Agile in Teaching and Learning: Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda

Agile software development methods are widespread in industry, and there is a wealth of academic research and practitioner publications currently available from this perspective. With the rise of Agile within companies worldwide, it is increasingly important for information systems education to keep up with this trend to ensure curriculum and courses are up-to-date. Students in the computing disciplines must be prepared to enter a job market where Agile is commonplace. As such, the topic of Agile in teaching and learning is critically important. The current special issue includes a rich collection of articles providing information systems educators with research-based, practical approaches for both teaching Agile (“the what”) and using Agile as a pedagogical approach (“the how”). In an effort to assist information systems educators categorize the growing amount of literature related to Agile in teaching and learning, a conceptual framework is provided which places the literature along the two axes of pedagogy (“the how”) and the content (“the what”) ranging from other, non-Agile to Agile. Finally, the authors present a call for future research integrating Agile on a meta-level in the course development process. We hope that this special issue inspires educators and researchers to consider integrating Agile into their teaching and learning

Agile Teaching and Learning in Information Systems Education: An Analysis and Categorization of Literature

In this paper, we analyze and categorize research related to Agile teaching and learning in Information Systems education using an existing conceptual framework. To this end, a systematic literature review beginning with 642 papers led to the identification of 30 relevant papers written in English and published through 2018 in academic IS outlets. Our analysis reveals three ways in which Information Systems educators incorporate Agile into their courses: 1) using Agile as a pedagogical approach to teach non-Agile content, 2) using Agile as a pedagogical approach to teach Agile content, and 3) using non-Agile pedagogical approaches to teach Agile content. The majority of relevant papers were published between 2016 and 2018. We present an analysis of the three instructional approaches to serve as a resource for interested individuals and recommend directions for future studies related to Agile teaching and learning in IS education

Globally Distributed Agile Teams: An Exploratory Study of the Dimensions Contributing to Successful Team Configuration

Drawing upon configurational theory, work group design research, virtualness concepts, and the software agility literature, the purpose of this study was to provide a starting point for theorizing about the successful configuration of globally distributed agile teams by exploring the dimensions of team structure, virtualness, and agility. Due to the complex nature of this topic, the need to examine the phenomenon within its natural setting, and the limited amount of research that has been conducted in this particular area, this study adopted an embedded multiple-case research design. The primary data collection method consisted of semi-structured interviews involving members of globally distributed agile teams within three U.S. based organizations with members located in distributed sights in multiple countries. Additional data were collected from archival records. Within-case and cross-analysis was conducted using qualitative data analysis software. This study provides a starting point for answering the question of how the configuration of globally distributed agile teams differs from the configuration of other types of globally distributed teams; it synthesizes past research and findings into a comprehensive theoretical framework; it provides a starting point for theorizing about the successful configuration of globally distributed agile teams; it helps practitioners to identify and address the challenges related to the configuration of globally distributed agile teams; and it presents a set of best practices which will inform organizations on how to configure their globally distributed agile teams

The Use of Open Source Software in Education

Abstract: This paper reviews the current literature regarding the use of Open Source software in educa-tion. The material is presented in thematic order and includes a brief history of the Open Source movement and provides a general definition and philosophy of the movement. Several key areas are covered including the strengths and limitations of Open Source software, its dif-fusion into education, and research on its actual use in educational settings. The review con-cludes by providing possible ideas for the development of Open Source software and raises questions for future research. EDSIG activities include the publication of ISEDJ, the organization and execution of the annual ISECON conference held each fall, the publication of the Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE), and the designation and honoring of an IS Educator of the Year. • The Foundation for Information Technology Education has been the key sponsor of ISECON over the years. • The Association for Information Technology Professionals (AITP) provides the corporate umbrella under which EDSIG operates. c Copyright 2006 EDSIG. In the spirit of academic freedom, permission is granted to make and distribute unlimited copies of this issue in its PDF or printed form, so long as the entire document is presented, and it is not modified in any substantial way. Abstract This paper reviews the current literature regarding the use of Open Source software in education. The material is presented in thematic order and includes a brief history of the Open Source movement and provides a general definition and philosophy of the movement. Several key areas are covered including the strengths and limitations of Open Source software, its diffusion into education, and research on its actual use in educational settings. The review concludes by providing possible ideas for the development of Open Source software and raises questions for future research

A Leadership Knowledge Management Model for E-Government: A Preliminary Empirical Test

Although technology has greatly enhanced the ability of government to provide resources electronically, there is still a need for the development of knowledge management systems that potentially improve flexibility and provide citizens with better service. As e-government continues to grow, a key area is the advancement of leadership to increasingly provide effective knowledge resources to the public sector. Drawing from the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) leadership triad as a research framework, the purpose of this study is to develop and test a model that identifies the relationship between leadership and knowledge management within a city government. The study, conducted over a fiveweek period, indicated a strong relationship between the MBNQA leadership triad and knowledge management

Using Social Networking for Educational and Cultural Adaptation: An Exploratory Study

This study investigates how an innovative technology, social networking, can be used in the process of building and maintaining social capital and exchanging knowledge in an educational setting. We employ a qualitative methodology, autoethnography, to examine how social networking can help students learn from other classmates and professors, exchange knowledge, and adjust both to a new program of study and to living in the United States. Using the theoretical foundation of social capital (Jacobs, 1960) and a social support framework created by Drentea and Moren-Cross (2005), autobiographical narratives are classified as instrumental support, emotional support, and community building. Our findings provide evidence that social networking sites can enhance social capital through these mechanisms in a doctoral education context, and our research serves as an important first step in addressing a gap in educational and cultural adaptation studies using social networking tools

Creative Assessment in Programming: Diversity and Divergence

Negative stereotypes persist in computing, and align poorly with research into the motivations of female students. In particular, female students are more inclined to want to work creatively and have a positive impact through their work. However programming assignments are often tightly constrained and rather pointless in themselves so are doubly unattractive. Alongside this, concerns are often raised about plagiarism in programming assignments, particularly when the assessment process is automated. We attempt to address both of these issues by designing more creative programming assignments, allowing students to engage in work aligned with whatever their interests are. By providing a more divergent assessment, automated plagiarism detectors are much more effective because the likelihood of false positives is much lower than in more constrained, convergent assessments. We also show how to combine this with partial automation of assessment. To examine this approach we compare the results of two subsequent years of delivery of the same second-year undergraduate programming module, and find that, using more creative assessments, female students average scores were substantially increased so that they outperform male students. While the results are not quite statistically significant (according to 2-way ANOVA), they demonstrate potential that could be verified with a larger sample

Assembly and photocarrier dynamics of heterostructured nanocomposite photoanodes from multicomponent colloidal nanocrystals

Multicomponent oxides and their heterostructures are rapidly emerging as promising light absorbers to drive oxidative chem. To fully exploit their functionality, precise tuning of their compn. and structure is crucial. Here, we report a novel soln.-based route to nanostructured bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) that facilitates the assembly of BiVO4/metal oxide (TiO2, WO3, and Al2O3) nanocomposites in which the morphol. of the metal oxide building blocks is finely tailored. The combination of transient absorption spectroscopy-spanning from picoseconds to second time scales-and photoelectrochem. measurements reveals that the achieved structural tunability is key to understanding and directing charge sepn., transport, and efficiency in these complex oxide heterostructured films

Low Temperature Opacities

Previous computations of low temperature Rosseland and Planck mean opacities from Alexander & Ferguson (1994) are updated and expanded. The new computations include a more complete equation of state with more grain species and updated optical constants. Grains are now explicitly included in thermal equilibrium in the equation of state calculation, which allows for a much wider range of grain compositions to be accurately included than was previously the case. The inclusion of high temperature condensates such as Al$_2$O$_3$ and CaTiO$_3$ significantly affects the total opacity over a narrow range of temperatures before the appearance of the first silicate grains. The new opacity tables are tabulated for temperatures ranging from 30000 K to 500 K with gas densities from 10$^{-4}$ g cm$^{-3}$ to 10$^{-19}$ g cm$^{-3}$. Comparisons with previous Rosseland mean opacity calculations are discussed. At high temperatures, the agreement with OPAL and Opacity Project is quite good. Comparisons at lower temperatures are more divergent as a result of differences in molecular and grain physics included in different calculations. The computation of Planck mean opacities performed with the opacity sampling method are shown to require a very large number of opacity sampling wavelength points; previously published results obtained with fewer wavelength points are shown to be significantly in error. Methods for requesting or obtaining the new tables are provided.Comment: 39 pages with 12 figures. To be published in ApJ, April 200

Physiological and pathological brain activation in the anesthetized rat produces hemodynamic-dependent cortical temperature increases that can confound the BOLD fMRI signal

Anesthetized rodent models are ubiquitous in pre-clinical neuroimaging studies. However, because the associated cerebral morphology and experimental methodology results in a profound negative brain-core temperature differential, cerebral temperature changes during functional activation are likely to be principally driven by local inflow of fresh, core-temperature, blood. This presents a confound to the interpretation of blood-oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquired from such models, since this signal is also critically temperature-dependent. Nevertheless, previous investigation on the subject is surprisingly sparse. Here, we address this issue through use of a novel multi-modal methodology in the urethane anesthetized rat. We reveal that sensory stimulation, hypercapnia and recurrent acute seizures induce significant increases in cortical temperature that are preferentially correlated to changes in total hemoglobin concentration (Hbt), relative to cerebral blood flow and oxidative metabolism. Furthermore, using a phantom-based evaluation of the effect of such temperature changes on the BOLD fMRI signal, we demonstrate a robust inverse relationship between both variables. These findings suggest that temperature increases, due to functional hyperemia, should be accounted for to ensure accurate interpretation of BOLD fMRI signals in pre-clinical neuroimaging studies