Real World Project: Integrating the Classroom, External Business Partnerships and Professional Organizations

Abstract

Executive SummaryA college degree is not what it used to be in respect to securing future employment. Constantly changing technologies in a struggling economy make it necessary for organizations to carefully balance recruitment staffing, particularly with regards to new hires. Organizations want to know that each new hire can add value immediately. In order to add value, Information Systems (IS) graduates must possess the necessary technical skills as well as "real world" work experience and soft skills. Additionally, these graduates will have more success if they have had applicable industry experience and a network of business professionals. In this paper, we describe a capstone experience model that goes beyond the reinforcement of the students' technical skills. The model extends the normal classroom to include students' putting into practice their skills and establishing professionals networks through their interaction with professional organizations and business partnerships. Our proposed capstone model integrates three learning environments: the classroom, a business organization and a professional organization. The model reinforces our students' technical, project management, team work, and communication skills through the implementation of a "real world" information system and the presentation of their system to their external client and at a professional conference. The expected benefits of this proposed model are to utilize various partnerships to prepare our students for employment Information Technology (IT) industry; allow our students to demonstrate their skills and talents; and establish networking opportunities with organizations and IT professionals.The initial pilot of our model was conducted during the 2008-2009 academic year. Our capstone model classroom environment incorporates two courses: 1) Systems Analysis and Design and 2) Systems Implementation. The "real world" experience with the external business partner was a year-long project implementation of the City's Print Services information system. The professional organization environment was achieved by the additional requirement for the team to submit their project to a national conference. Consequently, the team submitted a paper, presentation, and poster to the BDPA 2009 National Conference IT Showcase.The overall results of the initial pilot were very favorable. The students successful designed, developed and implemented the City's Print Service system. The students' paper and presentation received third place at the BDPA 2009 National Conference IT Showcase. Additionally, in order to evaluate the success of pilot from the stakeholders' perspective, two surveys were created: CIS Capstone Experience Project Team Survey Material published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or com...

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Stakeholder engagement : a case study of a long-term partnership between a university and a non-profit organization

“…A theoretical and practical misalignment in cultivating workplace readiness and global citizenship in students exists because partnerships are not being optimized between stakeholders. Embedding higher education curriculum with authentic projects from reallife clients is a powerful strategy with far-reaching impacts (Grant et al, 2010). The literature has suggested that administrators, faculty, students, industry, community groups as well as local, state and federal government agencies all benefit from partnerships, as they directly influence political, social, and economic prosperity of communities (Lapan, Osana, Tucker, & Kosciulek, 2002;Manning, 2013).…”

“…When students are engrossed in projects with real clients, they work harder to develop creative solutions which further hone marketable skills and increases motivation (Grant et al, 2010;Smith & Gibson, 2016). Students gain a sense of accomplishment through projects, thereby enhancing confidence in their abilities which can be capitalized upon during job interviews (Jacobson, 2001;Rogers, 2014).…”

“…Student involvement in experiential programs have been tied to numerous career opportunities including an enhanced resume, accelerated job search time, increased compensation, improved professionalism and the ability to practically test theory (Ciot & Ciot, 2010;Grant et al, 2010;Gault, Redington, & Schlager, 2000). EE offers students an employment advantage because it erodes barriers to workplace entry as it eases student access to the inner workings of a position as well as an organization.…”

“…To thrive in the job market, potential hires must prove themselves worthy of consideration by demonstrating a balance of both academic and professional abilities (Conrad & Dunek, 2012;Day, 2016;Grant, Malloy, Murphy, Foreman, & Robinson, 2010; U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Labor, National Institute for Literacy, & U.S. Small Business Administration, 1999). However, standard teaching methodologies and traditional learning environments are outdated because they lack experiential preparation necessary for career readiness (Harden, 2012;Stommel, 2013;Wildavsky, Kelley & Carey, 2011).…”