What predicts student performance in the first college-level IS course?

Abstract

The information systems (IS) profession is one of the fastest growing occupations and the demand for IS professionals is expected to continue growing over the next several years [3]. However, many sources report a growing gap between the demand for IS workers and the supply of such workers [3]. Further exacerbating this gap is the fact the percentage of women earning degrees in the field has declined since 1986 [5]. In order to adequately staff the IS profession, we need to make sure that a sufficient number of both male and female students are completing information systems degrees. Low grades in the early required classes account for much of the attrition of women from scientific and mathematics classes [9]. Therefore, one of the ways to ensure students complete an information systems degree is to assure success in the early information systems classes.This paper proposes a way to predict academic performance in the first college-level information systems class. In earlier research [8], we developed a model to measure performance in this class based on models used in accounting classes [6]. When we used this model we found different patterns than had been found in accounting classes. Our results showed that the Eskew and Faley [6] model predicted male student performance in the class but did not predict female performance. In this paper, we extend the model to try to improve the prediction. This model will be compared for male and female students. We hope to show what determines performance and thus better understand how students of both genders can be successful in the first college-level IS course.