Information systems program and business needs: Case study of a midwestern university

The course contents of the undergraduate Information Systems (IS) curriculums are vital to the IS field and to IS graduates. Technological advances and their associated impacts on businesses have necessitated changes in the contents of the undergraduate IS curriculums and the skills and knowledge required of IS graduates by the business communities. As a result of these changes various studies have been done by IS researchers and business practitioners, and various model curriculums have been published in efforts to align the undergraduate IS curriculums with the needs of the business communities. In this study a single case study methodology was used to address an identified research gap in IS related skills studies: Lack of study of skills required of IS graduates by businesses in a region and the content of the undergraduate IS curriculum of a university in the same region. This study examined the current undergraduate IS curriculum of a Midwestern university to ascertain if the undergraduate IS curriculum is in alignment with the skills and knowledge required of its IS graduates by its business communities. The study revealed the efforts by the undergraduate IS department of a Midwestern University to meet the skills and knowledge needs of its business communities. The study revealed that it will be overreaching on the parts of the business communities to expect IS programs to meet all the varying skills and knowledge required of IS graduates. Some recommendations were therefore presented to both the IS educators and the business communities on how to address the identified gaps in this study as well as any perceived gaps. The study also showed that any gaps were not due to differences to perceived importance of skills between IS instructors and the business communities, but due to a curricular implementation latency period which is the time between realization of the importance of a skill set and the subsequent addition of the necessary building courses to the IS curriculum. Further studies are recommended to find the best practices for effective curricular changes and implementations.