IRMA-International.org: Creator of Knowledge
Information Resources Management Association
Advancing the Concepts & Practices of Information Resources Management in Modern Organizations

The Current State of the MIS Course: A Study of Business Program IS Curriculum Implementation

The Current State of the MIS Course: A Study of Business Program IS Curriculum Implementation
View Free PDF
Author(s): Fred K. Augustine Jr. (Stetson University, USA)and Theodore J. Surynt (Stetson University, USA)
Copyright: 2006
Pages: 2
Source title: Emerging Trends and Challenges in Information Technology Management
Source Editor(s): Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, D.B.A. (Information Resources Management Association, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-019-6.ch280
ISBN13: 9781616921286
EISBN13: 9781466665361

Abstract

In December of 2002, an article was published in the Communications of the Association for Information Systems entitled “What Every Business Student Needs to Know About Information Systems” (Ives, Valacich, Watson, and Zmud, 2002). This article was the result of work by a task force of 40 prominent information systems educators and was written in response to draft accreditation guidelines prepared by AACSB International (AACSB International, 2002). These draft guidelines, in the opinion of Ives, Valacich, Watson, Zmud, et al. did not address or reflect the “essential and growing role of information systems and technology in the future careers of business school graduates”. The article goes on to propose a set of “core information systems requirements for all business school graduates”. This extensive list of key information systems concepts and associated learning objectives provide the conceptual basis for essential information systems education in the context of business schools and programs. In terms of the delivery of these key concepts the task force recommended that “in most cases, these concepts and principles are best delivered in an integrated and comprehensive course” (Ives, Valacich, Watson, and Zmud, 2002). It is this “integrated and comprehensive” course that is the focus of this research. Implicit in the work of the AIS Task Force is the fact that this method of implementation of a “information systems knowledge requirement” is not universally used or (more importantly to the task force) mandated by the AACSB. Thus, this paper specifically addresses the issue of how Business schools and program have chosen to implement the concept of a “information systems knowledge requirement” by either using a course (or courses) based on these key concepts or via the more traditional “tools or applications” course. This research will examine business school degree programs to determine the degree to which the “MIS” course or other information systems courses are used to satisfy the requirement of providing an information systems body of knowledge that is essential for all business school students. A survey research plan was developed for the purposes of discovering the current state of the art with respect to the degree to which each category of information systems proficiency courses was used to provide this core knowledge. Also of interest in this study are the names used and the content of various curricular implementations.

Body Bottom