Pülz, Michael
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The implementation of an asynchronous e-learning course in higher education – Lessons learned
The pandemic boosted the use and impact of electronic learning (e-learning) in many life areas including education (Monira et al., 2022). Based on that externally forced experience, the Business Information Technology Bachelor degree program (BIT) at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) radically changed the learning-teaching set-up from traditional face-to-face (F2F) instruction to asynchronous e-learning in the mandatory course "Corporate Finance (CF)". Against initial expectations, the success of the students participating in the asynchronous e-learning course, measured by the mark achieved, was notably higher than compared to traditional F2F instruction. This outcome is even more surprising in light of the current research results. Varkey et al. (2022) addressed the problem with the current literature in their research on asynchronous learning with the lack of guidance in the creation of a high quality and high-fidelity asynchronous courses. The goal of this conference paper is to give insight into the learning design, setting, methods, instruments, concepts, etc. in the newly implemented asynchronous e-learning course CF and highlight lessons learned. The lessons learned might contribute to best practices for other asynchronous e-learning courses and can help to improve such learning settings.
Java or Python: which programming language is more suitable for an introductory business IT course?
This paper is about the question which programming language lends itself better to being the first programming language to learn: Java or Python. In Switzerland, the generation entering university usually has had no preceding contact to programming. This topic has only been introduced lately into the secondary education curriculum. The generation starting their Bachelor programs today (and for at least another five to ten years) usually had no training in programming (Ristic, 2017). From experience, we know that students of the “BSc in Business Information Technology” program struggle primarily with mathematics and programming. About 40-50 % of the students fail one or both of these subjects (even more in programming than in math). Thus, the question arises if the choice of the first programming language (Java for the time being) plays a role in this high failure rate. This paper tries to explore some of these questions. First, an analysis of the currently taught introductory programming languages at universities will be presented. Then, research about the suitability of certain languages as a first tool in undergraduate programs will be summarized (e.g. Alzahrani et al., 2018). Finally, conclusions are drawn, and implementation steps are outlined.
Computational thinking and programming - does it make sense in an undergraduate business curriculum
This paper is about teaching programming to business students on an undergraduate level. Information technology and information systems are considered to be rather abstract and difficult subjects. Despite having quite a grasp on the usage of modern information technology, the interest in how technology actually works seems to be quite limited among young business undergraduates.
Traditional versus Agile Methods in Information Systems Projects - A Case of an Online-Travel Agency in Switzerland
The paper discusses some aspects of traditional versus agile methods in information systems projects.
The implementation of an asynchronous e-learning course in higher education – lessons learned
The pandemic boosted the use and impact of electronic learning (e-learning) in many life areas including education. Based on that externally forced experience, the Business Information Technology Bachelor degree program (BIT) at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) radically changed the learning-teaching set-up from traditional face-to-face (F2F) instruction to asynchronous e-learning in the mandatory course "Corporate Finance (CF)". Against initial expectations, the success of the students participating in the asynchronous e-learning course, measured by the mark achieved, was notably higher than compared to traditional F2F instruction. This outcome is even more surprising in light of the current research results. Varkey et al. (2022) addressed the problem with the current literature in their research on asynchronous learning with the lack of guidance in the creation of a high quality and high-fidelity asynchronous courses. The goal of this conference paper is to give insight into the learning design, setting, methods, instruments, concepts, etc. in the newly implemented asynchronous e-learning course CF and highlight lessons learned. The lessons learned might contribute to best practices for other asynchronous e-learning courses and can help to improve such learning settings.
Java or Python: which programming language is more suitable for an introductory business IT course?
This paper is about the question which programming language lends itself better to being the first programming language to learn: Java or Python. In Switzerland, the generation entering university usually has had no preceding contact to programming. This topic has only been introduced lately into the secondary education curriculum. The generation starting their Bachelor programs today (and for at least another five to ten years) usually had no training in programming (Ristic, 2017). From experience, we know that students of the “BSc in Business Information Technology” program struggle primarily with mathematics and programming. About 40-50 % of the students fail one or both of these subjects (even more in programming than in math). Thus, the question arises if the choice of the first programming language (Java for the time being) plays a role in this high failure rate. This paper tries to explore some of these questions. First, an analysis of the currently taught introductory programming languages at universities will be presented. Then, research about the suitability of certain languages as a first tool in undergraduate programs will be summarized (e.g. Alzahrani et al., 2018). Finally, conclusions are drawn, and implementation steps are outlined.
Accreditation Of An International Bachelor Program Spanning Three Countries
The paper describes the rather complex accreditation requirements of a tri-national Bachelor of Science program called International Business Management. The program is an integrated co-operation between three European universities in France, Germany and Switzerland and has been successfully operating for 16 years. Students are recruited from all three partner universities and form an integrated, international learning group that moves between the three partner-universities during the course of the degree program. The language of tuition changes from semester to semester: French in France, German in Germany and English in Switzerland. In addition many students take language courses in Spanish and Chinese. During the lecture-free periods, students have to find internships in companies and organizations – in their home region and across the world. They have to work in such internships for at least 48 weeks over the course of the program. At the end of their studies students receive three separate bachelor degrees from the three participating institutions, plus a certificate from the Université franco-allemande. Equipped with this unique international education, most graduates start their careers in multinational companies, NGOs or internationally oriented SMEs – often continuing their education with a master’s degree at a variety of universities and again – around the globe. The paper provides insights into the history of the program, the challenge of management across borders, the selection process and student population, and the content and structure of the program. It describes the accreditation requirements faced by the program, which stem not only from the country-specific accreditation processes (three of them) plus the accreditation by the Université franco-allemande, but in addition from a recently initiated AACSB-accreditation project at one of the partner universities (FHNW, represented by the author). Since the partners in France and Germany are not in the process of acquiring AACSB-accreditation, this represents a particular challenge to this program. It appears that similar examples are rare. The paper thus discusses the current situation regarding the accreditation project, the unique challenges to be faced, the strategy to deal with these challenges, and an outlook towards the steps ahead.
Implementing the AoL standard for the WI and BIT curricula in AACSB – Lessons learned at the FHNW
Before 2014, the quality management process in all our programs has been rather informally and individually organized. In 2014, the management of the School of Business at the FHNW decided to set up a strategic project to achieve the AACSB accreditation to sustainably secure the role among the best business schools. Among other standards, AACSB deals with Assurance of Learning (AoL, standard 5 in the 2020 standards) with the clear goal formulated as "The school uses well-documented, systematic processes for determining and revising degree program learning goals; designing, delivering, and improving degree program curricula to achieve learning goals; and demonstrating that degree program learning goals have been met." The AoL process has been established step by step since 2015 and provided us with a guideline to check the mission-reference of our program goals and learning objectives and to continuously develop the program quality on a common database. This paper describes the implementation of AoL using the four steps "Determining Degree Program Learning Goals", "Measure", "Results" and "Closing the Loop" for the bachelor programs WI (in German "Wirtschaftsinformatik") and BIT (Business Information Technology). As examples, measurements and improvements for various modules (spanning from supply chain to the computer science domain) are discussed, underpinning the clear and significant progress in the management of curricula and in the monitoring of our study programs’ effectiveness regarding student learning. Finally, we outline selected AoL initiatives at other universities and show how we can benefit from them to successfully enhance our project.
Programming in an undergraduate business curriculum
This paper is about teaching programming to business students on an undergraduate level. These students tend to consider information technology (IT) and information systems to be rather abstract and difficult subjects. Despite the fact that young business undergraduates have a good grasp of the use of modern information technology, their interest in how this technology actually works seems to be quite limited (Burns, Gao, Sherman, Vengerov, & Klein, 2014). The approach described in this paper is to use an information systems standard textbook such as Laudon and Laudon and the standard curriculum of a foundational information systems course (Topi et al., 2010) as a basis for designing the course curriculum, but to somewhat limit the time spent on these subjects. The time saved is then spent on teaching some computational thinking (Wing, 2006) and programming (coding, using Python). In the past two years, the author has taught this content to 127 undergraduate students in a trinational Bachelor program
Mindfulness at the Workplace - A Lifeline for All of Us?
This paper describes training of mindfulness as a technique to increase stress resilience at the work place. The paper will briefly discuss what mindfulness is, what the effects of trainings in mindfulness are, and how to apply mindfulness training in our modern work environment.