As popular literature claims that college graduates are entering the workforce lacking sufficient writing skills, this paper argues that the integration of writing into the MIS/IT curriculum is an important and achievable goal necessary for the overall development of students in Information Technology or Management Information Systems degree programs. While traditional IT/MIS programs rely heavily on technology-based courses, it is argued that these technology courses also must promote effective writing habits needed for career growth in the IT/MIS fields. By providing examples of writing assignments currently used in several programs, this paper illustrates for all educators in an IT or MIS program how writing assignments can be used in most MIS/IT classes. Research papers, journaling, written exams, and micro-themed papers are some of the current methods used to incorporate writing into the IT/MIS curriculum.
Popular literature not only claims that college graduates are entering the workforce lacking sufficient writing skills but that companies must spend billions of dollars annually to train employees how to communicate effectively through writing (Canavor & Meirowitz, 2005; College Board, 2004). While writing-across-the-curriculum is not a new concept, it seems that only certain areas of the curriculum have adopted it. The integration of writing into the MIS/IT curriculum is an important and achievable goal necessary for the overall development of students in Information Technology or Management Information Systems degree programs. While traditional IT/MIS programs rely heavily on technology-based courses, we argue that these technology courses must also promote effective writing habits needed for career growth in the IT/MIS fields. As business proposals, newsletters, and reports are frequently being written by those in the Information Systems Department of a corporation, rather than by those in the Communication Department, it is increasingly important that we prepare IT/MIS students with the appropriate writing skills needed for their careers. For example, in many cases we prepare students to create web pages, a highly public information source, without providing any instruction on writing within the IT/MIS curriculum. This paper illustrates how writing assignments can be used in many MIS/IT classes.
Online learning is the fastest growing segment in the educational marketplace (Conhaim, 2003). As the number of online courses increases and distance learning programs grow in popularity, questions of quality and comparability of online courses with traditional methods naturally arise (Schulman & Sims, 1999). While online learning is the fastest growing educational segment, partly in thanks to on-campus students who choose to take courses online, there are still debates about not only the quality of the course content, but the quality of the technology used as well. According to Bowman (2003), in “the history of higher education, online classes are relatively new, and it is yet to be determined how to take full advantage of the technology” (p. 73).
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