PREPARING STUDENTS FOR THE IS PROFESSION: DESIGNING AND ASSESSING A PROFESSIONAL READINESS PROGRAM

Numerous studies have highlighted the importance of relational and professional competencies for the information systems (IS) profession. Preparing IS students to be ready for their profession requires the development of competencies that are not often part of the standard disciplinary curriculum. Yet dedicating an entire course to professionalism can be a challenge due to resource and curriculum requirement constraints. In this paper, we describe a pilot project for a “Professional Readiness” program that was designed and implemented to provide an extracurricular resource for undergraduate students. We provide evidence of the program’s effectiveness, as well as lessons learned for developing and refining Professional Readiness programs for IS students

A Software Inspection Exercise for the Systems Analysis and Design Course

Software inspections have been found to be one of the most effective ways to promote quality and productivity in software development. Inspections are an especially important tactic to use during the analysis and design phases of software development since the correction of a defect found early in development can be 10 to 100 times less expensive to fix than rework performed at the system testing stage. Given its prominence within the software field, it is surprising that the software inspection process does not receive more attention with respect to education in the area of Systems Analysis and Design. The purpose of this article is to present an experiential exercise for the Systems Analysis and Design course that may be used to promote learning with respect to the software inspection process. The focal point of the exercise is a system specification document that describes the user requirements for a system for a fictional real estate company. The specification document includes three components that are typical of a specification document: a descriptive narrative overview, a project dictionary, and data flow diagrams (DFDs). Survey results regarding students\u27 perceptions of the exercise are also discussed

Groupware Support for Software Inspections: The Impact of Group Interaction and Interface on Performance

The software inspection meeting is one of the best- known techniques for quality assurance in software development and has become a standard practice in many software development groups (Ebenau and Strauss, 1994). The application of groupware has been suggested as a particularly promising way to improve the inspection process (Johnson, 1998). This paper discusses a “research in progress” study that concerns the application of groupware to software inspection meetings. A controlled experimental study involving eighty teams is presently being conducted to address two fundamental research questions relating to the use of groupware to support software inspections: 1) Is it more effective to use groupware in an interactive or nominal group mode?; and 2) Is it worthwhile to incorporate task structure into the design of the groupware interface? The research design is a 2 X 2 factorial design using the inspection team as the unit of analysis. One independent variable manipulates the type of group interaction (nominal vs. interactive) and the second independent variable manipulates task structure (a partitioned groupware interface vs. an unpartitioned interface). The dependent variable will be team performance

Using Wikis To Support Virtual Teams In Education: The Effect Of Instructor Leadership Style

This extended abstract describes the design of a study that was recently conducted to learn more about how to use one specific type of collaboration technology – wiki technology – to support virtual teams of students in an educational setting. The specific research question that was investigated was: For a wiki exercise, what is the impact of instructor online leadership style on student participation, performance and perceptions? Results from a study involving 58 virtual teams of students are discussed

Energizing an Information Systems Program by Empowering Student Leaders

This paper describes an ongoing four-year project involving the development and implementation of a student-driven “IT Leadership” program to support an undergraduate academic program for Management Information Systems (MIS). The motivation for initiating the IT Leadership program was to enhance promotion of the MIS discipline and the career development of MIS students. The outcomes of implementation have been positive, including increased student interest in the MIS discipline, the creation of new professional development opportunities for students, and a rapid and significant increase in MIS graduates. The expenses associated with the program have been modest. Based on the findings of this project, it appears that empowering student leaders can be an effective way to support an MIS program

Determinants of Graduating MIS Students Starting Salary in Boom and Bust Job Markets

This study investigates the influence of internship experience, grade-point average (GPA), and job market on the starting salaries of management information systems (MIS) graduates. The seven-year period of the study includes the strong job market of the Internet boom, as well as the weak job market following the Internet bust. The regression results indicate that several factors are significantly related to starting salary including internship experience, GPA, job market, and size of employer. Internship experience was found to play a particularly strong role in predicting MIS starting salaries. A significant interaction effect indicates that the positive effect of internship experience is stronger during a weak job market. Graduates with internship experience also found employment more quickly. The study is based upon academic and placement data collected from 126 graduates from an AACSB accredited MIS program at Western Washington University during the years 1997-2003

AN EVALUATION OF ELECTRONIC MEETING SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Strategic management, defined as the overall process of formulating and implementing goals, policies and plans of organizational strategy, is an important organizational task that is typically performed by groups of managers. While information technology has long been used to support strategic management, it has only recently been used to support the group processes of strategic management through the provision of Electronic Meeting Systems (EMS). An EMS can affect meetings by providing process support, process structure, task structure, and task support. Process support improves communication among group members (via an electronic communication channel), while process structure directs the pattern or content of discussion (via an agenda). Task structure refers to the use of a structured technique to analyze the task (a mathematical or conceptual model), while task support refers to the provision of information or computation support without additional structure (a data base or calculator). The objective of this paper is to evaluate the capability of EMS to support strategic management. The results of a series of seventeen case studies indicate that use of EMS technology can enhance six capabilities that prior research has linked to increased strategic management success. Process support and process structure were perceived to be more important than task structure and task support in contributing to success. An analysis of less successful meetings suggests that a lack of communication between the group leader/meeting organizer and meeting participants and extenuating external circumstances were primary causes for the lack of success

Designing the spreadsheet-based decision support systems course: An application of Bloom's taxonomy

Decision support systems (DSS) have played an important role in organizations for many years. As DSS continue to be developed for industry applications, a number of business programs in universities offer a specialized course aimed at helping students better understand and develop DSS systems to support decision making. Spreadsheet software coupled with an application programming language can serve as a useful DSS generation software package for such courses. To help students develop their technical skills for spreadsheet-based DSS, the principles underlying Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives can serve as a guiding framework for instructional design. This article describes how Bloom's taxonomy has been used to support the design of two different DSS courses, an undergraduate course and an MBA course. Student survey data collected over the past four years from students enrolled in nine sections of the DSS courses are reported. Based on the survey findings, as well as the instructor's observations, it appears that a teaching strategy based on Bloom's taxonomy offers a worthwhile framework for instructors who teach a spreadsheet-based DSS course.Spreadsheet software Decision support systems Bloom's taxonomy Management education

SUPPORTING STUDENT COLLABORATION FOR ONLINE LEARNING: THE IMPACT OF TWO INSTRUCTIONAL INTERVENTIONS

This extended abstract provides an overview of an exploratory study that is being conducted to investigate two potential ways in which an instructor may be able to support online student teams assigned to analyze a case and create a collaborative digital document. Specifically, the study was designed to examine the impact of instructor leadership style and process structure on student perceptions and performance. Data has been collected for 60 3-person teams of students enrolled in an upper-division undergraduate information systems course entitled “Business Process Management.” The research data has been collected and will be analyzed. Preliminary findings from the study will be discussed

The Streaming Potential Generated by Flow of Wet Steam in Capillary Tubes

For a constant pressure differential, the flow of wet steam generated electric potentials which increased with time and did not reach equilibrium values. These potentials were found to increase to values greater than 100 volts. The reason for this kind of potential build-up behavior was the presence of tiny flowing water slugs which were interspersed with electrically nonconductive steam vapor slugs. The measured electric potential for wet steam increased with pressure differential, but the relationship was not linear. The increase in potential with pressure drop was attributed both to an increase in fluid flow rate and changes in the wet steam quality