Does Information Systems (IS) Really Matter in Business Colleges?

1998

This paper reports on the results of a preliminary investigation of the extent to which first-year students entering a university during the summer, who enroll in the introductory information systems course in a college of business, meet the requirements for the course upon entrance. A second objective is to recommend a course of action to be taken in regard to the continuance or discontinuance of the introductory information systems course. A justification for the study is that more and more students are being exposed to computers and computing in scholastic settings and as a result find the introductory course repetitive and tedious. In addition, students are acquiring their own computers in rapidly growing numbers and, because of their personal use of applications such as Microsoft Office, are sufficiently knowledgeable to move on to more advanced courses. Finally, the need for computer usage in college is vital especially in light of the fact the 45% of college students in the Northeast report they use computers regularly. The study used a pretest to measure student knowledge of general theoretical computer concepts and applications. It is concluded that, until further research is done, the introductory computer information systems course should remain a required part of the business college curriculum.

2012

The course contents of the undergraduate Information Systems (IS) curriculums are vital to the IS field and to IS graduates. Technological advances and their associated impacts on businesses have necessitated changes in the contents of the undergraduate IS curriculums and the skills and knowledge required of IS graduates by the business communities. As a result of these changes various studies have been done by IS researchers and business practitioners, and various model curriculums have been published in efforts to align the undergraduate IS curriculums with the needs of the business communities. In this study a single case study methodology was used to address an identified research gap in IS related skills studies: Lack of study of skills and knowledge sets required of IS graduates by businesses in a region and the content of the undergraduate IS curriculum of a university in the same region. Some recommendations were therefore presented to both the IS educators and the business communities on how to address the identified gaps in this study as well as any perceived gaps. The study also showed that any gaps were not due to differences in perceived importance of skills and knowledge sets between IS instructors and the business communities, but due to a curricular implementation latency period which is the time between realization of the importance of skills and knowledge sets and the subsequent addition of the necessary building courses to the IS curriculum. Further studies were recommended to formulate best practices for effective curricular changes and implementations.

Information Systems Education Journal, 2015

To keep up with technology changes and industry trends, it is essential for Information Systems (IS) programs to maintain up to date curricula. In doing so, IS educators need to determine what the IS core is and implement it in their curriculum. This study performed a descriptive analysis of 2,229 core courses offered by 394 undergraduate IS programs in the United States. The result presents a panoramic snapshot of the IS core in the nation from the perspective of IS core curricula. By mapping those core courses to the most recent IS model curriculum, IS 2010, this study also reports how many IS programs offer each of the seven core courses in IS 2010. Moreover, these core courses were examined from three different perspectives: school type, accreditation, and research orientation.

2002

Whether Information Systems should or should not be part of the core business school curriculum is a recurring discussion in many universities. In this article, a task force of 40 prominent information systems scholars address the issue. They conclude that information systems is absolutely an essential body of knowledge for business school students to acquire as well as a key element of the business school's long-run strategic positioning within the university. Originally prepared in response to draft accreditation ...

2012

IS 2010- Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems has been compiled under the auspices of the Association for Computing Machinery and the Association for Information Systems. As stated in its executive summary, “This curriculum revision represents an effort to re-evaluate the core principles of the discipline through a very careful specification of the degree learning outcomes.” Indeed, the curriculum has outlined a substantial redirection of the information systems degree. It focuses much more heavily on improving organizational processes and viewing information systems in an enterprise interpretation. Technical knowledge and skills are still present but receive far less emphasis. Other topics, such as enterprise architecture, are introduced for which no current text is available. Implementing the 2010 core course curriculum could well change the learning objectives of a school’s information systems degree. The panelists will briefly describe t...

The Information Systems discipline has a long history of applying model curricula to guide the particular course offerings of academic institutions. This paper provides a synopsis of the final report of IS 2002—The Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems. The last major update, IS ’97, was completed several years ago. The need for the update is warranted due to the advent of the Internet, the changes in student computing literacy, and the recent Information Systems accreditation movement. The curriculum updates follow the recommendations of three collaborating organizations: AIS, ACM and AITP. After presenting an introduction and discussion of the need for a curriculum update, the paper describes the key principles and guiding assumptions about the Information Systems field. Next, the exit characteristics of IS graduates are presented. This motivates a discussion and presentation of the scope of the current curriculum update. The pape...

2004

Recent discussion about MIS centers on its role as an academic discipline and the utility of the core IS course in undergraduate business programs. This article presents a summary of a panel discussion at the AMCIS 2003 meeting about these issues. In includes the results of a survey on what elements of the IS 2002.1 Introduction to MIS course are being used that was presented. It also presents the discussions among panel participants and the audience and the emerging perspective on the topic by the panelists.

This paper presents a comparison of information systems (IS) programmes taught to undergraduates at 20 Saudi Arabian colleges. The colleges were divided into two groups: one group of 10 colleges and programmes focused on management information systems (MIS) and another group of 10 colleges and programmes on computerized information systems (CIS). Despite a shared core focus on IS, the two programme types differ in terms of where they are taught (at either business or science colleges) and the types of courses they offer. Regardless of type, all programmes tend to be internationally accredited. Programmes of the first type seek accreditation from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), whereas programmes of the second type seek accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

1998

Fast changing information technology (IT) has posed tremendous challenges to information systems (IS) educational programmes. One question frequently asked by IS educators has been: `Are we doing the right thing?' This article presents information about the current state of IS educational programmes in the USA based on a survey of 193 higher education institutions conducted at the end of 1996. The results indicate that IS educational programmes are prevalent in the higher educational institutions. These programmes have a highly quali®ed faculty: 92% or more holding terminal degrees, more than two-thirds having tenure, with evidence of an increasing amount of time being devoted to research activities. It is also found that the most popular programming languages taught in both graduate and undergraduate programmes are C/C, SQL and COBOL, and dominant operating systems are WindowsaOS2 and UNIX. The most profound change over the last ®ve years in the content of IS programmes has been the transition from text-based and centralized mainframe environment to the graphical and decentralized network based client±server architecture. This survey provides a snapshot of IS programmes, serving both to improve our understanding of current programmes and to provide a frame of reference for future studies.

Journal of Information …, 2004

A number of universities have recently started to add baccalaureate programs in Information Technology (IT) to their existing programs in Computer Science (CS) and (Management) Information Systems (IS). While some have welcomed this development, others have argued that (a) there are significant differences between the baccalaureate programs in IT that different institutions currently offer, and that it is, therefore, impossible to speak of a generic IT baccalaureate degree, and that (b) to the extent that there is a similarity, there is no real difference between programs in IT, and programs in CS or IS.