George P. Schell

Universities marginalize online courses

Why should faculty members develop online courses if the effort may be detrimental to their promotion or tenure?

Perspectives on computer personnel research

Research appearing in Computer Personnel has focused on a number of topics between April 1994 and January 1998, the most consistent topic concerned the careers of information systems professionals. In preparation of articles, researchers have used a variety of references for their work. A surprising number of texts have been cited; the number of text citations is about 30% of the number of journal citations.The time period studied represents the first four years of Computer Personnel being a blind, peer reviewed journal. This article will review citations during this four year period and will make comparisons of the citations to recent journal rankings in Communications of the ACM.

Analyzing the IS 2010 Model Curriculum for Evidence of the Systems Approach

The systems approach is frequently associated with solving large-scale, complex problems and is regarded as a foundation for systems engineering and decision-making. Components of the systems approach are too frequently missing from information systems programs in business schools. The purpose of this paper is to determine the degree to which the IS 2010: Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs contains the systems approach in its learning objectives as well as specific course content. By examining the curriculum guidelines a preliminary judgment can be made concerning evidence of the systems approach having a broad implementation across information systems programs. The paper concludes with a discussion of the importance of the systems approach in the IS curriculum and establishing the systems approach as a theme in the curriculum of IS programs.

An Architecture for Knowledge Management Featuring Metaknowledge

In our tribute to Andrew B. Whinston, we return to our roots to examine an area that is important today but had not been described in the literature when we wrote our dissertations -- knowledge management. We briefly describe knowledge management, give an architecture for a general knowledge management system, and give examples to illustrate how metaknowledge could assist in a knowledge management system.

Can information systems concepts be assimilated into non-IS courses?

The American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is encouraging schools to teach core topics across a spectrum of courses. Subjects would not be artificially forced into a certain course because of departmental boundaries but would be introduced according to their relevance to the topic being presented. Information systems (IS) topics have received attention possibly because the wording of the current AACSB curriculum standards no longer implies that a separate course is required for information systems.Many discussions about curriculum changes affecting IS have been made without quantitative information. Evidence has not been gathered about the qualifications of non-IS faculty to teach IS topics or even faculty preferences for delivery of IS topics. The questionnaire used to gather data for this article revealed that non-IS faculty strongly prefer a separate, required IS course over integrating IS topics into non-IS courses. The introductory IS course provides the bulk of knowledge that most business students receive about information systems. If students are not well taught by qualified faculty then their ability to use and assimilate IS and IS technology is diminished. This article brings some quantitative evidence to the debate and argues that IS topics beyond computer literacy are best taught by IS faculty.

A case study of a tactical information system

Abstract Tactical information systems (TIS) are type of decision support system. However, there are several characteristics which make them warrant separate study. They not only support the decision making process: they are able to replicate the decision makers expertise. The characteristics of replicating decision expertise is generally reserved for expert systems. It is important to study the development of TIS for two reasons. First, they cross functional boundaries so their design must reflect the political realities of satisfying a group of users that may have conflicting interests. Second, TIS can be precursors of expert systems. They embody knowledge and are able to generate decisions that are sanctioned by the organization.