Enhancing Decision Support for Secondary Education with OLAP

Decision-making is one of the most critical processes taking place in a modern school. It is a necessary competence for school administrators and managerial staff especially in Education Directorates who often have to make decisions regarding the implementation of education strategies and policies. It is also important for teaching staff and school curriculum designers in order to plan teaching methods and monitor student performance. Nowadays many school functions are supported by dedicated information systems. Business Intelligence (BI) is a widely used set of techniques and tools for the transformation of raw data into meaningful and useful information for business analysis purposes. They include Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) in order to provide historical, current and predictive views of business operations. Schools in secondary education can be viewed as small organizations where effective decision making is required at many areas and levels. The aim of this project is the research of feasibility of applying OLAP Decision Support Systems in Education and Education Management, any possible benefits as well as possible enhancements. The outcome is the design and implementation of an enhanced OLAP system applied in a specific educational setting based on our case study

Enabling Business Processes through Information Management and IT Systems: The FastFit and Winter Gear Distributors Case Studies

The FastFit Case Study and its companion, the Winter Gear Distributors Case Study provide undergraduate business students with a suitable and even familiar business context within which to initially consider the role of information management (IM) and to a lesser extent the role of information technology (IT) systems in enabling a business. FastFit is a small sports retail chain and Winter Gear Distributors is a key FastFit supplier. The day-to-day operations, control and management needs, and business innovation potential of these fictitious companies provide a rich but not overly complex starting point for the student’s consideration of enterprise IM requirements. Furthermore, the information technologies mentioned or implied in these cases fall within the compass of an undergraduate’s own experiences as a consumer and perhaps as an employee. These case studies call upon the student to analyze current operations, to assess the quality of corporate processes and information flows, and even to consider such subjects as the enterprise’s overall IT infrastructure, the uses of/need for business intelligence (i.e. data-driven decision making), customer relationship management, supply chain management, and the Web-enabled disintermediation of more traditional business practices. In use for over four years and in more than one hundred MIS classes, this set of intentionally brief cases is thoroughly field tested. The accompanying teaching note with its pedagogical and class discussion suggestions assists MIS faculty in integrating these two cases into an established curriculum

Effective Academic Advisory Committee Relationships

Recently, accrediting bodies are placing great responsibility for accountability on universities and academic schools, departments, and programs. The goal of the increased accountability is improved quality of teaching and learning. In this paper, we describe several levels of accountability for quality teaching and learning in a small, private, liberal arts college. We describe the role the University’s Board of Trustees. Moving to the School of Business Administration, we explain several activities the Board of Visitors facilitate and participate in. Then, we localize to the Department of Information Systems and Management Science, which has had an advisory committee comprised of award-winning Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers since 2009-2010. Finally, we describe efforts involved in building an advisory committee for a new academic program within the department, the Bachelor’s in Health Information Management (HIM). This examination provides insights and examples for others who are seeking to establish or re-invigorate their relationships with advisors. It is interesting in that some cases the advisory committee is mandated by law, e.g., the University of Board of Trustees, others are voluntary, e.g., the School’s Board of Visitors and the department’s advisory committee, and still others may be prescribed and required by accrediting bodies within particular fields, e.g., the Health Information Management (HIM) program

Managing the move to the cloud – analyzing the risks and opportunities of cloud-based accounting information systems

The accounting industry is being disrupted by the introduction of cloud-based accounting information systems (AIS) that allow for a more efficient allocation of work between the accountant and the client company. In cloud-based AIS, the accountant and the client company as well as third parties such as auditors can simultaneously work on the data in real time. This, in turn, enables a much more granular division of work between the parties. This teaching case considers Kluuvin Apteekki, a small pharmacy business whose owner faces critical management decisions on how to embrace this new opportunity to move to the cloud. Students are guided to evaluate the advantages and drawbacks of cloud computing in the specific context of accounting services. Also, the owner must make a set of critical decisions concerning which tasks to outsource The accounting process comprises of several tasks and sub-tasks, adding to the complexity of the decision making problem. The main learning outcome of the case is related to the development of the skills and competencies needed in creating a strong business case for implementing IT-enabled business processes.Non Peer reviewe

LSS, a problem solving skill for graduates and SMEs: Case Study of investigation in a UK Business School curriculum

Purpose - This research aims to investigate the feasibility of a systematic Lean Six Sigma (LSS) education through the curriculum of business schools to respond to the existing gap between the graduate’s expectation of employability and skill requirements by the Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Design/approach/methodology - One UK business school has been used as a case study to conduct an extensive module and programme review followed by a semi-structured interview with the potentially suitable core and programme-specific module leaders and also the comparative Analysis between content of these modules and the existing LSS high-street training themes. Findings – The result revealed a high potential of the existing modules in the business schools equivalent to the private sector training providers to increase the level of LSS problem solving knowledge and skill for all graduates and improve their employability and productivity for the SMEs. Practical implications/limitations – This research has been carried out in a single UK–based Business School through a qualitative approach. A further in-depth analysis in a broader scale is required to investigate the practical implications in a better way. Originality/Value – The result of this study highlights the role of LSS to reduce the knowledge and skill gap between the business schools as the source of the explicit knowledge, graduates as the knowledge and skill bearer, and SMEs as the knowledge and skill users

Teaching and learning of performance measurement in OR/MS degrees

A review of existing UK MS/OR undergraduate programmes was completed to assess the extent and nature of performance measurement teaching. In addition, a survey of performance measurement practitioners was undertaken to obtain views on what should be taught in relation to performance measurement. A survey of 23 undergraduate MS/OR degrees in the UK revealed that all the academic respondents supported the inclusion of PM teaching. However, only four distinct PM classes could be found amongst these degrees. The PM techniques taught were broadly similar although the wider context of PM was taught in only 2 of the classes. A survey of a small number of PM practitioners revealed that the Balanced Scorecard and Benchmarking were the two most commonly applied PM techniques with the majority of respondents learning about PM from personal experience and reading rather than through formal education. It appears that there is an opportunity for MS/OR teaching to make a major contribution to the development of PM as a discipline. However, academic respondents whose MS/OR degree course did not teach PM indicated that lack of staff expertise in PM combined with an already full syllabus were the main barriers to introducing a PM class

Managing change in the legal firm through the teaching company scheme

This paper draws from our experiences in the initial stages of this project and illustrates the many challenges facing legal firms undertaking such major restructuring of their business processes. Theearly involvement of all stakeholders and the development of effective change management strategies are emphasised

Josiah Mason College: report from the Inspectorate (FEFC inspection report; 68/94 and 48/98)

Comprises two Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) inspection reports for the periods 1993-94 and 1997-98

Norton Radstock College: report from the Inspectorate (FEFC inspection report; 118/95 and 45/99)

The Further Education Funding Council has a legal duty to make sure further education in England is properly assessed. The FEFC’s inspectorate inspects and reports on each college of further education according to a four-year cycle. This record comprises the reports for periods 1994-95 and 1998-99