Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants
Teaching Strategies for a Senior Information Systems Project Management Course: Simulation or Case-Study?
Department
School of Computing & Information Systems
College
Padnos College of Engineering and Computing
Date Range
2011-2012
Abstract
The challenges of managing an Information Systems project, while being similar to projects in other disciplines, are nonetheless unique. At the same time that uniqueness is being endorsed, others are now suggesting that Information Systems, as a discipline, should be more like traditional business courses and remove any tools or artifact requirements from individual courses. Assuming there is a desire to use a tool and produce an artifact as part of the course pedagogy, what viable active-learning options are available for a senior-level IS Project Management course that will complement the lecture component? One option is the active running case study and another is the software simulation this study will look at a third possibility; that is, using both in the same course. For three years, a simulation has been successfully used in a graduate IS Project Management course and, over a similar time period, a case study has been used in an undergraduate course. This semester, that same simulation is being used as a pilot in an undergraduate course while still requiring the semester-long running case study. Undergraduate student perceptions and performance are compared and contrasted with graduate student feedback and demonstrate a similar enthusiasm for including the simulation as a supplement to the traditionally weak areas of an active case study.
Conference Name
2012 National Collegiate Conference
Conference Location
San Antonio, Texas
ScholarWorks Citation
Reynolds, John, "Teaching Strategies for a Senior Information Systems Project Management Course: Simulation or Case-Study?" (2011). Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants. 316.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/fsdg/316
