Improving the learning of graduate attributes in the curriculum: A case-study in it management

Government, employers and professional societies want university graduates who are more ready for work. The UTS Work-Ready Project is a curriculum renewal initiative that aims to improve graduates' professional attributes and employability skills. The Project provides online teaching and learning resources to support the integration of Work-Ready Learning Activities (WRLA) into the existing curriculum. The paper provides an overview of the UTS Work-Ready Project and the incorporation of WRLA's into three Information Technology (IT) Management subjects which all included a group assessment item. In each subject, students were surveyed to gain feedback regarding how useful they found a team collaborative decision-making WRLA and whether it helped in their group assessment task. When averaged across the three subjects and the five surveys undertaken 85% of students thought the activity was useful, however there were mixed results in relation to whether the WRLA helped in the group assessment task. Under-graduate students reported the WRLA made no difference to the group assessment task, whereas postgraduates indicated the WRLA did help the team produce their group assessment item. © 2010, Australian Computer Society, Inc

An agent-based architecture for managing the provision of community care - the INCA (Intelligent Community Alarm) experience

Community Care is an area that requires extensive cooperation between independent agencies, each of which needs to meet its own objectives and targets. None are engaged solely in the delivery of community care, and need to integrate the service with their other responsibilities in a coherent and efficient manner. Agent technology provides the means by which effective cooperation can take place without compromising the essential security of both the client and the agencies involved as the appropriate set of responses can be generated through negotiation between the parties without the need for access to the main information repositories that would be necessary with conventional collaboration models. The autonomous nature of agents also means that a variety of agents can cooperate together with various local capabilities, so long as they conform to the relevant messaging requirements. This allows a variety of agents, with capabilities tailored to the carers to which they are attached to be developed so that cost-effective solutions can be provided. </p

Improving graduate attributes with online teaching resources: A case study in IT management

The paper backgrounds the UTS Work-ready Project which aims to improve graduate professional attributes and employability understandings and skills. The Project makes available online teaching and learning resources to support the integration of Work-Ready Learning Activities (WRLA) into the existing curriculum. The WRLA's are contextualized for each profession's workspace to maximise relevance for both students and academics. The paper presents a case-study of the integration and evaluation of contextualized WRLA's to improve teamwork processes into three subjects in the IT Management curriculum. Students were surveyed to obtain feedback on the usefulness of a team collaborative decision-making WRLA and whether it helped in their undertaking of a group assessment task. The survey results were positive when averaged across the three subjects and the five surveys conducted indicate 85% of students thought the activity was useful. However in relation to whether the WRLA helped in the group assessment task there were mixed results. Undergraduate students reported the WRLA made little difference, whereas post-graduates indicated the WRLA did help the team produce their group assignment. We also present reflections and lessons learnt from the perspective of a Subject Coordinator trying to improve graduate work-readiness within the existing curriculum. © 2009 Alan Sixsmith and Andrew Litchfield

Vendor transition and the impact on in-flight projects

This paper explores the vendor transition process after the termination or alteration of existing outsourcing contracts and the impact on in-flight projects. A single case study based on a large Australian telecommunications company, which operates a heavily outsourced IT environment is presented. Qualitative techniques were used for data collection and analysis. Data collection was undertaken using on-site semistructured open-ended interviews. The following key themes were uncovered in the interviews 1) Communication of the vendor transition, 2) The transition period, 3) Confusion during transition, 4) Extending agreements, and 5) Knowledge management. The paper concludes by presenting a number implications and underlying points of interest derived from the findings. © 2010 Amaya Booker and Alan Sixsmith

Dimensions of culture: A project perspective

This research in progress explores organizational culture from a project context. The paper takes the form of a case study with two projects, one from an oil company and the other from a bank, presented and analysed using Hofstede's [10] Six Dimensions of Organizational Culture. Data collection was Qualitative using the methods of reflective observation and informal discussion with project team members. The results show that for the bank project the culture of the project and the organization were along similar paths whereas for the oil company project the culture of the project and the organization were dissimilar in a number of dimensions. This research has also developed and pilot tested a questionnaire in relation to organisational culture in the context of projects, however this is not the focus of this paper

Engaging IT undergraduates in non-IT content: Adopting an eLearning information system in the classroom

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose-This paper aims to report on the efforts made to enhance the engagement of IT students with non-IT-specific content. The mechanism to foster this engagement was the introduction of an eLearning information system (ELIS) for a finance-related subject within an IT undergraduate degree at the university. The subject developers were primarily concerned with both the learning design and the engagement of the student to enable the effective incorporation of an ELIS into the classroom. Design/methodology/approach-This interpretive research used a comparative case study as the aim was to gain an in-depth understanding of a particular situation. The research approach also allows an open-minded interpretation of the collected data as the researcher is interested in looking for the “Why and not the How”. Data were collected via an online university student feedback survey. Findings-Four key themes emerged from the data as follows: ITstudents learning non-IT-related content was a major driving force behind the changes to the course; staff change brought fresh eyes to the subject content and enabled improvements to occur; introducing the ELIS assisted the teaching staff to reduce preparation time while also helping students learn at the own pace; and collaborative group work helped facilitated student insights into real life work scenarios. The findings show that each of the key themes identified played a role in improving student engagement and satisfaction with the non-IT subject matter. Originality/value-The value of this paper is from its practical perspective. Engaging IT students in non-IT subject matter is a challenging proposition for which there is no simple solution. This paper shows that over a five-semester period and through a phased implementation of major changes, student satisfaction and engagement with non-IT subject matter has improved steadily. This paper is of interest, and hence value, to academics who encounter problems or issues of engaging students in non-domain-related subject matter

Integrating an elearning information system into the classroom to engage it undergraduate students in non it content

© 2014 IADIS. This paper presents a comparative case study of the challenges of teaching non-IT content to IT undergraduates. Data was collected over five semesters via a standard University student survey to show how the integration of ELearning Information Systems (ELIS) has led to improved student satisfaction within an undergraduate IT subject. Results from the surveys are discussed in relation to the change history of the subject and indicate that continually updating content and delivery methods (no matter how static the subject area) can lead to improved outcomes. With further development, the combination of collaborative group work and an ELIS will provide an enhanced learning experience for students

Organisational culture in IT projects: A case study analysis

The aim of this research in progress paper is to explore the organisational culture in the context of information technology (IT) projects. Two case study projects are presented and analysed via the Johnson and Scholes (1999) Cultural Web. Data collection was undertaken using the qualitative methods of reflective observation and informal discussion with project team members which was made possible as one of the researchers had worked on both projects. The results show that both projects were quite dissimilar in all but the Rituals component of the Cultural Web. This research has also developed and pilot tested a questionnaire in relation to organisational culture in the context of IT projects, however this is not the focus of this paper. © 2007 Maggie Beshay and Alan Sixsmith

Healthy ageing and home: The perspectives of very old people in five European countries

This paper reports on in-depth research, using a grounded theory approach, to examine the ways in which very old people perceive healthy ageing in the context of living alone at home within urban settings in five European countries. This qualitative study was part of a cross-national project entitled ENABLE-AGE which examined the relationship between home and healthy ageing. Interviews explored the notion of healthy ageing, the meaning and importance of home, conceptualisations of independence and autonomy and links between healthy ageing and home. Data analysis identified five ways in which older people constructed healthy ageing: home and keeping active; managing lifestyles, health and illness; balancing social life; and balancing material and financial circumstances. Older people reflected on their everyday lives at home in terms of being engaged in purposeful, meaningful action and evaluated healthy ageing in relation to the symbolic and practical affordances of the home, contextualised within constructions of their national context. The research suggests that older people perceive healthy ageing as an active achievement, created through individual, personal effort and supported through social ties despite the health, financial and social decline associated with growing older. The physicality and spatiality of home provided the context for establishing and evaluating the notion of healthy ageing, whilst the experienced relationship between home, life history and identity created a meaningful space within which healthy ageing was negotiated