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Felician University’s Institute of Information Sciences is offering a new online B.S. degree in Computer Science. The new program will be delivered in trimesters beginning August 2020, and allow a full-time student to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in less than 3 years. Felician University Vice President for Technology, Design and Innovation & Professor of Information Science, Dr. Bob Clougherty says, “Someone coming in as a community college transfer, can go from their Associates to Bachelor's in just over a year.” The program will be completely online with computer science courses being a mixture of asynchronous and synchronous technologies, and because it will have virtual labs, no software would need to be installed on a student’s computer. The new program will be in the spirit of the Franciscan values that guide Felician University, so the program will be a community of students, faculty, and staff committed to creating an academic environment where timeless values are shared, new ideas explored, and intellectual risks are taken. Dr. Clougherty says, “Students will process, analyze, and share complex information for the betterment of humanity.” The primary focus of the online program is a Data Analytics track but transfer students can use the generalist track if they want to preserve more transfer or Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) credits. The program was designed mindful of the 14 fundamental skills of the Digital economy as defined by Burning Glass Technologies, the leader in job matching and labor market analytics solutions for the education and workforce sectors. The curriculum will focus on employability with students developing a portfolio based on job skills, but they’ll learn more than just specific programming skills. “They will develop other skills like collaboration, and project management,” explains Dr. Clougherty. Another thing making the new program unique is that students will begin work on their capstone project their first year, “giving them plenty of time to develop their project and to integrate it into their courses.” The program’s trimester sessions will run as following: August 31 - November 20, November 30 - March 12, March 22 - June 18.