Meet Dr. Joe Feliciano, Program Director for ACU Online’s Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Administration and Master of Science in Information Technology. Read more to learn about how the programs were designed, as well as Dr. Feliciano’s goals for training aspiring tech professionals.
From tech to teaching
Joe was born in New York where he lived for the majority of his life before moving to Florida where he currently resides with his family and works remotely for ACU Online. He comes to ACU with a wide range of experiences in both the IT world and in education.
After graduating with his undergraduate in Business Administration from Hawaii Pacific University, Feliciano received his master’s degree in Information Systems from Long Island University and went on to get his doctorate from Pace University in New York. Joe served in the U.S. Air Force for six years working on aircraft and left in 1995 to continue his IT career in Window servers, PCs, and mainframe systems for organizations in health care, telecom, and manufacturing. While doing corporate training in telecom, Joe found a passion for sharing his knowledge and working one-on-one with others. This spurred his desire to make the switch to education.
In 2007, he began teaching courses at the university level in IT management, computer networking, database and cybersecurity. So when Joe later came across ACU’s job posting, he knew he would do whatever it took to be a part of the online community. “It’s where I was meant to be,” he said, “and the rest is history.
Progressing ACU programs
While the program is smaller than some of the others in ACU Online’s portfolio, Feliciano recalls anyone can do it if they put their mind to it, but it takes a certain person with a certain passion.
Joe has designed the programs to be versatile within the IT field, providing many different hands-on labs specifically for remote learning and web-based work. “The current systems being utilized in the field are what we try to mimic in the classroom.” With this industry alignment at the forefront of how he has structured his courses, he feels certain that the graduates of these programs will be well equipped to take on a variety of IT careers in database administration, software development, web development, cyber and beyond.
“We spend a tremendous amount of time developing the courses before they are taken,” he said. His “two-prong approach” to directing both programs is divided by providing a seamless path for the student through faculty preparation and effective materials, and then through feedback from professors once students are taking the courses.
Positives of an online approach
Not only is flexibility built right into how ACU Online’s programs are created, Information Technology has a natural user-experience approach for online teaching and real-world learning. “We’re always growing with the industry and have experienced faculty in the field working in government, in the NSA (National Security Agency), and other roles who continue to link students to real-life scenarios,” said Joe. He’s excited to see how his programs will continue to grow and the places his students will end up after graduation.
Check out this interview to hear from Dr. Joe Feliciano about our Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Administration program.
Visit acu.edu/online or contact us at 855.219.7300 to learn more about your future in information technology.