Direct Assessment of IS Student Learning Using an Integrative Exercise.

1. INTRODUCTION The BYU Marriott School offers a curriculum for students pursue a Bachelors degree in Information Systems(IS) through the business school. The curriculum is designed for students to take four "core" courses simultaneously during their first semester in the IS major:(1) Principles of Business Programming,(2) Information Systems Analysis,(3) Database Systems, and(4) Enterprise Services and Security. The integrated core(or "core") was introduced because many BSIS students were not able to integrate IS topics like programming, database, analysis, and design together in the traditional model(where students are "thrown over the wall" from one IS class to another). Since the introduction of the core, student performance on national exams and student feedback has improved markedly. Faculty teacher ratings have improved, and the classroom environment and culture has been enhanced. The capstone event of the core--now seen as a "rite of passage" by students--is an exercise given during the last week of the semester. During this week, class sessions are canceled in the four core courses and the time is dedicated a comprehensive cross functional Integrative Exercise (INTEX) which requires student teams to apply skills in IS as well as in other business subjects, such as accounting, finance, operations, communications and team building. The deliverables are a formal presentation of an IS solution, a large set of documentation including use cases and data models, and a working prototype of a system solution module. Obviously, there is far more work to be done than one person can accomplish; team work is essential to achieve acceptable results. During the awards ceremony, student often comment on how much they were able to accomplish in the short week. We now have a history of experience with this process. This paper explains the structure of the INTEX and aspects of its evolution including: a brief description of the cases used, a description of material given to the student teams, a description of deliverable expectations including the team presentation, a description of the evaluation forms and process which includes faculty and professional evaluations and student peer evaluations, and a summary of follow-up feedback from the students. Though students find the INTEX to be an intense educational experience, feedback derived from post evaluation and graduation exit interviews suggests that it is one of their most valuable learning opportunities. 2. OVERVIEW As the name INTEX(INTegrative EXercise) suggests, it is intended to encourage students to look at the "big picture" of the systems development process in the context of a business case. Most students involved in INTEX have taken a solid core of accounting, finance, communications, economics and other business classes prior to the systems core. INTEX is the culmination of the four information systems core areas taught in the first semester of the IS foundation curriculum. Students are advised at the orientation session(held at the beginning of the semester) and reminded periodically that the final week of the course(with significant impact on their grade) will consist of the INTEX project. They are required to participate, and they are asked to plan family and work activities accordingly so the week is free. Using both hard copy and the Internet, general information(including the assignment of student teams) is distributed a week prior to beginning the INTEX so that student teams can meet and work out schedules. INTEX is scheduled for six days between Monday afternoon and Saturday morning. The case and related instructions are distributed at a general information meeting held on Monday morning. Teams hand in their printed document packet early Friday afternoon(so the documentation can be reviewed and graded before Saturday presentations) and copies of their presentation notes at the time of their presentation on Saturday morning. …