ENTERPRISE ENHANCED EDUCATION: An Information Technology Enabled Extension of Traditional Learning Environments1
Gordon E. Stokes Brigham Young University
[email protected]
Michael C. Mulder University of Nebraska
[email protected] Abstract
An area that is lightly treated in most of our academic programs is the process of design in the development of appropriate algorithms, especially design as it needs to be practiced to solve large, complex problems. Good design is an iterative process that requires the construction of tentative implementations and the repeated revisiting of the analysis portion of the problem to refine the design and insure that the implementation actually solves the problem. In our current academic settings, with the fixed semester or quarter times and the need to have quickly solvable problems so that we can assign grades, we give short shrift to the design process.
For many years there have been complaints from enterprises such as business, industry and government that academia is unable to produce graduates that can function well in the design and implementation of large and complex information and engineering systems. These complaints have been voiced and confirmed once again in recent reports and conference addresses [5],[3]. As a result of discussions on the results of the Mulder NSF report following the report’s completion it was suggested that recent advancements in information, communication and computer technologies could enable a new and innovative approach to improving the graduates from our university information specialists programs. This new learning/teaching paradigm involves both the universities and the concerned enterprises. The paper that follows presents some of the reasoning and organizational structure for the suggested cooperative approach enabled by information technology, and information regarding some test sites of cooperative programs involving universities and industry. 1 Can We Teach How To Design?
Information
Good design requires a solid grounding in a set of concepts that are associated with the area we are working with [5], in this case information systems, and the careful and innovative application of these concepts to problems not previously solved by the student. Research has shown that the development of cognitive problem solving skills, with design a major part of the process, is enhanced by solving problems and having prompt, non threatening feedback regarding the problem solutions [2].
Specialists From an educational standpoint, how can we improve the ability of our students to work in complex problem solving environments and to provide designs for implementation that are robust and effective? The solution is to have students work on problems that are significant and challenging, that have complex structure, and that require sustained effort to solve. The truly interesting design challenges exist in the real world of producing working systems that solve actual problems. These design problems are often worked on in a team environment that provides opportunity for frequent evaluation and discussion (feedback) that often modifies the direction of the design. The truly interesting problems are in the large information systems that are worked on in enterprise environments every day.
It has long been recognized that problem solving that involves the exercise of analysis, design, and implementation is a higher level cognitive activity that is difficult to teach [6], [7],[4],[1]. In Computer Science and Software Engineering we do quite well in teaching about analysis because this part of the process deals with information and facts that are available in the world around us. permission
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1 This work is supported by NSF grants DUE-9352944 and Due9455450. Additional contributors to this paper are the members of the CIS academe/industry task force.
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university and a company that are willing to sit together and agree on 1) the need for a cooperative activity and 2) the methods of implementation to put together an educational activity that will involve real students working with practicing developers with real problems in the development of systems.
Toward A Solution
We suggest that a new cooperation between the providers of educated information workers (academic institutions) and the consumers of the academic product (industry, business, government) needs to be organized that will involve producers and consumers in the educational process of the information workers.
The cooperative team must overcome the view of the academics as ivory tower practitioners, and the view of practicing developers as slaves of methodologies. The company and the university must be willing to commit financial resources and manpower to insure the success of the educational effort. The reward systems in both enterprises must be modified to award credit for employee participation in the educational project
There have been three major weaknesses identified in the current approach to teaching about the production of reliable systems involving software [5]: l-
Teaching students problem solving and design skills, reinforced with laboratory experiences is not well done.
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Teaching students to deal with complex information systems architecture, design and implementation is not well done.
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Collaborative methods and experiences provided to students are very weak.
The basic idea of the cooperative effort is to form systems development teams consisting of students in the university undergraduate program and professional members of the companies development staff. The projects being worked on would be regular complex information systems development projects that are part of the company’s ongoing activities. The students would remain on campus in their regular academic program but would be assigned to work with a company development team and the communications and coordination between the student developers and the full time developers would utilize the intemet and other electronic communication media,
It is time to examine how we can have students become more involved as dynamic rather than passive participants in the educational process. We also need to allow students to participate in the solution of very complex problems and to be creative in their approach to solving the problems of unconstrained, real world systems. Such an environment should create a natural motivation for the student to be active in the problem solution activity and thus increase their ability to learn from the experience. We propose that a cooperative effort between the producers and consumers of information workers be developed and that this effort be enabled as a highly participative activity using the teaching and communication tools of the computer industry. The first efforts should be directed toward students in their senior year and will involve the students in participation in a real systems development project with the cooperating industry (We will use industry as an example of an enterprise for the remainder of the paper). The focus will be on increasing the students ability to practice design in a development team environment.
In the implementation of the educational effort the company would need to identify it’s working teams, it’s development processes, and the team leaders (who would also be the educational facilitators within the working environment of the project). The company would have to identify projects that would be workable with the apprentice developers from the university. The company would also have to establish the two way electronic communicntion links between the company and the university. The university would identify lead faculty members to organize, supervise and provide ongoing education for the university participants (and the fulltime developers if desired) in the development teams. The lead faculty members should be familiar with both the academic and the industrial dimensions of the project. This task should be considered as a regular teaching assignment. The student apprentices for a project should be students in the last l/4 of their university undergraduate program. We would expect these students to have a strong foundation in information systems concepts and to have had some exposure to the principles of software engineering. The students should display a high interest in applying their knowledge to industry’s problems and should be willing to abide by the non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality that will be required by the cooperative project. Project
This effort will require the development of new teaching/learning paradigms that will fully involve members of industry in the challenges of being educators and members of the educational institution in challenges of developing working industrial systems. 3
Working
Together
The basic ingredient in the proposed educational effort is a
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organization would be a joint responsibility of the industry and the university team leaders with the industry team leader taking the lead role. 4
A New Teaching/Learning
Paradigm
The extension of the current university programming laboratories to include an actual collaborative working project, in close working relationship with industry developers, provides a unique opportunity for new approaches to student learning and faculty teaching. This extended environment would be a break from the traditional semester based, lecture dominated environment, and would be made possible only with the integrated and effective use of information technology. Imaginative use of the available technologies through electronic means will draw the industry design and development environment close to the University class/laboratory facilities. The project leaders (from both the participating company and the University) will collaboratively select the multi-semester project to be used and the students who will form the University component of the team. Given the collaborative facilities and the enabling technologies we can now begin to develop new and innovative ways of approaching the teaching/learning exercise at the University. Because of the dynamic environment that the development team will be working in we can consider the presentation of critical concepts as the need for understanding these concepts arises in the project. This would be ‘just in time teaching/learning’. Figure 1.0 illustrates a just-in-time teaching/learning paradigm.
ResearchRemIts F’mjeu Contributions . PokndaINew Hires l l
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under sta nding
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View of New Processes
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Figure 1 The just-in-time teaching/learning paradigm .
continuous measurement of the effectiveness of the paradigm toward project solution and learning goals.
The leadership role of the participating faculty members is crucial to the success of this paradigm. They will be the collaborating members of the project leadership; hence, have responsibilities for the success of the project as well as the learning participation by the students. The company leadership must assure full support for the faculty members in this role, and be available (electronically and if needed physically) to assure the learning process is complete for the students. In the just-in-time teaching part of the paradigm the faculty members are guided by what is going on with the project at the time. Interactive discussions and laboratory experiences are developed as the project evolves. Thus, a faculty member may not know just what is to be taught 2 to 3 weeks ahead in time, but will build on the existing skills of the students and the concept needs of the project to provide the necessary learning modules as the project proceeds. It is expected that the faculty members will make extensive use of an interactive media to work with the students. Faculty members may assemble relevant concepts, related research results and selected examples to illuminate current issues being decided in the project. Potential solution designs may be prototyped in University laboratories by the students or in cooperation with the industry team members and the results shared electronically with the entire development team.
The major elements of the paradigm are: An on-going, long term and relevant company information technology project. Faculty and students are full members of the collaborative project team. Information technology links the University class/laboratory facilities to the company design and development environment (2 way video, Email, electronic blackboards, shareware, etc.). Students and faculty participate in all project meetings. Faculty and students contribute to the project solution. Based on the current focus of the project, faculty develop just-in-time learning modules for students. the project is not bounded by semesters even though students may have grades assigned each semester including the summer semester.
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In developing the just-in-time teaching/learning paradigm with industry the following benefits have been identified: . Students and faculty learn through experience by participating in industry problems and methods . , Company team members have professional development opportunities by participating with the student team in the just-in-time teaching/learning sessions. . Collaborative skills are developed in the cooperative experience. . Faculty open interfaces focusing on the needs of industry., . The company has early access to potential new hires, and students become familiar with the company. . The company has access to bright minds and ideas, and potentially useful university research results. . All participants gain working experience with information technology as an enabler. . Working bridges between the company and the ’ university are strengthened.
level problem and being accountable for that solution, Prior to the planned presentation of the University team’s solution, the faculty members work on the presentation with the students, assuring that both the solution and the articulation of the solution are ready for presentation. Company team members may also participate in this justin-time teaching/learning experience. Students might very well be in E-mail contact with the company team members as ‘they develop their solution. The two way video conference project meeting arrives and the university team presents their recommendations, which are accepted by he development team. The project moves on. Enterprises 6 Can Cooperate?
An Example
Twelve weeks into a collaborative Information systems (IS) project between the University and the Company, the team is dealing with the design of a complex data structure that will support the interface between multiple da’tabase systems (commercially available) and a product specific interface (an HCI). Several standard choices are available, but possibly a new data structure: would best suit the product customer base (i.e. faster perfoimance and improved security support). In the weekly two way video project meeting, it is agreed that the University team members will explore the design issues and the possible solutions, and report back in two weeks with a recommendation and rationale. The faculty members have anticipated this would be a major issue in their work with the company project leader tind have prepared a series of just-in-time teaching modules, that will be implemented in the two week period, exploring the available information in this area. These modules will be delivered by E-mail with the support of frequent meetings and discussions with the students. The students are expected to explore the issues and propose a design. The faculty members will ‘watch bver the students shoulders’ as they electronically and physically explore the issues and work out laboratory exercises to move toward the solution of the assigned problem. Because all of the students are familiar with data st:uctures and their implications the teaching/learning modules will build upon this foundation. The result of this experience is an amplification of knowledge achieved by solving an industry
‘,
Universities
It is important to point out that in the previous example the company did not change its mode of operation very much, Already many companies are effectively using 2 way video conferencing to implement projects, the extension to the university is possible but will require a high level of cooper$ion to be effective. The company will still use its product development process and tools, the company’s design and review processes, and the quality assurance processes will be followed. It is expected that students and faculty will gain by exposure to the company’s way of developing information systems.
To complete the description of this new paradigm we use the following example of its implementation. 5
And
Two test sites have been identified and University and Industry working partners have committed to implementing the just-in-time teaching/learning paradigm. The two test sites are: Seattle, Washington Test site 1: University of Washington/Boeing Commercial Aircraft (completed Spring quarter, 1996). Tempe, Arizona Test site 2: Arizona State University/American Express (begin Winter Semester 1997) I The BoeingKJW project has worked through many of the legal and proprietary issues and have some prototype documents that can be used as other participants begin to form working alliances. There will be a report generated on that project detailing how the projects were selected and how the company and the university worked together. 7 What Collaborative Resources Needed For Implementation?
Are
Since the success of the cooperative education environment is highly dependent on the quality and effectiveness of the technologies utilized to enable communication and understanding, it is essential that an effective technology
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member of the teaching/learning process provides a superior way to achieve meaningful and lasting learning. This justin-time teaching/learning, collaborative approach to the students advanced education will overcome most of the problems pointed out in section II.
interface be in place. A minimum facility should include the following: . . . .
Two way video links Secure E-Mail and FAX links Multimedia workstations for faculty and students. Project development support software.
8
What Indicates
10
Success?
Universitv Metrics:
3456789loll-
Technical content of problem solution. Teaching/learning of problem solving and design skills. Learning experience for students. Learning experience for faculty. Value added by company members to learning/teaching. Quality of communications between members. Level of difficulty in implementing the paradigm. Faculty recognition/reward level for participating. Placement (and potential placement) for students. Access to new ideas, technologies, and equipment. Desire to repeat paradigm for future projects.
References Ul
PI
Companv metrics:
l23456789IO-
ll-
9
Future
Our work in Enterprise Enhanced Education is motivated by the need to prepare students to be effective in the rapidly changing Information Technology workplace. Information Technology is the enabler to allow us to identify new ways to learn and new ways to teach, in collaboration with the workplace. This work is part of a larger body of work that our academe/industry task force (including Boeing, Citicorp, US West, Elite Systems, Bull Information Systems and a national visiting committee) is conducting. Our work, supported by the National Science Foundation and industry, centers on curriculum and laboratory development for an Information Systems Engineering discipline.
As the pilot projects are implemented it is imperative that the value of the enterprise enhanced paradigm for education be evaluated. Some metrics that might be considered follow,
l2-
The
l-31
Technical content of problem solution. Enhancement of the teams total problem solving and design skills. Project cost and timeliness. Correctness of solution for the identified problem. Value added by the University team members to successful project completion Access to new ideas and technologies. Quality of communication between members. Ability to evaluate potential of student members. Desire to repeat paradigm for future projects. Skill improvement of company team members Employee recognition/reward for participating in the project
[41
PI
Bloom, Benjamin S., Human characteristics and School Learning. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill. 1976 Gagne’, Robert M., Briggs, Leslie J.; Principles of InstructionalDesign. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1979 Gibbs, Norman, “Keynote speech at CSC/SIGCSE-94”, Phoenix, Arizona March 810, 1994 Levine, Marvin, A CognitiveTheory of Learning: Research on HypothesisTesting. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates. 1975 Mulder, Michael C., Educating the Next Generation of Information Specialists: A FrameworkforAcademicProgramsin Infonnatics. Report of NSF Sponsored Task Force: DUE 9352944, University of Southwestern Louisiana Press. 1994. Presented at CSCXIGCSE-95, Nashville, TN, March 1995 Novack, Joseph D., A theoryof Education.Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. 1977
Conclusion
Travers, Robert M. W., Essentialsof Learning: 4th edition. New York, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. 1977
Given the full implementation of the just-in-time teaching/leaning paradigm in a collaborative effort between a university and an enterprise it should be possible to create an ideal learning environment. An environment that focuses on the student as an active, collaborating and contributing
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