Computing Program Curriculum Assesment: The Emergence of a Community of Practice
J. Harold Pardue, Jeffery P. Landry, Herbert E. Longnecker, Jr and Lynn McKell
To face the enormous challenge of educating an IS workforce operating in a world of ever-changing skillsets and IT-induced organizational change and to respond in increasing calls for accountability in IS education, postsecondary computing programs are turning to outcome-based approaches for curriculum assessment and improvement. The IS 2002 Model Curriculum and the IS Exit Assessment exam are tools that are part of a curriculum assessment and improvement process involving a growing number of collaborating IS institutions. This paper describes IS institutions who collaborate for the mutual purpose of improving their computing curricula using outcome-based approaches as an emerging Community of Practice. The benefits of an IS education Community of Practice are discussed and a hypothetical example of how such a community might work is described.
Keywords: IA01 IS Curriculum
Harold Pardue is a Professor of CIS in School of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of South Alabama. He received his Ph.D. in MIS from the Florida State University in 1996. His current research interests include computing curriculum development and assessment, trust in computer-mediated environments, and Information Systems architecture. His articles have been published in Review of Business Information Systems, Information Systems Education Journal, Communications of ACM, Journal of Engineering Education, Journal of Information Systems Education, Engineering Economist, System Dynamics Review, Journal of Psychological Type, and Journal of Computer Information Systems. He is also a director of the Center for Computing Education Research, a division of the ICCP Education Foundation.
Jeffrey P. Landry is an Associate Professor of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) in the School of CIS at the University of South Alabama. He received his Ph.D. degree in Information and Management Sciences from the Florida State University. He previously worked in the commercial software development sector for eight years as a software engineer, project manager, and software department manager. His research interests include behavioral aspects of IS development and project management, including the role of trust in the context of IS, and IS education and curriculum development. He has published in Communications of the ACM, Review of Business Information Systems, International Business and Economics Research Journal, Journal of Engineering Education, Journal of Information Systems Education, and in numerous conference proceedings. His teaching interests include information systems project management, information systems management, human-computer interaction, and advanced application development. He is also a director of the Center for Computing Education Research, a division of the ICCP Education Foundation.
Herbert E. Longenecker, Jr. is a Professor in the School Computer and Information Sciences at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. He has served on the faculty since 1972. His primary teaching involves a graduate sequence for the development of enterprise information systems. He earned a Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in New York, and did post Doctoral Studies at Cornell University Medical College. He is a co-author of IS'90, IS'97 and IS2002 national model curricula for Information Systems. He was recognized as Information Systems Educator of the Year in 2001. He is also co-founder and a director of the Center for Computing Education Research, a division of the ICCP Education Foundation.
Lynn J. McKell is a Professor of Information Systems at Brigham Young University. He is resently serving as Vice President of the ICCP Education Foundation and Chair of the ICCP New Examination Committee. He has served as the President of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, and he was the first National Chairman of the Information Systems/Management Advisory Services section of the American Accounting Association. He was a member of the AICPA Education and Professional Development Subcommittee and the IIA Systems Auditability and Controllability Advisory Committee. Professor McKell has worked as a member of the professional staff of Arthur Young & Co. (now Ernst & Young) and Bell Telephone Laboratories (now Lucent Technologies) where he received a patent for work on the Touch Tone dial system. His educational preparation includes a B.S. from BYU in electrical engineering; three Master of Science degrees from Purdue: electrical engineering, industrial management, and computer science; and a Ph.D. from Purdue in computer systems analysis and design.
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