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Our journey with Learning Outcomes started back in February 2003, when we first started working out the blueprint for the SIS bachelor's programme. Learning Outcomes focus on the end result, and are used to define what the student must know and be able to do when they complete the programme. The well-developed set of Learning Outcomes for our BSc (IS Management) programme incorporates our evolving vision of the skill sets powering the capabilities of a professional who can lead transformation, innovation, productivity and value creation initiatives in business settings because of their deep ability to combine IT, business thinking and problem solving. The Learning Outcomes for all our educational programmes will continue to evolve over time.
When we designed the first SIS educational programme, our BSc (IS Management) degree, we looked at the curriculum composition of information technology programmes at a number of other universities around the world. We took an especially in-depth look at six IT and hybrid Business-IT programmes at Carnegie Mellon University as well. While we were doing this, we decided that as part of the process of designing the first SIS educational programme, we also needed to define and co-design the Learning Outcomes. The Learning Outcomes would guide us in deciding what we wanted to accomplish with the undergraduate programme and what we wanted to be the hallmark capabilities of those who would complete our IS Management programme.
We realised that while the courses and curriculum structure of existing university programmes we looked at were reflections of the present, they also had strong roots in the past, including the longer term legacy past. Our Learning Outcomes for our new BSc (IS Management) programme, however, were guided by a vision of the future. The Learning Outcomes took shape from deep and ongoing interactions with leading business users of IT, leading creators of business-oriented IT solutions and leading deliverers of IT services to business organisations. These users and providers of IT were telling us what was being increasingly demanded of business-oriented IT professionals, as well as of IT sophisticated business professionals and executives in today's workplace and in the evolving workplace of the future.
We strongly adhered to a simple rule when we worked out the course and curriculum blueprint for the BSc (IS Management) curriculum. If we had to choose between being more like the programme of some other schools (no matter how famous that other school might be) or being in better alignment with “real-world” inputs that were shaping our Learning Outcomes, we chose the latter. The safer and more conservative route would obviously be to make curriculum choices that would make us look more like the IT programmes at one of the well-known universities. Given the nature of the dynamics and speed of global competition, as well as the nature of IT research, tools and applications, we were convinced it made more sense to have a forward-looking orientation aligned with our emerging Learning Outcomes than a more historical-looking orientation reflecting historical choices of another well-known university. Our experience since our founding has demonstrated that this forward-looking orientation was a wise choice (and will continue to be so!).
The eight SIS Learning Outcomes for our undergraduate programme are listed immediately below:
1. Integration of business & technology in a sector context
2. IT architecture, design and development skills
3. Project management skills
4. Learning-to-learn skills
5. Collaboration skills
6. Change management skills for enterprise systems
7. Skills for working across countries, cultures and borders
8. Communication skills
More information on these outcomes, including detailed definitions, are given on our Learning Outcomes Website. A full accounting of how these outcomes evolved over time, how they are woven into our curriculum delivery and improvement and how our innovative Learning Outcomes Management System (LOMS) came into being, is given in the supporting paper, Learning Outcomes for a Business Information Systems Undergraduate Programme.
While it takes some time for our undergraduates to understand and realise the importance of all eight of these outcomes, and how they inter-relate, students seem to immediately “get it” with respect to outcome #4 Learning-to-learn. Our students seem to thrive on developing this particular skill.
Is it because our students frequently encounter situations where they have to integrate and fuse know-how from one or more business disciplines, from several areas of information technology, and from industry? Or is it because our students get immersed early in fairly large and complex real-world projects through their internships, course projects, entrepreneurial and various extra-curricular activities and their IS Application Project done in Year 3 or 4 (a.k.a. Final Year Project)? Is this because of the dynamic and every changing nature of IT, and the ongoing need to learn about new technologies and applications? Is it because there is only limited time in class and we structure assignments in ways that require students to learn beyond what we teach them in class?
The result of all of these situations is that our SIS undergraduates have to “figure it out” and develop confidence in their ability to learn-how-to-learn. Perhaps this is why our SIS undergraduate students have developed a reputation across SMU for their ability to take on large degrees of responsibility and leadership, as well as the ability to take on complex and demanding projects at the interface of business and technology.
The students are not the only ones learning-to-learn. SIS faculty and the programmes we create and deliver must also lean-to-learn. It is the only way we can continuously evolve and insure that our programmes continue to be forward-looking rather than reflections of the past.
In this spirit, we have continued to substantially evolve and improve our BSc (IS Management) course content and curriculum structure since we launched the programme. This is not an easy thing to do. It requires an enormous investment of time on the part of our faculty and staff. It also requires effort (and occasional discomfort) on the part of our students to adapt to these changes.
All SMU schools, including SIS, have the mission of being a first rate, globally recognised and respected research institution, as well as a place known and respected for innovative, interactive and relevant pedagogy. Of all the research-oriented information systems, IT and Computer Science programmes we are familiar with world-wide, as far as we can tell, we seem to put more emphasis on curriculum revision and continuous improvement than any other programmes we have become aware of. This undeniably causes some degree of extra work for all concerned. At the same time, it makes us all really live the experience of learning-to-learn. I believe that despite the extra effort it takes, our living experience of learning-to-learn helps all of us at SIS to realise our goal, whether it is to be a better researcher and scholar, a better educator or a better professional in industry.
Also in the spirit of learning-to-learn, we have recently created a Learning Outcomes framework for our Master of IT in Business (Financial Services) programme, which was launched in 2007. Over time, the Learning Outcomes framework for the masters curriculum will evolve to a comparable level of depth as it was for the bachelor's programme. Eventually, a Learning Outcomes framework will be created for our Ph.D. programme as well.
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