Abstract:

The rising of datarelated jobs has brought both opportunities and challenges to professional education of iSchools. Investigating the developing status quo of data science programs in iSchools abroad could provide valuable reference for course and program construction in China. Based on the synthesized literature review and online survey, this study takes 11 iSchools in other countries as research objects from the aspects of targets, patterns, and curriculum constructions, which have conducted data science programs already.  The result suggests that as for Chinese iSchools, the discipline construction of data science should take into consideration of the education targets and disciplinary foundation, pay attention to the construction of faculty and infrastructure, emphasize the cultivation types and forms, highlight the interdisciplinary characteristics and practicality, and develop a scientific evaluation system for programs.

Keywords: Data science program; , Professional education, Education mode, Course construction, iSchools