An Ability Demand-Oriented Curriculum Design for IM & IS Degree Program

Qianfan Zhang School of Management

Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan,430074,China

qianfan_zhang@sina.com Abstract—As a highly practical and contemporary interdisciplinary subject, Information Management & Information System (IM & IS) must have its curriculum designed consistent with its own characteristics, otherwise it will become a mere jumble of Computer Science and Management. This paper follows the “segmentation of students - stratification of ability demands - ability-oriented curriculum design” train of thought. Based on placements after graduation, students are segmented into two groups: practice ability-oriented vs. research ability-oriented. And the student ability demands are stratified into four layers: basic qualities, professional abilities, career development abilities, and sustainable development abilities. On the basis of such work, the curriculum can be divided into theoretical curriculum and practical curriculum. Theoretical curriculum contains three levels: basic courses in general education, basic courses in discipline, and courses in specialty. To meet the students’ demand, elective courses can also be divided into practice-oriented elective courses and research-oriented elective courses.

Keywords-practice ability, research ability, ability-oriented curriculum design

I. INTRODUCTION In China, Information Management & Information System

(IM & IS) is a new specialty that was formed in 1993 by a merge of five old specialties: Science & Technology Information, Economic Information Management, Information Science, Management Information Systems, and Forestry Information Management. It starts to formally recruit students in 1999. In order to understand the development status of this specialty and thus to make it better, the Management Science and Information Management Department of Huazhong University of Science and Technology carried out a questionnaire survey among all the institutions with the eligibility in 2009 to enroll general undergraduate students. 280 questionnaires were distributed all around the country to higher education institutions (HEIs) which have an IM & IS specialty. 110 valid questionnaires were returned, and this means a return rate of 39.29%. The returned sample contains 10 “Project 211” universities, 53 “non-Project 211” universities, and 47 second-level or independent colleges. Among these 110 HEIs, 45% are comprehensive, 4% are specialized for finance and economics, 5% for agriculture and forestry, 5% for medicine, 29% for

technology, and 11% for other subjects (See Figure 1). The statistical results should have satisfactory sample features.

Figure. 1 Types of higher education institutions in the questionnaire sample

The statistical results of the questionnaires show that the establishments of the IM & IS specialty in China are somewhat in chaos. HEIs of different types - comprehensive ones, as well as those specialized for economics, management, science, engineering, agriculture, or medicine - all have the IM & IS specialty.

Of all the surveyed HEIs, half run the IM & IS specialty in School of Economics, School of Management, or School of Business Administration, 30% run it in Information Management Department or Information Engineering Department, 13% run it in School of Computer Science or Information School, and 7% run it in other divisions such as Mathematics Department or School of Medical and Health Administration.

The survey also indicates that different HEIs have different orientations of the IM & IS specialty. According to their aims to educate students, they can be divided into four groups. The first group, represented by Huazhong University of Science and Technology, is technology-oriented, with Information Technology and Information Systems Development as the core. The second group, represented by Wuhan University, is information resource-oriented, with Informatics as the core. The third group, represented by Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, is economics and management-oriented, with Economics as the core. The last group is management-oriented, with Management as the core. However, HEIs in the last group differs from one another specifically. For example, Fudan University emphasizes Enterprise Management, while Nanjing University emphasizes Public Administration. The

2010 International Conference on Electrical and Control Engineering

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DOI 10.1109/iCECE.2010.649

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2010 International Conference on Electrical and Control Engineering

978-0-7695-4031-3/10 $26.00 © 2010 IEEE

DOI 10.1109/iCECE.2010.649

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inconsistency in orientations is very harmful to the development of the IM & IS specialty and to the training of talents. It is also adverse to the long-term development of the discipline itself.

Healthy development of a discipline depends on whether the discipline has a clear-cut foundation and a scientific and reasonable curriculum and course structure. This paper follows the “segmentation of students - stratification of ability demands - ability-oriented curriculum design” train of thought to design the curriculum of the IM & IS specialty. We hope that it can provide reference for the education reform and talents training in similar specialties.

II. THE ABILITY DEMANDS OF THE IM & IS SPECIALTY

A. Prior Research on the Ability Demands of Information Management Personnel In an ACM research report on computer education for

management, Ashenhurst pointed out that students majoring in Management Information Systems should acquire five categories of abilities [1]: peoples, models, systems, computers, organizations and society. In Lee’s research, he summarized skills that are important for information systems personnel [2]: interpersonal communication, programming language, development and administration of application systems, operating system, networking and communications, computer tools. Some domestic researchers also analyzed and summarized skills and abilities necessary for information management (IM) personnel. Yang Zhonghua summarized them as technical abilities, analytical abilities, interpersonal influence, management abilities, and information handling abilities [3]. IM & IS personnel must have not only IT abilities, but also business process, project management, and interpersonal communication abilities [4].

Existing literature has already covered a comprehensive research on the ability demands of IM personnel, with a great number of different types of abilities studied [5]. However, inadequacies in two aspects still exist:

1) The personnel are not segmented There are actually a lot of different types of information

management personnel that demand different types of abilities. For example, CIO and CKO, systems analyst and program designer, and data analyst and network designers, each pair of them have different ability demands. If we do not segment the personnel but only generally discuss the ability demands of IM personnel, the aims of IM & IS specialty education will not be fulfilled.

2) The abilities are not stratified Undergraduate education is a kind of general education

and quality education. The main contradiction students faced with is the contradiction between academic research and social adaptation. IM personnel abilities mentioned in existing literature are surely important for IM & IS undergraduate students, but not all the abilities should be emphasized at the stage of undergraduate education. The kind of education that does not stratify abilities into layers is the all-round education.

The result of all-round education will be that IM & IS specialty has lower technical abilities than Computer Science and Software Engineering specialties do, and also has lower management abilities than Business Administration, Financial Management, and Marketing Management specialties do.

B. The Segmentation of IM & IS Students A segmentation of IM & IS undergraduate students is

necessary for us to stratify the student ability demands and teach them accordingly.

The raw data of the placements of IM & IS graduates in 26 HEIs from 2006 to 2009 show us the average proportions of those who get employed directly, those who continue graduate study in China, and those who go abroad. Among IM & IS graduates of 2006 from the surveyed HEIs, on average, 52.63% get employed directly, 38.60% continue graduate study in China, and 8.77% go abroad. Among graduates of 2007, on average, 67.69% get employed directly, 27.69% continue graduate study in China, and 4.62% go abroad. Among graduates of 2008, on average, 52.63% get employed directly, 38.60% continue graduate study in China, and 8.77% go abroad. Among graduates of 2009, on average, 53.73% get employed directly, 40.30% continue graduate study in China, and 5.97% go abroad.

The survey’s results clearly show that IM & IS graduates mainly have three types of placements: getting employed directly, continuing graduate study in China, and going abroad. Actually, most students who go abroad are pursuing a graduate education, too. So this means that in the last four years, the ratio between graduates who directly go to work and those who continue to study is 1.3:1. These two types of students have different ability demands, so it is necessary to divide students into the practice ability-oriented group and the research ability-oriented group.

C. The Stratification of IM & IS Ability Demands UNESCO recently stated that the role of modern

universities should be “shapers of the future, leaders of the society.” At the meantime of serving the society, universities should maintain their own fundamental rationality and academic values. They should consciously provide the right guidance of values using their new ideas, new knowledge and new culture, and thus lead the progress of society. Unlike vocational training institutions, universities should give a higher priority to basic qualities education than to professional abilities development. However, universities are constantly facing a basic contradiction, the one between holding academic spirit and adapting to the society. To resolve this contradiction, we could stratify the student ability demands based on student segmentation, and add a new layer of career development abilities to help the two types of students switch their roles successfully. Hence, demands for student abilities can be stratified into four layers, which are basic qualities, professional abilities, career development abilities, and sustainable development abilities (See Figure 2).

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Figure 2. The layers of IM & IS student ability demands

The first layer is basic qualities, the basic abilities that every undergraduate student should have. Basic qualities mainly include high social responsibility (moral standards, cultural knowledge, etc.), physical fitness, mathematical skills and foreign language skills.

The second layer is professional abilities. IM & IS, as a highly interdisciplinary subject, must train students to have unique core competencies in order to avoid being replaced by graduates of Computer Science, Software Engineering, or other Management specialties. These core competencies are the basic professional qualities that every student in IM & IS should have. These mainly include management abilities (information resource integration and IT management, management decision-making), information abilities (programming and development tools, network technology and applications, data analysis and processing), and systems abilities (system analysis and design).

The third layer is career development abilities, an application and a lift of professional abilities. Different types of students have different demands for career development abilities. Practice-oriented students face the pressure of looking for jobs and adapting to the society. They mainly demand career planning abilities, IT skills, practical experience (system development, project implementation, project management, internship, etc.). Research-oriented students face the pressure of graduate study and academic research. They mainly demands capacities for research, such as mastering related management research methods, models and modeling techniques.

The forth layer is sustainable development abilities, a life-time benefit to the students. Sustainable development abilities mainly include abilities in learning, responding to the changing world, timely absorbing of new knowledge, fast update of knowledge, innovation, etc.

III. THE ABILITY DEMAND-ORIENTED CURRICULUM DESIGN

IM & IS specialty is not a simple mixture of knowledge in relevant specialties. It should have its own curriculum and knowledge structure.

A. The Principles of Curriculum Reform 1) Wide scope and solid foundation

The basic principle of the curriculum reform is the general discipline education pattern of “specialty education in a wide scope on the basis of general education”. The scope of IM & IS specialty can be expanded into three dimensions: Information Resource Management, Information Technology Applications, and Soft Science in Economics and Management [5]. Besides, the multi-disciplinary integration can be realized through an expansion in the coverage of the specialty.

2) Multi-level and diversity Introduce research-oriented elective courses track and

practice-oriented elective courses track, and increase the requirement for elective credit hours. This allows students to freely select courses according to their own career plan and interests. Taking such measures would cross the boundaries between “generalists” and “specialists”, and help develop interdisciplinary “compound” talents who have not only a solid foundation of theoretical knowledge but also strong practical and research abilities.

B. The Composition of Curriculum Based on the stratification of demands for student abilities,

the curriculum of IM & IS specialty can be divided into theoretical curriculum and practical curriculum. Theoretical curriculum contains three levels: basic courses in general education, basic courses in discipline, and courses in specialty.

Basic courses in general education provide basic and quality education. Basic courses in discipline provide background and principle education. Courses in specialty represent the characteristics of the profession, and help students acquire technical knowledge and tools necessary for professional qualities. These three levels are related to one another. In order to give a full play to the students’ personalities and potentials for diversified education, as well as to meet the society’s demand for talents and help students get a better future career, we further establish research-oriented elective courses, practice-oriented elective courses, and a number of practical training courses into the curriculum.

To meet the students’ demand, elective courses can also be divided into practice-oriented ones and research-oriented ones. See Figure 3 for the relationships between the courses and the abilities that are developed. There are a few points to be explained about this design:

1) Basic courses in general education Basic courses in general education provide basic and

quality education, including humanities, mathematics, English, etc. They emphasize the development of students’ basic qualities and skills. We should select fundamental courses of science and engineering in accordance with the characteristics of IM & IS specialty.

2) Basic courses in discipline Basic courses in discipline can be further divided into

basic courses in general discipline and basic courses in specific discipline. Basic courses in general discipline cover the basic principles, laws and methods in management science, management engineering, business administration, and economics. Basic courses in specific discipline develop

Abilities of social Adaptation

Sustainable development abilities

Research abilities

Basic qualities

Professional abilities

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the students’ basic abilities in system science and information science.

Basic Courses in Discipline

Basic Courses in General Discipline

Management Courses

Economics Courses

Basic Courses in Specific Discipline

System ScienceEconomics Course

Information Science

Basic Courses in General Education

Data Analysis and Processing

Programming and Tools

Network Technology

System Analysis and Design

Management Decision-Making

Information Resource

Integration & IT Management

Basic Courses in General Education

IT Courses Integrated Experiments

Management Courses Integrated Experiments

Current Issues in Discipline

Basic Courses in General Education

HumanitiesPhysical EducationMathematicsForeign Languages

Politics Courses Community Service

Research-Oriented Elective Courses

Models and Modeling Techniques

Management Research Methods

Practice-Oriented Elective Courses

Career Planning

Management Skills and Techniques

Business English

Figure 3. An example of the ability demand-oriented curriculum design

Besides required courses, there are a lot of practice-oriented or research-oriented elective courses for students to choose to meet their own needs. The requirement for elective course credits should be set higher to satisfy the demands for practical or research abilities.

3) Courses in specialty

Courses in specialty emphasize the development of the students’ professional abilities, such us abilities in programming, data analysis and processing, computer networks, information systems analysis and design, information resource integration and IT management, and management decision-making.

4) Practical training courses Practical training courses develop the students’ hands-on

abilities, learning abilities, and innovation abilities. They emphasize the integration of knowledge and the conversion from knowledge to abilities.

IV. CONCLUSIONS Based on a survey on the current situation of IM & IS

specialty development, this essay summarizes the problems lying in the IM & IS education in HEIs in China, and proposed a “segmentation of students - stratification of ability demands -ability-oriented curriculum design” train of thought to provide reference for the education reform and talents training in similar specialties.

REFERENCES [1] Ashenhurst R R.,“Curriculum recommendations for graduate

professional programs in information systems,”Communications of the ACM, vol.15, pp. 364-384, 1972.

[2] Young D, Lee S, “The relative importance of technical and interpersonal skills for new information systems personnel,”Journal of Computer Information Systems, vol. 36, pp. 66-71, 1996.

[3] Yang Zhonghua, “Development of competency-based curriculum for information management and information system students,”Journal of Wuhan University of Science and Technology (Social Science Edition), vol.1, pp. 92-95,2008.

[4] Qian Jie, Song Pingping, “An exploration of the practice-oriented talents development model in the information management and information system specialty,”China Management Informationization,vol.11,pp. 106-109,2008.

[5] Zheng Rong, Jing Jipeng, Zhou Zhiqiang, “Research on Education System for Information Management and Information System Specialty Based-on Multi-Course Mixing,”Information Science, vol.24, pp. 8-11, 2006.

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