A Quantitative Assessment and Comparison of the Undergraduate Curriculum Prerequisite Structures for the Universities in the Minnesota State System with Particular Emphasis on Mathematics Courses

摘要

The purpose of this dissertation is to study the consistency of the structures and the centrality of mathematics courses in the curricula of the universities in the Minnesota State University system. This research will be based on the curriculum prerequisite networks for the seven universities in the Minnesota State System. These networks will be constructed from the information in the course catalogs available on each university's public website. The networks will be constructed with courses represented by nodes and weighted edges representing prerequisite relationships. The analysis will use curriculum network analytics to evaluate and compare the connectedness of the networks, the centrality of mathematics courses, and the importance of mathematics departments in the structure of each university's curriculum.