Writing-Across-the-IT/MIS Curriculum

Popular literature not only claims that college graduates are entering the workforce lacking sufficient writing skills but that companies must spend billions of dollars annually to train employees how to communicate effectively through writing (Canavor & Meirowitz, 2005; College Board, 2004). While writing-across-the-curriculum is not a new concept, it seems that only certain areas of the curriculum have adopted it. The integration of writing into the MIS/IT curriculum is an important and achievable goal necessary for the overall development of students in Information Technology or Management Information Systems degree programs. While traditional IT/MIS programs rely heavily on technology-based courses, we argue that these technology courses must also promote effective writing habits needed for career growth in the IT/MIS fields. As business proposals, newsletters, and reports are frequently being written by those in the Information Systems Department of a corporation, rather than by those in the Communication Department, it is increasingly important that we prepare IT/MIS students with the appropriate writing skills needed for their careers. For example, in many cases we prepare students to create web pages, a highly public information source, without providing any instruction on writing within the IT/MIS curriculum. This paper illustrates how writing assignments can be used in many MIS/IT classes.

Guiding Our Way

Increased accountability for student outcomes among teachers led to an examination of the needs and motivations of 324 K-12 educators who participated in 6-week online professional development modules of study. This research was conducted through focus groups and an online survey. The most telling findings indicate four themes regarding teacher online professional development: learner expectations, learner support and access, incentives, and content. This project illuminates issues that arise in formal education online learning environments as we continue to discover how to best serve educators’ learning needs. This two step study uses surveys and focus groups to empirically identify critical factors in instructional design and implementation. It benefits from large samples and the application of knowledge derived from Group A experiences to Group B. Follow-up research of 944 participants at year 4 of the project provides additional insight into technology use and motivation.

Using a Blended Model to Improve Delivery of Teacher Education Curriculum in Global Settings

This chapter describes how teacher educators have used a blended approach, online and traditional delivery, to structure course content for its international master’s program. The authors discuss challenges they had to overcome, lessons learned, and students’ reflections upon the blended approach.

Who's Talking Online II

This descriptive study investigated the association between gender and online communication that involved participants from two online graduate courses. The study implemented a descriptive model in that “student involvement” was assessed by tabulating and recording the quantity and quality of student activity in the discussion threads. Quantity was recorded by the amount of times students posted online comments and the number of words that women and men used to make their responses. In addition, quality was examined by reviewing the content that women and men made concerning topics under discussion. A difference between the genders was found in that the amount (quantity) women contributed to the discussions exceeded the men. Women were also more inclined to give supportive or encouraging remarks than men, and addressed their classmates by name to promote a sense of online community, all which support previous studies.

Information Technology Certification

Certification has become a popular adjunct to traditional means of acquiring information technology skills and employers increasingly specify a preference for those holding certifications. This paper reports on a study designed to investigate student perceptions of both the benefits and risks of certification and its importance in obtaining employment. Certification was perceived as an important factor in achieving employment and students undertaking it anticipate that it will lead to substantial financial benefits. Yet higher salaries are not seen as the most important benefit of certification. The potential benefits that students believe are most important relate to ‘real world’ experience. The respondents were aware of the possible risks of certification but did not appear to be overly concerned about them.

Training Sequences and ther Effects on Task Performance and User Outcomes

This article introduces the concept of IT training sequences and examines how sequencing of conceptual and procedural training impact IT task performance, user satisfaction, and users’ self-efficacy. Using assimilation theory, we develop four hypotheses related to training sequences. These hypotheses were then tested in a database design context using a quasi-experimental study involving student subjects. Empirical results demonstrate improved far transfer and near transfer task performance and higher self-efficacy for subjects trained in the conceptual-procedural sequence versus the reverse sequence, though user satisfaction was not significantly different between the two sequences. Implications for IT training research are discussed.

Learning IT

Lectures are the traditional method of content delivery in undergraduate information technology degrees, yet concerns have been raised about their effectiveness. This chapter addresses the role of lectures within information technology degree programs from a student perspective; it examines the factors that influence lecture attendance, and student perceptions of the usefulness of a variety of possible lecture activities. Overall, the results suggest that students see the lecturer as contributing significant value to their learning experience through the lecture setting. Students appear to value the expertise of the lecturer and find activities that can best make use of the lecturer’s expertise the most useful. The results also suggest that students recognize the importance of active learning within the constraints of traditional learning settings.

Perspectives on 21st Century E-Learning in Higher Education

This article explores a new higher education paradigm given the changing environment that will come with the advance of globalisation and the rapid development of the Internet. As economies evolve around a global network and the value of knowledge, societies rely on universities to help shape future education in an emerging knowledge society. As teachers and learners already find that they need to adapt to the presence of the Internet, university managers and administrators will need to adapt their structures, strategies, procedures and programs to deal with the processes of globalization. Based on international research, this article presents a vision, and a paradigm from which higher education might be constructed. The Sloan-C Five Pillars of Quality Online Education and new applications, HyperReality and Croquet are examined as potential platforms to reframe future developments.

An Interactive Tool for Teaching and Learning LAN Design

It is often difficult to motivate students to learn local area network (LAN) design because many students appear to find the subject rather dry, technical and boring. To overcome this problem the author has developed a software tool (named LAN-Designer) that gives students an interactive learning experience in LAN design concepts. The LAN-Designer is suitable for classroom use in introductory computer networking courses. This chapter describes LAN-Designer and its effectiveness in teaching and learning LAN design. The effectiveness of LAN-designer has been evaluated both formally by students and informally in discussion within the teaching team. The feedback from students indicates that the development and implementation of LAN-Designer were successful. It also discusses the impact of LAN-Designer on student learning and comprehension.

Project-Based Online Group Collaborative Learning Characteristics

This chapter illustrates a framework for Online Group Collaborative Learning based upon Piaget’s concepts of assimilation and accommodation and upon Vygotsky’s theory of social interaction. This chapter examined how an online project based learning approach affected students’ cognitive skills development and their motivation, and explored factors leading to successful collaborative projects. The findings indicated that in a project based online group environment unique characteristics exist for: leadership style and individual role, goal setting and project management, accountability and commitment, peer supportive relationships, individual accomplishment and group accomplishments, and mixed gender and race group preference.