Can IT Prototyping Enhance Business School Education?

Abstract

In business school, students must learn essential communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills. In this study, we examine whether the prototyping project in our computer-based information system (CBIS) course enhances these three essential skills. The prototyping process, taught with an information system approach, is the focus of our project-centered teaching method. The pedagogy uses a system development life cycle model to define problems and to analyze, design, and develop computer systems. A questionnaire administered to 184 students who had taken the course suggests that the CBIS course improves communication skills and problem-solving skills than on analytical skills. The prototyping project does not enhance analytical skills, but does significantly enhance communication skills and problem-solving skills. These findings can help to improve the teaching of CBIS to business school students.