information systems, faculty must consistently adjust the curriculum to meet the demands of the field. However, a challenge they often face is understanding what should be covered, especially given the limited number of courses most universities are able to offer. This research is a biennial report of the knowledge and skills demanded in the field through a survey of IT/IS workers across a variety of organizational roles. We have expanded the survey to include over 500 participants across the U.S. A new addition to this year’s study includes open-ended questions to go beyond the specific technologies covered in the survey by asking participants what they feel are the most important technologies moving forward. Results suggest an increased focus on cloud as its importance saw substantial increases this year. Other findings include an increased importance in the Android platform and a change in the importance of knowledge in the programming languages category.
Was the study experimental or non-experimental?
The study was non-experimental. It did not use a treatment or manipulation, it just had participants answer questions from a survey.
Was the research qualitative or quantitative?
The research was quantitative because of its use of the Likert-Scale. There were open-ended questions on the survey which can be indicative of qualitative research but they were not a large part of the study.
What was the population studied?
The population for this study was people in the IT (Information Technology) or IS (Information Systems) fields. This is because they gathered participants from these fields. The results of this study are used for indicating current and future knowledge and skills that will be needed by individuals in these fields.
What sample was used for this study?
The sample for this study was 515 participants across the U.S. in the IT/IS professional fields that participated strictly through a survey company.
What was the method of measurement? If the research was quantitative, was the measurement scale used, Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, or Ratio? If the research was qualitative, what data was collected?
In the quantitative research, the ordinal scale was used. This is because participants rated answers in a survey via the Likert 4-point scale. An example of this would be a participant rating Windows with a “4” for being the more important operating system out of other operating systems.
Open-ended questions, while not a huge part of the survey, were used to help identify what participants felt were important technologies that could be included in future surveys.
What was the method of analysis? If the research was quantitative, what statistical tools were used to analyze the data? If the research was qualitative, in what manner was the data analyzed?
An example of an average would be iOS getting an average importance of 3.12. An example of a percentage was used to find that 52% of participants thought that Android OS would be more important in the next two years. An example of using percentages with comparisons would be considering that Android OS had an increase of importance from 40% in 2018 to 52% in 2020.
Answers in the open-ended questions were use to help identify future technologies that should be included in future surveys.
What was the conclusion of the study?
Results found that adapting to a multiple-platform environments and the use of soft skills (e.g., management, written/oral communication) are important for professionals and educations to be aware of. Results also found an increase in cloud importance, an increase in the Android platform’s importance, the importance of security skills for IT professionals, and a change in the importance of knowledge in different programming languages.
Why is this study useful to you?
This research provides insights for educators, professional, and students in the IT/IS fields. This research helps me understand what others in my field find as being important to have knowledge and skills in. It helps me gain insight into the importance of having adaptability for different technologies and for the necessity of having soft skills overly strictly having technical skills.
What would be the next logical step in extending this study?
For extending this study, researchers should conduct the survey again and compare the results to previous years. They should also review the study and figure out ways they can improve it for the next time. Researchers should also consider including technologies that participants have identified in the open-ended questions. I also think it would be insightful to broaden the use of open-ended questions in the study to have substantial qualitative research results along with the quantitative results.
Keeping academia up to speed with the demands of industry can be a challenge in many fields. Technology moves incredibly fast so it can be difficult to keep curriculums and faculty knowledge current. Getting input like this study is obviously helpful in determining what skills are being used in the industry. However, I do wonder how well a survey like this would identify emerging technologies and skills. Perhaps conducting it on a regular schedule and comparing changes would identify those.
You did a great job on this review Nathan! From your review, I understand completely what the article is about and, being an Information major, I want to know more. Not only did you understand and explain the research methods well, your conclusion analysis was on point. I can see, from your review, why the research was done and how results of the research will be integrated into future changes when it comes to Information networking. Normally, we look at our own point of view and listen to our own opinions when it comes to various topics. But, this article is eye opening because it allows us to understand the viewpoint of others and makes us think of ways to improve IT that we would never have thought of. You chose an article that was not only useful to you, but one that can be essentially useful to the whole class. I agree with you, the use of more open-ended questions would be helpful with this study. Allowing people to fully explain their opinion will definitely give the research team the feedback they need to improve IT performance. Awesome job!
I’m in the IT field, which means this study directly applies to me. I agree with the study that focus should be put into teaching basic competency with several programming languages, and with the idea that non-IT related skills should be taught. In an IT job you either will need to communicate effectively with others in a meeting environment or an end user interaction, both of which require good understanding of how to trim down details the listener doesn’t need.
I appreciate the ease with which I was able to look through and understand the information from the study put forth in your review. If one thing could be clarified, I think it would be good to note how the importance of certain topics have changed. I can infer that the topics mentioned need more focus in worker’s training, but I also am interested in the subjects from which focus should be diverted away. I plan on looking into the past and future versions of this study and seeing how that data compares with my experiences in the field. Overall, I think you did a great job of finding the important information and extracting that for the review.