This material describes a method for updating the programming of subjects that have more than one reference guide. In these cases it is necessary to combine the use of different ways of describing the contents and learning objectives of the students, so as to be consistent with the new principles of subject design.
The method is illustrated through its application to a subject such as Analysis and Design of Information Systems that meets this condition: its frame of reference is not only the one corresponding to the generic area to which it corresponds, Information Systems, but also has curricular models specific to this discipline.
1. Motivation
For the teaching design of this subject, a logical process has been established and adapted to the circumstances and nature of the subject that is discussed here. Particular circumstances have been considered, such as the brief history of teaching the subject in question, its integration with the current study plan, or the circumstances in which this plan was developed.
The process followed consists of seven stages (figure 1), where the arrows describe the sequence in which the stages can be carried out, and the boxes with lowercase text the input documents to the corresponding stage. Although they are listed below, the detailed description, and its results, is the subject of the remaining sections of this article. These are:
Phase 1. Analysis of the demand and the student's profile.
Information is collected on the current demand of the student, and if some of the required qualities can be provided through the subjects discussed here. In addition, the existing information about the existence of definitions of computer profiles in general, and the profile of the career itself will be handled.
Phase 2. Selection of the contents
That is, the identification and selection of the subject that the teacher has to teach and that the student has to learn. The selection of content has been carried out through an original process created for this purpose, in which an innovative content proposal has been sought. This process responds to a study of the coverage of the current Curriculum with the chosen curricular models, the relationships between subjects within the Plan and the application of favorable and unfavorable criteria for the incorporation of content.
Phase 3. Sequencing of the contents.
The contents selected for the respective subjects are regrouped into large thematic blocks that are broken down into their corresponding didactic units with strictly personal criteria of the author of this project.
Phase 4. Formulation of the general objectives.
When it has already been decided which contents have been selected, it is necessary to respond to the minimum requirements required, the objectives that express the "terminal behavior" or observable, the conditions for carrying out said behavior, as well as the evaluation criteria or the minimum level required of the student to achieve that specific objective. These objectives are also the result of a selection process of objectives from the curricular model and other new ones incorporated.
Phase 5. Determination of learning experiences.
Everything related to didactic methods is included. Teaching tactics are established from the specific objectives formulated, thus choosing the most effective way to achieve those objectives. For this phase, more emphasis is placed on the activities that the students will develop, both inside and outside the center, responding to the criteria of the new credits. The characteristics of the students, the experience of the teachers, the available means, etc. have also been considered, since there is no single strategy. On the other hand, it must be indicated what will be the didactic methodology to be used by the teacher, as well as the greater or lesser participation incidence of the students.
Phase 6. Evaluation tactics are determined, depending on the objectives.
For this phase and the previous one, an analysis of educational factors has been considered.
Phase 7. Design of resources and means.
Those that will be used as instructional support are established. For this phase, the design of the activities to be carried out in the teaching-learning process, and the evaluation tests that are planned, have been taken into account, since it is these resources that make it possible.
This presentation covers the explanation in more detail of the steps of content selection, formulation of objectives, teaching methods, and determination of evaluation tactics. These steps are described in successive sections.
2. Study of needs
The subject on which the proposed method is explained is a semester subject in the current Curriculum D, of the 3rd year, and with an average size of students in the last three years of 25 students.
During the last five years, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become one of the fastest growing areas and have become the engine of the world economy. Data from recent years show that this growth continues, albeit less accelerated, due in part to the economic situation characterized by the bankruptcy of technology companies emerging in full expansion.
The studies carried out here competed with various market studies, and the professional vision, the academic vision of the curricular models, and the efforts to define professional profiles. It is not the explicit objective of this presentation, since there are already works that can help to collect the necessary information. For example in,, and.
3. Content selection
The selection of contents is carried out after a coverage study of the set of subjects that make up the current study plan with respect to the curricular models applicable to this subject. After this study, which allows the identification of potential areas of knowledge that could be considered to update the current contents of the subjects, the relationships between the subjects that are the object of this teaching proposal and the rest of the subjects with which they could be related are analyzed..
Subsequently, a selection of educational content is made to update the agenda for "Systems Analysis and Design". To do this, various selection criteria of said content will be used which, if met, will favor the incorporation of a certain content.
Criteria for the elimination of content will also be taken into account, that is, criteria by which it will be possible to decide not to include certain or certain contents in the different subjects. Finally, the previous criteria are applied and the selected contents are obtained.
The next step is to start working with the ADSI Curriculum Model, which gives the possibility of completing those obtained with the IS'97 Body of Knowledge. Appropriate topics have been selected according to the subject descriptors. Once selected, the units that make up each topic are checked which conform to the subject's descriptors. The partial results obtained appear in Table 1. These elements are the ones that have been decided to be included in the final list of contents.
| Topic | Selected knowledge items |
| 1.Overview of the Analysis and Design of Information Systems | 1.1 Introductory course |
| 1.2 Why computer systems have to be controlled and analyzed | |
| 1.3 The nature of the Systems and their objectives | |
| 1.4 How the use of computers impacts the information system in organizations | |
| 1.5 The study of manual or non-automated procedures | |
| 2. Design of the new system | 2.1 Design of the new system |
| 2.2 Impact of information technology on management and on the analysis of management systems. | |
| 2.3 Particularities of the analysis and design of systems in a computer environment
(ACCESS) |
|
| 2.4. The implementation of the new system | |
|
3. Networks |
3.1. The company's personal computer. Advantages of use |
| 3.2 Elements of a local network | |
| 3.3 Internet services | |
| 3.4 Electronic commerce |
Table 1. Selected contents of the “ADSI” curricular model
4. Reordering of content
Once the selection and extraction of the pertinent contents for the ADSI subject has been made, the educational objectives that are intended to be achieved in the student are defined and that indicate the degree of depth required in the teaching of these subjects. Educational integrity indicates that this step is normally prior to the selection of content, contrary to what is presented in this work. The reason is that this process has been considered adequate when a subject is programmed for the first time. However, when, as is the case, it is about updating content, and working under the restrictions of the rest of the subjects in the study plan, the criterion that has been followed is to take as an initial point of reference for the rest of the process elements of knowledge that are considered appropriate to incorporate.
The selection of objectives follows a similar method to that followed for the choice of content, although applying other criteria and parameters. To select the degree of importance of the educational objectives, the depth of knowledge metric proposed in this model has been used.
The problem consists of associating the previously extracted contents with adequate objectives to achieve in the teaching of these subjects. Those objectives that are considered more “important” will be selected. To measure this degree of importance, it is proposed to follow an approach taking as cadence the references of the elements of knowledge to learning units. In our case, the selected contents correspond to elements of knowledge from the Body of Knowledge of the Curricular Model. These elements of knowledge reference learning units, which in turn contain objectives to be achieved. The relative importance of each element of knowledge within its corresponding area is considered to be given by the number of learning units in which it is encompassed.
In addition, it is important to note that the greater the depth level of a learning unit, the greater its importance is considered, so the higher the references of an element of knowledge, the more importance said references will have.
But this is not going to be the only way to associate objectives with the contents selected in advance. For more specific content that has been selected by other selection criteria, such as, for example, based on the needs of the students or because it is content extracted from the ADSI Curriculum Model, other selection methods will be applied, such as resorting to the an explicit and direct description of them.
All these objectives are reorganized by topics and didactic units as reflected in Table 2, which includes the objectives of the three programmed topics.
Computer Systems Analysis and Design
| Topic | goals |
| 1. Computer systems and the company | 1. Know the fundamental concepts related to systems and information theory. |
| 2. Know the fundamental principles of the organization of the work of computer systems analysis | |
| 3. Know the methods, techniques and tools of this discipline, according to the methodology used in the development of the subject. | |
| 4. Understand organizational culture and its relationship with information systems | |
| 2. Analysis and design techniques for the representation and documentation of computer systems | 5. Describe, interpret and evaluate the state of the existing information system in the area under analysis. |
| 6. Design, develop and check information systems of relatively little complexity in correspondence with the needs and requirements of the entities, objects of the work.
7. Know the Techniques for the design, creation and representation of information systems. 8. Implementation and documentation of the new system developed. |
|
| 3. Elements
about networks and the company |
9. Elements of local area networks. |
| 10. Knowledge about the theory and concepts of INTERNET AND INFORMATION IN THE COMPANY TODAY, elements about bandwidth. | |
| 11. Expose and demonstrate the advantages and utilities of the systems designed using the technique explained. | |
| 12. Conceive, project, design and elaborate computer systems of relative complexity; in correspondence with the needs and requirements of the job. |
Table 3. Ordering of objectives by topics of Analysis and Design of Computer Systems
The final result is balanced with respect to the number of objectives for each level of depth in each of the programmed topics. Thus, table 3 summarizes and quantifies a balance of the objectives and their levels:
Information Systems Analysis and Design
| Topic | level
one |
level
two |
level
3 |
level
4 |
level
5 |
| Topic 1 | two | two | |||
| Topic 2 | two | one | two | one | |
| Theme 3 | two | one | two | one |
Table 3. Distribution of general objectives by levels of depth and by topics of Information Systems Analysis and Design
5. Teaching methods
A first criterion has been proposed to classify and describe all the activities that it is proposed to carry out: activities developed in the classroom, and outside the classroom. In both situations, the communication problem is considered a fundamental element of the teaching-learning process.
5.1. Classroom activities
The activities in the classroom are based on interactive classes. In this type of class, active lessons are combined with different types of exercises, individual or in groups, of comprehension and application, mainly, and applying teaching techniques already exposed. Activities outside the classroom are focused on teamwork, apart from other individual assignments. The fact of being carried out outside the classroom may imply a communication problem, since it cannot be dealt with directly and instantly, as it can be in a classroom.
As a preliminary step to the design of each of the educational techniques to be applied, we have begun to identify and analyze the different communication channels provided within the framework of this subject.
5.2. Activities outside the classroom
Group assignments are proposed to highlight the difficulties that arise and to assess the student's understanding of some of the aspects of the topic. In total, two types of assignments are proposed: case studies, and group projects.
6. Determination of evaluation tactics
Evaluation involves issuing a value judgment about something and someone. In the world of teaching, that something usually refers to learning, and that someone is the student, fundamentally. Strictly speaking, every student has the legal right to pass a subject through the so-called final exam.
The ADSI subject exam is held in June. But written tests only handle the lowest levels of educational objective ratings. And, the nature of the discipline taught in this subject consists of other types of practical skills.
The situation described above has led to the design of a process for evaluating content and distributed practice in which the basis of the final evaluation is proposed to be the result of written tests in the official calls and the evaluation of individual work activities and in equipment. In addition, throughout the educational process a series of individual and group assignments are established that allow a type of continuous evaluation to be approached. In addition, after each lesson, students must complete a short test to help them set the most fundamental ideas and meet the objectives of the teaching unit.
The overall assessment of a student for the entire course is determined by the following factors: the evaluation of the two practical assignments delivered (40%) and the written exams of the contents of the teaching units (60%).
The evaluation of the contents is carried out through written exams, of which two will be carried out, at the end of the first two subjects and at the end of the subject. There is a requirement to be able to take a written exam: students must have successfully completed the practice corresponding to the exam date.
The mark corresponding to the two written exams includes content transmitted through the lectures as well as the learning carried out through the activities carried out in class.
The grade corresponding to group work is in turn more complex. Of this, 60% corresponds to the assessment of the sum of written reports (group assessment), 15% to the public presentation (group assessment) and 20% to the individual assessment of each component of the group based on the collective mentoring and in the reports of team members. All this is completed by the subjective assessment of the teacher (5%).
Conclusions
- This work has collected the process described by the author to update the program of a subject with different objectives: Integrate it into the Curriculum currently in force, avoiding unwanted duplications or covering untreated content throughout the degree. Integrate the necessary combination of different curricular models. Be consistent with the teaching process that places special emphasis on student learning. For this reason, special attention is paid to the definition of educational objectives.
References
Martínez, G and Fabregat G. Professional and academic profile of computer science in Spain. JENUI (Computer Science University Teaching Conference) July 2002.
Parnas, Education for Computing Professionals, IEEE Computer, vol. 23, no. 1, January 1990
Simon, The Current Status of the IS Discipline: A survey of American and International Business Schools, Information Resources Management Journal, vol. 12, no.2, April-June 1999.
E. Tovar, What can we teach about Information Technology and Organization in Computer Curricula? JENUI (Computer Science University Teaching Conference)
ISACF, Model Curricula for Information Systems Auditing at the Undergraduate and Graduate Levels, March 1998
IS'97 Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems, 1997.
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