A Combined Competency-Based and Design-Based Research (DBR) Approach to Curriculum Development: Implications for Information Technology (IT) Programs

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is characterized by rapid innovation and change in Information Technology (IT). Potential consequences include the obsolescence of IT qualification programs and a concomitant misalignment between IT job requirements and IT competencies and skills of IT graduates. For universities, their students and industry, it is essential that such misalignment be prevented so that IT graduates are employable, universities remain relevant and industry job requirements are met. To address the problems of IT qualification program obsolescence and IT competencies and skills misalignment, the study presents a combined competency-based and design-based research (DBR) approach to curriculum development, which was lacking in prior research and offers IT academics and teachers a more effective approach to developing contemporary curricula. Furthermore, the study's approach accommodates additional curriculum development requirements that may be country-specific, for example, South Africa, a developing African country, requires qualification programs to be Africanized and indigenized which is collectively termed transformation. The study's approach to curriculum development was found to be effective for addressing the research problem, based on empirical evaluation by relevant qualitative focus groups.