Controlling Curriculum Redesign with a Process Improvement Model

Authors

Dennis Drinka, University of Alaska - Anchorage
Minnie Y.-M. Yen, University of Alaska - Anchorage

Abstract

A portion of the curriculum for a Management Information Systems degree was redesigned to enhance the experiential learning of students by focusing it on a three-semester community-based system development project. The entire curriculum was then redesigned to have a project-centric focus with each course in the curriculum contributing to the success of students’ learning experiences. Implementation of this new design involved an evolutional enhancement from an existing traditional curriculum with modifications proceeding in stages over a four-year period. Early on, it was recognized that the curriculum redesign was progressing through a series of stages similar to that encountered in software engineering processes. As a result, the general guidelines and framework developed for continuous improvement in software engineering: the Capability Maturity Model were adopted and modified for guiding the curriculum redesign. This paper presents a description of the authors’ experiences in implementing a curriculum redesign from one based on a traditional course-based design to a project-centric design using the Capability Maturity Model as a process improvement tool. Our successful experience with using this tool suggests a need for the development of a specialized process improvement tool for future use on similar curriculum redesign.

Recommended Citation

Drinka, Dennis and Yen, Minnie Y.-M. (2008) "Controlling Curriculum Redesign with a Process Improvement Model," Journal of Information Systems Education: Vol. 19 : Iss. 3 , 331-342.
Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/jise/vol19/iss3/10