Development and Testing of a Survey Instrument to Assess Ethical Perceptions of IT and IS Students

The purpose of this research study is to design a survey instrument to determine the effectiveness of the information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) programs in teaching ethics and ethical behavior as it relates to the IT profession. As researchers and as teachers, we want to know if students learn what constitutes ethical behavior in the information technology and information system programs and understand the obligations of an information technology professional with regards to ethical behavior in the workplace. A survey was designed as a tool to assess the effectiveness of teaching ethics in IT and IS curricula. The survey addresses ethical issues such as plagiarism, intellectual property rights, computer related issues, privacy concerns, and law and public policy issues. The survey was administered to classes in an IT degree program in Spring 2013. The development and results of the survey are presented

Knowledge and Skill Requirements for Entry-Level Information Technology Workers: A Comparison of Industry and Academia

Enrollments in Information Technology (IT)-related academic programs have declined significantly in recent years. Paradoxically, the U.S. Department of Labor predicts that the demand for IT professionals will grow much faster than the average for all occupations through the year 2016. To meet increasing demand, IT-related academic programs must attract more students and produce graduates who possess the technical, interpersonal and organizational knowledge and skills required of entry-level IT workers. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the importance of various skills for entry-level IT workers is perceived differently by faculty in academia than it is by IT managers in industry. The results reported in this paper are based upon a survey of the knowledge and skills required of entry-level IT workers as perceived by 350 IT managers and 78 faculty teaching in IT-related academic programs. Finally, implications of the survey results for faculty teaching in IT-related disciplines and for ongoing IT-related curriculum development, as well as implications for IT managers, are discussed

An Implementation of the IT Fundamentals Knowledge Area in an Introductory IT Course

The recently promulgated IT model curriculum contains IT fundamentals (ITF) as one of its knowledge areas. It is intended to give students a broad understanding of (1) the IT profession and the skills that students must develop to become successful IT professionals and (2) the academic discipline of IT and its relationship to other disciplines. The model curriculum recommends 33 lecture hours to complete the IT fundamentals knowledge. The model curriculum also recommends that the material relevant to the IT fundamentals knowledge area be offered early in the curriculum, for example in an Introduction to IT course; however, many institutions will have to include additional material in an introductory IT course. For example, the Introduction to IT course at Georgia Southern University is used to introduce students to the available second disciplines (an important part of the Georgia Southern IT curriculum aimed at providing students with in-depth knowledge of an IT application domain), some productivity tools, and SQL in addition to an introduction to the discipline of IT. For many programs there may be too much material in an introductory IT course. This paper describes how Georgia Southern University resolved this problem by describing the structure of the introductory course at Georgia Southern, its assessment methods, and the relationship between the course and the ITF knowledge area and how those aspects of the ITF knowledge area that are not covered in the introductory course are covered elsewhere in the program

Data Analytics vs. Data Science: A Study of Similarities and Differences in Undergraduate Programs Based on Course Descriptions

The rate at which data is produced and accumulated today is greater than at any point in history with little prospect of slowing. As organizations attempt to collect and analyze this data, there is a tremendous unmet demand for appropriately skilled knowledge workers. In response, universities are developing degree programs in data science and data analytics. As a contribution to the design and development of these programs, this paper presents findings from a review of the descriptions of courses offered in a small sample of undergraduate programs in data science and data analytics. Our investigation clarifies and illustrates the similarities and differences between undergraduate data analytics and data science programs

Plagiarism and Programming: A Survey of Student Attitudes

This paper examines student attitudes towards a number of behaviors which range from acceptable means of seeking help on assignments to unacceptable behaviors such as copying from another student or paying someone to complete an assignment. Attitudes regarding such behaviors are compared based on the type of assignment (programming assignment, written essay, math problems). Findings indicate that students do perceive that there are differences in the acceptability of behaviors depending on assignment type. Further, the study examines the effect of an education campaign designed to increase student awareness as to which behaviors are permitted. Results suggest that faculty efforts to clarify expectations do result in a change in student attitudes regarding the acceptability of certain behaviors

Non-restricted Access to Model Solutions : A Good Idea?

In this article, we report an experiment where students in an introductory programming course were given the opportunity to view model solutions to programming assignments whenever they wished, without the need to complete the assignments beforehand or to wait for the deadline to pass. Our experiment was motivated by the observation that some students may spend hours stuck with an assignment, leading to non-productive study time. At the same time, we considered the possibility of students using the sample solutions as worked examples, which could help students to improve the design of their own programs. Our experiment suggests that many of the students use the model solutions sensibly, indicating that they can control their own work. At the same time, a minority of students used the model solutions as a way to proceed in the course, leading to poor exam performance.Peer reviewe

IT Program Curriculum Recommendations Based on a Survey of Knowledge and Skill Requirements for Entry-Level IT Workers

This paper provides an updated view of the importance of various skills and traits for entry-level IT workers as perceived by the IT industry based on a web-based survey administered to IT managers nationwide. The survey consists of 47 skills and traits that include personal and interpersonal skills, as well as technical skills. This study finds that the top 12 skills and traits are personal and interpersonal skills with honesty and integrity ranked most highly. The top 5 technical skills are operating systems, security, hardware, networking, and database, which have been part of the IT core for many years. The noticeable change in technical skills is the low ranking of programming. Based on the analysis of the survey, several ideas for curriculum recommendations for IT-related programs are provided

Plagiarism in Take-home Exams: Help-seeking, Collaboration, and Systematic Cheating

Due to the increased enrollments in Computer Science education programs, institutions have sought ways to automate and streamline parts of course assessment in order to be able to invest more time in guiding students' work. This article presents a study of plagiarism behavior in an introductory programming course, where a traditional pen-and-paper exam was replaced with multiple take-home exams. The students who took the take-home exam enabled a software plugin that recorded their programming process. During an analysis of the students' submissions, potential plagiarism cases were highlighted, and students were invited to interviews. The interviews with the candidates for plagiarism highlighted three types of plagiarism behaviors: help-seeking, collaboration, and systematic cheating. Analysis of programming process traces indicates that parts of such behavior are detectable directly from programming process data.Peer reviewe