COURSE INTEGRATION: DESIGN FOR BETTER LEARNING?

Educating information systems (IS) developers is an important task for universities as information systems are playing an increasingly important role in organizations, municipalities and people’s individual lives. Information systems development (ISD) requires an understanding of the business processes the system is to serve, the users of the system and the technological platform for the system. A learning environment for ISD therefore needs to include all these elements. This paper describes students’ reflections on their learning experiences in ISD related to product, process, and meta learning from a learning environment where three systems development courses were integrated through common cross-course project activities in the same semester. Students’ reflections were analyzed based on Harden’s integration ladder and in terms of philosophical hermeneutics. The concepts of hermeneutics shed light on the idea of course integration as the students’ understanding of a cross-course project reflected the hermeneutic learning circle involving wholes and parts. According to the students’ reflections, learning took place mainly through their experiences in the different courses, expressed as mutual understanding of wholes and parts, as they interrelated in the context of the common cross-course project. According to philosophical hermeneutics, experiencing wholes and parts and the relationships between them challenges people’s understanding and therefore provide learning opportunities. This paper addresses a theoretical perspective for motivating and analyzing course integration, as well as practical insights on how to design opportunities for cross-course experiences for better learning ISD

Stakeholders, contradictions and salience: An empirical study of a Norwegian G2G effort

Previous studies indicate that the expected effects of e-Government are slower to realize than initially expected. Several authors argue that e-Government involves particularly complex settings, consisting of a variety of stakeholders promoting different and often conflicting objectives. Yet, few studies have explicitly addressed the inherent challenges of this complexity. This study focuses on the extent to which contradictory stakeholder objectives can help explain the relatively slow progress of G2G initiatives, and reports evidence from a G2G effort in Norway. A cluster of 5 local governments decided to explore the potential of ICT collaboration as leverage for their e-Government efforts. A neighboring cluster of 6 additional local governments were invited to join the project. During the course of the project, a number of challenges arose and the project objectives were only partially realized. The case is analyzed using stakeholder theory (ST) combined with dialectical analysis. This analysis model proved promising as a means of enhancing our understanding of conflicts in complex environments and even more important, why some stakeholders manage to achieve their objectives at the expense of other groups

Analyzing stakeholder diversity in G2G efforts: combining descriptive stakeholder theory and dialectic process theory

Previous research indicates that the benefits of e-government initiatives are slower to realize than initially expected. This has partly been ascribed to the particularly complex settings of e-government projects, consisting of a variety of stakeholders promoting different and often conflicting objectives. Yet few studies have explicitly addressed the inherent challenges of this diversity. This study presents an analytical approach for investigating contradictory stakeholder interests by combining descriptive stakeholder theory and dialectic process theory. Descriptive stakeholder theory is concerned with why some stakeholder claims are attended to. Dialectic process theory views organizational change and development as the result of contradictory values competing for domination. The approach is illustrated through empirical data from a Government-to-Government (G2G) project in Norway, focusing on information technology related collaboration between two regional clusters of municipalities. The analytical approach proved useful for identifying how contradictory stakeholder interests represented barriers for realizing the objectives of this project. We argue that combining descriptive stakeholder theory with dialectic process theory provides a powerful analytical tool for identifying potential conflicts between stakeholders, which can prove valuable for both e-government research and practice

Fingolimod does not enhance cerebellar remyelination in the cuprizone model

Fingolimod (FTY720) is approved for treatment of relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis. In vitro studies have found that fingolimod stimulates remyelination in cerebellar slices, but in vivo animal studies have not detected any positive effect on cerebral remyelination. The discrepant findings could be a result of different mechanisms underlying cerebral and cerebellar remyelination. The cuprizone model for de- and remyelination was used to evaluate whether fingolimod had an impact on cerebellar remyelination in vivo. We found that fingolimod did not have any effect on cerebellar remyelination, number of mature oligodendrocytes, microglia or astrocytes when fed after cuprizone exposure