AMCIS 2012 Proceedings

Social Network Analysis to Optimize Tax Enforcement Effort

Eugene Wessels et al.

The tax gap is a phenomenon experienced by revenue collection agencies which describes the difference between the taxes due, as prescribed by legislation, and the actual taxes collected. The tax gap is mostly a result of taxpayer non-compliance, such as the failure to submit a tax return. Recent theories suggest that a taxpayer’s social structure is a significant determinant of a taxpayer’s attitude towards tax compliance. This study explores the proposal that social network analysis through decision support systems can facilitate the objective of revenue collection agencies to minimize the tax gap. The results suggest that an agency’s limited enforcement capacity can achieve a greater impact on tax compliance by focusing on non-compliant social structures as opposed to single instances of non-compliance. The research fills a gap in literature by demonstrating IT’s value proposition towards government financial services.

A Literature Review on Indicators for the Measurement of Technology Mediated Learning Productivity: 2000 to 2011

Philipp Bitzer et al.

Measuring Technology Mediated Learning (TML) success has been and is of great interest to both researchers and practitioners. This article examines multidimensional approaches to measuring learning success, considering IT- and non-IT-supported learning scenarios, examined by researchers from various research disciplines. We explore the current state of research on TML success through a literature review by classifying empirically-oriented articles that were published between 2000 and 2011. Based on a total of 91 articles published in academic journal publications, this paper identifies the relevant research carried out, categorizes and consolidates the research results, and discusses them. The results show that those approaches are most dominant which empirically analyze the impact of a certain type of educational service on a student / participant by means of surveys and structural equation modeling to capture users’ responses. No main theoretical basis of the reviewed studies could be identified. Furthermore, opportunities for additional development are identified and future research directions suggested.

A Game Based, Financial Literacy Oriented Approach to Improving Programming Education

Hongwei Zhu et al.

Every year, two thirds of college seniors (about 1.8 million) in the US graduate with significant debts, but most of them are poorly equipped with essential financial knowledge to manage their debts and make intelligent financial decisions. Programming courses are uniquely positioned to offer opportunities to help students improve financial literacy. However, there have been no integrated courses to exploit the synergy. Meanwhile, computing disciplines face continued challenges of getting students interested in computing and finding ways to improve learning effectiveness. To address these challenges, we are developing an innovative teaching strategy that infuses financial literacy into four computing courses and engages students to develop financial literacy games. Students’ interests and learning outcomes will be improved because they enjoy computer games and are motivated when they use computing skills to address issues closely related to their daily lives.

Learning and Team Attributes in an Enterprise Systems Simulation

Craig Tyran et al.

A team-based enterprise systems simulation is used in an MBA class to enhance students’ knowledge of business processes and enterprise systems’ capabilities. Before the simulation begins, and after each distinct phase of the simulation exercise, student perceptions regarding individual learning and team attributes are assessed. The authors then investigate the relationship between team performance, individual knowledge, team attributes, and the simulation phase. All teams showed a similar increase in business process knowledge and enterprise systems skill as the simulation progressed to more advanced phases, while some behavioral attributes – such as team potency and individual satisfaction – appeared relatively constant across simulation phases but differ significantly depending on the team’s performance. Other attributes, such as role clarity and the number of within-team interactions, appeared to change over time more for certain types of teams than for others.

A Study on the Impact of Facebook Usage on Student’s Social Capital and Academic Performance.

Vishal Shah et al.

Prior research has focused on the benefits of usage of social media such as Facebook in terms of the social capital gains they bring. Other research has studied the adverse impact of such usage on academic performance. In this study we try to understand both the beneficial and adverse aspects of Facebook usage in the case of U.S. undergraduate students. Basing on social capital theory and system usage in hedonic context, we tested the dual effect of the usage of Facebook on social capital and academic performance of the students. Preliminary results show that a rich use of Facebook enhances the academic performance and extensive presence on Facebook develops the student’s social capital in terms of number and quality of connections, relationships and interactions. Implications of the early research findings and directions for future research are drawn. Keywords: Facebook usage, social capital, academic performance, social media.

Exploring Teacher’s Perception and Potential Use of Mobile Learning in a Business School

Yaneli Cruz et al.

As the mobile technology evolves, the possibilities for Mobile Learning (ML) are becoming increasingly attractive. However, the lack of perceived learning value and institutional infrastructure are hindering the possibilities for ML attempts. The purpose of our study is to understand the use and adoption of mobile technologies by teachers in a business school. We developed a questionnaire based on current research about the use of technology on higher education and it was used to interview 14 teachers. Participants provided insights about ML opportunities, such as availability, interactive environments, enhanced communication and inclusion on daily activities. Participants also realized that current teaching practices should change in mobile environments to include relevant information, to organize mobile materials, to encourage reflection and to create interactive activities with timely feedback. Further, they identified technological, institutional, pedagogical and individual obstacles that are threaten ML practices.

I’m Going Mobile: Teaching Freshmen Business Students Mobile Application Development

Sule Balkan et al.

IS enrollment has been declining in recent years. In an attempt to introduce key Information Systems concepts to freshmen business students in a fun and engaging way, we introduced a mobile application design project that recently allowed them to develop a live application on real smartphones. While going through this process, students learned some of the basic tenets of the discipline of Information Systems while simultaneously realizing the relevance and applicability to their future lives as 21st Century professionals. In this paper, we outline the core course progression for a typical Information Systems department, detail the process through which we engaged the students, and confirm our assertions through textual analysis of self-reported comments on their experience with this mobile application project.

Desperately Seeking IS Curriculum Relevance: Teaching Information Systems in a Cross-Functional Context

James Freedman et al.

The information systems academic community has been searching for an effective response to the steep decline in enrollment in IS programs. Researchers have identified the design of the introductory IS course as a critical opportunity for increasing student interest in the IS field. In this paper we describe our experience redesigning an introductory IS course in the context of a semester long cross-functional product development project for college juniors. By including practitioners in the design process, we identified four areas to be addressed to increase the career relevance of the course and used this agenda to develop new content which tied the IS course more closely to the semester project, especially in the area of online marketing.

An Exploratory Factor Analysis of Student Learning in a Collaborative Virtual Computer Laboratory

Abdullah Konak et al.

Information security is a growing part of the information technology function in an organization. Higher learning institutions generally do not provide much “hands-on” exposure to information security concepts due to costs, internal information security concerns, and a lack of worthwhile exercises that cater to students. We have created a collaborative virtual computer laboratory (CVCLAB) that seeks to leverage a large group of virtual computers together with specialized designed laboratory exercises in order to create a learning environment for information security. We studied the impact of collaborative work on student learning in controlled experiments in the CVCLAB. In this paper, we are investigating how to best utilize the virtual computers for teaching information security debating such issues as whether learning is greater when exercises are conducted in groups or as individuals. We developed a research model based on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and used an exploratory factor analysis to answer the research question.

Mapping Queries to Visualizations: Advanced Database Topics and Practice for Business Intelligence Students

Michel Mitri

This paper describes a teaching methodology for associating SQL queries with appropriately corresponding data visualizations, along with a software tool for automatically mapping SQL queries to Google’s library of Image and Interactive Charts. The methodology is appropriate for an audience of advanced database students, and in particular for use in business intelligence (BI) classes during coverage of topics such as data visualization, dashboards, scorecards, and business performance management (BPM).

Teaching “people networking” skills for CIS students

Louise Soe et al.

Recent research on organizational social networks has continued to emphasize the importance of networks for individual as well as organizational performance in the U.S. Given the importance of networks and networking, we argue that IT students must learn networking skills in addition to technical skills in order to better understand the role of technology in organizations and to increase their chances of success in their careers. The goal of this paper is to describe a teaching module that we developed for CIS undergraduate students to improve their networking skills.

Teaching Secure Programming to Information Systems Students via OWASP Techniques and Libraries

Carey Cole et al.

Current and future Information Systems (IS) personnel and management need to understand SQL Injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other web-originating information security vulnerabilities. These can have severe negative impacts, and minimizing these threats is an important consideration for application developers. There are many resources on the Internet and in books to help educate people about these and similar intrusions. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) includes a robust amount of information on this subject and is an excellent starting point in the creation of lecture, demonstration, and student practice on the subject. Using OWASP resources and active software examples is an effective and efficient method to teach IS students on potential security breaches and their prevention.

Teaching the Fundamental Attributes of IS Requirements

Adarsh Kumar Kakar

Requirements are the building blocks of IS products. “If you don’t get the requirements right, it doesn’t matter how well you do anything else” (Wiegers, 2004). However, generically, IS requirements are complex. They have multiple attributes. To extract business information relevant to building a product, classifying IS requirements into functional and non-functional categories is not enough. Requirement gatherers and analysts should be conversant with the multifaceted nature of IS requirements and their attributes. Yet, currently, the MIS and Computer Science programs do not impart this knowledge to their students. To fill the gap, this paper describes the concepts which would be useful to include as a module in a Requirements Engineering/ Management course. In addition, the article provides an illustrative example of how these concepts can be taught to give students a flavor of the real world.

Achieving Alignment between IS Research and IS Curriculum: towards Stronger IS Discipline Identity

Anna Sidorova et al.

The IS discipline identity discourse has traditionally been focused on the IS research. With considerable effort devoted to the IS curriculum development, it has not been seriously considered in the discussions on the IS identity. Here we argue that IS students and their recruiters, along with IS faculty, are key internal stakeholders of the IS discipline. As such they are engaged in the process of co-creating the IS discipline teaching identity through IS curriculum creation and consumption. We propose, that a stronger identity of the IS academic discipline can be achieved through alignment between three elements: IS research, IS curriculum and the needs of IS practitioners. We examine the degree of alignment between IS curriculum standards and key IS research subareas identified in extant research, and point out directions for future research and curriculum development.

A Systematic Appropriation of Social Technologies for Educational Activities: Empirical Study of Australian Lecturers

Suraya Hamid et al.

The use of Online Social Networking (OSN) for teaching and learning is a phenomenon observed in many countries today. However, how academics use and appropriate social technologies in higher education is still not well understood. In particular, the systematic appropriation processes of the social technologies have not been discussed much in the literature. This paper offers an empirical study concerning the way lecturers appropriate social technologies based on interviews with fourteen lecturers in seven Australian universities. The findings discovered two appropriation approaches, namely systematic-procedural and non-systematic-ad hoc process. There are also two key reasons for using social technologies: as content for the course, and as the core teaching and learning tool. Further, for student learning, the social technologies are used either as a medium for coursework or for supporting informal communication. This research provides new insights into a methodological and systematic appropriation of social technologies from which higher education may benefit from.

The Influence of Role Models on Students’ Decisions to Pursue the IS Major

Asli Akbulut Bailey

The purpose of this study was to understand the influence of role models on students' decisions to major in Information Systems (IS). Based on social cognitive career theory, we derived and tested a theoretical model to explain how role models influence students’ academic choices. Results indicate that role models do not have a direct effect on students’ aspirations to major in IS and its effects on academic choices are channeled indirectly through other factors. More specifically, role models boost students’ confidence in their own abilities to successfully perform as an IS major and raise their expectations of the positive outcomes that will be received by majoring in this discipline. Encouragement and stimulation from role models also inspire students to be inquisitive about IS majors and careers, which in turn elevates students’ aspirations to pursue an IS major. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Global Software Development Project

Lan Cao et al.

Global software development has become a common reality with the advent of off-shore development and the need to be close to markets. This type of development has posed some challenges faced by software development personals. In this research, we report a software development project that involves the collaboration of students from USA and China.

MANAGING ONLINE TEACHING TO ENHANCE STUDENT LEARNING: A PARADIGM SHIFT

Anil Kumar et al.

The growth of online programs offered by U.S. educational institutions in the past decade has surpassed expectations. This growth has fueled research in online education, which though diverse does not address management of online teaching. Effective management of online teaching can lead to quality programs and enhanced student learning. In this paper we propose a framework that outlines how the principles of management can be applied to effectively manage online teaching. We believe that application of this framework in educational institutions will lead to quality online programs and sustained success of online programs for the long run.

Career paths training for the first year students in information systems science

Pekka Makkonen et al.

A gap between real life and theory usually exists in education. However, this gap can be crossed in all levels of an ICT curriculum. The constructivist learning theory and the concept of professional growth can be the building blocks for a career path course in which students can meet their professional needs since the beginning of studies. At the University of Jyväskylä we ran the career path of ICT course for new information systems students during the first month of their studies. The course included expert lectures of ICT professionals representing the different aspects of ICT work. Additionally, the students were expected to discuss these issues in their assignment. In this paper we clarify why and how we ran our career path course. In addition, we present how different ICT core skills were developed during the course. The knowledge of the core professional areas in our information systems curriculum developed positively. Especially, the figures concerning a a system analyst’s and a project manager’s profession improved well.

Personality, Gender and Careers in Information Technology

John Warren et al.

The downturn in information technology enrollment numbers in colleges and universities has spurred a stream of research focusing on identifying factors that inhibit students’ interest in information technology. Most of these studies measure individuals’ perceptions and beliefs. We argue that the profession is composed of multiple occupations and those occupations have different characteristics concerning the work performed, the opportunities available, and the people who are employed in those occupations. We investigate the relationship between personality and the intent of students to pursue careers in the information technology field. Last, we examine if there is a gender personality profile for students who decide to pursue careers in information technology. Our findings can be used by researchers and practitioners to better describe to students the specific opportunities and career paths available within the IT profession.