A FRAMEWORK TO TEACH ERP SYSTEMS IN AN UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Abstract

Since the 1990’s higher education institutions (HEIs) have been making attempts to incorporate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in their business undergraduate curricula. Additionally, major global ERP vendors have invested in establishing academic alliances to assist higher education institutions in their efforts to provide students with necessary industry skills. However, simply using an ERP system in a taught component is not enough to meet the predefined course learning outcomes, unless the latter are coupled with hands-on experience and both integrated into a teaching framework. This paper draws from the extant literature and follows a documented methodology for identifying relevant sources. The sources of the works consulted and cited, were benchmarked with respect to impact factor or peer review, and include academic journals, books, and conference proceedings in higher education. As a next step, sources were analyzed by matching their methods and results against the principle of constructive alignment in higher education. The analysis results identified key areas where the existing literature is incomplete and needs further enrichment. Moreover, results showed lack of a comprehensive method for “teaching ERP systems”, including teaching methodologies, assessment practices and learning theories relevant to the Information Systems discipline. This paper is introducing a framework for guiding faculty into effectively teaching an ERP Systems course to undergraduate business students. The guidelines for synthesizing the framework rely on three axes, namely, learning theories, the results from the analysis of current literature and the experience drawn from teaching an ERP Systems course in a business school for the past 4 years. This paper concludes with recommendations for further research, mostly relevant to quantitative studies on the performance of teaching and learning strategies relevant to ERP systems in higher education.