Learning computer programming is typically difficult for newcomers. Demotivation and learned helplessness have received much attention. Besides the subject's intricacy, low in-class participation has been associated with poor student achievement. This paper presents a follow-up, stage 2 study on the novel instructional technique, Student-Driven…

Information Technology (IT) skills gap discourse suggests a mismatch between what students are acquiring in terms of knowledge and skills in their education versus what employers believe are useful skills for doing day to day tasks. This study builds upon previous research (analyzing the skills of college students in IT-related majors) by…

Rapid advancements and emergent technologies add an additional layer of complexity to preparing computer science and information technology higher education students for entering the post pandemic job market. Knowing and predicting employers' technical skill needs is essential for shaping curriculum development to address the emergent skill gap.…

The authors note a distinct shift in topics covered in curricula as well as in conference presentations. This research was undertaken to get a better understanding of what these shifts have been, and determine their magnitude over time. Since ISECON has published its conference proceedings in digital format since 1982, this was a logical source of…

All curricula for any given academic discipline evolves over time. This is also true for the Information Systems (IS) model curriculum. Curriculum evolution is driven by several factors, such as changes in technologies, industry shifts to meet customer needs, and perceived student deficiencies. One outcome of such factors has been a change in the…

Technology makes up our daily lives and is a part of everything we do. The tech job market is expanding with more and more jobs needing to be filled by those with the necessary qualifications. Students are realizing the vast opportunities a career in technology can offer them and many are making the conscience decision to major in a technical…

In this paper, the author reports the results of an empirical study on the relationship between a student's programming experience and their success in a traditional Systems Analysis and Design (SA&D) class where technical skills such as dataflow analysis and entity relationship data modeling are covered. While it is possible to teach these…

This paper describes the development of a hybrid introductory course for students in their first or second year of an information systems technologies degree program at a large Midwestern university. The course combines topics from discrete mathematics and programming logic and design, a unique twist on most introductory courses. The objective of…

Teaching game development has become an accepted methodology for introducing programming concepts and capturing the interest of beginning computer science and information technology (IT) students. This study, conducted over three consecutive semesters, explores game development using a gaming engine, rather than a traditional programming language,…

App Inventor has been used successfully to teach introduction to programming course for CS/IS/IT and Non-CS majors. Now, researchers are looking on how to include the tool in the curriculum of more advanced computing courses. This paper presents some Issues, Challenges and Opportunities observed while teaching courses on Mobile Application…

In this paper we present an artifacts-based approach to teaching a senior level Object-Oriented Analysis and Design course. Regardless of the systems development methodology and process model, and in order to facilitate communication across the business modeling, analysis, design, construction and deployment disciplines, we focus on (1) the…

Students in computer science and information technology should be engaged in solving real-world problems received from government and industry as well as those that expose them to various areas of application. In this paper, we discuss interdisciplinary project experiences between majors and non-majors that offered a creative and innovative…

As punishment in the biblical story of Moses the slaves were told they had to make bricks without straw. This was impossible because bricks made without straw had the appearance of strength and function but could not withstand the proof of actual use. The slaves' punishment was therefore not only to make bricks, but also to find the straw on their…

Web 2.0 services include sharing and collaborative technologies such as blogs, social networking sites, online office productivity tools, and wikis. Wikis are increasingly used for the design and implementation of pedagogy, for example to facilitate experiential learning. A U.S. government-funded project for system security risk assessment was…

This paper researches the computer languages taught in the first, second and third programming courses in Computer Information Systems (CIS), Management Information Systems (MIS or IS) curricula as well as in Computer Science (CS) and Information Technology (IT) curricula. Instructors teaching the first course in programming within a four year…