Volume 6

8 pages 395 K bytes

Special Topics Courses in Information Systems: Current Uses Randy Ryker Nicholls State University Thibodaux, LA 70310 USA Ronnie Fanguy Nicholls State University Thibodaux, LA 70310 USA Amy Legendre Nicholls State University Thibodaux, LA 70310 USA

Abstract: As faculty and curriculum developers we were interested in how other schools utilize the special topics course in Information Systems. A review of the literature revealed no articles that specifically addressed the issue. To gather data, a survey of the IS programs at colleges and universities in the United States was conducted. It was found that 35 percent of the respondents offered one or more special topics course. The most popular categories of courses were: E-commerce, Security, Data Warehouses, and Human Computer Interaction. Nineteen courses were grouped into a category called Other Unique Descriptions. Somewhat surprising was that not one school reported offering a special topics course on Web 2.0 and its related technologies. Conclusions and future research are discussed.

Keywords: special topics courses, curriculum development, pedagogy

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Recommended Citation: Ryker, Fanguy, and Legendre (2008). Special Topics Courses in Information Systems: Current Uses. Information Systems Education Journal, 6 (43). http://isedj.org/6/43/. ISSN: 1545-679X. (A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of ISECON 2007: §2355. ISSN: 1542-7382.)