This paper will describe the evolution, modularization
and on-line implementation of the practical component of a first
year information systems unit, Business Computing. This is an
introductory unit which is and has been studied by a large cross-section
of students at the University of Tasmania on all three campuses
(Launceston, Hobart and Burnie) as either a core or elective unit
in a diverse number of courses including Humanities, Physical
Sciences, Human Movement Studies, Nursing and Applied Computing.
Since its inception the course has undergone many
changes in response to advances in instructional technology, diversification
of the clients' (students') technological backgrounds and rapid
advances and diversification of the subject matter. Likewise the
assessment has consisted of various mixes of final examination,
assignments and continuous assessment. It is the most dynamically
evolving first year unit in the Department of Applied Computing
and Mathematics.
The major milestones in the evolution of Business
Computing from a teacher centered unit to a student centered unit
combining competency attainment and theoretical understanding
will be described. Statistics on the source courses of students
are presented. It discusses the mix and effectiveness of the various
assessment techniques and the rationale behind changes to the
lecture/laboratory/tutorial ratio.
1 INTRODUCTION
Business Computing was one of the first subjects
offered by the Department of Applied Computing and Mathematics
and is probably one of the longest surviving. It is also
one of the most dynamically changing units both in terms of content,
delivery and assessment. It has spawned at least two other subjects
and is one of the largest units in terms of EFTSU's (Effective
Full Time Student Unit) in the University. Its client group is
extremely diverse with students from all Faculties on all campuses.
The unit in its present form is described as providing
-
...an understanding of the functions and relationships between the component parts of a computer and those applications which are suited to computerization; and develops an understanding of the importance of data communications to the business environment. The systems development process is considered and a study made of the main trends concerning the application of small computers to the workplace. The practical component imparts knowledge of an integrated Word Processing / Spreadsheet / Database package
(University of Tasmania Handbook, [4])
As with other courses there has been pressure to improve productivity in delivery of the content material. Coupled with this there has been increasing student numbers and a diversification of subject content. To deal with these challenges there has been a need to constantly modify the delivery and assessment techniques used, utilizing the latest innovations. As a result computer based management of the course has been introduced to allow students to operate at their own pace and level in their own area of interest. Traditional lectures have however been retained.
2 IN THE BEGINNING....
The subject has its origins in the mid-1980's as
a service unit for the now defunct Bachelor of Business in the
then Tasmanian State Institute of Technology. It was basically
a hands-on practical course designed to introduce business students
to word processing (Microsoft Word 2), spread sheets (Microsoft
Multiplan) and database (dbase II) on micro computers (IBM PC's
with twin floppy disk drives).
The objectives of the course were:
These objectives remained unchanged until 1993 despite
variations in the content and assessment and a gradual diversification
of the source courses of students.
At this stage the course was very vocationally based.
The aim was to teach how to manage files on a microcomputer, basic
operations of the three packages and demonstrate simple applications.
Assessment reflected this with 60% of the final grade being assigned
to practical work.
The course was structured as two hours of lectures
and two hours of laboratory tutorial work with students completing
four assignments on each of the packages mentioned above and one
on DOS. The lecture material was basically directed towards teaching
the packages with some basic hardware and software theory. All
this was based on a very specific text 'A Practical Guide to Personal
Computing' (Davies [2]). Final assessment was based around the
assignments and an examination. The examination was heavily biased
towards the software packages that had been studied.
Things began to change in 1989 with the introduction
of the Bachelor of Applied Computing degree where a more solid
grounding in information systems theory was required. As a result,
and also because of the ACS accreditation requirements for the
new degree, assessment was changed so that only 30% of the final
grade was assigned to practical work.
1989 also saw a disastrous attempt to use proprietary
teaching software for word processing, spreadsheets and data base.
The objective was to introduce a self-paced practical course using
exercises from a central bank. As well as allowing students to
work at their own pace this was also seen as making laboratory
classes more efficient.
The problem was the software ran on only a small percentage of the machines then in use at the institution. In a pilot implementation at the North West Study Centre (using original IBM PC's) there were no problems, but the software failed on the main campus where more powerful IBM clones were used. The moral is to test new software on ALL makes of PC's in use before making a commitment. A rapid reversion in the third week of the semester to the previous methods and software recovered the situation.
3 CRITERIA BASED ASSESSMENT
With Business Computing a core subject in the new computing degree, new challenges were introduced:
Despite there being no prerequisites, another challenge
that began to emerge was the increasing number of students who
had undertaken significant amount of pre tertiary computer studies,
specifically the TCE (Tasmanian Certificate of Education) Information
Systems course. For these students a lot of material, particularly
the practical laboratory work, was already familiar.
To overcome these problems a series of innovations
were introduced. The first was a criteria based approach to the
practical component with students being able to complete a set
of tasks by a set time. The second was the introduction of tutorials
to cover the increased theory content. That meant introducing
a two hour lecture, one hour laboratory and one hour tutorial
teaching combination.
The third innovation was the introduction of a mandatory
examination to test understanding of basic essential knowledge
on a pass/fail basis and an optional challenge examination to
gain grades in excess of a pass (Godfrey, [3]).
Two of these innovations were discontinued after
two years. The tutorials were dropped but the number of hours
of lectures was increased to three. The third hour effectively
took the place of the tutorial and the assessment that was assigned
to them removed. This was essentially a productivity motivated
change. A potential problem of a lack of individual assistance
to students was resolved by the introduction of consultation times.
This provided individual assistance to students who required it.
The mandatory exam was also discontinued because it was discovered that both examinations were mandatory for the majority of students (those studying Applied Computing and Business). The structure was continued in the unit Computing Practice which was effectively an offshoot from Business Computing and is a specialist introductory unit for Nursing students.
4 THE NEED FOR MODIFICATION
By 1993 the demand had expanded to become one of
efficient delivery of a course to a large group of students from
a very wide background with highly variable computer skills. The
course had now grown to a point where major streamlining and customization
was needed. Also in 1993 all students were given access to electronic
mail and there was a corresponding increase in the amount of communications
theory introduced to the course from one week of lectures to three.
In 1995 this was extended to Internet access.
The objectives of the course in 1995 were now:
A major change in these objectives (apart from the
increase in number) was the de-emphasis of hardware and the increased
emphasis on communications and applications.
To improve delivery of the course the criteria based
assessment of the practical component has been modularized to
a greater extent. Students are given all practical work at the
commencement of the semester along with a series of completion
criteria. Once a student has completed a module, or think they
already have the skills involved, they can sit the assessment
test.
Students have to complete a minimum number of core
skill tasks and then choose optional advanced modules to attain
a higher grade.
Flexibility is added because students from different source courses can be given different modules in their core. Those who already have the appropriate skills can complete the practical assessment very rapidly. Initially these modules were issued in a paper form, but are now available over the Departments local area network.
5 THE STATISTICS
This section provides an overview of the statistical effects of various changes imposed on the subject since it was first offered. Some these changes were beyond the control of the Department of Applied Computing while others were a direct result of Departmental modifications for educational and productivity goals. The data has been extracted from the University of Tasmania's student record system.
5.1 COURSE ENROLLMENTS
The number of students enrolled in the course has
shown a steady increase since the formation of the Department
of Applied Computing in 1987 until 1993 (figure 1). Variations
in the data were caused by the introduction of the unit into
other courses as a core subject and the development of specialist
versions of the course.
It should also be noted that there is a jump in enrollments
every second year (1989, 1991, 1993) which is due to the unit
being offered by distance education. This was the result of the
Bachelor of Business being offered externally on a part time basis
with all units being offered every second year.
The first major event in the enrollment data occurred
in 1991 and 1992 when the nursing students were required to do
an introductory computing unit. Initially this was Business Computing
and it resulted in a significant increase in enrollments in 1991.
The subject was not found to be entirely satisfactory in terms
of content and there was an academic loading problem so a version
of Business Computing renamed Computing Practice introduced. This
resulted in the a decrease in enrollments for 1992. The new unit
was basically the same as Business Computing with some
Figure 1 Enrollments in Business Computing by
year in both semesters
of the theory removed and a greater emphasis on the
three primary packages. This subject has retained the mandatory
/ challenge examination structure with a majority of students
not opting for the challenge examination.
Changes in the Commerce degree had an effect in 1994
when that degree was no longer offered via the off campus study
centres.
A major fall in enrollments occurred in 1995 when the Bachelor of Business was withdrawn and Bachelor of Commerce students studied an equivalent unit offered by the Faculty of Business and Law but still taught by the Department of Applied Computing for the first year. Effectively Business Computing generated this new course. The usual increase in enrollments in odd years also failed to materialize because the unit is no longer offered by distance education.
5.2 SOURCE FACULTIES OF STUDENTS
Figures 2 to 4 show the changes in the source of
students from 1988 to 1995. The gradual change in the relative
proportion of Commerce students can be clearly seen decreasing
as a percentage of the overall student numbers. The diversification
of students undertaking the unit can be seen to be increasing.
Figure 2. Source of students by Faculty in 1988.
It should be noted that this data is for the former Tasmanian
state Institute of Technology and numbers have been assigned to
what were to become faculties in the amalgamated University of
Tasmania. Nursing and Computing enrollments are superimposed on
each other and are 0%.
In 1988, the first year for which data was available,
(figure 2) there were no computing or nursing students studying
Business Computing hence the greatest percentage (65%) of students
came from Commerce (Bachelor of Business) while the remainder
were Education and Science respectively who were taking
the subject as an elective. This reflects the origins of the
unit and the formation of the Department (then called a School)
of Applied Computing. Academics were drawn from individual Departments
offering computing units including Business, Humanities and Engineering
to form the new Department. They brought with them the units and
courses they were teaching which included Business Computing from
Business. At this time the new department was in the same academic
grouping as Business.
By 1991 (figure 3) the Bachelor of Applied Computing
and the Graduate Diploma of Applied Computing had been offered
for three years and the number of enrollments of those students
had become a significant proportion of the total. Bachelor of
Business students still made up the majority. 1991 was a year
where the unit was being offered by distance education adding
extra Business students to the total (see figure 1). Nursing enrollments
also had a major effect for the first (and last) time.
Figure 3. Source of students by Faculty in 1991.
Computing has been shown separately to the Faculty of Science
of which it is a member. This was the year of amalgamation and
data is now cross campus.
Figure 4. Source of students by Faculty in 1995.
Computing has been shown separately to the Faculty of Science
of which it is a member.
Commerce had introduced its own course based on a similar structure to the practical parts of Business Computing in 1995 (figure 4). The residual Commerce students were studying at the North West Study Centre where it was not possible to take the Commerce unit.
5.3 RESULTS OF ASSESSMENT
Figure 5 shows the effects of various forms of assessment
on the overall results of the course. It is in the form of a
100% stacked bar chart to show meaningful comparisons of the percentage
of students attaining particular awards.
The first three years of data show similar distributions
of grades, especially passes. The change in mix of assessment
from 60% assignments and 40% examination to 30% and 70% respectively
had no major effect.
Figure 5. Comparative results show the percentage
of students in a particular year attaining a particular grade
in the form of a 100% stacked bar chart. Withdrawn students are
not included. Students who did not take the examination are included
in fails (NN). Other grades are pass (PP), credit (CR), distinction
(DN) and high distinction (HD)
The major effect of the change in assessment techniques
in 1991 was the number of students being awarded a pass grade
and opting not to sit the challenge examination. The initial year
of introduction also saw a drop in the number of students failing
the course. 1992 saw a continuation of this trend although the
number of failures increased and those getting higher results
decreased.
The final four years of data saw a stabilizing in
the data with pass and better rates being above 75% of enrollments.
It should be noted that failures included students who did not
sit the final examination and failed to withdraw from the unit.
Despite an apparent return to assessment techniques of the first three years of data, the last four years are different. This is because of changes from recalling facts to interpreting and applying knowledge in the examination.
6 DISCUSSION
The above statistics show a number of major trends
and reflect the effectiveness of the delivery techniques used
in Business Computing during the years they were used. The first
three years of the unit saw it effectively as a training course.
At that stage the institution (then the Tasmanian State Institute
of Technology) as a whole had a mission of vocational education
filling a niche between University and TAFE.
As a result the practical skills component was extremely
important. The formal examination component had questions both
on specifics of the software packages studied and on applications
of those packages. For example in 1988 75% of the marks were
allocated to questions on word processing, spreadsheets and database.
The remaining 25% (made up of true/false choices) covered the
rest of the course. The subject was heavily teacher based with
little flexibility for students of differing technical and source
course backgrounds.
This changed with the introduction of the mandatory/challenge
examination format in 1991. Here the knowledge exam was a computer
based question bank where students were presented with a series
of questions from a bank. This covered the basic theory of the
course. The challenge examination covered applications of the
knowledge. This introduced some flexibility with those students
who wanted the practical skills choosing to concentrate on the
basic theory while those who wished to continue were encouraged
to develop deeper analytical skills. It did not allow for students
to apply these analytical skills to their specific source course
areas however.
The return to a single examination in 1993 saw these
two techniques combined (although all students had the same questions).
It could be regarded as a regressive move, however the result
statistics show increases in all categories of award except pass.
This suggests students who in the past would avoid the challenge
examination were now gaining results better than a bare pass grade.
The increases in failures reflects students who having failed
on the criteria based assessment opting not to sit the examination
as they could not pass the unit.
The practical assessment has changed little between
1991 and 1995 with students being set a number of criteria to
complete. These involved students working at their own pace on
exercises available on the network and using practical sessions
for individual help and completing the criteria tests. Consultation
times with lecturers and tutors were used for further help and
direction.
This year (1996) all practical modules were available
at the beginning of the unit. The sequence which the students
complete these is up to the student. A beginning student would
normally undertake the introduction to the system module first,
where an experienced student would move straight to the testing
part of this module. The same is true for the other modules.
Once the common basic skills have been mastered,
the advanced modules allow students to develop skills specific
to their own needs. As new client groups are added new modules
can be added. The material to be studied and the depth to which
it is taken is now student centered.
The departure of the Commerce students has allowed
a broadening of the subject matter taught. Despite their departure
there has been a diversification of the origins of students. It
has meant that the range of cases studies used has had to be increased.
Despite this, the overall emphasis of business has been retained
although management aspects are now emphasized. The philosophy
is that most students will be involved in management tasks in
the future and the tools and techniques studied in this unit will
be applicable to those tasks
1997 will see the introduction of a modular approach
to some of the material currently presented in lectures. Formal
lectures will be retained as it has been found that there is a
student demand for this style of teaching (Akerlind and Trevitt,
[1]). Material specific to major client groups will however be
presented in a form similar to that already used for practical
work. Students will be able to choose areas of interest in information
technology and pursue these in greater depth than was possible
in the past. This will also mean changing the method of assessment
for this part of the course
Just as students can have prior experience with some of the subject material in the practical part of the course, so could they have the knowledge of the theory part currently presented in lectures. Evolution from that point will be the development of a series of specific modules for the various subject area. That is customization for various student groups needs. Hence Business Computing will move more and more towards being a purely student centered unit with only a common core being presented in a traditional way and only then to students who have little or no prior knowledge.
7 CONCLUSION
Business computing has evolved significantly since
its creation in the mid 1980's. The effect of the changes is quite
dramatic in hindsight but difficult to predict. Some conclusions
about the various delivery and assessment methods which have been
used are as follows:
8 REFERENCES
[1] Akerlind, G. and Trevitt, C. (1995): ' Enhancing
Learning Through Technology: When Students Resist the Change'
Proceedings of the 12th Annual Conference of the Australian Society
for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, Pearce, J.
M. and Ellis, A. (eds.), Melbourne, Victoria, pp. 1-7
[2] Davies, N., (1986): A Practical Guide to Personal
Computing, Professional Education
[3] Godfrey, R. (1991): 'An Approach to improving
Productivity in Assessment', Proceedings of the 8th Annual
Conference of the Australian Society for Computers in Learning
in Tertiary Education, Godfrey, R.(ed.), Launceston, Tasmania
[4] University of Tasmania (1996): University of Tasmania Undergraduate Handbook 1996
9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank those lecturers and tutors who have been involved with Business Computing since 1986. We would particularly like to thank Bill Morgan and Bob Godfrey for their insight into the unit during their period as lecturer in charge and Cheryl Drinkald of the Department of Applied Computing and Mathematics administrative staff and Jason Rawlings of student administration for their help in collating the data. The authors also acknowledge the financial assistance of the University of Tasmania who provided funding through a University Teaching Development Grant for development and implementation of the modularization of the subject.
COPYRIGHT
Paul Crowther and Felicity Lear © 1996. The authors assign to ASCILITE and educational non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive licence to ASCILITE to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the ASCILITE96 conference papers, and for the documents to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the authors.