TUTORIAL: USING IS MAPPING FOR CURRICULUM IMPROVEMENT AND ACCREDITATION

1. TUTORIAL:USING IS MAPPING FOR CURRICULUM IMPROVEMENT AND ACCREDITATION Jeffrey P. Landry Herbert E. Longenecker, Jr. University of South Alabama School of CIS Mobile, AL 36688 John H. Reynolds George Nezlek School of CIS, Grand Valley State University Allendale, MI 49401 USA

2. Introduction This second of a two-part tutorial will demonstrate the usefulness of the mapping process demonstrated in the first tutorial. A set of aggregate and detailed reports will be used to demonstrate how curriculum assessment and improvements can be modeled, and how accreditation self-studies can be facilitated. The software is accessible from (http://www.iseducation.org). Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

3. Overview • The tutorial will consist of: • Demonstrated scenarios for analyzing curriculum assessment, improvement, and accreditation self-study • Demonstrations of ad hoc scenarios suggested by you • An opportunity for you analyze the assessment, improvement, and self-study of your curriculum Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

4. Assessment Scenario 1 • Task: • An instructor is interested in knowing how students performed on the IS exit exam in areas taught in her course. • Example 1a: • Pamela Smith, instructor at USouthAl, is interested in knowing whether the IS exit exam is testing students on material she teaches in ISC 434 – Advanced Databases Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

5. Assessment Scenario 1 (cont.) • Example 1b: • Bart Longenecker of USouthAl observes that some students (i.e. in senior project) lack adequate data modeling skills. He wonders how the students have been performing on the IS exit exam on data modeling questions. “I wonder how they performed on the database LUs taught in our CIS 324 (database) course?” Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

6. Assessment Scenario 2 • Task: • A student asks, “What marketable skills can I expect to have when I graduate?” • Example: • Jeremy Taylor, first semester freshman declaring a CIS major at USouthAl, wonders how marketable he will be in four more years. Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

7. Assessment Scenario 3 • Task: • A student asks, “what marketable skills do I have now that I am about to graduate?” • Example: • Jeremy, now a senior IS major, wants a breakdown of the marketable skills he has gained. Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

8. Assessment Scenario 4 • Task: • A dean wants to compare student test performance to students taking the exam nationally. • Example 4a: • “Who is our top performing student?” asks Roy Daigle, after the last group of IS majors at USouthAl have completed the Spring 2004 IS exit exam. “What was his score?” “How did he rank nationally?” Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

9. Assessment Scenario 4 (cont.) • Example 4b: • “How did our students, in general, perform on the exam, compared to all schools and other non-business school IS programs? We had both graduate and undergraduate students taking the exam.”--Daigle Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

10. Assessment Scenario 5 • Task: • Assessing outcomes for IS majors. • Example: • A colleague at another school, upon running into Roy Daigle at ISECON, asks, “I’m looking for a list of ‘outcomes’ for IS majors. What do you suggest?” Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

11. Accreditation Scenario 1 • Task: • An IS department chair responds to an accreditation team’s request for a report of semester hour coverage (SHC) in each of six areas of IS core knowledge • Example: • Although Roy has approximated SHC in past accreditation self-studies, he suggests to the team that a CCER report he uses will provide a richer evaluation of coverage, emphasizing the breadth and depth of coverage across six IS core areas. Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

12. Accreditation Scenario 2 • Task: • A department chair wants to report on student performance in each of six IS core areas for an accreditation self-study. • Example: • Roy wants an aggregate report of IS student performance on the Spring ’04 IS exit exam, broken down by IS core areas for accreditation. Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

13. Accreditation Scenario 3 • Task: • A department chair wants to determine where an IS core area is taught in his curriculum. • Example: • Roy wants to know how many and which IS courses at USouthAl teach objectives in the analysis and design core area, so that he can demonstrate to an accreditation team that these skills are developed throughout the four-year program. Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

14. Accreditation Scenario 4 • Task: • A department chair wants to describe how an IS core area is taught throughout his curriculum. • Example: • Roy Daigle wants documented evidence, for the CIS advisory board, of how modern programming language skills are taught in the IS curriculum. He wants the board to get a sense of the variety and intensity of coverage in programming. Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

15. Accreditation Scenario 5 • Task: • An instructor wants to know how her course contributes to accreditation standards. • Example: • Pam Smith wants to know how her ISC 434 course contributes to accreditation standards. “Which of the six core areas do I cover? I hope I am covering the data management area with breadth and depth? And some modern programming, too.” Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

16. Improvement Scenario 1 • Task: • An instructor, responding to IS exit exam results that show inadequate student performance in areas taught in her course, wants to make a short list of possible course improvements. • Example: • Pam wants to review exam results for USouthAl students in advanced database concepts covered by her ISC 434 course. She wants to focus attention on her local course objectives that teach learning units with poor scores and target areas for improvement. Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

17. Improvement Scenario 2 • Task: • A dean/dept. chair/curriculum committee asks what if: “How will (adding/removing/replacing) a course in our curriculum affect the (breadth/depth/content) of (learning unit/IS core area) coverage?” • Example: • A department chair, responding to the increasing need for networking and security skills in industry, wants to add greater breadth and depth of coverage in networks and security in his IS program. Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

18. Ad hoc scenarios • Task: • Does someone have an interesting assessment, improvement, or accreditation self-study task? • Example: • …that we can use to create an example? Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004

19. Analyze your curriculum • Now, run various reports for your own curriculum. • Select and deselect mapped courses. • Run various reports to answer questions about • assessment • improvement • accreditation Reynolds, Nezlek, Landry, & Longenecker - ISECON 2004