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Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Leveraging Alumni and Business Community
Relations to Assess the Information Systems
Curriculum
Robert K. Plice & Bruce A. Reinig
To cite this article: Robert K. Plice & Bruce A. Reinig (2009) Leveraging Alumni and Business Community Relations to Assess the Information Systems Curriculum, Journal of Education for Business, 84:3, 142-150, DOI: 10.3200/JOEB.84.3.142-150
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.84.3.142-150
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
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he following quotation is from a recent report by the Alliance for Management Education (AME; 2006) task force, comprising business com-munityrepresentatives,businessschool deans,andAssociationtoAdvanceCol-legiate Schools of Business (AACSB; 2006)administrators:
Management education must develop mechanismsforunderstandingtheessen-tial competencies and skill sets of busi-ness school graduates, forecasting how those competencies will change in the future,andassessingthelevelofmastery ofthoseskillsandcompetencies.(p.9)
Thereportexpressesfrustrationover thelackofstrategicinteractionbetween businessschoolsandthebusinesscom-munity. Further,AACSB’s (2006) stra-tegic management standards explicitly called for involvement of key stake-holders in the curriculum-management process and identified alumni and the business community among this group (e.g.,facultyandadministrators).
Information systems (IS) programs, perhaps more so than other disciplines in business schools, immediately ben-efit from such interaction. IS faculty face a considerable challenge in main-taining a current, value-added curricu-lum that prepares students to succeed intoday’sglobalbusinessenvironment. In addressing this challenge, they are constrainedandmotivatedbythereality
thatISandothercomputer-relatedpro-grams at universities worldwide have experienced marked drops in enroll-ments since the collapse of the 1990s dot-com bubble. For this trend to be reversed, faculty and program admin-istratorsmustlearnhowtoincorporate new technologies, evolving standards, and applicable regulatory conditions effectively into their programs, so that current and potential students perceive alignment between what they (a) learn intheISprogramand(b)needtobegin andsustainacareer.Involvementofthe business community is crucial for pro-vidingguidanceontheseissues.
In the present article, we discuss an approach to IS curriculum assessment thatevaluatesperceptionsofalumniinan IS program at a large, public university in the western United States currently workinginthebusinesscommunity.Peo-ple at the intersection of these two key stakeholderpopulations(i.e.,alumniand businesses) may offer rich insights into curriculum issues because they possess frontline knowledge of business needs and an in-depth understanding of the IScurriculum.Otherstakeholders—such as recruiters, business executives, and university administrators—are likely to possess extensive knowledge of busi-nessneedsortheIScurriculumbutnot both.Moreover,whenopen-endedques-tionsareaskedaboutcurriculumissues, there is a risk of response misinterpre-tation unless the terminology used is
LeveragingAlumniandBusiness
CommunityRelationstoAssess
theInformationSystemsCurriculum
ROBERTK.PLICE BRUCEA.REINIG
SANDIEGOSTATEUNIVERSITY SANDIEGO,CALIFORNIA
T
ABSTRACT.ArecentAssociationto AdvanceCollegiateSchoolsofBusiness (2006)taskforcecalledforincreasedinterac- tionbetweenbusinessschoolsandthebusi-nesscommunitytoidentifyessentialskillsets andhelpwiththecurriculum-management process.Aninformationsystemscurriculum-assessmentstudysolicitedinputfromrecent alumniworkinginthebusinesscommunity whohaddemonstratedasolidgraspofthe curriculum.Ananalysisoftheresponses indicatesthatcommunicationsandteamwork skillsareperceivedashighlyimportanttothe businesscommunity.Qualitativeandstatisti- calanalysesshowthatthebusinesscom-munityperceivesvalueincurriculumcontent thatemphasizesmanagerialandsystems developmenttopicsandcoverstechnicaltop-icsbroadlyratherthandeeply.
Keywords:alumni,businesscommunity, curriculumassessment,informationsystems
Copyright©2008HeldrefPublications
commonlyunderstoodbytheresearchers and respondents. For example, such IS curriculum-relatedconstructsassystems analysis andproject management can have significantly different meanings to engineers, computer scientists, and IS graduates.EvenifISgraduatesfromsev-eraldifferentinstitutionsarequestioned, their responses may include terms that areusedinsubtlydifferentways,orthey mayrefertocoursesthattheytookabout which limited information is available. In the present study, we avoided these threatstovaliditybyanalyzingtheper-ceptions of business- community mem-berswhosharewiththeresearchersthe exact vocabulary regarding the content ofIScourses.
We begin this presentation with a discussion of the current outlook for IS programs and the research ques-tions that our investigation addressed. Then, we describe the participatingIS department’s alumni advisory board andtheapproachweusedtosolicitits knowledge and insight regarding what isneededintheindustryandthevalue of the IS curriculum in meeting those needs.Last,wepresenttheresultsofthe assessment and specific recommenda-tionsandactionsthathaveresultedfrom theevaluationprocess.
WhyCurriculumAssessmentIs UrgentlyNeededforISPrograms
TherapidbuildupofInternet-related companies in the late 1990s resulted in a well-discussed hiring binge, with muchoftheactivityfundedbyventure capital and the proceeds from initial publicofferings.Asanaftereffectofthe consequentcorrection,businessschools in the United States have seen sharp drops in enrollment in IS degree pro-grams. The IS department that served as the setting for this research is typi-cal among universities that have large undergraduate IS programs. The num-berofundergraduatesdeclaringamajor in IS in 2006 was approximately 25% ofthenumberin2000.Therehavebeen similar reports from other universities, andthephenomenonhasalsobeenseen in majors related to such complemen-tary disciplines as computer science andelectricalengineering(Foster,2005; is the widespread publicity regarding off-shoringofITjobs.Thiscouldlead students to consider IS careers risky overthelong-term.
Thereisnotlikelytobeareturnto the dot-com-driven enrollment trends in IS in which graduates commonly received multiple offers and enjoyed starting salaries among the highest of anybusinessmajor(NationalAssocia-tionofCollegesandEmployers,2000). However,theBureauofLaborStatistics (2000)andtheFederalReserveBoard (2005) have forecast that demand for ISworkerswillbestrong;shortagesof qualifiedapplicantshavebeenreported in some parts of the United States. If the enrollment trends in IS programs arenotreversed,itmaybedifficultfor futureemployerstofindadequatenum-bers of qualified workers. The pres-ent research questions were designed to capture the elements necessary to evaluate whether the IS curriculum is meetingoneofitsmostimportantpur-poses: to prepare graduates for suc-cessful,sustainablecareersindevising information strategies and guiding the efforts of organizations to build and implement systems that support those strategies.
ResearchQuestions
The first research question aims to give a sense of the skills that are per- ceivedtobemostimportantforgradu-atesinachievingcareersuccess.
ResearchQuestion1(RQ1):Whatare themostimportantskillsthatshouldbe taughttoISmajors?
Thesecondresearchquestionassess-es the value of helping students to achieve certain industry certifications (e.g.,CompTIA’sA+,Microsoftfied Systems Engineer, Cisco Certi-fied Network Analyst). These certifi-cations are sometimes mentioned in job-opportunity postings, and students often inquire about their worth. In the ISdepartmentusedforthisstudy,there hasbeendiscussionof(a)theoptionof including course material specifically
intended to enable students to sit for theassociatedexaminationsand(b)the possibilityofrequiringstudentstopass oneormorecertificationexamspriorto graduation.
RQ2:Should the IS programrequire students to achieve specific industry certifications?
The third and fourth research ques-tions relate to the practical challenges of implementing the results of a cur-riculumassessmentatthecourselevel: It is one thing to gather input from constituenciesbutanothertoapplythat to the business constituency. Specifi-cally, perceptions were sought about whether the course should be required orelectiveandwhattheperceivedvalue addedmaybe.
RQ3: Which courses should be required,andwhichshouldbeelective?
RQ4:Whatistherelativevalueadded to the business community of each course?
ToexploreRQ1andRQ2 ,thepercep-tions of recruiters or possibly mem-bersofindustryassociationssuchasthe Association for Computing Machinery ortheAssiociationofInformationTech-nology Professionals could reasonably besought.However,perceptionsrelative toRQ3 are only valuable if they come from someone with firsthand experi-enceofthecoursesavailablefromtheIS departmentwheretheresearchwascon-ducted (i.e., faculty, current students, alumni).Ofthese,onlyalumniworking in the business community also have valid perceptions relevant toRQ1 and RQ2. Thus, they represent a uniquely valuable source of information: They havetheknowledgetoaddressallfour curriculum, the assessment initiative focusedonalumniwhohadestablished themselvesduringtheirstudentyearsas havingmasteredthecurriculuminplace
atthetime.Also,inquirieswerelimited toalumniwhoreceivedtheirdegreesin the last 10 years, when the curriculum was comparable in its IS content and emphasistotheonetoday.
Thedepartmentservingastheresearch setting actively maintains an alumni advisory board, with a membership thatincludesgraduatesfromthepast10 yearswhohaveundergonepriorvetting bythefacultyabouttheirsuitabilityfor inclusion on the panel (Penrose, 2002). Thedepartmentestablishedandusesthe board to provide advice on curriculum issues and business needs, support the department by providing information about career trends, and bring in board membersasguestlecturers.
METHOD
A survey was developed to address our research questions, and it was administered to the alumni advisory board.Inadditiontodemographicques-tions, the survey included open-ended questions designed to capture the skill set required of graduates. Addressing RQ1, the survey asked, “What are the most important skills that should be taughttoISmajorsattheuniversity?”
To evaluate perceptions relative to RQ2, the survey asked, “Should the IS majorattheuniversityrequirestudents to achieve specific industry certifica- tions?”and“Ifso,whatspecificcertifi-cationsshouldberequired?”Toaddress perceptions relative toRQ3 andRQ4, the survey presented the respondents withalistofcoursesthatarepresently included in the undergraduate IS pro-gram and a brief description of each course,whichwastakenverbatimfrom thelatest(2005–2006)officialuniversi-tycatalog.1Foreachcourse,thesurvey
asked respondents to (a) recommend whetherthecourseshouldbearequired oranelectivecomponentoftheISpro-gramand(b)rateitsvaluetothemselves andtheircareerona5-pointLikert-type scale ranging from 1 (low value) to 5 (highvalue).
The survey was mailed to all mem-bers of the alumni advisory board in May 2005 and was followed by an e-mail reminder a few weeks later. Of the 182 surveys initially sent out, 25 werereturnedashavinginvalidmailing
addresses, resulting in a base of 157 possible responses. In all, 81 surveys werereturnedovera3-monthperiodfor a response rate of 51.6%. The respon-dentsindicatedameanageof32.9years (SD =8.1years)andmeanworkexperi-ence of 9.7 years (SD = 8.6 years). In terms of gender, 50 (61.7%) indicated male, 28 (34.6%) indicated female, and3(3.7%)didnotrespond.Interms of organization size, 11 (14.9%) had fewer than 25 employees, 9 (12.2%) had26–100employees,13(17.6%)had 101–500 employees, and 41 (55.4%) hadmorethan500employees.Interms oflocation,54(66.7%)wereintheuni-versity’s local area, 10 were in adjoin-ingregionsofthestate(12.3%),andthe remaining17(20.1%)wereelsewhere.
AnalysisofRQ1:ISSkillSet
A content analysis was conducted ontheopen-endedquestion,“Whatare themostimportantskillsthatshouldbe taughttoISmajors?”Thisquestionelic-itedawiderangeofresponses(seethe Appendix).The results are categorized underthreemajorthemes:communica-tion and teamwork skills, managerial and systems development skills, and technicalskills,allofwhichreceiveda largenumberofmentions.Eachtheme was divided into subheadings that are further divided into the actual com-mentsmentionedbytherespondents.
CommunicationsandTeamworkSkills The first theme emerging from the open-endedquestionwascommunication and teamwork skills. Written commu-nication, general commucommu-nication, team-work,andoralcommunicationskillsall received frequent mention by the expe-rienced alumni. Communication-related skills (written, oral) were identified far morefrequentlybytherespondentsthan anyotherarea,evenmorethancoretop-icssuchassystemsdevelopment,project management,anddatabases.Theclarity with which this theme emerged is evi-dence of the perceived career value of goodcommunicationsskills.Thepartici-patingISdepartment’sdiscussionabout curriculum choices has been influenced bythisfinding:Ratherthanfocusingits attention on the relative emphasis that thecurriculumgivestotechnicalthemes
versusbusinessthemes(atraditionaldis-cussion in an IS faculty), the depart-menthasbeenmotivatedtolookatways of introducing more communication skill-building exercises throughout the curriculum.
ManagerialandSystemsDevelopment Skills
The second theme emerging from the content analysis of the open-ended question is that of managerial- and systems-development skills. General project management, general manage-rial and systems-development skills (includingsystemsanalysisanddesign) were all frequently suggested by the respondents. In particular, project- management skills were recognized as highly important. Thus, it would seem that there is considerable perceived value in the group projects commonly assigned to students pursuing a major inISthatgiveclassroomexperiencein frequently perceived as important. It is interestingthatfewspecifictechnologies emergedfromtheresponses.Rather,the responsessuggestthatexperiencedgrad-uates perceive general knowledge of a broadrangeoftechnologiestobemore important than in-depth specialization. Forexample,therewaslittlementionof teaching Oracle orAccess, but general database skills were frequently men-tioned. In addition, more than twice as manyrespondentsrecommendedgeneral programmingskillsthanallofthemen-tionsreceivedforspecificprogramming languagescombined.Thiscanbeinter-pretedtomeanthatrespondentsperceive a general knowledge of programming concepts and database systems to be importantfortheircareers,evenasthey moveintomanagerialroles.
Another implication of the study is that communication and teamwork skills occur prominently in the per-ceptions of experienced graduates of the IS program. This finding sug-gests ways in which the faculty can
beproactiveaboutimprovingteaching methodstobetterpreparestudentsfor the workplace. A renewed emphasis on group projects, presentations, and writtencommunicationskillsthrough-out the curriculum—in addition to continuingtorequirestudentstocom-plete a formal course of instruction in business communications—may be the most important set of actions that can be taken to help graduates obtain jobs and advance in their careers. It is not enough to train students in the managerial and technological aspects of the IS field: Programs must also produce graduates who can articulate theirknowledge.
AnalysisofRQ2:Certifications
Figure1providesdescriptivestatistics relative to the certifications question: “Should the IS major require students to achieve specific industry certifica-tions?”Amongthe31respondentswho answeredyes (38.3%),6didnotrecom-mendanyspecificcertifications,andthe remaining25recommendedanaverage
of2.4certifications(SD=1.9).However, therewasnoclearconsensusonwhichis mostvaluable.Generalsystems-oriented certifications from Microsoft received themostfrequentmention.Networking certifications were also widely men- tioned,especiallythoseofCisco.Proj-ect management and security-oriented certifications received relatively infre-quentmention.Thevastmajorityofthe mentionedcertificationsfocusprimarily ontechnicalskillsratherthanbusiness- orientedtopics.
The certification question also cap-turedsomeunpromptedresponsesfrom the alumni, including comments from those who felt strongly in favor or against requiring certifications. Some recent reports hold that the value of certifications may be overestimated, with one survey suggesting that non-certified workers have received larger annual pay increases than certified workers (Pratt, 2005). According to Pratt’sreport,thismaybebecausecer-tification exams have become watered down and their value diluted as the number of third-party teaching centers
has grown. Nevertheless, certifications are still reported to be good differen-tiatorsforentry-levelcandidates.Those who favored certifications (38.3%) often cited (a) the advantage that they would provide graduates entering the workforce and (b) the opportunity for advancement after entering the work-force. Comments supporting this posi-tionincludedthefollowing:“Technical certification will help graduates com-petewithcomputersciencemajorsfor jobs. Businesses do not seem to favor thebusinessorientationofthe[IS]pro-gram, all things being equal”; “If the student wants to work with systems on a technical level, then they should also consider looking into a techni-calcertificate.Lotsofpeoplestartout withtechnicalpositionsandmoveinto managerialpositionfromtherebecause they technically understand the sys-tem”; and “To avoid entry-level work, best to get certified so that graduates can get hired with better skill set and advancemorequickly.”
Those recommending against requir-ing certifications (49.4%) also included some unsolicited comments explaining their opposition. This group of respon-dents seemed to associate certifications with technical schools or computer sci-enceschoolsratherthan4-yearbusiness degrees. Others viewed certification as something that would be useful after a graduatehaschosenacareerpath.Com-ments supporting this position included the following: “No! Don’t do that.You aren’ta[communitycollege]orvocation-alschool—teachISfolkshowtothink”; “I think IT needs to remain a business degreenotcomputerscience”;and“This comes later. Too much pressure—and maykeepyounarrowlyfocused.”
A prominent third view of certifica-tions was that they should be optional. Therespondentswiththatviewtendedto answernoorneithertothecertification question,andtheyexpressedmixedatti-tudestowardcertificationsandtheirrole intheISprogram.Commentsrepresenta-tiveofthisviewincludedthefollowing: “I feel that the certifications should be offered as an option or elective. They are sometimes required for a position, but many employers will pay for the training. It can give an advantage if student already has the certification”;
FIGURE1.Relativefrequencyforrequiringcertificationsandrecom-Systems Netw orks
General Management
Database Security Applications
“This should be an individual choice, perhapsanelectivecourse”;and“Ithink [theuniversity]shouldpresenttheoptions butnotrequirethem.Itdependsonif[the university]wantstocompetewithITT.... Getting certified in CISCO networks is morelikeatradeinmyopinion.”
Thus,perceptionsrelatedtotheissue of certifications appear to be conten-tious and represent a tradeoff between two categories of skills that emerged fromRQ1 :(a)managerialandsystems-development skills and (b)technical skills. The responses should be inter- pretedcautiously,butthereisanadvan-tageinknowingthattherespondentsas a group were thinking about the certi-ficationquestionwithintheframework of the present curriculum structure. If the curriculum was to be modified to emphasize the technical skills needed forcertificationexams,therewouldbea costintermsofreducingthemanagerial andsystems-developmentcontentofthe courses.Iftheknowledgeneededtosit for the exams could be acquired with-out cost, there would be every reason to do so. The advantage of surveying individualswithknowledgeofthecur-riculum and the needs of the business constituency is that they are able to evaluate the costs and benefits. It can be concluded from this question that there is a widespread perception that certifications can be useful for helping new graduates gain entry to the work-force, but that the managerial and sys-tems-development skills in the current curriculumarevaluableforsustaininga careerovertime.
AnalysisofRQ3:Course Requirements
ToanalyzeRQ3,thesurveypresented the respondents with a list of courses that are presently included in the par-ticipating university’s undergraduate IS program and a brief description of each course; it asked respondents to recommendwhetherthecourseshould be a required or elective component of the IS program. Figure 2 summa-rizestheresponses.AWilcoxon-Mann- Whitney test (Siegel & Castellan, 1988) was conducted to determine if thealumniresponseswerealignedwith thecurrentdesignationsofrequiredand
elective courses.TheWilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was chosen because it only requires data in ordinal format (Siegel&Castellan).Otherapproaches, suchasaggregatingthesevenrequired courses and comparing them with the aggregation of the elective courses, would be overly sensitive to outliers, and,inthiscase,wouldundulyreduce theratingsoftheelectivecourses(e.g., Javaprogrammingforbusinessapplica-tions; see Figure 2) and be less infor-mative of the overall mix of courses. Therequiredcourseswereratedsignifi-cantly higher—in terms of their rank order with regard to recommendations for required curriculum—than were the elective courses (Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney = 33, p = .015). Overall, the existing designations of required and electivecoursesseemtobewellaligned with the perceptions of the business community.
In Figure 2, the three courses with the highest percentages of respondents recommending the course as required curriculum are shown to be systems analysis (95.8%), reporting techniques (90.3%), and systems design (90.1%). The reporting-techniques course is a purelycommunications-orientedpartof
thecurriculum,anditsprominentposi-tioninthefigurereinforcesthefinding fromRQ1that experienced graduates perceiveaneedforstronginterpersonal andcommunicationsskills.Theanalysis anddesigncoursesdealprimarilywith analysis of business IS requirements andmappingtechnicalsolutionstobusi-ness problems. Thus, they align more with the managerial and system-devel-opmentskillscategoryintheAppendix thanwiththetechnicalskillscategory.
Thethreecourseswiththelowestper-centagesofrespondentsrecommending the course as required curriculum fall intothetechnicalskillscategoryinthe Appendix: Web development (43.1%), advanced programming (29.2%), and Java programming (16.7%). On the whole,Figure2supportstheideasthat experienced graduates tend to favor emphasizing managerial and systems- developmenttopicsovertechnicalmate-rialandthatcommunicationsskillsare perceivedasimportant.
TwocoursesstandoutinFigure2as beingoutofalignmentwiththerespon-dents’ perceptions of what should be requiredinthecurriculum.IStechnol-ogy is presently an elective course, and networking and data communica-tionsarerequired.However,theshare of respondents who perceived that IS
FIGURE2.Relativefrequencyofrespondentsrecommendingcurrent
Electivecourses Requiredcourses
technology should be required was greater than that of those who per-ceived that networking and data com- municationsshouldberequired.Inter-pretingthisresultwouldbeespecially difficult if the sampling frame were the general population of the business constituency. However, because the respondents were each familiar with the actual content of the courses as they are currently offered, this can be recognized as entirely consistent with the perception that technical material shouldbecoveredbroadly,ratherthan deeply,asnotedintheanalysisofRQ1. IS technology covers a broad array ofcomputerandcommunicationstop-ics,withanemphasisondevelopinga vocabularyandbackgroundthatenables students to evaluate the significance of future developments in technology. Networkinganddatacommunications, however,delvedeeplyintoaparticular facetoftechnology:networking.
AnalysisofRQ4:ValueAddedof CourseContent
ToanalyzeRQ4,therespondentswere presentedwithalistofcoursesthatare presently included in the undergradu-ate IS program, and the respondents wereaskedtoratethevalueofeachto themselvesandtheircareerona5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (low value)to5(highvalue).Theresultsare summarized in Figure 3. The required courseswereratedsignificantlyhigher, intermsoftheirrankorderwithregard to career value, than were the elective courses (Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney = 34,p=.022).Thus,thedesignationsof requiredandelectivecoursesseemtobe wellalignedwiththevalueperceptions ofthebusinesscommunity.
Again,itcanbeseenthatthecom-munications course and the system analysis and design courses have the highest mean value ratings and that the programming and Web-develop-ment courses have mean value rat-ingsamongthelowest.Ingeneral,this comports with the findings fromRQ3 that experienced graduates perceive managerial and systems-development coursecontenttobeespeciallyimpor-tant to them. Two courses, Manage-ment of IS and Business Application
Programming, appear to be out of placeintherankingsunderthisinter- pretation.ManagementofISisnomi-nally a management-oriented course, but it is ranked toward the bottom of the list, whereas Business Appli-cation Programming is a technically oriented course that is ranked in the top half. Again, there is less disso-nance in this result than is suggested by the names and simple descriptions of the courses. For respondents who haveknowledgeofthecoursesasthey have actually been taught and deliv-ered, Management of IS is viewed as mostly containing technical con-tentdealingwithadministrationissues related to IT infrastructure. Business Application Programming, however, is a course that emphasizes general programming concepts and how they applytobusinesssystems,andituses aparticularprogramminglanguageto illustrate those issues. In general, the resultssummarizedinFigure3support the same themes that emerged from theanalysisoftheRQ1,RQ2,RQ3:(a) Communications skills are perceived to be important, (b) it is more impor-tant to give students a broad under-standing of technology concepts than
todelvedeeplyintoparticulartechnol-ogies, and (c) it is perceived that the systems-development content of the curriculum has a great deal of value toexperiencedgraduatesinsustaining theircareers.
Conclusion
TheIScomponentofbusinessschool educationisfacinguniquecircumstanc-es, and the need for alignment among the objectives of the business constitu-ency and the content of the curricu-lum has been articulated by many. In thepresentresearch,wesoughtinsight from alumni in the business commu-nityto assesstheprogramand courses offeredbytheISdepartmentthatserved astheresearchsetting.Theresultspre-sented in this article provide guidance toward achieving alignment between theIScurriculumandneedsofthebusi-nesscommunity.
Themainconclusionsfromtheanaly-sisarethefollowing:(a)TheISprogram should have opportunities built in for the development of interpersonal com-munications skills; (b) a broad range of technical topics should be covered in the curriculum, rather than a focus on in-depth coverage of a few specific hardware or software environments or
FIGURE3.Meanvalueassignedtoinformationsystems(IS)majorcours-esaccordingtoalumni.Alumniwereaskedtoevaluatethe“valueofthe coursetoyouandyourcareer”ona5-pointLikert-typescaleranging from1(lowvalue)to5(highvalue).
Reportingtechniquesforbusinessprofessionals
Electivecourses Requiredcourses
programminglanguages;and(c)acore competency in systems development, project management, and business and managerialskillsshouldbeacquiredby studentsintheISprogram.
IfanISfacultysucceedsinachieving these objectives, the resulting curricu-lumwillbedistinctfromwhatistaught inrelateddisciplines,suchascomputer science.Studentswhoaremainlyinter-ested in specializing in one or more specific areas of technology may be better served by a computer science or engineering degree. The responses to the survey questions are persuasive: Business constituency needs graduates whocanhelpthemtoimplementstrate-gicITinitiativesintheirorganizations. There are a number of limitations and boundaries that may reduce the degree to which these findings can be generalized. The scope of the research wasaspecificcurriculumforgraduates workingpredominantlyinoneregionin the western United States. The results may differ for graduates of other uni-versities with their own unique cur-ricula or even for similar students and curriculainotherregionsofthecountry withdifferenteconomiesandindustries. Eveninthecontextoftheparticipating university’s program and its regional economy, the IS field is continually changing. Thus, the views of experi-encedgraduatesmaychangeovertime, andtheresearchpresentedhereshould be repeated periodically as part of an ongoingassessmentprocess.
The responses to the curriculum-assessment portion of the survey (i.e., rating the value of each course and whether the course should be required or elective in the curriculum) has at least two limitations. First, the value construct was measured with a single item to keep the length of the survey manageable,eventhoughitwouldhave been preferable to capture this rating usingmultipleitems.Second,responses
to these items may be influenced by whichinstructortaughtthecoursewhen therespondentwasinschooland,inthe case of elective courses, whether the respondenthadtakenthecourse.
BecauseISdepartmentshaverecently beenchallengedbydecliningenrollments, they need a framework for evaluating their curricula and making adjustments that improve alignment with the needs of their stakeholders. Ongoing assess- mentthroughinteractionwiththebusi-nesscommunitycanhelptoensurethat the needs of the stakeholders are being metbydeterminingifthoseneedshave changed or are no longer being met by the curriculum. Graduates from the preceding10-yearperiodareinaunique position to inform this process because they are knowledgeable of the curricu-lum and the requirements of industry. By drawing on their knowledge of the kindsofworkresponsibilitiesthegradu-ates are likely to confront over time, skills can be identified that help sus-tain successful careers.Also, a course-by-course evaluation of the curriculum helps to avoid unwarranted assump-tionsaboutthevalueofthatcurriculum. Although the importance of the find-ings may vary from one university to the next, depending on its unique local situation,universitiesareencouragedto use these results for guidance and to adaptandimprovethemethodologypre-viously described as they conduct their individualassessments.
NOTES
1. Course descriptions are available from the authorsonrequest.
Dr.RobertK.Pliceisanassociateprofessorof Information&DecisionSystemsintheCollegeof BusinessAdministrationatSanDiegoStateUniver- sity.Hisresearchfocusesontheimpactofinforma-tiontechnologyonorganizationaldesign,workforce efficiency,andtheassessmentofITeducationpro-grams. His work includes analytical modeling and empiricalstudiestoquantifytheinteractionoforga-nizationaldesignchoiceswithITinvestments.
Dr.BruceA.Reinigisaprofessorandchairof the Department of Information & Decision Sys-tems at San Diego State University. He received aPhDinmanagementinformationsystemsfrom the University of Arizona and a BS in market-ing from Truman State University. His primary researchinterestsarethedevelopmentandevalua-tionoftechnologiesandworkpracticestosupport groupwork,decisionmaking,andissuesrelating toprogrammaticassessment.
Correspondenceconcerningthisarticleshould be sent to Bruce A. Reinig, San Diego State University, Information & Decision Systems, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-8234,USA.
E-mail:breinig@mail.sdsu.edu
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APPENDIX
ContentAnalysisofAlumniResponsestoOpen-EndedQuestion:WhataretheMost ImportantSkillsThatShouldbeTaughttoInformationSystemsMajors?
Theme:CommunicationandTeamworkSkills
(A)Communication(83),includeswrittencommunication(20);Generalcommunication(20);Oralcommunication(12);Presentations (10);Businesswriting(6);Other(18)
(B)Teamworkskills(21),includesgeneralteamwork(13);Peopleandinterpersonalskills(5);Other(3)
Theme:ManagerialandSystemsDevelopmentSkills
(A)Systemsdevelopment(47),includesgeneralsystemsdevelopment(9);Systemsanalysis(9);Webdevelopmentanddesign(7); Systemsdesign(6);ISsecurity(5);Other(11)
(B)Projectmanagement(36),includesgeneral(21)andother(15)
(C)Businessandmanagerialskills(32),includesgeneral(11)andother(21)
(D)ITandISmanagement(11)includesgeneralITandISmanagement(6)andother(5) (E)Analyticalskills(9)
Theme:TechnicalSkills
(A)Networks,hardware,andsoftware(56),includesnetworksandnetworkcomputing(17);Hands-onexperiencewithhardwareand software(10);Generaltechnicalskills(7);Hardwareandtroubleshooting(7);Operationsystems(6);Other(6)
(B)Programming(33)includesgeneral(20)andother(13)
(C)Database(31)includesgeneraldatabaseanddesign(18);SQLandqueries(7);Other(6)
Note.Thenumberinparenthesesisthenumberofrespondentsrecommendingtheconcept.IT=informationtechnology;IS=information systems;SQL=structuredquerylanguage.
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