The MSIS2000 curriculum was approved in January  2000 by both AIS and ACM, with the endorsement of the  other leading IS professional organizations. In the months  since then, a number of institutions have adopted the  curriculum while others have decided to adopt other  configurations.  This panel discusses the curriculum, the  experiences of three schools that adopted it, and of a  school that chose to go in another direction

Gorgone, John

Gray, Paul

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AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)

Association for Information SystemsAIS Electronic Library (AISeL)AMCIS 2000 Proceedings Americas Conference on Information Systems(AMCIS)2000Experiences with the MSIS2000 CurriculumJohn GorgoneBentley College, jgorgone@bentley.eduPaul GrayClaremont Graduate University, paul.gray@cgu.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2000This material is brought to you by the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been acceptedfor inclusion in AMCIS 2000 Proceedings by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contactelibrary@aisnet.org.Recommended CitationGorgone, John and Gray, Paul, "Experiences with the MSIS2000 Curriculum" (2000). AMCIS 2000 Proceedings. 200.http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2000/200Panel: Experiences with the MSIS2000 CurriculumJohn Gorgone, Department of Computer Information Systems, Bentley College, jgorgone@bentley.eduPaul Gray, School of Information Science, Claremont Graduate University, paul.gray@cgu.eduAbstractThe MSIS2000 curriculum was approved in January2000 by both AIS and ACM, with the endorsement of theother leading IS professional organizations. In the monthssince then, a number of institutions have adopted thecurriculum while others have decided to adopt otherconfigurations.  This panel discusses the curriculum, theexperiences of three schools that adopted it, and of aschool that chose to go in another direction.IntroductionThe MSIS2000 curriculum (Gorgone and Gray, 2000),issued in January 2000,  is now being implemented by anumber of schools.  The purpose of this panel is to reporton the curriculum and to share the experiences of schoolsthat adopted either this curriculum (or an alternate one)this year. The curriculum is published in both theCommunications of AIS (Gorgone and Gray, 2000) and inData Base.PanelistsThe panelists are:George Kasper Chair, Dept. of InformationSystems, Virginia Common-Wealth UniversityPaul Rosenthal Chair, Business InformationSystems, California StateUniversity, Los AngelesWalter Rodriguez Chair, Department ofComputer, InformationSystems and Decision SciencesFlorida Gulf Coast UniversityDonna M. Schaeffer Assistant dean, InformationSystems Management, Collegeof Professional Studies,University of San FranciscoFormat of the PanelThe panel will involve a brief presentation of theMSIS2000 curriculum by the panel chairs.  Then, each ofthe panelists will discuss their experiences with thecurriculum.  For example, Donna Schaeffer will report onhow the curriculum attracted more than twice the studentsexpected at the University of San Francisco.Paul Rosenthal, in describing the program atCalifornia State University at Los Angeles, will showhow that program, adapted from MSIS2000 but differingfrom it in various details, is designed to help personsalready employed in the IT field. He believes it isimportant to help this group (rather than people seeking tomove into the field) develop their technical,communication, and managerial skills to fulfill theresponsibilities of senior professional and projectmanagement positions in the industry.Finally, the panelists will answer questions from oneanother and from the floor.The MSIS2000 CurriculumTo put the panel in perspective, the followingparagraphs describe the objectives, the underlyingprinciples that were followed, and the curriculum.ObjectivesStudents graduating from the MSIS programshould be prepared to provide leadership in theInformation Systems field. Graduates should have thefollowing skills, knowledge, and values:•A core of IS knowledge•Integration of IS and business foundations•Broad business and real world perspective•Communication, interpersonal, and team skills•Analytical and critical thinking skills•Specific skills leading to a careerPrinciples•Professional Degree. The MSIS is aprofessional degree that integrates the information andorganizational cultures. We recognize the difficulties thatpeople trained purely in one professional culture have incommunicating with each other. We believe that MSgraduates should have the knowledge and sophisticationto bridge the existing chasm.•Value Added. The degree adds value to studentsstudying beyond the bachelor degree. Students invest ayear or more of their lives and organizations oftensponsor the student financially. Both are entitled to areturn on their investment.2169•Core. The degree includes a consistent set ofinformation systems core courses that are offered by allinstitutions. As a result, employers are assured that MSgraduates are competent in a fundamental set ofprofessional knowledge.•Flexibility. The curriculum is flexible toaccommodate students with differing backgrounds, skills,and career objectives. Full-time students with a specificbackground in IS should be able to complete the programin a year. Students lacking prerequisite knowledge shouldexpect to take at most one additional year to complete theMS degree. This model (based on the curriculumarchitecture used by many MBA programs) allows allstudents to graduate with a specified level of competence.•Career Tracks. The program focuses on currentand emerging concepts through "career tracks." Thesetracks should allow students (within the competency ofthe faculty) to "major" in a specific subject area for whichthere is demand and to achieve breadth across a topicarea.•Integration of Non-technical Skills. Oral,written, and graphic presentation skills; promoting ideasand negotiating; people skills; business skills; team skills;customer orientation; real-world focus; and ethics andprofessionalism are integrated throughout the program.Each topic is important and, some might argue, each isworth a course of its own. However, given the limitedtime available for MS work, we believe that theappropriate way for these topics to be presented is byintegrating them tightly into the courses. Furthermore,despite their importance, these topics are exceedinglydifficult to teach in the abstract.•Unit Requirements. The program architecture isflexible and compatible with institutional unitrequirements for an MS degree. These requirements rangefrom 30 to 60 units, depending on the individual school.Schools with long programs are able to extend theirofferings beyond the 30 unit minimum to go into greaterdepth in the prerequisites, the core, and the career tracks.The CurriculumThe curriculum model is designed as a set ofinterrelated building blocks.Foundations:  At the foundation level, the curriculumis designed to accommodate students from a wide varietyof backgrounds.  In particular, the model specifies thebusiness and information systems skills required asprerequisite to the rest of the curriculum.Core:  The next level, or core, is a set of primarycourses. All graduates require this common core.  Four ofthe core courses are similar in name to those in the 1982Curriculum (Nunamaker et. al., 1982) , but the contentsare a major revision reflecting the changes in theInformation Systems field.  A new course, on projectmanagement and change management is introduced. Thecore courses are:• Data management• Analysis, modeling, and design• Data communications and networking• Project and change management• IS policy and strategyIntegration:  A major innovation in this curriculum isin the integration component required after the core.  Thiscomponent addresses the increasing need to integrate abroad range of technologies and offers the students theopportunity to synthesize the ideas presented earlier andto help students implement comprehensive systems acrossan organization.Career Tracks:  Another innovation is that theprogram architecture is flexible to accommodateindividual institutional requirements for an MS degree.This flexibility occurs at both the entry level with thefoundation courses that can be tailored to meet individualneeds and at the highest level where institutions andstudents may select specific career tracks that arerepresentative of current organizational needs.Additional ConsiderationsThe AudienceFor the foreseeable future, it is anticipated thatMS programs will continue to attract students with a widerange of backgrounds. In traditional graduate programs, itis assumed that entering students have a commonbackground obtained through an undergraduate degree inthat field. For students entering the MSIS program, this isoften not the case. Although students entering directlyfrom undergraduate programs may have a BS degree inIS, often their degree is in computer science, business, orsome other field. The MSIS program may also attractexperienced individuals including IS professionals andpeople seeking career changes. Often this experiencedgroup will be part-time evening students or will access thecourses through a remote learning environment. Thearchitecture of the MSIS program accommodates thiswide diversity of backgrounds and learning environments.Specifically, the MSIS program is appropriate for•New graduates with degrees in a variety of fields frombusiness students with an IS concentration, computerscience, general business degrees, and bachelor degrees ina range of fields including the humanities, social science,engineering, and physical science.2170•New graduates with a BS degree in IS.•Experienced IS professionals seeking to upgradeskills and to understand management issues.•Professionals from many fields seeking a change incareers.•International students.The Employer’s ViewBecause of the wide variety of MS programsoffered by universities and colleges and the wide varietyof student backgrounds (see above), employers areuncertain about the knowledge, skills, and values thatnewly minted MSIS graduates bring to the job. Oneobjective of the model curriculum, therefore, is to removeemployer uncertainty by providing all MS degree holderswith a core set of knowledge. Furthermore, to makestudents more employable, students take a related set ofcourses (reinforced with practical experience) in aparticular field within information systems.A second objective is to help overcome the skillshortage that exists and is expected to continue in theyears ahead. Students graduating with an MS degreeshould possess enough skills that they can take onresponsible rather than entry-level positions and can serveas mentors to people with lower levels of education.Project and Change ManagementTwo new core courses are introduced in MSIS2000:Project and Change Management and SystemsIntegration. The first is discussed in this subsection; thesecond in the following subsection.The Project and Change Management course looks athow systems and technologies are implemented. Itincludes consideration of project planning, scheduling,and budgeting as well as consideration of the changemanagement required to implement projects.Project management is an important topic for the IScore because it is essential for success in all IS endeavorsand is critically lacking in many IS organizations.Similarly, most IS projects involve transforming anorganization from its existing ways of doing things. Suchchanges are often radical and traumatic to the peopleinvolved. Although change management may or may notbe included in the business foundations organizationalbehavior course, students should understand and be ableto implement the changes that an IS project creates. Thegoal of this core course is to reinforce the ideas oforganizational behavior and make the relation betweenthe technical and organizational aspects of projects moreconcrete for students, particularly those who come fromtechnical backgrounds.Systems IntegrationAfter students complete the core, they need tosynthesize what they have learned. Furthermore, systemintegration is a pervasive aspect of IS practice. In the past,neither synthesis nor integration were included in thecurriculum. The present curriculum calls for such anintegration component. Integration can be viewed fromthree perspectives:•Integrating the Enterprise•Integrating the IS Function•Integrating IS Technologies Each perspective could merit a course of its own. Thecurriculum recommends that schools offer one of thesecourses (described below) or create a course that looks atall three perspectives. The choice depends on thecapabilities of the school’s faculty, the needs of regionalindustry, and the objectives of the students.Career TracksThe career paths for IS professionals are morevaried and dynamic than in the past. To take advantage ofthe available career opportunities, the advanced studentmust understand not only technology but also the businessand environment in which it is deployed. Therecommended curriculum is broader in scope andsufficiently flexible to allow institutions to provide a morefocused, professional education meeting student careerobjectives and organizational needs.A career track consists of four or more relatedelectives that prepare a student for a specialization. It isanticipated that most schools will offer multiple tracks.The career track or tracks chosen by a particular school,similar to the choice of which integration course to offer,depends on the skills and interest of the faculty andstudent as well as industry needs. Where appropriate,especially for students with limited experience, apracticum (see below) can be used as a course within thecareer track.The curriculum identifies a broad range of careertracks, ranging from the very conventional (e.g., SystemsAnalysis and Design) to the leading edge (e.g.,Knowledge Management) to functions (e.g., Consulting)and more. Representative tracks, listed in alphabeticalorder below, are indicative of the possibilities but are byno means an exhaustive list.• Academia• Consulting• Data Management and Data Warehousing• Decision Making• Electronic Commerce• Enterprise Requirements Planning2171• Global IT Management• Human Factors• Knowledge Management• Managing the IS Function• Project Management• Systems Analysis andDesign• Technology Management• TelecommunicationsTypically, a track consists of four related courses.Many institutions are expected to offer three classroomcourses and make the fourth course a practicum, that is, acourse devoted to solving a real problem for a companyagainst a time deadline.Tracks can be expected to change over time since theonly certainty is that some tracks will become obsoleteover time while new ones will emerge as the IS fieldchanges. It is anticipated that schools will choose only asmall number of tracks for their own curriculum, wherethe criteria for selection include local industry needs andthe capabilities available within the schoolIn addition, tracks can (and should) be multi-disciplinary, involving courses in two or moredepartments, depending on the nature of the track. Forexample, a student following an Electronic Commercetrack might take e-commerce courses in IS, marketing,economics, and management. Other examples are ateaching skills course in the Academic track might betaken in a school or department of education or aconsulting in business course in the Consulting track thatmay be offered in a management department.Concluding RemarksThe model curriculum is designed to serve as a set ofstandards upon which individual schools can base theircurriculum. It is compatible with MS programs rangingfrom 30 to 60 or more units offered in a variety oflocations in the university, including business schools,schools of information systems, computer sciencedepartments, and liberal arts schools. By adopting thiscurriculum, faculty, students, and employers can beassured that MS graduates are competent in a set ofprofessional knowledge and skills, know about aparticular field in detail from the career track, and areinstilled with a strong set of values essential for success inthe Information Systems field. In short, it is a programthat reflects current and future industry needs.The model curriculum is designed to serve as a set ofstandards upon which individual schools can base theircurriculum.  It is compatible with MS programs rangingfrom 30 to 60 or more units offered in a variety oflocations in the university, including business schools,schools of information systems, computer sciencedepartments, and liberal arts schools.  By adopting thiscurriculum, faculty, students, and employers can beassured that MS graduates are competent in a set ofprofessional knowledge and skills, know about aparticular field in detail from the career track, and areinstilled with a strong set of values essential for success inthe Information Systems field.  In short, it is a programthat reflects current and future student and industry needs.Appendix: Endorsing OrganizationsThe MSIS2000 curriculum is endorsed by thefollowing organizations:ACM – Association for Computing MachineryAIS – Association for Information SystemsAITP - Association of Information Technology            ProfessionalsDSI - Decision Sciences InstituteEDSIG - Education Special Interest Group of AITPIACIS - International Association for Computer              Information SystemsIAIM - International Academy for Information             ManagementINFORMS College on Information SystemsSIM - Society for Information ManagementReferencesGorgone, J. and Gray, P. (eds.) “MSIS2000: ModelCurriculum and Guidelines for Graduate DegreePrograms in Information Systems,” Communications ofAIS (3:1), January 2000. Gorgone, J. and Gray, P. (eds.) “MSIS2000: ModelCurriculum and Guidelines for Graduate DegreePrograms in Information Systems,” Data Base Spring2000.Nunamaker, Jr., J. F., Couger, J. D., and Davis, G. B.(Eds.). "Information Systems CurriculumRecommendations for the 80s: Undergraduate andGraduate Programs," Communications of the ACM(25:11), November 1982, pp. 781-805.2172

Experiences with the MSIS2000 Curriculum

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Experiences with the MSIS2000 Curriculum

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