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Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education Course Development Grant Proposal
CS 151 Introduction to Information Systems
University of Indianapolis

Project Abstract:

Introduction to Information Systems (CIS 151), a three credit hour School of Business course, is required for all students receiving a business degree from the University of Indianapolis. The course developers consulted various university course catalogs to confirm that numerous universities around the state offer a comparable course. This course addresses the role of information technology and management information systems in organizations today. We live in an age where information truly is power. It is the information age and information technology and management information systems are key competitive tools for all organizations. Businesses all over the world are using information to their competitive advantage. This course addresses the role information systems play in organizations today.

The proposed course will be delivered via the Internet in two formats: (1) targeted at undergraduates enrolled in the traditional 15 week semester and (2) targeted at students enrolled in an accelerated 5 week offering. The proposers are requesting a total of $15,000 to complete this project. Of this amount, $10,000 is requested from the Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education (IPSE), and $5,000 will be provided as matching funds by the University of Indianapolis.

Project Narrative:

1. Need to be Addressed and Learners to be Served:

CIS 151 will address the need to provide an asynchronous version of Introduction to Information Systems to learners in Indiana. The course is offered at numerous universities around the state. Access to an asynchronous version of the course would fulfill a statewide need. This particular course offering has no prerequisites, making it extremely accessible to students from around the state. A survey of the listings in the Indiana College Network Schedule of Classes and the Indiana College Network course database, indicates that a similar course, without prerequisites, does not exist in any distance format.

A second need for this course is to provide courses in accelerated format to adult learners who do not have the time nor the desire to attend classes taking place over traditional 15 week semesters. The University has been developing courses in accelerated format for the past year. Accelerated courses have been well received by adult learners. The Introduction to Information Systems course will provide an additional offering for these students.

In summary, a similar course, without prerequisites is not currently available in a distance learning format. The proposed course will not only meet the needs of students interested in enrolling in the course in a traditional fifteen week semester, but will also be available to students interested in enrolling in the course over a five week semester. The course will meet the needs of traditional and non-traditional age students.

3. Rationale for choice of course and technology or technologies to be used:

Introduction to Information Systems is offered at several universities around the state. Some universities require Introduction to Information Systems to fulfill degree requirements. It can be also be taken as an elective at several universities in the state. Consultation of several university course catalogs confirm these statements. Since this course is widely offered around the state, it is an ideal choice for course delivery via the Internet.

The Internet is an ideal delivery format for this course. Students will not only be able to access course information via the web, but utilize the strength of the web to promote asynchronous discussion between students/students, students/faculty member, and students/content specialists. In addition, the external links will provide quick and easy access to course-related web sites. Based upon our prior assessment of web-based and web-enhanced courses, students have acknowledged the benefit of having course materials, course links and web-based discussions available to them any time and any where. All of these make the Internet an ideal delivery mechanism. At the same time, our data show students also prefer some face-to-face interaction in web-based courses. Therefore, optional, on-campus meetings will be held periodically throughout the term of the course.

Course development will take place using Blackboard’s CourseInfo web-based template software. Course materials will be developed using web-pages, PDF documents, links to additional web sites, web-based discussion and online chat. The authors of this grant have been using CourseInfo for the delivery of web-based materials for almost two years. Additional information about CourseInfo can be found at: http://www.blackboard.com.

4. Institution’s capacity and commitment to the course development project:

The University of Indianapolis’ Center for Technology and Learning was created in 1997 to:

  1. provide support, training and resources to faculty wanting to develop alternative learning systems
  2. support, guide and coordinate efforts to expand the available delivery systems
  3. aid students in achieving their educational goals to effectively and efficiently assist in the readiness of our graduates to deal with these new technologies in their professional lives

In other words, the Center for Technology and Learning was developed to provide support for and promote the distance learning offerings at the University of Indianapolis. Distance Learning and the development of the skills necessary to produce distance learning courses are its primary focus. The Center has been supporting faculty in their development of distance learning courses for the past two years. The Center has provided the support for several web-enhanced, web-based and hybrid distance learning courses over the past two years.

Letters from Dr. Jim Conrad, Dean School of Business, and Dr. Lou Holtzclaw, Dean, School for Adult Learning (SAL), are enclosed to indicate university support from the schools in which the courses (15 week and 5 week, respectively) will reside.

5. Instructional design and delivery plan:

Blackboard’s CourseInfo will be used to develop the course web site. CourseInfo is a web-based template enabling faculty to distribute course materials easily in a variety of electronic formats: HTML and PDF files, audio, video, and web links to name a few. The developers of this proposal have been using CourseInfo for almost two years. CourseInfo provides the learner access to the following information areas:

• Announcements: Announcements are clearly visible when the student initially logs into the course. It is an ideal way to inform students about upcoming events, due dates or corrections.

• Course Information: Contains generic course information including the syllabus, course prerequisites and the grading policy.

• Staff Information: Displays information about the faculty and staff associated with the course. Used to list office hours, e-mail addresses, and short biographical information.

• Course Documents: The primary area used to distribute course information. Course information is organized in folders and generally contains chapter objectives, outlines, notes, and other handouts necessary for the class.

• Assignments: Contains course-related assignments, quizzes, tests, and surveys.

• Communication: Provides students and the instructor(s) the ability to communicate via electronic mail, a discussion board, chat, personal web pages and a whiteboard. The e-mail feature provides an easy method for sending e-mail to select students or all members of the class. The discussion board is the asynchronous tool used to communicate with course members. This area will be used to post messages and comments, read student responses to postings, and facilitate collaborative learning activities. A course calendar provides a central location for the instructor to record course and institution related activities. The digital dropbox permits students and instructors a simple means of exchanging files.

• External Links editor: External links will be used to provide the student easy access to additional resources.

In addition, CourseInfo gives the instructor the ability to create distinct student groups. Students enrolled in groups can participate in group activities independently of other groups. Groups provide students access to private areas for group discussion and chat. In addition, students within a group can share files via a group drop box. CourseInfo also maintains a gradebook which records and reports all student grades from online activities. Students can access their grades at any time and from any where. Instructors have access to information about course statistics, such as the frequency that students visit various course components. The pages and links will be tracked in order to gather information on the total number of student access per area, number of accesses over time, user access per hour of day, user access per day of week, and total access by user. This data is useful in determining which online information is of the most value to the students.

6. Explanation of how the instructional design will serve the needs of the target audience:

CourseInfo provides students asynchronous access to web-based course materials. The university recently assessed fifteen courses taught during Semester II, 1998-99 that were either web-based or web-enhanced. Based on these assessments, the use of CourseInfo for the distribution of web-based materials, students, both traditional and non-traditional acknowledge the importance of having access to course materials at times convenient to them. Students have indicated that web-based delivery of course material forces them to work harder, but they learn more in the process. Our assessments have demonstrated there is definite value in providing the student access to course materials at any time and from any where. CourseInfo meets the needs of the target audience by providing people with ever-growing busy lives, access to the information they need when they need it and from where they want it rather than forcing them to sit in a classroom and have the information fed to them. It forces the student to become seekers of knowledge rather than recipients of information; active, participatory learners rather than passive, and perhaps non-participatory learners.

7. Course evaluation plan:

Course evaluation will take place through a variety of ways:

• Alpha-testing (early June, 2000): During the later stages of course development, usability tests will be conducted for three distinct populations:

  1. Students: to assess navigation, organization, ease of use, etc.;
  2. Peer review (design): Dr. George Weimer, Professor, School of Education, will assess the overall course design. Dr. Weimer is well respected for his integration of technology into teaching.
  3. Peer review (content): Dr. Renee Wachter, Assistant Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Business will evaluate the course for its content.

• Formative evaluation during beta-testing (June 19 - August 4, 2000): Course will be beta tested with a limited number of students enrolled in the course during Summer II, 1999-2000. During this time, students will be asked to respond to numerous surveys to assess navigation, organization, ease of use, etc. Feedback from the students will be solicited in order to improve the course design, course content, navigation, organization and ease of use. Changes will be made to the course based upon student responses to surveys provided to the students at various periods throughout the semester.

• Summative evaluation during beta-testing (last week of course): The university has previously developed a web-based assessment instrument. The current instrument has proven to be successful in the past and will continue to be used to provide data across several semesters.

• Formative evaluation (Semester I, 2000-2001): similar to formative evaluation during summer term — make surveys available to the students throughout the semester to assess course design, course content, navigation and ease of use. Where possible make changes based on feedback from first Summer II offering.

• Summative evaluation (Semester I, 2000-2001): via university-standard assessment instrument.

• Formative evaluation (Semester I, Term 3, 2000-2001): similar to formative evaluation during summer term — make surveys available to the students throughout the semester to assess course design, course content, navigation and ease of use. Where possible make changes based on feedback from first ten weeks of traditional Semester II offering.

• Summative evaluation (Semester I, Term 3, 2000-2001): via university-standard assessment instrument.

• Data for 15 week course and 5 week course will be evaluated to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each format.

8. Quality and/or transferability plans and/or strategies:

Versions of Introduction to Information Systems was found in course catalogs from higher educational institutions in Indiana. In the past, the University of Indianapolis has accepted credits for a comparable course not only from institutions in the state but from institutions outside the state. Due to the number of Indiana institutions that offer similar courses, it is believed the credits will be widely transferable.

Since marketing efforts include letters to deans from business schools from around the state, it is believed the deans (or designee) will have the information they need to promote the course to their students or answer questions their students may have about the transferability of the course.

9. Information about how the course fits into other efforts in Indiana:

The proposers conducted a search of the ICN course database to determine whether or not this course was available (via the Internet) elsewhere in Indiana. While two similar courses were found in the database, both of them have prerequisites. Principles of MIS (CIS 114) at Ivy Tech Terre Haute has three prerequisites and appears to make heavy use of Excel. Information Systems Management (CIS 205) at Purdue-Calumet has one prerequisite and heavily integrates Access.

The proposed course has no prerequisites and contains different content then the courses found in the ICN course database. Moreover, the proposed course is designed from a management perspective and will concentrate on how companies use information systems and how the information systems they use can be used to gain a competitive advantage. Further, the proposed course is designed to be web-based and make heavy use of discussion groups and case work covering how information systems are integrated into the entire organization.

10. Marketing plan:

The following mediums will be used to market the proposed course:

• University Relations

• ICN Catalog (hard copy and web site); ensure posting to ICN website remains current for each semester’s offering.

• U of I semester schedule

• School for Adult Learning (SAL) brochure (extended programs schedule, accelerated programs schedule)

• Letters to Deans of other universities marketing the course

• IPSE conference presentation to highlight program development

11. Project schedule:

12. Key course development personnel:

Dr. Katharine A. Bohley, Assistant Professor, School of Business will be the co-developer of the course. Dr. Bohley has almost two years experience developing courses for web-based delivery. All of Dr. Bohley’s classes are web-based and use the web for delivery of course materials or use a hybrid of asynchronous instructional technologies (e.g. CD-ROM and the web).

Ms. Elizabeth A. Kiggins, Director of the Center for Technology and Learning and Instructor of Instructional Technology will be the co-developer of the course. Ms. Kiggins has assisted faculty with the development of web-based course materials since early 1997. Ms. Kiggins is a doctoral student in Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University.

Proposal Budget and Narrative: (see attached budget page)

The proposal includes the development of two courses (traditional and accelerated). The course developers believe it will be relatively easy to modify the course based on the length of the term. Therefore, budget figures only reflect the initial course development.

Due to the developer’s experience with CourseInfo, it is estimated that it will take an average of 10 hours of overall design and development work to transform one hour of student learning in a traditional course to an online environment. Some would say this is a very conservative estimate. "The figure on average of 18 hours for Web development seems to be just about right with this supporting data. Perhaps we could be even more accurate by providing a range of 5-23 hours." (Boettcher, 1998).

In addition to instructional design and development time (450 hours), compensation for student/expert review, marketing, and printing are required. Budget figures were derived as follows:

Development time:

3 hours per week x 15 weeks X 10 hours development time = 450 hours

450 hours x $25 per hour development time = $11,250

Student/Expert review:

3 student reviewers at $50 each = $150

2 expert reviewers at $500 each = $1,000

Marketing:

Marketing expenditures estimated at $2,200

Printing costs:

Due to the ability of using university printing facilities expenditures are estimated at $400



Last updated: June 21, 2006