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ISM-6013: Management Information Systems

Abstract
Title	Using Classroom Presenter and Ubiquitous Presenter as a Substitute for Face-to-Face Lectures in an Introductory Programming Course
Contact	Dr. T. Grandon Gill ggill@coba.usf.edu 813-974-6755
Principal Investigator	Dr. Michael Harris
Department	Information Systems and Decision Sciences
Brief Description	HP mobile technology was used to radically alter how the introductory programming course taught to MIS majors is conducted. The key element of the innovation is replacing traditional face-to-face lectures in the classroom with interactive learning sessions using Classroom Presenter or Ubiquitous Presenter to engage students.

Quick Facts
Courses Impacted	1
Number of Students Involved	18
Number of Faculty Involved	1

Rationale

The course was taught using a four hour lecture once a week for eight weeks. This is an evening class since most of the MBA students are also employed full time. There are a number of problems with this lecture format. First, it is difficult to hold the student’s attention for the entire time period. Four hours is too much time at the end of a full work day. Secondly, the lectures are good at passing on facts and definitions; however, they are not as useful in enhancing students ability to make decisions. MBA students are not expected to become expert technologists on the basis of a single course. The goal of the course should not be to load them with facts, but teach them to consider the strategic and management implications of technology-related decisions.

Case-based classroom discussions provide a better forum for helping students understand issues and helping them practice decision-making in issue-oriented discussions. However, there are several issues that also apply in these circumstances. First, this class is among the first-such class attended by these students. They are not necessarily practiced in preparing for case discussions. Secondly, the learning in case discussions can be emergent throughout the entire period of the discussion. Because of this gradual learning process, students may not explicitly recognize the new lessons that they learn. If the lessons are not explicit, the knowledge may not be fully accessible since real world situations do not exactly match the in-class experience.

Implementation

Pedagogy
In order to capture the student’s attention more effectively, the class periods were split into two pieces. Half the time was asynchronous and half was synchronous (face-to-face).
Asynchronous communication gives each student the flexibility to pursue learning at a time that best fits their schedule. The price of this flexibility is the loss of interactivity that occurs since students and teachers are not available at the same time. Therefore, asynchronous communication works best when information only needs to travel in one direction. In this instance, recorded lectures were provided to the students to expose them to basic concepts and definitions related to IS. These lectures covered foundation concepts that became the underpinnings of subsequent case discussions. Synchronous time is valuable when two-way communication needs to take place in real time. It allows for use of both verbal and non-verbal communications cues to emphasize important points. It also allows peer-to-peer interaction so that students can learn from each others experiences. This makes synchronous discussions an ideal medium for exploring learning cases.

In order to make the most effective possible use of the case discussion, students need to prepare for the discussion ahead of time, and they need to pay attention to the path of the discussion as it evolves during the face-to-face experience. In order to facilitate this, students were asked to prepare a typed case summary by the beginning of each class period. During class, students annotated these summaries with handwritten notes. The visual comparison of typed information and handwritten notes/corrections helped students identify strengths and weaknesses in their original case analysis. Each synchronous session finished with a self-analysis section wherein students were asked to reflect on what they had learned. This allowed them to review their combined pre-class analysis and class notes and required them to share their learning with the class.

After the class, each student and the instructor had a copy of the student’s combined notes. This gave the students a record of the key points of the lecture. It allowed the instructor to review the notes and understand how well the students received the planned lesson

Technology
An HP Tablet PC was used to prepare the recorded lectures using Camtasia software. The tablet made it possible to easily annotate PowerPoint slides to go with the recorded voice lecture. The alternative to using the tablet would be annotation using a mouse. However, a mouse proves to be a poor solution to ‘writing’ on the screen. As a result, the lectures were much more legible to students.

During each case-discussion, each student was issued an HP Tablet PC. The primary purpose of these PC’s was for note taking during the class. Before class, students would upload typewritten case summaries to the USF Blackboard system. At the beginning of class, each student checked out a tablet and downloaded their own summary. Notes were then made directly on the student’s own summary. In addition, the tablets were used to access the internet during lectures. Several times students were asked to follow links on Blackboard that led to articles on the Internet.

Impact on Teaching

The use of a tablet for annotation was important. Annotation was used to draw student attention to key points on the slides, and to illustrate key points. This provided visual cues to the recorded lectures and relieved the monotony that may have occurred if the lecture was auditory only. Although this could have been achieved with a mouse, the mouse is not as intuitive for annotations and the resulting output would have been much less useful.
The main use of the tablets was through the combination of typed text and inked text in the note taking documents. As the instructor stated:

Combining typed text and inked text in a single document allowed me to call a student’s attention to the lessons that they had learned in the class. It illustrated the student’s pre-class (typing) and post-class (handwriting) thinking.

It would have been possible to mimic this approach using printed paper and handwritten notes directly on the printed paper. However the electronic approach provided many benefits. First, it provided a better editing environment. Students could easily change their pen widths and colors to allow annotations to stand out as necessary. Students could also spread out the text to create white space for notes, or they could easily add pages to the end of the notes. Secondly, once the notes were complete they were uploaded to an electronic repository. This approach has all of the typical advantages of electronic storage. Electronic records are easy to duplicate so that both the instructor and the students can make copies for their files. Additionally, electronic copies are easier to archive and find at a later time. This is useful to the instructor when he needs to review materials at the end of the semester for the purpose of grading. The instructor commented:

I also expect the archived data to help me continuously improve the quality of the lectures. Electronic archives are portable and easy to sort. Next time I prepare to lead this same lecture I can refer back to the saved notes from the previous session. These notes will document the lecture and allow me to plan for improvements.

In one case, the tablets were used to deliver new content during a classroom discussion. I interspersed class discussion with articles from the internet. I was able to control the flow of the discussion by timing the introduction of new articles. This specific discussion was on data privacy and fraud. I started the discussion from the viewpoint of an e-commerce company. Then I gradually introduced a series of readings that revealed how individual’s lives were impacted when they suffered from breach of privacy or identity theft. This allowed me to contrast the company’s view of privacy with the consumer view of privacy. It helped to underscore the importance of protection of personal information.

Using tablet technology to lead the lecture gave me two advantages. First, I could provide the information out in real time during the lecture. This allowed me to put the information in the context of an unfolding experience. It would have a very different impact, if I would have had them read the entire set of articles ahead of time. Secondly, using electronic distribution allowed me to update the article list with the latest stories from current news headlines. Talking about current events highlighted that this wasn’t just a hypothetical discussion, and that this was an ongoing issue.

I could have provided the articles to the student’s on paper. However, there are quite a few hurdles with the paper approach. The first issue involved the logistics of printing. I didn’t want the students to have the articles until the lecture so that I could guide and juxtapose the articles. However, I also didn’t want to pay the cost of printing myself. Also, using electronic sources meant that I didn’t have a long lead time. I was able to update the lecture with current material just minutes before class began.

The Tablet PC’s also provided value as a ‘prop’ to support the lectures. For people who are not technologists, a theoretical lecture regarding Information Systems can be quite dry. Using Tablet technology in the classroom provided a working example of the use of Information Systems. This provided a useful context and backdrop for the entire lecture series. In addition to the practical value of the tablets, their novelty allowed the student’s to consider the creative ability of Information Systems to address business problems.

Impact on Student Learning

From the instructor:

I expected this experience to provide several benefits. First, I expected it to make the student’s learning more explicit. Second, I expected it to make the discussions more enjoyable. Finally, I expected it to provide a tool for continuous improvement in future lectures. This final item can not be tested until the next time I give a similar lecture; however, data on the first two items are available now. I surveyed the student’s after the discussions. From the survey’s I can report that most of the students did understand the intended point of the lectures. Also, student’s did report satisfaction with the lecture format. They enjoyed the flexibility of the downloadable fact-based lectures, and they enjoyed the flow of the case-based discussions that were facilitated by the Tablet PC’s. Specifically, the students liked the tablets and they recommended continued use of the technology.

One Year Ago
The course was principally taught using lecture format. As a required core course, it was not necessarily viewed by students as something they were eager to take. Instructor evaluations typically were in the low to mid-four range, on a 1 to 5 scale.

Today
The mix of Tablet PCs and case discussions appeared to be highly beneficial. Instructor evaluations were extraordinarily high (4.88 out of 5 on a 1 to 5 scale) by any standards, particularly remarkable given that it was the first time that the faculty member had taught the course.

One Year From Now
Unfortunately, the instructor--Dr. Michael Harris--was a 2006 graduate of the USF doctoral program, and was assigned to the course as a visiting professor. As of the end of the spring semester, he has left USF for his first permanent faculty position. It does not appear as if we will be able to conduct follow up studies on this course because of logistical challenges. Specifically, all the small section (20 or fewer students) offerings of the class are at a location nearly 20 miles from the main campus. The practical difficulties of moving the tablets back and forth several times a week are likely to prevent instructors from wanting to take on the task of building on Harris' promising results.

Student Comments

Complete comments from fall 2006 student evaluations:
The course was very interesting as it was presented in case format. It allowed me to learn in a new way which I think will allow me to apply my knowledge better.

Great teacher! He has a new and innovative way of teaching; he really makes me think out of the box.

Michael made the class very interesting and I learned a lot. I would suggest more emphasis on lectures, but I enjoyed the online setup. Great course!

The class was great, very interssting and useful.

I liked the way the class was taught. The teacher was a great moderator for the class discussions. Cases were good at covering interesting points/aspects in ISM. Great class!

He does an excellent job using cases etc. in the way to get the information through.

Great case discussions. Thanks!

Great course, great professor. I loved the creative way he arranged the class. Laptops were very beneficial. I recommend making all course lectures like this one. Thanks!

Instructor gave students the tools necessary to succeed; was great at stimulating class discussion, and excellent at showing all sides of a case.

Great course. Expecially like separating discussion (in the class) from lecture (home). It allowed us to focus on case analysis and get a feel for complexity of real-life situations. I personally did not use comp. in class all that much but it was very interesting to blend them in. Thank you!