Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT
This study examines student preferences regarding graduate management information systems (MIS) education. One hundred and eighty four graduate students responded to a survey exploring student attitudes towards degree program content, delivery format, and peer group interaction. Study results indicate that students prefer a program with an even mix of business and technical coursework taught by full-time faculty featuring frequent guest lectures by industry professionals. The most often cited business courses that should be required include quantitative business analysis, operations management, strategy, and leadership, and the most often identified management information systems courses that should be required were internships, business intelligence, data warehousing, management information systems fundamentals, and information technology project management. The study also explored how students with and without prior work experience differed in their preferences, which will help administrators and faculty with insights and tools to design more effective programs of study.
Keywords: Curriculum design & development, Enrollment, Program improvement, Program assessment & design, Program promotion, Student expectations, Student attitudes, Student perceptions
1.INTRODUCTION
Graduate programs in management information systems (MIS) have been dramatically affected by economic cycles associated with market-based economies. MIS programs during the dotcom bubble saw double-digit enrollment increases during the bubble's build-up only to experience a double-digit decrease in enrollment during its bust (George, Valacich, and Valor, 2005). The recent big data era also has resulted in dramatic growth and interest in graduate information systems (IS) education. Academic administrators faced with rapidly changing enrollment often must respond reactively in a suboptimal fashion. During periods of rapid growth, administrators may be unable to hire enough qualified faculty, they may increase class size above desired levels, and they may turn away students. During economic downturns, administrators may eliminate programs, leaving students scrambling to complete degrees and leaving faculty struggling to find employment (Weber and Zaragoza, 2009).
Economic cycles are uncontrollable. However, regardless of the economic cycle, the success of designing a degree program depends critically on how well it meets the needs of various stakeholders such as employers, faculty, students, accrediting bodies, and society (Topi et al., 2017). Traditionally, program design has emphasized the needs of industry and the required body of knowledge as articulated by faculty (Chiang, Goes, and Stohr, 2012; Gupta, Goul, and Dinter, 2015). Student needs and...