A Proposition of an ICT University Course Framework that ... - SSRN

The 4th Advanced Research in Scientific Areas November, 9. - 13. 2015, www.arsa-conf.com

A Proposition of an ICT University Course Framework that Supports Business Needs Janusz Stal, Grażyna Paliwoda-Pękosz Department of Computer Science, Cracow University of Economics Krakow, Poland Abstract — The main goal of the research is an investigation of issues connected with the introduction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) courses at economic universities. The changes in business needs and ICT tools require changes in the style of teaching ICT in higher education. On the basis of literature review and interviews with practitioners and students, the authors identified key competences in ICT desirable in a business environment. Then, they proposed a blendedlearning framework for delivering ICT courses that supports developing required skills and acquiring relevant knowledge. The framework was implemented at the Cracow University of Economics. The authors present the result of a survey that examined the usefulness of the proposed framework. Keywords framework

- teaching,

I.

ICT, university, business needs,

INTRODUCTION

The changes in business needs and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools require changes in the style of teaching ICT in higher education. Furthermore, in view of demographic changes resulted in a smaller number of youth that are able to start university education [1], universities need to compete to attract prospective candidates. One possible strategy that they can undertake is an adjustment of curriculum and a learning environment to students’ expectations. These expectations are connected with labor market needs since the most important concern of students is finding work after graduation. In view of common information access the growing interest in soft skills can be observed on the labor market [2]. In addition, students’ need to have a possibility of studying in a flexible learning environment; they often need to combine study and work since employers frequently expect from graduates having working experience. Furthermore, students would like to enhance their carrier opportunities by graduation from two courses. The main goal of this research is development of a teaching framework of ICT at a university that would meet business needs and students’ expectations. Specifically, on the basis of literature review and our experience in teaching at the Cracow University of Economics (CUE) we would like to answer the following research questions: 

What are the key ICT competences (hard skills) needed in a business environment?



What soft skills could participation in ICT course?

be

developed

during



The paper is organized as follows. In the next section we concentrate on literature review concerning hard and soft skills requirements. Then we discuss a university background which is followed by a proposition of a blended-learning framework that facilitates development of key ICT and soft skills needed in a business environment. II.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. ICT Challenges and Cloud Computing In view of information overload [3] the most important ICT skills seem to be connected with information searching, filtering and reliability of information sources assessment. However, in recent years the migration of enterprise activities to a cloud can be observed (see e.g. [4], [5], [6]). Hence, students should also acquire the ability to work in a cloud. Cloud computing can be defined as “a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g. networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction” [7, p.2]. It is implemented accordingly to the one of the following models [7]: 

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – provider offers hardware, storage, access to the Internet, e.g. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, Amazon Simple Storage Service,



Platform as a Service (PaaS) – user can create own applications using tools supported by the provider, e.g. Windows Azure (.NET, PHP, Java, C++, Python), Force.com, and Google App Engine (Jav, Python),



Software as a Service (SaaS) – access to the software via network – e.g. Google Apps, NetSuite (ERP, CRM systems), Salesforce.com (CRM systems), AdobeSendNow (storage and management of documents in a certain group), AdobeCeatePDF (creation and management of PDF documents).

The main benefits of cloud based enterprise system include [8]:

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How to design a course that could support development of these competences and provide flexible learning environment?

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

lower initial costs of implementation and lower operational costs (paying for software and hardware assets that are really used),



rapid deployment – more universal solution that can be easily adjusted to company’s needs,



flexibility and scalability – the possibility of system adjustment in view of company growth.

However, cloud solution raised also a number of the following concerns [8]: 

limited functionality and availability – the issue that loses its importance when cloud computing systems are evolving,



reduced customization and integration – a limited possibility of customization,



security – companies might be afraid of trusting their data other companies,



organizational resistance – companies may have already the potential to maintain in-house system and moving to the cloud might cause organizational disorder.



courtesy – good manners, knowledge of business etiquette,



flexibility – a possibility to adjust to new environment, lifelong learner attitude,



integrity – honesty, having high morals and personal values,



interpersonal skills – nice person with a sense of humor, self-controlled, social,

professionalism – businesslike style in appearance,



responsibility – reliability, self-disciplined,



teamwork – cooperative and collaborative,



work ethic – hard working, loyal.

enthusiastic,

UNIVERSITY BACKGROUND

A. ICT Course Curriculum Every first year student of CUE except the Applied Informatics major takes part in the ICT course. The course curriculum includes both lectures (15 hours) and workshops (15 or 30 hours) where the number of workshop hours depends on the field of study. Table I shows an outline of topics covered in lectures and practical exercises accordingly to the university curriculum.

Educational sciences 10.18638/arsa.2015.4.1.797



III.

The study conducted among teachers from seven European Countries (Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania) revealed that the most important ICT-enhanced soft skills are the following: working with information, presenting information, working on a project, and working in a team [12]. Furthermore, a study by Robles [2] carried out among business executives discovered that the ten top soft skills required most from the future employee are the following: communication – oral, speaking capability, written, presenting, listening,

positive attitude – optimistic, encouraging, happy, confident,

Summing up, in view of high evaluation of soft skills on the labor market, teachers of all subjects should take into account development of these skills.

B. Soft Skills Rrequired by a Business Environment Soft skills can be defined as the combination of interpersonal (people) skills and personal (carrier) attributes [2]. Interpersonal skills characterize person’s ability to interact with other people and include positive attitude, effective communication, polite way of interaction, and self-control in difficult circumstances [9]. Career attributes encompass teamwork, leadership, customer service, and problem-solving skills [10]. It should be noted that previous studies emphasize high importance of interpersonal skills in getting and keeping the position [11].





TABLE I.

ICT COURSE CURRICULUM OUTLINE AT CUE

Lectures

Workshops

Computer science foundation.

Operating system.

The digitization of information resources. Machine representation of information. Data definition and encoding.

Storage management.

Hardware. The computer logical architecture. Characteristics of computer hardware: processor, RAM, storage, peripherals.

Data management and analysis with the use of a spreadsheet.

Searching and information filtering on the Internet.

Text composition, editing, formatting and printing.

Software. The algorithm and its properties. Programming languages. Computer programming. Characteristics of computer software. Basic and system software. Operating systems and computer networks. Office suite of desktop applications. Text editors. Spreadsheets. Graphics software. Database management systems.

Creating and displaying information in the form of a slide show. Raster and vector graphics edition. Electronic communication. Information disseminating. Creating personal website.

Tools integration. Preparing complex documents based on the Microsoft Office integration components. E-economy. E-business. Internet. Trends in the development of information technology. Virtualisation and cloud computing. Source: developed by the authors on the basis of https://planystudiow.uek.krakow.pl/.

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Lectures are given to the larger audience in lecture rooms whereas workshops are conducted for smaller student groups in the university computer labs. They focus primarily on issues related to the use of software applications in business environment. In particular, the student's professional skills are developed with the use of office and graphics applications (text editor, spreadsheet), database management systems, and Internet search engines. For this purpose, a suite of desktop applications available in the university computer labs is used. B. University Teaching Models As of 2009, courses at the CUE can be run not only in the traditional form (face to face meetings in the university classrooms) but also in a blended-learning form, i.e. a mix of traditional and e-learning. More specifically, the lecturer can choose what part of the course will be taught in the form of elearning. The possible values are: 

20% (teaching materials are available on-line, students are encouraged to use them in the learning process),



40% (the same requirements as for 20% extended by some activities that must be done on-line by students),



60% (apart from the requirements for 40%, replacement of some parts of classes by e-learning classes).

According to the university regulations, each blendedlearning course has to obtain a certificate that is issued by ELearning Centre of CUE [13]. All blended-learning courses have to be designed on the Moodle platform [14] that is administrated by the E-learning Centre. The teachers that decide on offering blended-learning courses should also conduct on-line duty hours using chat, special forum on the Moodle platform, or software for audio-visual communication with students. All university regulations concerning e-learning courses are in compliance with the respective Polish government rules [15], [16]. Despite the existence of numerous technical solutions supporting teaching process available at the university, ICT courses are taught mainly in the traditional way described in section III.A with slight support of the university e-learning platform. This platform is used primarily as a repository of course materials (lectures and workshops). E-learning platform activities that could facilitate development of hard and soft skills and allow flexibility of learning are rarely used. In the next section we propose a framework that we believe will enhance teaching and will meet students’ expectation by reaping the benefits of e-learning activities. IV.

A PROPOSITION OF ICT COURSE FRAMEWORK

On the basis of literature review and our experience in teaching ICT courses we developed a blended-learning framework that should meet current labor market needs concerning soft and hard skills and should respond to students’ expectations concerning flexibility of learning. The framework is presented in Fig. 1. It combines tools supporting teaching in the form of blended learning with cloud computing services that replaced applications hosted on local computers used in to date teaching of ICT.

Figure 1. A Proposition of a Framework for Teaching ICT for Business Usage. Source: developed by the authors.

ICT course is divided into lectures conducted in a traditional form (in university lecture rooms) and workshops conducted both in a traditional form (in computer labs) and elearning form (with effective use of VLE platform). Traditional form of lectures allows to set theoretical background of topics on which students will gain hands-on experience during workshops. That form of giving lectures enables direct interaction and discussion with students and explanation of all their doubts immediately. The blendedlearning form of workshops supports flexibility of learning in terms of place, time, and content. Students can conduct elearning tasks anywhere and at the time the most convenient for them. Furthermore, VLE gives the possibility of offering students a wide range of tasks with different level of difficulty. Instead of using local applications we propose to benefit from publicly available cloud computing services (e.g. Google cloud office services, http://docs.google.com). The transition from desktop applications to cloud services is shown in Table II. This approach, apart from familiarizing students with current ICT technology, allows for greater flexibility in workshop participation. Students can use a variety of devices (desktops, tablets, smartphones) to fulfill course tasks regardless of their location (only the Internet access is needed). Moving a learning environment to the cloud brings a number of benefits. Firstly, it significantly improves the ability to adjusting to new environment resulting from the rapid ICT development. Secondly, through the use of cloud computing team-oriented services, course participants can develop soft skills related to teamwork (interpersonal cooperation and collaboration skill). At the same time, the use of modern electronic means of communication available both on the VLE platform, and as a cloud computing service, greatly improves communication skills among course participants. And finally, the ease in the access to course content (anywhere, anytime)

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and rigorous task deadline management, result in the development of self-discipline. TABLE II.

DESKTOP APPLICATIONS TO CLOUD COMPUTING SERVICES MAPPING Desktop

Cloud Computing (CC) Local Web Browser for CC access and management CC mass storage for teamoriented file collaboration and sharing Team-oriented CC office available as Software as a Service (SaaS) CC service for team-oriented website development CC map service for business and other organisation location, and route planning CC service for information collecting and organising, and making survey

Desktop Operating System Local mass storage Desktop office applications (text editor, spreadsheet, presentation, graphics) Local applications for creating and publishing website files – –

V.

Source: developed by the authors.

The framework was preliminarily tested in the academic years 2012/2013, 2013/2014, and 2014/2015. In the three ICT course edition participated nearly 1000 part-time and full-time students of Economics, Tourism and Recreation (see Table III). The course was attended by Polish and foreign students, mostly from Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Belarus) for whom the Polish was not their first language. The use of cloud computing services that allow for customizing the user interface language was very convenient for foreign students who could more smoothly adjust to new teaching environment. TABLE III.

Course Economy Tourism and Recreation Tourism and Recreation TOTAL

course. When the participants were asked about the forms of learning, the majority (68%) commented that they prefer elearning as the main method of learning, 29% opted for mixed classes (blended learning), and only approximately 3% opted for study in the traditional form. The survey results shows clearly that the course elements implemented in the form of elearning are a convenient form of learning, allowing for more learning flexibility and adjusting the material and the learning pace to individual preferences and expectations.

THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS THAT PARTICIPATED IN THE ICT COURSES

IMPLICATIONS, CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH

In the course of this research we developed the blendedlearning framework for teaching ICT university courses. The framework combines VLE and cloud computing environment in order to facilitate development of soft and hard ICT skills needed in a business environment and meet students’ expectations. More specifically, e-leaning activities support self-learning, self-discipline, time management, promote ethic behavior, and support efficient on-line communication. The possibility of a flexible e-learning work organization allows students to combine study and work or studies at two courses – students’ needs that they believe enhance their employment prospects after graduation. Further, the employment of cloud computing environment facilitates familiarizing students’ with an up to date model of enterprise system development and allows for development of a set of universal soft skills required in a business environment that includes collaboration in a virtual environment, teamwork, and effective virtual communication. Summing up, we believe that the proposed framework might give the useful guidance for the university teachers on how to develop ICT courses that leverage up to date technologies and meet students’ and business needs. One of the main weakness of using cloud computing environment is legal aspects of data storage in the cloud. From the user’s perspective it is not important where data is stored in the cloud. Data location, however, must comply with both Polish and EU legislation concerning personal data protection.

Study

2012/2013

2013/2014

2014/2015

Full-time

n/a

146

163

Full-time

123

149

175

Part-time

138

65

n/a

In future research we would like to assess the level of students’ professional and personal skills in relation to the actual business expectations and investigate the effectiveness of different VLE tools in development of soft skills required by employers.

959

261

360

338

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors thank the Cracow University of Economics ELearning Centre staff for methodological and technical support.

Source: developed by the authors.

In order to examine the level of student satisfaction with the blended learning course, at the end of each of the three course editions online survey was conducted addressed to all course participants. The questionnaire consisted of 18 questions: eleven closed-ended and seven open-ended. Two separate sections of the questionnaire required respondents to give information on the use of ICT university e-learning platform as well as specific aspects referring to the technical side of the course and its content. The results of the survey revealed that the majority of participants (more than 81%) expressed complete satisfaction with the blended learning ICT course, 17% of them were partially satisfied and only a small number of respondents (2%) indicated general dissatisfaction with the

This research has been financed by the funds granted to the Faculty of Management, Cracow University of Economics, within the subsidy for maintaining research potential.

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