SOA services in higher education

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a recent architectural framework for distributed software system development in which software components are packaged as Services. It has become increasingly popular in academia and in industry, but has been principally used in the business domain. However, in higher education, SOA has rarely been applied or investigated. In this paper, we propose the idea of applying SOA technologies in the education domain, to increase both interoperability and flexibility within the e-learning environment. We expect that both students and teachers in higher educational institutions can benefit from this approach. We also describe a number of possible SOA services, along with a high level service roadmap to support a university's learning and teaching activities

An interactive tool for operations management education

In recent years, universities have become more aware of the advantages of incorporating the new Information Communication Technologies (ICT) into their teaching. The Seville University GIDEAO Group researches on the design and evaluation of ICT based software for Business Administration training. One of these research lines focuses on the development of software related to Operations Management Higher Education. This paper intends to show some of the findings in this topic, looking at various aspects of an experiment devised to test the effectiveness of the software as a teaching tool

Understanding of digital copyright issues among business career and technical educators in Mississippi

This study investigated the understanding of digital copyright issues among business career and technical educators in Mississippi. The areas considered were knowledge; perceptions of knowledge; areas of copyright knowledge including computers and software, the Internet, video, and multimedia; and demographics of teaching level, gender, participation in professional development activities, and teaching experience. Participants included 75 Mississippi business career and technical educators at both the secondary and postsecondary levels. The knowledge level of participants was judged to be low; only four participants reached the established competency level of 70%. Their self-rated perception level was higher than their knowledge level, with the largest number of participants indicating that they had an average level of knowledge concerning digital copyright issues on a scale of ratings from no knowledge to excellent knowledge. A Spearman‘s correlation indicated that there was no significant correlation between the participants‘ knowledge and their perceptions of their knowledge (Spearman‘s rho = .162). Pearson‘s correlations were performed to investigate any significant correlations among computers and software, the Internet, video, and multimedia. A significant correlation was found to exist between the computers and software area and the video area, r = .327. Analyses of any significant correlations between knowledge and the demographic variables of teaching level, gender, participation in professional development activities, and teaching experience were made by performing Spearman‘s rho correlations. There were no significant correlations. However, the professional development variable had a negative correlation with the knowledge scores, teaching level, and teaching experience. Conclusions based on the findings indicated that Mississippi business career and technical educators should be provided with training on specific digital copyright areas. These educators will then be better equipped to determine appropriate use of copyrighted materials and model this use to their students

Gamification of research methods: an exploratory case

This work investigates the benefits of gamification in the taught research methods unit within the Business Management course. It utilises an exploratory design where the team attempted to use a gamified approach to teaching research methods. Two consecutive cohorts were chosen; both cohorts were studying research methods and had the same assessment, in the same format, and were taught and marked by the same teaching team. The first cohort studied the subject without any attempts in gamifying delivery, the second cohort engaged with a gamified curriculum. The latter cohort exhibited stronger final results and a higher level of engagement thus suggesting that a gamified approach to curriculum delivery enhanced the grade results. This first pilot then led to the development of a bespoke software that is imbued with the philosophical streaks from educational pedagogy and the learning literature to support a gamified approach to education

How to implement scrum manager in the software engineering route?

Ponència presentada a 13 th International Technology, Education and Development Conference, Valencia, 11-13 març 2019.Teaching in Software Engineering has evolved in recent years at the same time that software development methodologies have. Therefore, there are a lot of good examples in the literature on how to use Agile Methods in the teaching of the subjects of this track. Most of them focused on explaining the teaching organization, the subsequent evaluation and the obtained academic results, as well as their benefits. However, there are still unanswered questions when implementing the principles of an agile methodology such as Scrum Manager in teaching practice. This paper presents the result of a teaching experience of coordination of subjects in the context of Software Engineering carried out during four academic years. This has been formulated as best practices including the improvements that teachers have achieved in teaching after gathering feedback from students and the collaborative business environment. The main objective is to offer a help guide for teachers who want to use Scrum Manager in their subjects but who sometimes find problems that are not usually collected in the literature

Enhancing Student Learning of Enterprise Integration by Deploying SAP R/3 into Curriculum

Though the ability of enterprise systems (ES) software solutions in teaching concepts of cross-functional enterprise integration and process orientation are well recognised and discussed in the academic literature, many business schools/faculties, for different reasons, are slow in incorporating these latest software products in their curricula. This paper reports on one curriculum development project that extended the deployment of SAP R/3 into the business curriculum for enhancing students learning of enterprise integration. Employing questionnaire survey and selfassessment of the knowledge and skills gained in the course, the effectiveness of the curriculum design and delivery are reported in this paper. This study demonstrates the powerful role played by the ERP system in developing business process orientation and cross-functional perspective to business students

Integrating Software Development Courses in the Construction Curriculum

Researchers have largely revealed the importance of ICT/Software in changing the economy of a nation and achieving sustainable goals. The present youth population are a result of the computer/internet age and these characteristics should be harnessed. The study examined the integration of software development courses in the construction curriculum, specifically in the business of resource management. The study employed the use of a cross-sectional survey design using the instrument of questionnaire to obtain data. A total of thirty (30) educationist in the built environment participated in the study and were selected randomly through a convenient sampling method. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS v21.0. Descriptive and Inferential statistics test of Factor Analysis, One-way ANOVA and Kruskal wallis were conducted. Results revealed that the factors that engender learning of software development courses in the construction curriculum are grouped into three (3) namely teaching support factors, learning Support factors and the regulatory support factors. The study revealed that poor delivering method, poor internet connectivity and low patronage of indigenous software are significant barriers to the integration of software development courses in the construction curriculum. In conclusion, there was no significant difference among construction professionals on the benefits of integrating software development courses in the construction curriculum. The study recommended the speedy integration of software development courses in the construction curriculum, carefully aided with adequate teaching and learning facilities. In addition, government should support and patronize locally developed software in order to aid the growth of the industry in the sub Saharan Africa

An evaluation of business simulation games for the Management module of the MEng Aeronautical Engineering degree at Loughborough University

There is a drive within engineering disciplines at Loughborough University to develop the employability skills of undergraduate students. The engCETL (Engineering Centre for Excellence in Teaching & Learning) has a broad remit to enhance links with industry and to underpin developments in learning and teaching with pedagogic research and technology development. The Centre does this through research and development projects that are proposed by academics within the engineering related departments and carried out in conjunction with specialists from the engCETL team. Prof Rob Thring, Head of the Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering Department proposed a project to the engCETL. His requirement was for some form of business simulation software for the undergraduates to use as part of the Management module on the MEng programme. Currently the students come up with an idea for a new business, create a business plan for the venture and take part in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ style presentation at the end of the project to representatives from the department and industry. However, the department would like to take this project a step further and provide the students with the opportunity to take part in a simulated business environment where they could explore the idea of setting up or running a business as close to the real world as possible. The intention would be to enliven and enrich the student’s learning experience with skills development such as; enterprise, leadership, management, teamwork, fiscal sense, business judgement and inventiveness amongst others. An interdisciplinary project team was formed to try and resolve the pedagogic, technical and business aspects that would need to be addressed in order to implement such software within the MEng programme. The approach taken has been to form a set of criteria based on certain curriculum requirements but keep the brief broad and carry out a scoping study of existing software (commercial and open source) and take account of the academic literature in this area. After the initial scoping study, our findings indicate two commercial business simulations that have potential for use on the course. These were; ‘Marketplace Simulation’ (http://www.marketplace-simulation.co.uk) and SimVenture (http://www.simventure.co.uk). An in-depth evaluation was then carried out for the two simulations. This evaluation comprised two teams made up of academics, industrial representatives and engCETL staff. The software was thoroughly examined in terms of what each application could offer to the learning experience of the students, resources to support staff and the costs involved, for example, staff time in embedding the software into the curriculum.This paper will highlight the approach taken, findings and recommendations from the evaluation of the two business simulations. The recommendations will be presented in the context of all engineering disciplines and will cover; appropriateness of the chosen software for the programme level, plans for embedding into the curriculum, potential learning outcomes and assessment methods. It will benefit all those interested in methods for evaluating potential simulation games for suitability within the curriculum and the development of enterprise and employability skills

Critical Success Factors in Developing, Implementing, and Teaching a Web Development Course

As universities respond to the recent demand for E-commerce, faculty members are now being assigned the task of developing, implementing, and teaching E-commerce courses. Since E-commerce is intertwined in almost all areas of business, most business courses now include some discussion on pertinent E-commerce topics. However, many information systems departments are discovering the need for a course that exclusively deals with the technical issues of E-commerce or web development. This study presents several critical success factors in developing and offering a course focused exclusively on web development. Critical success factors presented include book and software adoption, where the course fits in the curriculum, the skill sets of students entering the web development course, and faculty development

Web-TRECS: teaching electronic commerce

Effective Electronic Commerce (e-Commerce) education for students in such disciplines as Management Information Systems, Accounting and Marketing is paramount. This is because organisations globally need people who are skilled in e-Commerce, from a technical and/or organisational perspective, so that the firms can take advantage of such technologies as the Web. The challenge for business and e-Commerce educators, therefore, is the development of teaching tools and environments which provide tertiary students and business people with practically-based opportunities for learning about the potential of e-Commerce. Business simulation approaches to e-Commerce education are a particularly effective way in which to provide students with these pedagogic opportunities. This paper provides an overview of a Web-based e-Commerce business simulation called Web-TRECS (Teaching Realistic Electronic Commerce Solutions). It then describes how the software components of Web-TRECS have been designed to form the e-Commerce teaching tool. The paper then discusses how Web-TRECS could be used to teach a range of e-Commerce concepts and skills, based on six years of research into the use of e-Commerce business simulations. The paper finally concludes by outlining our future research plans to extend Web-TRECS so that additional e-Commerce concepts and skills might be taught using this tool.<br /