Abstract:

Background and Challenges

A team was formed to redesign a core first year undergraduate service course in Information Systems. The course catered to nearly 2200 students a year with class/stream sizes going up to 600. There were manifold challenges, chief among them was “How do we engage with 600 odd students, some or many of whom may be doing the course because they had to and not because they wanted to?” How should the processes, content, technologies, and modalities be interwoven together to address the challenges posed by the ‘digital native’ and issues raised in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o.

Vision, Mission, and Strategy

Our vision was to ‘engage with the leaders of tomorrow’ with a mission to ‘build a bridge to a better world’. Plutarch’s suggestion that “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a FIRE to be ignited” guided our every move. Engagement, passion, cohesion, and simplicity were the fundamental pillars of our strategy.

Process

Bloom’s (1956) ‘learning in action’ was a foundational process that guided us and so was Anderson & Krathwohl’s (2001) taxonomy. This process and its entailments were shared with the students. This process was explicated practically through readings, lectures, assignments, tutorials, labs, tests, and exam so that deep learning would be encouraged and could occur.

Modalities

The next design aspect was to decide upon the modalities that we should use to support the above process and elements. In this context we used Davidson and Goldberg’s (2009) pillars as a guiding principle. The synergy of the modalities that we used leads to a depth of learning and understanding that results in greater remembrance, knowledge, and application. The primary modalities used in the course include videos, in-class exercises, demonstrations, cases, simulation, and games .

Content

The content was guided by our unwavering belief that the teaching of information systems in a business school should be business driven and integrative. Our approach was thereby an integrative approach that wove strategy, process, and information systems in a holistic fashion.

Results

The feedback from the students suggests that the new modalities introduced were highly appreciated and valued. The course evaluations showed significant improvement in terms of engagement, intellectual stimulation, and deepening of understanding. Repeating students provided anecdotal evidence that the new model was much more engaging than the previous model.

Conclusion

Student engagement is essential if you want deep learning to occur. The process and modalities that we used lead to a depth of learning and understanding that resulted in greater remembrance, knowledge, and application of the subject area. Students also enjoyed the course which was a definite plus.

References

Bloom, B. S., Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals, pp. 201–207, Susan Fauer Company, Inc. 1956.
Davidson, C.N., Goldberg, D.T., The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2009.
Walker, K.B., Black, E.L., Reengineering the undergraduate business core curriculum: aligning business schools with business for improved performance, Business Process Management Journal, Volume 6, No 3, 2000.

Keywords:

Engagement, Mass Customisation, Modalities, Process, Content, Technology, Large Class.