A methodology to assess the generic competence "Analysis and Problem solving" in master degree

[EN] The Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) has considered the development and assessment of generic competences in the curricula of its undergraduate and graduate degrees. Specifically, thirteen generic competences have been defined and introduced within all the curricula. These generic competences are to be assessed within the specific activities developed through the courses. For that purpose, the UPV has designed an institutional project called "UPV transversal competences" in order to guide the general implementation of the generic competencies in the degrees. This paper emerges from the work developed within a specific educational project designed in coherence with the institutional UPV project that studies the "analysis and problem solving" competence in master degree. Instructors have experience in the assessment and development of specific competences but, most of them, still need tools that aid to assess the degree of development of generic competences due to its novelty in the curricula. In order to fill this gap, this paper presents a structured methodology to design and develop assessment procedures and instruments of the "analysis and problem solving" generic competence. This methodology has been applied during the academic year 2015-2016 to assess the "analysis and problem solving" competence in the "Technologies and Software Applications for Supply Chain Management" course which belongs to the Master in Advanced Engineering Production, Logistics and Supply Chain at the Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering. This paper discusses main results and conclusions obtained from the application. These results are of two types: results of the assessment of the specific competence in the course and results of the questionnaire passed to the students to know their point of view regarding the whole experience.This work has been developed within the research project called "Assessment of UPV generic competence "problem analysis and resolution" in master students" (Ref.: PIME-A7-15) funded by the Vice-Rectorate for Studies, Quality and Accreditation at Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Verdecho Sáez, MJ.; Gómez-Gasquet, P.; Rodríguez Rodríguez, R.; Alfaro Saiz, JJ. (2016). A methodology to assess the generic competence "Analysis and Problem solving" in master degree. ICERI Proceedings. 7506-7511. https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2016.0712S7506751

Management of Globally Distributed Component-Based Software Development Projects

Globally Distributed Component-Based Development (GD CBD) is expected to become a promising area, as increasing numbers of companies are setting up software development in a globally distributed environment and at the same time are adopting CBD methodologies. Being an emerging area, the management of GD CBD has evolved primarily on an ad hoc basis. At present, little is known about how to successfully organise and manage GD CBD. To fill this gap, this research explores the management of GD CBD and reveals factors that contribute to success in GD CBD projects. Data are drawn from several successful GD CBD projects at LeCroy, SAP and TCS, compared with one unsuccessful project at Baan. The results suggest that inter-site coordination, appropriate tools and technologies, social ties, knowledge sharing and components management are the main factors that contribute to success in GD CBD. Lastly, a framework assisting managers to organize and manage CBD in GD environments is offered.Julia Kotlarsky graduated in 1996 as an engineer in Industrial Engineering and Management from Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology. In 1997-1999, during study for her master’s degree, she received the highest level of fellowship at the Technion and worked as a teaching assistant for a number of undergraduate and graduate courses at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management. At the same period she worked as a lecturer in ORT College. During her graduate studies at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The Netherlands, in 2001 she received a Marie Curie Scholarship from the European Commission for visiting Henley Management College, Henley-on-Thames, UK, where she had a visiting position for five months. In 2001-2003 she also visited Florida International University in Miami, USA, the University of Technology Sydney in Sydney, Australia, and the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon, India. She conducted research in leading companies, which included SAP, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Baan and LeCroy Corporation. Currently she is a lecturer in Information Systems at Warwick Business School, UK. In 2003 she won the Philip Law Scholarship from the European Case Clearing House for writing a teaching case about globally distributed development of component-based software. She has published in International Journal of Production Research, European Journal of Information Systems and has given a number of papers in refereed conferences. Julia is working in the area of management of globally distributed software development projects. Her interests include component-based design, knowledge sharing, and the social and technical aspects of the management of globally distributed software development projects

The impact on firms of ICT skill-supply strategies: an Anglo-German comparison

This paper compares the supply of specialist ICT skills in Britain and Germany from higher education and from apprenticeship and assesses the relative impact on companies in the two countries. In contrast to Britain, where numbers of ICT graduates have expanded rapidly, the supply of university graduates in Germany has not increased. Combined with the constraints of the German occupational model of work organization, it is concluded that this failure of supply may have contributed to slower growth of ICT employment in Germany. At the same time, German firms have turned to a newly developed model of apprenticeship to supply routine technical ICT skills. This strategy contrasts with British firms which recruit from a wide range of graduate specialisms and invest more heavily in graduate training. Probably in part as a consequence, apprenticeship in ICT occupations in Britain has failed to develop

Multinational perspectives on information technology from academia and industry

As the term \u27information technology\u27 has many meanings for various stakeholders and continues to evolve, this work presents a comprehensive approach for developing curriculum guidelines for rigorous, high quality, bachelor\u27s degree programs in information technology (IT) to prepare successful graduates for a future global technological society. The aim is to address three research questions in the context of IT concerning (1) the educational frameworks relevant for academics and students of IT, (2) the pathways into IT programs, and (3) graduates\u27 preparation for meeting future technologies. The analysis of current trends comes from survey data of IT faculty members and professional IT industry leaders. With these analyses, the IT Model Curricula of CC2005, IT2008, IT2017, extensive literature review, and the multinational insights of the authors into the status of IT, this paper presents a comprehensive overview and discussion of future directions of global IT education toward 2025

Business Process Management Education in Academia: Status, challenges, and Recommendations

In response to the growing proliferation of Business Process Management (BPM) in industry and the demand this creates for BPM expertise, universities across the globe are at various stages of incorporating knowledge and skills in their teaching offerings. However, there are still only a handful of institutions that offer specialized education in BPM in a systematic and in-depth manner. This article is based on a global educators’ panel discussion held at the 2009 European Conference on Information Systems in Verona, Italy. The article presents the BPM programs of five universities from Australia, Europe, Africa, and North America, describing the BPM content covered, program and course structures, and challenges and lessons learned. The article also provides a comparative content analysis of BPM education programs illustrating a heterogeneous view of BPM. The examples presented demonstrate how different courses and programs can be developed to meet the educational goals of a university department, program, or school. This article contributes insights on how best to continuously sustain and reshape BPM education to ensure it remains dynamic, responsive, and sustainable in light of the evolving and ever-changing marketplace demands for BPM expertise

Every student counts: promoting numeracy and enhancing employability

This three-year project investigated factors that influence the development of undergraduates’ numeracy skills, with a view to identifying ways to improve them and thereby enhance student employability. Its aims and objectives were to ascertain: the generic numeracy skills in which employers expect their graduate recruits to be competent and the extent to which employers are using numeracy tests as part of graduate recruitment processes; the numeracy skills developed within a diversity of academic disciplines; the prevalence of factors that influence undergraduates’ development of their numeracy skills; how the development of numeracy skills might be better supported within undergraduate curricula; and the extra-curricular support necessary to enhance undergraduates’ numeracy skills

Developing e-assessment using the quiz activity within Moodle: empowering student learning

Using formative assessment within Moodle has been shown to encourage self-directed learning (Bromham & Oprandi, 2006). Our experience of using formative assessment quizzes as stand alone entities, as well as within Moodle lessons, has been used to introduce Moodle assessment quizzes over the past year in Level 1 and Level 2 Life Sciences courses. This experience has been distilled to inform the content of this workshop. Some advantages of incorporating assessments in the form of Moodle quizzes are that they allow for quick, reproducible and flexible assessment with a relatively small initial set-up cost, and substantial long-term staff and administration savings. One significant advantage is that staff and room pressures can be reduced as students can attempt the assessment at a time and location of their choice within a specified time period. This flexibility can help to reduce student stress associated with completion of a continuous assessment for their course. It is also a relatively simple process to account for students entitled to extra time during assessments. Providing clear instructions beforehand and at the start of the quiz ensures that students understand their responsibilities for completion of this assessment and ultimately the course. There are some disadvantages and limitations to the system as it currently exists, for example there is the perceived ability for students to “cheat” by completing the assessment as a group, accessing books and the internet. Strategies to account for these can be put in place and will be discussed in detail during the workshop. This workshop aims to take the participants through the initial set up of a quiz, highlighting the various question types and how these can be used to create a challenging assessment that can be quickly graded and prove informative for staff and course development. Reference Bromham L. & Oprandi P. (2006) Evolution online: developing active and blended learning by using a virtual learning environment in an introductory biology course. Journal of Biological Education 41 (1): 21-25

Supporting graduate teaching assistants in two STEM areas

No abstract available

The Dag-Brucken ASRS Case Study

In 1996 an agreement was made between a well-known beverage manufacturer, Super-Cola Taiwan, (SCT) and a small Australian electrical engineering company, Dag-Brücken ASRS Pty Ltd, (DB), to provide an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) facility as part of SCT’s production facilities in Asia. Recognising the potential of their innovative and technically advanced design, DB was awarded a State Premiers Export Award and was a finalist in that year’s National Export Awards. The case tracks the development and subsequent implementation of the SCT ASRS project, setting out to highlight how the lack of appropriate IT development processes contributed to the ultimate failure of the project and the subsequent winding up of DB only one year after being honoured with these prestigious awards. The case provides compelling evidence of the types of project management incompetency that, from the literature, appears to contribute to the high failure rate in IT projects. For confidentiality reasons, the names of the principal parties are changed, but the case covers actual events documented by one of the project team members as part of his postgraduate studies, providing an example of the special mode of evidence collection that Yin (1994) calls ‘participant-observation’