General reflection
For all practical purposes the semester has come to an end for us. I will take the next few paragraphs to reflect upon my experiences with the course. Though I have been teaching this course (MIS 538) now for three years or so (have taught at least six sections of it), each time it has been like new.
Early on I realized that instead of focusing on systems development, which meant application development, the course should focus on a more important aspect of IT, namely process management. I am happy to see that my reading of the cards on this is right on the mark. We see the industry driving towards business process management.
Teaching BPM has been invigorating and difficult. For almost any course we teach in the MIS or MBA program there often is a standard text but not so in BPM. Therein lies a major problem. Articles of interest and value are hard to find, whether they are case studies or research projects.
For the first time in this course I had guest lectures from invited speakers. They came from a varied set of industries. I believe this has been a major success. Sharing real life experiences has tremendous value. Every one of the speakers could add to the collective knowledge of the class.
As I told my class, I like to innovate. I tried something different this time to get students participate more. I do not believe it worked well. Often, I become over ambitious and have to scale down my goals. This semester was no different. I introduced the concept of blogs where the student could reflect upon the proceedings of the class. I had hoped that the blogs would generate an elevated level of enthusiasm and ownership from the students. It did not work the way I had intended. In fact the experience reminded me of the first time I required MBA students to use email (the first batch of module-based MBA, circa mid 90s). Students, like anyone else, are unwilling to change their habit. Creating blogs require that you spend some time reflecting and then writing. The old notion of maintaining a diary is useful here.
I also used a different approach to projects. By deciding to reach out to the Iowa businesses for projects, I had a rich selection of projects. Robin Haberger and Bob Roacher helped out a lot. I may have opened a spigot of interest in these type of projects.
Instead of lengthy term papers, I wanted students to create a knowledge portfolio. The knowledge portfolio would look like a term paper but would be really a hypertext document. In addition I wanted this to be a semester-long effort at compiling relevant resources and weaving these into fine tapestry. But it did not work. Only one person ever got it close to my vision.
Well, that is the end of one semester!
Early on I realized that instead of focusing on systems development, which meant application development, the course should focus on a more important aspect of IT, namely process management. I am happy to see that my reading of the cards on this is right on the mark. We see the industry driving towards business process management.
Teaching BPM has been invigorating and difficult. For almost any course we teach in the MIS or MBA program there often is a standard text but not so in BPM. Therein lies a major problem. Articles of interest and value are hard to find, whether they are case studies or research projects.
For the first time in this course I had guest lectures from invited speakers. They came from a varied set of industries. I believe this has been a major success. Sharing real life experiences has tremendous value. Every one of the speakers could add to the collective knowledge of the class.
As I told my class, I like to innovate. I tried something different this time to get students participate more. I do not believe it worked well. Often, I become over ambitious and have to scale down my goals. This semester was no different. I introduced the concept of blogs where the student could reflect upon the proceedings of the class. I had hoped that the blogs would generate an elevated level of enthusiasm and ownership from the students. It did not work the way I had intended. In fact the experience reminded me of the first time I required MBA students to use email (the first batch of module-based MBA, circa mid 90s). Students, like anyone else, are unwilling to change their habit. Creating blogs require that you spend some time reflecting and then writing. The old notion of maintaining a diary is useful here.
I also used a different approach to projects. By deciding to reach out to the Iowa businesses for projects, I had a rich selection of projects. Robin Haberger and Bob Roacher helped out a lot. I may have opened a spigot of interest in these type of projects.
Instead of lengthy term papers, I wanted students to create a knowledge portfolio. The knowledge portfolio would look like a term paper but would be really a hypertext document. In addition I wanted this to be a semester-long effort at compiling relevant resources and weaving these into fine tapestry. But it did not work. Only one person ever got it close to my vision.
Well, that is the end of one semester!
posted by Sree at 9:51 PM
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