Panel 3: Issues in IS Curriculum Design

Although major attention today is being devoted to spreading computer usage throughout the general BA and MBA curriculum, there is an increasing need to redesign and expand what is being taught in the information systems curriculum itself. The ambiguities of the personal computer, the growth in new languages. the increasing importance of data-centered design, the introduction of expert systems, the continuing dispersal of hardware and personnel throughout the organization, and the increasing influence of end users are all causing major changes in both what should be taught and methods of teaching information systems material. Adjusting the curriculum to all these changes is not simple, however. There is a shortage of faculty. The impact of some trends, such as expert systems growth, is far from clear. Students are entering with vastly diverse computer backgrounds. What can be eliminated from the curriculum to add new material isn\u27t clear. This panel will focus on some of the key issues in curriculum design. The overall development of one of the largest programs in the United States will be discussed. Following this, attention will be turned to two key courses - the initial course for non-specialist MBA\u27s and the capstone course for IS majors. Among the iSSues to be discussed are: - IS Program Size and Scope - Program Strategies - Faculty Needs -Technology/Management Emphasis Tradeoffs -Courses for Non-Majors - Educating MBA Non-Specialists - The Undergraduate Curriculum - Models for the Undergraduate Capstone Course - Resource Issue

Development of predicting model for safety behaviour based on safety psychology and working environment

The increasing trend of occupational accident due to unsafe act and unsafe condition especially in construction site suggests the need for more proactive safety assessment model. Therefore this research aimed to establish a prediction model of safety behaviour based on safety psychology and working environment factors in construction site. Theory of Planned Behaviour (TpB) was adapted to examine on the prediction model of safety behaviour among construction workers using safety psychology representing unsafe act and working environment factors representing unsafe condition. A modified perception questionnaire named Safety Psychometric Model (SPM) was proposed based on TpB questionnaire and safety attitude questionnaire (SQA). Previously, the approach has successfully applied in health care and manufacturing sector. The questionnaire has been validated by three industrial and academic experts. A total of 554 respondents among 92 construction site were selected as the subjects for analysis. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) was use for analysis purpose which involve correlation, regression and structural equation analysis. The results demonstrated that safety psychology and work environment factor was related positively with safety behaviour intention. The elements of workers’ attitude, subjective norm and perceived control that form the safety psychology context found to be significantly has the ability to predict safety behaviour. The demographics variances of personal and education background, working experiences and training background also determine as the factors of safety behaviour of the construction workers. The research also successfully established a safety behaviour prediction model that named Safety Psychometric Model. The model can be benefited by safety practitioners, organizations and researchers to explore the safety behaviour prediction. It also enhanced the knowledge in the area of employee behaviour prediction and modelling

Addressing Student Nurses\u27 Concerns in End of Life Care

Recently, there has been a great deal of attention to the fact that there are few learning opportunities regarding end-of-life (EOL) care in nursing undergraduate education. One purpose of this research study was to provide an educational seminar for nursing students with information necessary to communicate with patients at the end of life and their families. The educational intervention consisted of an interdisciplinary panel discussion, a brief segment of a video, a case study with small group discussion, and an optional reflective activity. A quasi- ~; experimental, pretest and posttest design was used in a baccalaureate-nursing program in Northern California. A Wilcoxon analysis revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores measuring student comfort and confidence levels. This seminar was an effective and creative strategy to integrate EOL content without making extensive changes to an existing nursing program

VCU Media Lab

We propose the establishment of a VCU Media Lab – a professional creative media technology unit whose mission is to support the development, design, production and delivery of innovative media, multimedia, computer-based instruction, publications and tools in support of VCU education, research and marketing initiatives. This centrally administered, budgeted and resourced facility will acknowledge, refine, focus and expand media services that are currently being provided at VCU in a decentralized manner

Reengineering Biomedical Engineering Curricula: A New Product Development Approach

Product development engineers in medical industries have created design control procedures to ensure high quality designs that are as error-free as possible. The reason is simple; companies must adhere to certain engineering and manufacturing best practices in order to obtain certification of their devices for sale in the US and abroad. We describe here an ongoing effort to apply these industrial best practices to the design and implementation of a novel sequence of undergraduate biomedical computing courses within the Department of Bio-medical Engineering at Marquette University (Milwaukee, Wisconsin). We have tightly integrated our industrial advisory board into this design and development effort. The board has contributed to significantly to the orderly generation of curricular requirements, the development of course implementation designs and the evaluation of these designs per requirements

Sustainable design and the design curriculum

This paper reports on an initial study that begins the process of considering how design education should deal with the issue of sustainable design specifically in the context of the education of graduate designers in the fields of product, design engineering and interior design. Consideration is given to the development of the design curriculum and the design process. Further, a number of questions related to shaping the future of design and engineering education are also explored. The question this research seeks to address is whether sustainability, or more specifically sustainable design, should or can be an integral part of engineering/product design programmes or whether it should/or can be developed as a separate design discipline, perhaps as a postgraduate extension to the designer’s core skills set? The research also discusses the difference between, eco-design and sustainable design and the implications of the understanding of this difference for design education

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

An Overview of the New ACM/IEEE Information Technology Curricular Framework

ACM and IEEE have developed a curricular report titled, “Information Technology Curricula 2017: Curriculum Guidelines for Baccalaureate Degree Programs in Information Technology,” known also as IT2017. The development of this report has received worldwide content contributions from industry and academia through surveys as well as many international conferences and workshops. An open online publication of the report was made available in December 2017. This paper presents a digest of the content of the report, the IT curricular framework, and suggestions for its use in developing new information technology programs or enhancing existing ones. The heart of the IT curricular framework is a set of competencies identified through knowledge, skills, and dispositions, as supported by pedagogical research. The paper also describes ways in which institutions could use the curricular framework not only to develop information technology degree programs, but also to improve and enhance related computing programs