Bringing a Multidisciplinary Perspective of IT to the Classroom: A Theory-Based Development of a Second Course for Non-Majors

Abstract

IT instructors in information systems and computer science departments are often the target of com- plaints from colleagues in other disciplines who argue that students need to see how IT is applied in their own specific disciplines. We try to address these complaints by devising a course where IT concepts are taught from the perspective of different disciplines. The course presents IT concepts through case stud- ies of complex and specialized IT systems that are used to solve problems in well-defined domains. A pilot implementation of the course is analyzed, with three case studies in anthropology, sociology and chemistry. The analysis suggests that the case studies had a positive impact on how students, who are not particu- larly interested in IT, perceive IT in general, and its application to complex and specialized tasks. While the students generally perceived that they learned from the case studies, the results also suggest that the case studies did not have a positive impact on the students’ willingness to pursue an IT career or take other IT courses. One plausible explanation for this, based in part on GOMS theory (Card et al., 1983) and cognitive flexibility theory (Spiro and Jehng, 1990; Spiro et al., 1992), is that subjecting non-majors to complex and specialized IT applications increases their “respect” for IT’s potential, but does not help them gain confidence about being specialized IT users themselves. It is quite possible that the degree of technological and domain complexity in the case studies led the students to believe that using IT was too difficult for the tasks that they may have to accomplish in their chosen fields of study. Several of the negative student perceptions were in connection with the relevance of this type of course for their chosen major or career. These perceptions are consistent with the principles of meaningfulness from minimalist theory (Carroll, 1990; 1998) and immediate relevance from andragogy theory (Knowles, 1975; 1984, 1984b), and suggest that this type of course may not be appropriate as a “core” (i.e., non-elective) course. Some computer problems occurred due to the complexity of the anthropology and chemistry computer systems and related installation problems, which should be easy to resolve in future course offerings. Also, the perceived complexity of the topics can be addressed by dedicating more time to the demonstration of the computer systems and how they relate to the concepts and theory discussed in the lectures.