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2002, Journal of Information Technology Education: Research
The importance of information systems as a strategic resource to organizations and the amazing rate of information system technology evolution are widely recognized. As a result, undergraduate courses in this field need frequent updating to remain effective. This article presents a model to restructure the teaching of information systems. This model has received inputs from students, teachers and ex-students of our Computation Department and also from the organizational staff that interacts with our students in their training posts. These inputs help us to identify the main gaps in our curriculum and the organizational necessities that concern information systems staff. The model identifies the main areas that are the basis of our curriculum proposal, as well as the main knowledge topics to be covered. We conclude that an information systems curriculum must have an organizational emphasis as big as, or greater than the technological one.
2010 IEEE Transforming Engineering Education: Creating Interdisciplinary Skills for Complex Global Environments, 2010
Information systems development (ISD) is a capstone course in the Information Systems and Technology undergraduate program at School of Engineering, University of Minho, Portugal. ISD is viewed as an organizational change project that aims at improving an organization through the adoption of IT applications. The course is designed following a project led approach. The project involves describing an organization as a system, describing its information handling activities and proposing a set of IT applications that could be adopted and used. Students are guided by an ISD methodology that demands the application of previous developed competencies in areas such as: organization theory, accounting, marketing, information systems fundamentals, data bases, software engineering, computer networks and several other IT courses. Together with the ISD course, students are also taking courses on organizational behavior and data-warehousing. Students are organized into large teams of 10 to 12 members. Several roles are distributed among team members: e.g., team leader, analyst, document officer, technology officer, methodologist, development tools specialist, IT specialist. Students are suggested a fictional organization in a specific business area. Ideally students should deal with a real organization. As the course is having around 100 students enrolled this is not possible. However it is common that each project team finds an organization in the proposed business area where they go and have actual contact with an organization. The main outputs of the project include: project plan; organization description including-purpose, environment, main activities, business ontology, main performance indicators; general information systems description using UML; requirements for an IT application; IT architecture. One of the most important steps of the project is to decide on what IT to suggest to the organization. The decision should take into consideration the capability of current IT, the specifics of the business area and its current practices. Besides the reports, each team makes two public presentations. The first one is to present the organization description making sure business is clearly understood. The final one is to present the solution in terms of information systems and IT architecture. These presentations are attended by industry guests that focus their attention on the students' communication skills from the perspective of a manager. The evaluation of students' performance is based on: reports corresponding to the outputs mentioned above; public presentations; weekly assessments of the teams' progress. The final mark attributed to each team (a numerical value from 0 to 20, where above 10 is a pass) can be redistributed among team members, by themselves, in order to account for different levels of commitment or effort within the team. Several other rules are set in order to promote professional behavior. Keywords-IS professionals; capstone course; ISD process; engIS methodology; project led approach; large teams. I. INTRODUCTION-EDUCATION OF IS PROFESSIONALS The evolution of computers and computing led to the emergence of several different professions related to the design, implementation and deployment of computer and computing artifacts. The Computing Curricula 2005 [1] distinguishes among such five different professional profiles: computer engineering, computer science, software engineering, information technology and information systems. This article addresses the last of these-information systems (IS). The education of IS professionals has been much debated (early discussions can be found in [2], [3], [4] or [5]). Besides several individual contributions, it is interesting to focus on collaborative efforts to produce a set of recommendations for IS programs both at undergraduate and graduate levels. Such efforts led to reports such as IS 1995 [6], IS 2002 [7] and MSIS 2006 [8]. A new proposal for the IS undergraduate curriculum is being discussed and should become public early this year (2010) [9]. Based on these recommendations (or, at least, somewhat related to them), many IS programs can be found all over the world. At the AIS site, a list of such programs can be consulted (http://apps.aisnet.org/isprograms). This article addresses a course on information systems development taught at the 3rd (last) year of an undergraduate degree program on information systems at
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...
ACM SIGMIS …, 1996
IS organizations. However, there is no lessening in demand for IS knowledge and ability in organizations; to the contrary, the demand is expanding as the functional areas of the organization gain more capability in IS. Many areas of the organization are now hiring IS majors for departmental computing activities. There is also strong demand for the IS minor by students in other disciplines who need IS expertise in order to be effective in their work and to assist in developing applications in their functional area. A third reason that the demand for IS courses will continue to increase is that students in related disciplines want to acquire basic and intermediate IS skills. Every discipline is experiencing growth in computer use, and students who enrich their IS knowledge are at a career advantage. The editors of IS'97 thank those who have helped in this project. We hope this will be the beginning of a cooperative effort for continuous curriculum development. We are interested in your input and encourage you to let us know how you are using these materials and how they might be improved.
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.
ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 1994
This paper provides a status report of the joint curriculum task force effort t o develop a new model curriculum for undergraduate programs in Information Systems. The curriculum work is the first collaborative effort between ACM, AIS and DPMA. After a brief description of the background and current task force activities ar e presented, the recommended courses are briefly listed and described .
2008
It is well known that student enrolment, and quite likely interest, has fallen in many IS/IT related courses in recent years, by our count as much as 75%. This downward trend has become a frequent topic of conversation among IS academics at conferences and on discussion lists such as ISWorld. However, there is a small but growing number of IS educators who are re-examining what it means to study information systems. The purpose of this panel is to present and discuss diverse and innovative approaches to IS/IT teaching and course development. This panel is intended to promote discussion and debate among the panellists, as well as audience members, to create a lively and interactive forum that we anticipate will continue beyond the conference.
J. Inf. Syst. Educ., 2019
This paper invites Computer Information System (CIS) program stakeholders to consider several strategic issues. They include: Curriculum & Pedagogy, Business Model & Value Proposition, Increasingly Diverse Student Body, and Student Success & Completion. These strategic issues are those in which faculty have the ability to provide the most influence and make the most impact; areas in which the faculty can make significant contributions without requiring higher-level organizational commitment. In addition, attention to these four areas can help to address the shortage of individual entry-level employees in the field. The paper does not offer prescriptive solutions; rather, it broadly frames some strategic issues and suggests areas for stakeholder consideration. Ideally, each program should weigh strategic issues against the backdrop of the environmental factors, i.e., opportunities and threats, within which it operates, and in the context of its own strengths and weaknesses. Moreover,...
1997
This paper details experiences in developing an undergraduate Computer Information Systems (CIS) curriculum at a small liberal arts school. The development of the program was based on the study of needs assessment. Findings were based on the analysis of four sources of data: the results of an industry needs survey, data from a needs assessment project of the University System of Georgia, Georgia Department of Labor occupational projection until the year 2005, and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational projection until 2005. The task of developing the CIS program was broken into six phases: (1) performing needs assessment; (2) defining goals and objectives of the program; (3) identifying CIS curriculum guidelines and other sources of feedback; (4) planning for human and equipment resources needed for the program; (5) studying target students; and (6) developing the curriculum. Details of the curriculum and its characteristics are presented and compared with other similar curricula.
2019
This paper invites Computer Information System (CIS) program stakeholders to consider several strategic issues. They include: Curriculum & Pedagogy, Business Model & Value Proposition, Increasingly Diverse Student Body, and Student Success & Completion. These strategic issues are those in which faculty have the ability to provide the most influence and make the most impact; areas in which the faculty can make significant contributions without requiring higher-level organizational commitment. In addition, attention to these four areas can help to address the shortage of individual entry-level employees in the field. The paper does not offer prescriptive solutions; rather, it broadly frames some strategic issues and suggests areas for stakeholder consideration. Ideally, each program should weigh strategic issues against the backdrop of the environmental factors, i.e., opportunities and threats, within which it operates, and in the context of its own strengths and weaknesses. Moreover,...
Journal of Information Systems Education, 2009
This paper describes an innovative, integrated implementation of the core Information Systems courses. While the published IS curriculum provides standards on course content, it gives little direction on the implementation of the courses. At Brigham Young University, we have reengineered the traditional topics of analysis, database, design, development, networking, etc. into an integrated, 24-hour course block called the “IS Core”. Instead of students moving from class to class, professors now rotate through integrated subjects in a common classroom environment. The IS Core has allowed the department to increase the rigor and integration between subjects so students see the entire systems process and has provided opportunities for cross-topic assignments and integrated exercises. Finally, it has resulted in unintended, additional benefits like increased student culture and student ownership of the major.
2002
The information systems discipline has a long history of applying model curricula to guide the particular course offerings of academic institutions. This paper provides an overview of the most recent work on updating the information system model curriculum, referred to as 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 paper concludes by presenting the course architecture, sequence and high-level catalog descriptions.
Communications of the Association for Information Systems
The interdisciplinary nature of information systems (IS) presents significant challenges for IS teachers. This paper examines the nature of the IS teaching task. It asks: what are we trying to achieve as IS teachers? What are the characteristics of IS and what might these tell us about how we should be teaching IS? What is the nature of the multiple role of the IS teacher? Where do our curricula come from and how do we integrate research and teaching? Since IS has no unified theoretical foundations, unlike the computational mathematics which underpins computer science, identifying principles on which information systems teaching should be based is difficult. By identifying some of the various roles which IS teachers adopt, this paper seeks to define some overarching principles that should drive IS teaching. Teacher's roles include theoretician, practitioner, priest, counsellor and evangelist. Each of these roles suggests principles for teaching IS. The paper also suggests the key importance of networks of communication in establishing the basis of IS teaching.
2003
IS 2002 is a model curriculum for undergraduate degree programs in Information Systems typically offered in business and management schools. The curriculum is designed to produce graduates equipped to assume entry-level information systems positions and provide them with the fundamental knowledge required for continued career growth. This paper specifically addresses the challenge that instructors face in designing a course intended to be consistent with the learning unit goals and objectives specified in the IS 2002 for the Information Technology Hardware and Software course. While the authors agree in principle with the identified course objectives, they suggest that those objectives, when broadly defined, constitute more material than can be reasonably covered in a single course. Given that some depth must be sacrificed to achieve the desired breadth of coverage, the paper calls for the IS community to participate in an effort to more fully specify concepts and skills that should...
Author eBooks, 2019
The last 30 years of information systems advancements and implementations within organizations saw amazing growth in computing power, interconnectivity, and analytical techniques. Simultaneously, information systems education has changed and adapted to these new organizational systems. The Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE) published its first article in 1989. To commemorate 30 years of JISE, we are excited and proud to present this Special Issue titled "The Changing Landscape of IS Education." The primary themes of the 12 articles within the special issue are: retrospectives, improving pedagogy, program design and curricular models, the CIS/MIS/IS discipline, and strategic issues for the future.
2010
IS 2010 is the latest in a series of model curricula for undergraduate degrees in Information Systems. It builds on the foundation formed by this earlier work, but it is a major revision of the curriculum and incorporates several significant new characteristics. IS 2010 is the third collaborative effort by ACM and AIS. Both organizations have worldwide membership, and, therefore, IS 2010 includes elements that make it more universally adaptable than its predecessors. IS 2010 is not directly linked to a degree structure in any specific environment but it provides guidance regarding the core content of the curriculum that should be present everywhere and suggestions regarding possible electives and career tracks based on those.
2002
Abstract 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.
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.
Information Systems Development (ISD) in undergraduate education is seen as a means of providing graduates with the required skills to participate successfully as a IS specialist in organisations.
J. Inf. Syst. Educ., 2019
The last 30 years of information systems advancements and implementations within organizations saw amazing growth in computing power, interconnectivity, and analytical techniques. Simultaneously, information systems education has changed and adapted to these new organizational systems. The Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE) published its first article in 1989. To commemorate 30 years of JISE, we are excited and proud to present this Special Issue titled "The Changing Landscape of IS Education." The primary themes of the 12 articles within the special issue are: retrospectives, improving pedagogy, program design and curricular models, the CIS/MIS/IS discipline, and strategic issues for the future.
1997
The emergence of information age organization structures challenges information systems (IS) educators to refocus IS curricula and to increase emphasis on topics that they predict to be especially important to organizations that adopt information age structures. These topics fall into four general categories: specific information technologies; application development; database systems; and information resource management. A survey instrument was designed to assess business manager/professional perceptions of the emergence of information age organization structures and to identify topical areas perceived to be important. The population was students in the Master of Business and Technology program at the University of New South Wales (Australia) Results suggest that business managers and professionals agree that emerging information age organization structures are also having an impact on business management practices and challenges. Curriculum implications for IS educators are discussed. (Contains 11 references.) (AEF)
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