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Building Student Skills and Capabilities in Information Technology and eBusiness: A Moving Target
Petrova, Krassie;Claxton, Gwyn
Journal of Information Systems Education; Spring 2005; 16, 1; Research Library
pg. 27Journal of Information Systems Education, Vol. 16(1)
Building Student Skills and Capabilities in Information Technology and ~Business: A Moving Target
Krassie Petrova Gwyn Claxton
School of Computer and Information Sciences Auckland University of Technology
Auckland, New Zealand
krassie.petrova@aut.ac.nz gwyn.claxton@aut.ac.nz
ABSTRACT
In discipline areas such as information technology and eBusiness, technology advances so rapidly that the issue of developing student skills and capabilities adequate to the demands of the industry becomes a moving target. Industry- related learning models such as cooperative education can help academic programmes meet the challenge of keeping the IT and eBusiness curricula up-to-date. This paper presents the results of an investigation into student and employer perceptions of the relevance of the professional academic content and outcomes of an undergraduate programme with specializations in IT and in eBusiness. The research models used in the study are derived from a general framework, based on a nomological net of constructs representing three major stakeholder groups: academia, students, and industry. The study found that while both employers and students placed an increased emphasis on technical skills, the need for better understanding of the processes of convergence and integration within the business was also evidenced. Areas in need of specialized curriculum development are identified, as well as a possible misconstruction of the eBusiness discipline as perceived by employers and students.
Keywords: Education, information technology, eBusiness, skills, capabilities, cooperative education, curriculum development
1. INTRODUCTION
The field of information technology (IT), information systems (IS) and eBusiness is known for constant change and rapid advancement. However there is a significant difference between the adoption of new technology by academia and the industry and the existence of an adoption gap has been recognized (Bamberger, 1986; Conner and De Jong, 1979; Moore and Streib, 1989). More recently, the phenomenon was investigated in (Chandra et al, 2000) and in (Davis, Siau and Dhenuvakonda, 2003). These authors believe that academia lacks the motivation of a "real-life"
driving force and therefore tends not to respond automatically to current industry demands.
Another concern addressed in the literature is that undergraduate academic programmes are often too theoretical and out-of-date. As a result they do not produce graduates equipped with the skills and capabilities which industry values and requires (Bailey and Stefaniak, 1999;
Roberts, 2000; Lee, 2002). However educators agree that it is vital to maintain a current IT/cBusiness curriculum informed by up-to-date developments in hardware and software technologies; knowledge of the current practice in
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terms of business models and applications would enable students to build the required competencies (Lee, Trauth and Farwell, 1995; Hunter, 1998; Berghell and Sallach, 2004).
The difficulties faced by curriculum developers are exacerbated by the trends towards the convergence of technologies that traditionally were grounded either in business (IS), or in software ( computer science) (Shackleford et al, 2004). Attempting to bridge the resulting IT/business divide, a variety of "business cum technical courses" have been developed (Ramakrishnan and Ragothaman, 200 I; Lei, Mariga and Pobanz, 2003 ). The inclusion of eBusiness/eCommerce in the IS/IT curriculum presents an additional complication: eBusiness is positioned within both the JS and IT areas but is also a knowledge area on its own. Main focal points are the virtual enterprise (Na yak, Bhaskaran and Das, 2001) and the integration between front-end electronic commerce capability and backend IT infrastructure (Zhu, 2004).
Responding to the challenge of meeting the ever moving target of "being current" and "relevant", academic institutions are involved in an on-going curriculum
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Information Systems & Computing Academic Professionals
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All papers published in the Journal of Information Systems Education have undergone rigorous peer review. This includes an initial editor screening and double-blind refereeing by three or more expert referees.
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