business computing: reconceptualising the curriculum to ...mams.rmit.edu.au/ttj3a4mweij0z.pdf ·...

Learning and Teaching Investment Fund final report

Business Computing: reconceptualising the curriculum to enhance the student experience and improve student Associate Professor Joan Richardson

Business IT and Logistics, College of Business, RMIT Melbourne

Dr Mathews Nkhoma, Business IT and Logistics, Centre of Commerce and Management, RMIT Vietnam

February 2014

Strategic objectives addressed:

The project will contribute to the following priorities:

Transformation of the student experience

The project will explore ICT tools which can be utilised to improve online learning, allowing new avenues to engage students regardless of location and enhance the learning outcome of all students.

Best practice curriculum and teaching

The project will determine and disseminate best practice in curriculum design and teaching.

Student cohort experience

The project aims to create a distinctive RMIT student experience by innovative use of new learning spaces and virtual learning materials.

Internal order number: 380311

Project leader contact details:

Title Associate Professor

Surname RICHARDSON

Given Name Joan

Phone +(61 3) 9925 5804

E-mail [email protected]

Business Computing: reconceptualising the curriculum to enhance the student experience and improve student

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Title Dr

Surname Nkhoma

Given Name Mathews

Phone

E-mail [email protected]

Project team members:

Full Name Mr Hiep Pham Cong

Full Name Mr Bill Au

Funding scheme

LTIF contestable

Program Development Fund

RMIT Vietnam Program Development Fund X


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1 Executive summary

Business Computing: reconceptualising the curriculum to enhance the student experience and improve student outcomes

This project has reconceptualised and implemented enhancements to the delivery of Business Computing, a large core course in RMIT business degree programs, to enhance the student experience and improve student outcomes, exploiting the functionality offered by a number of social media tools accessed by students using mobile information technologies.

Academic resources were developed to leverage social media tools. The purpose of the tools was to encourage students to continue learning conversations outside the classroom, improving student-to-academic and student-to-student interaction and extending the business computing experience. The re-design of delivery modes was focussed on improving student engagement with materials outside the classroom, and encouraging self-study. Utilising e-learning helped achieve this goal, with the current course material being contextualised and developed for consumption online. The focus of the development was to make the material more interactive and interesting, to sustain student interest, whilst also giving students a means to gauge their progress.

Trials of Twitter, FaceBook, BlackBoard and Piazza have been undertaken during periods A, B and C, 2013, with students of Business Computing 1 studying on RMIT’s Vietnam campuses. Data has been collected via student survey, semi-structured student and staff focus groups, and the capture of the student-to-student and student-to-academic communications taking place via the various social media technologies. Survey responses have been analysed using structured equation modelling (SEM) techniques. Thematic analysis of interview recordings and of the social media communications that have been collected, has been applied.

The complementary roles that FaceBook and Piazza can play have largely been confirmed. Issues with the use of Twitter have been identified and explored.

A SEM analysis of Business Computing 1 student responses to a survey questionnaire on their reactions to the inclusion of social media in the teaching of business computing has sought to understand the determinants of student engagement. In summary, the key outcomes of the SEM analysis have been that there is a possible positive impact of elements of online social networking environments on the improvement of students’ performance proficiency. Factors perceived by students to be important include content and context quality, and in particular the facility to engage in student-to-academic and student-to-student interaction and discussion. As such, this component of the project has suggested that online social networking can be utilised to enhance learning outcomes. In order to deal with more complex information, however, the SEM analysis results have suggested that it may be better to facilitate face-to-face interaction in order to clarify complex or subtle matters. The results of the SEM analysis have also suggested that content and context levels should be developed in order to improve students’ performance proficiency.

In an extension to the project, opportunities for the integration of social media and mobile information technologies with ‘flipped classroom’ approaches to the teaching of Business Computing, have been identified and captured in models of how social media can be used to support flipped classroom delivery objects. An evaluation of mobile technology affordances for particular learning activities has also been reported.

1.1 Semester 1 and 2 Trials – FaceBook and Twitter

Table 1 is an example of the Roadmap for FaceBook and Twitter use of multimedia tools. The Complete Roadmap of suggested interactions for FaceBook and Twitter is included in Appendix A.


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Week Lecture Workshop Social Media Tool

2 Chapter 2: Making knowledge work

Theory review

exercise

Excel workshop 1

Introduce social media tools and

encourage buy-in

Tweet review questions to students

4 Chapter 3: Systems for business solutions

(Session 2 – continue with different Business

Information Systems)

Demonstration of Excel spreadsheet to make business

decisions

Theory review

exercise

Excel workshop 3


FaceBook/Google resources

Direct students to e-learning component

Table 1: Sample FaceBook and Twitter Course Roadmap.

1.2 Semester 3 Trials – Piazza

Table 2 is an example of the Roadmap for use of Piazza multimedia tools to disseminate multi-choice self-review questions. The Complete Roadmap of suggested Piazza interactions is included in Appendix B.

Week2: Making Knowledge Work

P1. An e-Commerce expert, Mr Ross at a retail company, collects the count of the number of visits to the company website that are made by Internet users and analyses the visit pattern by time and location of users. Which word BEST describes the count numbers collected:

P2. Mr Ross then recommends changes to the website to attract more customers to visit and purchase online. Which word BEST describes the contribution of Mr. Ross in developing such a system

Data

Information

Knowledge

Data

Information

Knowledge

Table 2: Sample Piazza Multi-Choice Questions.

2 Outcomes The ultimate goal of the project was to utilise social technologies to improve the cohort experience. This built on successful use of Personal Response System (clickers) in large lecture groups on the Vietnam campuses. Traditionally the students’ responses to academic questions during large lecture classes have been passive. Student-to-student and academic-to-student communication and interaction outside the classroom could be improved. By exploring ICT tools, the course aimed to develop a means to connect with students through new channels, while improving student engagement. This move is necessary to create and develop a connection with today’s students, who are savvy to the concepts of mobile interaction and ‘anywhere, anytime’ services.

The trialling of social media applications has also investigated their capacity to encourage self-directed learning. (For example: a Twitter account might be used to stimulate student investigations by posing a question following the lecture; a FaceBook site might direct students to workshop activities, pre-reading or activities which can help the student prepare for class or examinations.)

The project has re-imagined and re-designed course activities to improve the student experience and enhance the delivery process by integrating the use of social media. Data has been collected to support the evaluation of student responses via student survey, semi-structured student and staff focus groups, and the capture of the student-to-student and student-to-academic communications taking place via the various social media technologies (BCHEAN Register No 1000539). Survey responses have been analysed using structured equation modelling (SEM) techniques. Thematic analysis of interview recordings and of the social media communications that have been collected, has been applied.

2.1 Number of students benefitting from the project Business Computing 1 (Vietnam delivery) was the target course developed through this project.

Business Computing is a course which is constructed and delivered to a high standard. The course is undertaken by all students in the Centre of Commerce and Management (Vietnam), Singapore and Melbourne. It is generally encountered during the student’s first semester. This places Business Computing in a position of strategic importance, giving students their first impressions of


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tertiary study and beginning to mould their learning experiences and expectations for the coming study period.

To extend what has been learnt about the use of technology to engage students outside the classroom, beyond Business Computing 1, additional funding would be necessary. The delivery model trialled in Vietnam will be rolled out to the Melbourne, Shanghai (SUIBE), Indonesia and Singapore (SIM) and RMIT International University (HCMC and Hanoi). Samples of the types of questions and activities suitable for each technology application trialled are included as Roadmaps for Usage in Appendices A and B.

2.2 Student and staff feedback on project deliverables/changes including GTS or OSI.

Ethics Approval 1000539 - Flipped curriculum resources were designed and developed for the Business Computing Context and Business Analytics modules of Business Computing 1 in Semester 1 2013. FaceBook and Twitter were chosen as the tools to trial in Semester 1 and 2 2013 to enhance the student experience in Business Computing. Polling questions were developed for each lecture, together with discussion points to reinforce what was being taught in the lectures and workshops.

Student responses, as discussed in detail in Section 3, elicited by survey and semi-structured focus group techniques, have been largely positive to the introduction of FaceBook (see Section 3).

Student feedback might also be evidenced, by post-innovation changes in the GTS and OSI as listed below (see Table 1). As shown in Table 1, however, it is not clear that the addition of social media to facilitate student-to-student and student-to-academic communication is reflected in those figures. There is some evidence of improvement in the GTS figures for the ISYS2109 student cohort (GTS for 2012 is in the range 51.5-57.6; GTS for 2013A is 65; OSI for 2012 is in the range 52.5-63.6; OSI for 2013A is 74) however this improvement has not been sustained in 2013B.

The project team suspects that the following factors may explain why, despite positive student feedback (in particular related to FaceBook) collected through survey and focus groups, and as evident in the analyses of the social media communications, the GTS and OSI outcomes for Business Computing 1 have not, to date, registered a sustained increase:

A change occurred in the Business Computing 1 teaching model concurrently with the social media trials, from small group to large class lecturing. Student reactions to this change, in particular by the Diploma cohort (ISY2109D), may have masked positive responses from students to the social media introduction being reflected in the GTS/OSI figures in 2013B.

In 2013A and 2013B there was a focus on the introduction of multiple social media platforms (both FaceBook and Twitter). Trialling multiple social media platforms, including, in particular, Twitter which was less popular with students, may have offset the apparently positive response to FaceBook (see Section 3) being reflected in increased GTS/OSI figures. The introduction of multiple platforms for essentially the same purpose, may have caused some degree of technology adoption fatigue.

In 2013C Piazza was trialled, in response to the observation of possible technology adoption fatigue with the FaceBook/Twitter technologies. Evidence to date from the trials of Piazza in 2013C would support a positive student response to that tool (see Section 3). GSI/OSI figures for 2013C, however, are not currently available as a means for assessing student reaction to Piazza.


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Semester ISYS2109 ISYS2109D

GTS OSI GTS OSI

2012A 51.5 52.5 73 70

2012B 52.7 55.3 61 60

2012C 57.6 63.6 75 75

2013A 65 74 68 73.6

2013B 57 61 64 64

Table 3: GTS and OSI for Business Computing 1 (RMIT Vietnam), pre- and post- introduction of the Social Media Innovations. (Note: Figures are available at the time of reporting for 2013A and 2013B

only.)

2.3 Staff Feedback Staff feedback was collected via focus groups, conducted by independent moderators. In summary, staff feedback included:

Workshop-based staff expressed a desire to design activities within the constraints of their learning outcomes and assessments, as specified in the course guide (see Appendix C). The personalisation or ownership of the staff-student interaction was deemed essential to effective achievement of learning outcomes. In order to remove a “one-size-fits-all” approach to workshop delivery whilst still achieving comparable learning outcomes, the researchers decided that the following actions were necessary:

o A schedule of learning activities (Preparatory Learning Activities, Workshop Learning Activities, and Consolidation Learning Activities, Lectures, Lecture Challenges, Lecture Reviews) and assessments (case review and preparatory diagnostics).

o Technology-enabled communication with students to commence and sustain the learning conversation, in a blended environment.

o Opportunities to reflect on the learning needs of each diverse cohort, for which they are responsible.

Lecturing staff were positive about the following innovations:

o The increased number of opportunities for discussion (polling, questions as drivers) rather than a one-way transfer of knowledge.

o Challenges, providing the opportunity for students to develop their knowledge through extension activities that enable them to view the application of software tools in wider contexts.

o The workshop and lecture diagnostic multi-choice questions, which facilitated students to reflect upon their understanding of the knowledge transferred during the lecture.

o On-line multi-media resource library “Computing for Business Success” (Edition 3) – Published January 2014 (ISBN: 9781442553262).

Post “Social Media” Innovations


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2.4 Scholarly Output (Publications, Conference Presentations, Journal Papers)

Scholarly papers in preparation include:

Conferences:

“An Analysis of Student-Student and Student-Academic Dialogues/Narratives when using Social Media in support of the teaching of Business Computing”, J. Richardson, M, Nkhoma, B. Au, H. Pham and R.Smith (HERDSA 2014, “Higher Education in a Globalised World”, Hong Kong, 7-10 July 2014)

“Strategies for the Introduction and Operation of Social Media in support of the Teaching of Business Computing”, J. Richardson, M, Nkhoma, B. Au, H. Pham and R.Smith (ACIS 2014, December 8-10 2014, Auckland, NZ)

“The Complementary Roles that Social Media and Collaborative Learning Technologies might play when teaching business students in the Flipped Classroom Mode”, J. Richardson, M, Nkhoma, B. Au, H. Pham and R.Smith SIGED AIM ICIS 2014, Auckland, December 14-17, 2014, Auckland, NZ)

Peer-reviewed Journals:

“Determinants of Student Engagement: An SEM Analysis of the inclusion of Social Media when teaching Business Computing”, M Nkhoma et al. (submitted to the Journal of Active Learning in Higher Education)

3 Project outcomes and impacts

3.1 Project Objectives/Outcomes The project design (see Grant Application) sought to address the following objectives/outcomes:

To improve the delivery of Business Computing 1 using technology tools that engage students using new e-channels.

To explore the possibilities in social media applications, to extend engagement with students. These social technologies and team-collaborative tools may enable students to collaborate, co-author and apply creatively designed solutions.

To utilise social media to reach out to students via different channels, for example, social media platforms which support instant updates and messages that can be used to communicate and engage students, directing them to workshop activities, pre-reading, notes or media content of interest.

To use social media to facilitate a collaborative environment where students can share ideas, provide feedback and socialise.

To shift the emphasis to student-to-student and then student-to-instructor communication activities, to extend the communication start-point and encourage the development of cohort relationships.

The following tools were evaluated for use:

Twitter – Twitter is an online social networking service and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets". Essentially this service is an organised SMS on the internet.

The ability to send short messages which can be received instantly on a mobile device opens up a new potential avenue to engage students. The Business Computing team can leverage this tool to initiate student conversation and collaboration. For instance, after creating an account and following Business Computing on Twitter, after each lecture, a question relating to


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the concept delivered in that week can be asked on Twitter. This question will be received by students and if they wish, they can offer an answer. The answer itself may illicit further responses from other students who agree, disagree or perhaps wish to add. Twitter can also be used as a notification tool, updating students to announcements, assignment related news etc.

FaceBook - FaceBook allows users to add people they know and share information, photos and updates, to build a shared communication site. FaceBook may be used to share useful resources, such as images, statistics or videos which may relate to any concept delivered in the course.

Piazza – Piazza is a social question answering service intended to foster class engagement, promote collaborative learning, take offline study group dynamics online and to help students get “unstuck” faster. Knowledge transfer from instructors, and between students, is rapid and efficient.

Wordpress – Wordpress encourages conversation through a discussion board, but does not have the benefit of sitting within the RMIT online domain.

BlackBoard Mobile Learn (Not available for trial at RMIT Vietnam) – BlackBoard Mobile Learn supports the following functions:

Students are able to take tests delivered through BlackBoard Mobile Learn using any device (i.e. easy interface on their Android and iOS devices).

Supports many compatible question types ( see BbMobileTests.pdf http://www.BlackBoard.com/Platforms/Mobile/Client-Stories/Case-Studies.aspx

Multiple Choice Hot Spot Fill in the Blank )

Push notifications - Students can receive automatic, personalized notifications for announcements, grades and posted tests straight to their mobile devices.

Discussion board – Facilitated collaboration and a forum for students to upload media, and ask and answer questions. Students can read blog posts, post comments and upload media.

Students and academics can create a journal, and reflect and comment on peer/student journals.

Tasks: o Can track and manage the progress of tasks. o Submission of assignments. o Students can find out how they did on their last assessment. They can be sent a

Push Notification as soon as an assessment has been marked http://www.BlackBoard.com/Platforms/Mobile/Resources/BlackBoard-Mobile-Learn-Demos.aspx

o Purchasing textbooks.

Students can view the roster to access their entire class list.

3.2 Implementation Implementing most of the tools was relatively straightforward. FaceBook and Twitter were trialled in Periods A and B, 2013. The majority of students already had a FaceBook account, so in order to implement this, the project team simply created a FaceBook account, created a “group” which allowed users to join and interact with each other, and promoted the tool to the students during lectures. In particular, staff focused on the advantages the tool would provide, including anywhere-anytime access to a knowledge pool which could result in faster responses to queries, as well as the prospect of sharing knowledge and socialising. In parallel, a course Twitter account was established and details were promulgated to students who could register to follow that account. It was noted that relatively few students had prior experience with Twitter.

http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Mobile/Client-Stories/Case-Studies.aspx

http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Mobile/Resources/Blackboard-Mobile-Learn-Demos.aspx


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Piazza was trialled in Period C, 2013, following two semesters of trialling FaceBook, as a social media tool to enhance the student experience and learning outcomes. Piazza required students to create an account and join a group. The project team had prepared a Roadmap and communicated the details of Piazza usage to all academics and students. Further details are provided in the following sections.

3.2.1 FaceBook Adoption

The adoption rates for FaceBook were surprisingly good; the FaceBook group attracted 242 members in 2013A and only slightly fewer in 2013B, with students participating by asking questions and posting to the associated discussions. Of the 200+ members, only a handful played an active role in initiating posts, however most posts were seen by the majority of members (as is evidenced by the FaceBook ‘Seen By’ function). Students were actively using the tool to provide each other support.

Student buy-in: When FaceBook was introduced in 2013A, the group gained over 200 members within the first few days. Most students tended to already have a FaceBook account, so it required little effort to join a FaceBook group where they could interact and engage with other students and academics.

However, it appeared that the novelty of the tool wore off, as students became less active as the semester progressed, although they still passively participated. Of 26 randomly selected posts, the average number of views was 201.23, which was very high considering the total number of members (242 in 2013A). FaceBook appears to operate as a resource where many students soak up knowledge as passive viewers, while other students ask the questions they themselves may have.

Initiation of conversation: While students did initiate conversations, the majority of student-to-academic and student-to-student interactions were initiated by academics. Students tended to play a passive role and watched rather than initiated. Once something was initiated, students were happy to contribute. Students need to be encouraged to start FaceBook conversations or pose questions on FaceBook, during traditional classes.

Mass Participation: Students tended to participate once a post was made. Most posts were observed by the majority of members, however only a percentage of them were actively contributed. The exception to this was the multiple choice questions which were posted; these tended to attract a high number of participants. Incentives for active participation are required.

Over time, students posted less often, and lecturers increased their number of posts to try to drive activity. This may have been caused by students becoming accustomed to the tool, or external factors such as student workload and upcoming assessments in other courses.

The level of activity fluctuated from week to week. Activity was generally high when a complex concept was covered the lecture, or during a week when an assessment was due. During these periods there would be numerous posts every day, generally in the form of questions.

Moderation and Facilitation: It should be noted that a need for careful moderation of FaceBook groups was initially anticipated. It was thought that due to students being familiar with FaceBook as a social tool, conversations might get side-tracked. It was appreciated, however, that as socialisation helps improve the learning environment, slightly off-track conversations should be accepted. It was observed, however, that during the course of the trials, posting of inappropriate content did not occur to any significant extent.

Both students and academics participated in conversations, and this was where the facilitation of the tool was found to be most critical. At times, a well-meaning student may attempt to answer a question posed by another student; however they may have misunderstood the actual concept themselves. In these instances, this can be counter-productive as other students may read the


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discussion and gain incorrect information. It became obvious that this tool needs to be monitored to ensure these situations were minimised and corrected.

Increased student to student interaction: Students actively posted questions on FaceBook which elicited responses from other students. Observing the conversations, students tended to correct and add to each other’s responses. Students were able to engage with students not in their assigned classes. This provides further potential for students to share understanding and collaborate.

Additional avenue to engage students: FaceBook has provided academics with a means to engage with students outside the classroom. This created an ‘anytime anywhere’ mentality, where students were free to ask questions or make comments directed at the course content. Students who were unclear about content asked on FaceBook, and potentially overcame challenges which they may have otherwise just brushed aside.

Additional support for students: Having academics as members of the FaceBook group ultimately served students with an enhanced support system. Traditionally, if a student had a question, they would need to address the question via an email or appointment to their lecturer or tutor. If that academic is busy, they may not be able to respond in a timely manner. In some cases, an academic may miss an email or forget to respond. The advantage that FaceBook has over the traditional system is that, with several academic staff as members, a question that is asked by a student can be fielded by any academic; this provides enhanced coverage and faster responses for students.

The example in Figure 1, below, shows a question being posed by a student. Ultimately the student gains a deeper understanding of the concept through the discussion that ensues.

Figure 1: FaceBook Student Question.

The response rate for a question which required a qualitative response was found generally to be lower than for a question where students were allowed to choose from a number of predetermined answers. Figure 2 provides an example of a multi-choice self-review exercise generated by an academic.

It was noted during the trials that students tended to shy away from providing qualitative answers and avoided extensive contributions to postings. This may represent a pre-disposition to not


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expose themselves to challenge on a point of opinion which they must formulate, but to feel secure in making choices between possible positions that staff have formulated.

Figure 2: Academic multi-choice self-review question.

Staff reflection upon the trials, highlighted the following:

FaceBook was a very positive addition to the course. The tool allowed a level of interaction between academics and students, and among the students themselves, which was not available before.

FaceBook acted as a virtual bridge among all the students, as traditionally they would only communicate with other students in their class and with their assigned lecturer/tutor. With FaceBook, they were able to communicate with all course student members, regardless of class assignment.

FaceBook adoption is recommended for large group discussion and interaction. Facilitators of small groups may find it difficult to facilitate extensive group discussion via a course’s FaceBook page.

3.2.1.1 Determinants of Student Engagement: SEM Analysis of the inclusion of Social Media when teaching Business Computing

In an additional phase of this project, a Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis of Business Computing 1 student responses to a survey questionnaire, focussed on FaceBook usage, was completed.

Two levels of analysis were undertaken: construction of both a measurement model and a structure model. Online social networking engagement and procedural/clarification values of interaction on FaceBook were used to measure the motivation for using online social networking for learning purposes. Quality of online social networking, including perceived content quality and perceived context quality were used to analyse students’ learning experiences. Finally, students’ performance proficiency was attributed to students’ learning outcomes, which is also hypothesised to have impact on students’ intention to use online social networking for learning purpose, in future.

In summary, the key outcomes of the SEM analysis of the survey results have been that there is a possible positive impact of elements of online social networking environments, on the improvement


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of students’ performance proficiency. Factors perceived by students to be important include content and context quality, and in particular the facility to engage in teacher-student and student-to-student interaction and discussion. As such, this component of the project suggested that online social networking can be utilised to enhance learning outcomes. In order to deal with more complex information, however, the study results suggested that it may be better to facilitate face-to-face interaction in order to clarify complex or subtle matters. The results of the SEM analysis also suggested that content and context levels should be developed in order to improve students’ performance proficiency.

The SEM analysis findings also indicated, however, that some students may perceive a gap between networking for leisure and networking for learning. Indeed, online social networking, originally designed for entertainment, might be questioned by some students as an appropriate tool for formal learning purposes.

3.2.2 Twitter Adoption

Despite encouragement to students to adopt Twitter, adoption rates during 2013A were abysmal (20 followers only). Further, ‘tweets’ that were sent out drew no student responses. As it emerged during the trial, Twitter actually served only as an ‘alert’ (push) service.

It is noted that application of Twitter has been reported as successful in some other courses at RMIT Melbourne, however this has not been the case in Vietnam. A number of factors are believed to contribute to this:

Twitter penetration: While Twitter is a successful application worldwide (as of July 2012 there are over 500 million active registered users), Twitter penetration of the student population in Vietnam is low. In the cohort of Period A, 2013, a lecture hall of approximately 100 students were asked who currently held a Twitter account. Only 3 students responded. In response to a follow-up question, of who was actively using the Twitter account, all three students lowered their hands.

Culture: Vietnamese culture has not yet adopted Twitter. Twitter use exploded globally when popular figures (in particular entertainers) started to use the tool to stay in touch with fans. Vietnam pop culture has yet to embrace this tool.

Student Perception: The fact that most students do not have a Twitter account, may lead to that tool being viewed by students as ‘additional’ to their lives, rather than “essential”. In contrast, Facebook has already very wide student acceptance.

Nature of Twitter use: Tweets sent out early in the trial, in the form or news, updates or questions, elicited no responses, Subsequently, Twitter use in the trial focussed largely on its use as an ‘alert’ service. As such, students may have concluded that the Twitter service did not substantially value-add to their learning experience.

However, upon reflection, Twitter may have the potential to be an effective tool with the capacity to help students manage and stay in touch with important course events. Until Twitter becomes extensively adopted in Vietnam, however, achieving this goal will prove challenging. Students may become conditioned to adopt Twitter if the benefits of its adoption can be made apparent.

3.2.3 Piazza Adoption

In 2013C, a Piazza trial was conducted to support communications surrounding Business Computing 1. Piazza was used in a similar fashion to FaceBook, with the added benefit that group discussion could be facilitated for students within each instructor’s class. FaceBook is more suitable for entire class discussion, without identifying an individual or a group to monitor or recognise. Piazza, on the other hand, allows division of an entire class into smaller groups, supervised by different instructors. Each instructor then can interact with their own students, and students of the same


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group can interact with each other. Piazza also allows a question or an answer to be labelled as Resolved, Unresolved, or Not Yet Read (i.e. requiring further attention). The Piazza Communication Activity and Poll Questions Roadmaps are presented in Appendix B. These roadmaps include, for each week of the course:

Questions to stimulate discussion of issues and concepts introduced; and

Multi-choice questions to support student review of lecture/workshop content. At the time of reporting, final analysis of this trial is in progress. (Note: Period C continues into January 2014.) It is apparent however that the student response to this tool has been enthusiastic. Figure 3 reports statistics for responses to questions posed from the commencement of Period C 2013, until the end of December 2013. Of note:

Either students, instructors or both responded to 74% of questions posted;

Counting all posts, responses, edits, follow-ups and comments there were 3195 contributions; and

The frequency of answers supplied, over time, followed closely the question posting frequency.

Figure 3: Piazza - Statistics for responses to questions posed from the commencement of Period C 2013, until the end of December 2013.

Figure 4 reports the Piazza usage statistics/trends over time, for the same period as reported in Figure 3. As shown, usage is characterised by a series of sharp spikes, indicating prompt student responses to the posting of new questions.


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Figure 4: Piazza – Usage Statistics/Trends from the commencement of Period C 2013, until the end of December 2013

3.3 Project Deliverables Drawing upon the broad project outcomes presented in Section 2, and the trials of various technologies reported in Sections 3.1 and 3.2 (above), some samples of the key deliverables from the project, satisfying the project objectives, follow:

The suitability of available e-learning and social technologies to help extend student engagement and collaboration was investigated. FaceBook, Twitter and Piazza were identified and teaching resources were re-developed to facilitate trials in Business Computing.

The curriculum for Business Computing 1 was reconceptualised to upgrade the Information Systems technology deliverables to a contemporary format and to enable a Flipped Classroom delivery (Appendix C). An example for Weeks 1 and 2 of a semester is provided in Table 4.


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Week Lecture Pre-Studio Diagnostic Studio Assessment

1

The Business

Computing

Context:

How is IT

currently used

by Business? \

How might it

be used in

future?

How did we

get to this

point – some

history?

Course Overview

Lecture: What role

does/should IT play in the

world of business?

Introduction to the

role IT plays, and

might play in the

future, in the world

of business

Introduction to

present and some

emerging future

technologies

Studies of some of

the key Business

IT players and their

contributions over

recent decades –

Bricklin, Gates,

Jobs, Berners-Lee,

Zuckerberg, …)

Obtain access to

multimedia resources

Set up devices, software etc

Collaborative Teaching

exercise

Studio: Introduction to

Studio/Workshops

Getting to know

each other

Getting to know

the collaborative

environment

Collaborative

Exercise –

Introducing

Hammer Wines

Role Play

2

Business

Analytics:

How can we

use IT to help

us understand

Business and

make and

communicate

Business

Decisions?

Lecture: What is Business

Analytics?

Data, information,

knowledge

Management of

Data

Selection,

Sequence, Iteration

Arithmetic

(BODMAS), IF,

Filter, Sort

IPO Chart

Introduction to

Business Analytics

Learning analyitics

Analytics using

Spreadsheets

An introduction to

“what if” analysis

using Excel

Diagnostic Excel

Workshop 1

Enter data into a

worksheet

Distinguish

between labels

and values

Change

fonts,,texts and

colours

Format using

Format painter

Use page-setup

to alter

orientation,

margins, insert

headers and

footers

Use Autosum

and drag to copy

the formulae

Use simple

formulae

Workshop Learning

Activity 1: Excel

Develop an IPO

chart

Create a

validation list box

Use dynamic

linking

Create simple

formulae

Distinguish

between absolute

and relative cell

referencing

Use absolute cell

referencing

Create range

names

Sort data

Table 4: Business Computing 1 Reconceptualisation for the Flipped Classroom.

The roadmaps to direct the use of technologies to facilitate improved student engagement were developed, and are described in Appendix A and Appendix B. An example for the suggested use of FaceBook and Twitter for Week 2 of a Business Computing 1 semester is provided in Table 5.


Social question: What technology could you not live without?

Question: If you wrote your student ID and gave it to a xe om

driver, would it be data, information or knowledge to the driver?

Why?

Discussion: What do you think Business Computing is about?

Post: resource data vs information vs knowledge

Post: Google glasses video

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4 )

Post Excel Video: How excel is set up

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ69HDem5QU&list=PL706DCCD1

30378289&index=1)

Table 5: Week 2 Business Computing 1 Twitter and FaceBook Roadmap.

The findings of an associated study (INVERTING THE CURRICULUM: USING DESIGN AS A CATALYST FOR ENGAGING STUDENTS IN CREATIVE BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS (IS) PROBLEM SOLVING (LTIF 2013), underpinned the development of the following:

Figure 5: Curriculum Resource Model for Flipped Classroom Delivery. In this diagram the recommended deployment of curriculum resources to support teaching in the flipped classroom mode, in the tertiary education context, is depicted; and

Figure 6: Activity Model for Flipped Classroom Delivery: Example - Business Analytics Module. In this diagram the cyclical nature of a course delivery and the associated positioning of curriculum resources are depicted.


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Figure 5: Curriculum Resource Model for Flipped Classroom Delivery: Example - Business Analytics Module.


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Figure 6: Activity Model for Flipped Classroom Delivery: Example - Business Analytics Module.


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3.4 Integration of Social Media and Mobile Tools with “Flipped Classroom” Teaching, and in support of Multimodal Learning Activities

Drawing on the evaluation of technologies to facilitate improved student engagement, both inside and outside the classroom, and the evaluated trials of FaceBook, Twitter and Piazza, the Curriculum Resource and Activity Models for Flipped Classroom Delivers (Figures 5 and 6 above) were extended by identifying touch-points, where social media technologies could be utilised to facilitate delivery according to the flipped classroom philosophy. As presented in Figure 7, these touch-points include:

Lecture – supporting Learning Hub Dissemination and In-class Discussion

Post-Lecture Review – supporting Self-review Diagnostics

Lecture Challenge and Extension Activities – supporting Learning Hub Dissemination and Individual Research

Post-Lecture Sample Examination Questions and Solutions – supporting Individual Review in preparation for Summative Assessment

Workshop Preparation Diagnostics – supporting Self-review Questions

Workshop Preparation Learning Activities – supporting Research Activity and Discussion Review

Workshop Review – supporting Multi-choice and Discussion Review Questions

Workshop Case Review – supporting Individual Review in preparation for Summative Assessment.

Note that technologies containing similar affordances but not trialled in the project, were included in this model. An additional deliverable, presented as Table 6, summarises identified mobile technologies that can be deployed to support multimodal learning activities. The range of social media tools investigated are listed as appropriate, according to the level of interaction required by a learning activity and the size of the class. This summary is based on the trials of FaceBook, Twitter and Piazza, technologies that share affordances requisite to support multi-modal delivery. Social media technologies that support collaboration and improve student engagement, depending on the nature of the learning activity and level of interaction, are described.

3.5 Disciplinary and interdisciplinary linkages Because of its positioning as a first year business core course, the application of social media technologies to Business Computing 1 is necessarily multi-disciplinary (i.e. Business Computing 1 engages with students across the spread of business sub-disciplines). As such, the social media technologies and strategies trialled could be migrated to any tertiary education provider requiring delivery of a business computing foundation as part of their business degree offerings.

3.6 Issues affecting achievement of all outcomes Differences in the releases of BlackBoard in place on the Melbourne and Vietnam campus affected the extent to which BlackBoard capabilities exploited at the Melbourne campus in recent years could be incorporated in the functionality trialled in Vietnam in the course of this project. For example:

Online rubrics on BlackBoard, developed in Melbourne, are not supported in Vietnam

BlackBoard-based multi-choice question options, used extensively on the Melbourne campus, are not available in Vietnam.

A consequence of this is that students on the Vietnam campuses have to use multiple alternate technologies (including for example Piazza as has been explored in this project) to replicate such functionality.


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Figure 7: Multi-modal Activity Model for Flipped Classroom Delivery: Example - Business Analytics Module.


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Table 6: Mobile Technologies to Support Multimodal Learning Activities.

Learning Activity

Tools Large Class

Small Class

Interaction Collaboration Student Activity Academic

Lecture BlackBoard ppt & multi-media internet links Lectopia, audio

Listening and observational activity Postings of lecture ppt, and links to, recommended study resources (e.g. images, statistics, videos)

BlackBoard ppt & multi-media internet links Lectopia, audio

Class discussion Questions to stimulate discussion of issues and concepts introduced in lecture (examples - Appendix A)

Clickers, Polling Apps

Review of understanding in real-time Multi-choice questions to check students understanding during lectures (examples - Appendix B)

Lecture Challenge & Extension activities

BlackBoard ppt & multi-media links, video, audio Applications – Excel, Access, YappApp

Individual research & discussion Postings of, and links to, recommended study resources (e.g. images, statistics, videos) Lecture& workshop reading & activities

FaceBook BlackBoard Mobile Learn & Blog Twitter Piazza

Appendix A - Questions to stimulate research & student-to-student discussion of issues and concepts introduced in lectures and workshops (examples - Appendix A)


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Learning Activity

Tools Large Class

Small Class

Interaction Collaboration Student Activity Academic

Lecture Review

Twitter, FaceBook, Piazza Questions & BlackBoard Mobile Learn, Blog

Individual research & student-to-student discussion

Direct students to lecture review activities & initiate conversation (examples - Appendix A & B) (Sample examination questions and solutions)

Facilitate student-to-student discussion &/or collaboration

Piazza Questions & BlackBoard Mobile Learn

Self-review diagnostic Small Class Facilitated - Multi Choice self-review diagnostics. (examples - Appendix B)

Workshop preparation diagnostics

Piazza Questions & BlackBoard Mobile Learn,

Self-review diagnostic & individual scripted activity completion

Direct students to workshop self-review diagnostics & associated exercises. Multi-choice questions and directions to scripted exercises to fill knowledge gaps (examples - Appendix B)

Twitter, BlackBoard Mobile Learn, + Blog

Individual research & student-to-student discussion

Direct workshop pre-reading, research (examples - Appendix A) Polls upon which students could vote

Workshop Review

Piazza Questions & BlackBoard Mobile Learn

Multi-choice self-review Direct students to workshop self-review diagnostics & associated exercises. (examples - Appendix B)

Twitter, FaceBook, Piazza BlackBoard Mobile Learn

Social reading & Student discussion Facilitate student-to-student discussion &/or collaboration and/or social reading (examples - Appendix A & B)

Workshop assessment review

FaceBook, Piazza, BlackBoard Mobile Learn

Self-directed individual review Student-instructor discussion Student-to-student discussion

Direct students to workshop review activities. Facilitate student-to-student, student-instructor discussion and/or collaboration


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4 Dissemination strategies and outputs The project team has and will continue to disseminate the findings of the social media exploration and trials completed, via the following means:

through presentation at scheduled University Professional Development workshops within the Business College and more widely across RMIT University (e,g. Presentation at College of Business (RMIT Melbourne), coordinated by Academic Development Group, by H. Pham and B. Au in Semester 2 2013 in Melbourne)

through the establishment of a publicly accessible Wiki, tracing research progress and reporting project outcomes (Google Docs – to be made available as requested)

through presentations and publications at appropriate national and international conferences (see Section 2.4)

through publication in peer-reviewed academic journals (see Section 2.4).

5 Evaluation of project outcomes Ongoing evaluation within the project team occurred through fortnightly progress review meetings between the project leaders (Richardson and Nkhoma), and regular team meetings (including Pham and Au).

In addition, a presentation was made to members of the Academic Development Group (RMIT Melbourne) by H. Pham and B. Au during a visit to Melbourne in Semester 2 2013, seeking feedback and advice on the project direction.

Possible synergies between this project and an associated LTIF-supported study (INVERTING THE CURRICULUM: USING DESIGN AS A CATALYST FOR ENGAGING STUDENTS IN CREATIVE BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS (IS) PROBLEM SOLVING (LTIF 2013) – Project Leader: J. Richardson), were closely monitored, in progress review meetings (Richardson and Nkhoma).

6 Budget report

Appendix A - FaceBook & Twitter Roadmap

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The following is an initial idea as to when and how to introduce these e-learning and social media tools. Please keep in mind this is not concrete. As the semester progresses, ad-hoc usage will also occur. This could be due to a student asking a very good question which should be shared, lecturers stumbling on useful resources etc. The utilisation of these tools will help us achieve the objectives of: Transforming the student experience and improving the student cohort experience

Week Lecture Workshop Twitter FaceBook

1 Course Overview Business

communication

2 Chapter 2: Making

knowledge work

Theory review

exercise

Excel workshop 1


Social question: What technology could you not live without?

Question: If you wrote your student ID and gave it to a xe om

driver, would it be data, information or knowledge to the driver?

Why?

Discussion: What do you think Business Computing is about?

Post: resource data vs information vs knowledge

Post: Google glasses video

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4 )

Post Excel Video: How excel is set up

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ69HDem5QU&list=PL706DCCD1

30378289&index=1)

3 Chapter 3: Systems

for business

solutions

(Session 1 – up to

Introduction to

Business

Information

Systems)

Theory review

exercise

Excel workshop 2


Question: Which is not considered a system? Human body, RMIT,

a rock, a coffee machine.

Post: What is BIS video

Post question about IS types

Post Excel Video: Shortcuts

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWZBeG_7Sp8&list=PL706DCCD13

0378289&index=2)

4 Chapter 3: Systems

for business

solutions

(Session 2 –

continue with

different Business

Information

Systems)

Demonstration of

Excel spreadsheet to

make business

decisions

Theory review

exercise

Excel workshop 3

Question: If you were running a supermarket business, what IS

would be the most useful for you?


Tweet the release of Assignment 1a details

Post: Excel Video: Functions

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDpwDrteyGE&list=PL706DCCD13

0378289&index=3)

What is BIS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fahqgznAKQ4

RMIT BIS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKLpx6avdp8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ69HDem5QU&list=PL706DCCD130378289&index

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ69HDem5QU&list=PL706DCCD130378289&index

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWZBeG_7Sp8&list=PL706DCCD130378289&index=2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWZBeG_7Sp8&list=PL706DCCD130378289&index=2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDpwDrteyGE&list=PL706DCCD130378289&index=3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDpwDrteyGE&list=PL706DCCD130378289&index=3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fahqgznAKQ4


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5 Chapter 8: Human-

computer

interaction

Theory review

exercise

Excel workshop 3

(cont) + Extra Excel

exercises

In-class Excel

Assessment

Discussion

Question: Do you think this website has good usability?

(http://donswansonracingschool.com/programs.htm) What

attributes of usability can be improved?


Tweet reminder about assessment 1a

Tweet: Do you know how to use (Excel Function)?

Post: Example of bad usability (http://campusstore.ric.edu/ )

Have you seen any bad usability? Share them with us! What is your

favourite website, is it good from a usability aspect?

Post: http://retailmenot.com/

Is this good or bad? Why?

6 Chapter 4:

Designing effective

business solutions

Theory review

exercise

Assessment 1-part 1:

In-class Excel

assessment (60 min)

– during workshop

session

Assessment 1-part 2:

Release of Business

Report requirement


Tweet the release of Assignment 1b

Question: What is the difference between a problem cause and a

symptom?

Post: Video about symptoms vs causes

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t29aFSACbnA )

Poll: Create poll to allow students to define causes vs symptoms

Discussion: What do you find useful about Excel? If you are planning to

run a business, in what ways could it help you?

7 Chapter 9:

Managing data

resources

Theory review

exercise

Access workshop 1

ERD Exercise


Tweet reminder about assessment 1b

Resource: Intro to ERD

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity%E2%80%93relationship_mod

el)

Post: Video introducing ERD (http://youtu.be/wo-Wyul8CDQ?t=3m36s )

Discussion: If we were creating a database for RMIT, what do you think

would be some of the entities we need to be concerned with?

8 Chapter 7:

Networks and

mobile technology

Theory review

exercise

Access workshop 2

Assessment 1-part 2

(Business Report)

due


Resource: Difference between intranet and extranet

(http://www.brighthub.com/computing/enterprise-

security/articles/63387.aspx)

FaceBook/Google resources

Discussion: What are the benefits for a company to implement LAN &

WAN technology?

9 Chapter 10: e-

Commerce

Theory review

exercise


Question: This message you are receiving is sent from an

application which we consider to be web 2.0. What makes it web

Discussion: Buying online is still in its infancy stages here in Vietnam. The

population while one of the highest users of the internet are reluctant to

purchase online. Why do you think this is?

http://donswansonracingschool.com/programs.htm

http://campusstore.ric.edu/

http://retailmenot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t29aFSACbnA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity%E2%80%93relationship_model

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity%E2%80%93relationship_model

http://youtu.be/wo-Wyul8CDQ?t=3m36s

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/enterprise-security/articles/63387.aspx

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/enterprise-security/articles/63387.aspx


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Access workshop 3 2.0??

Resource: Web 2.0

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE)

Poll: ebay.com is an example of:

B2C

B2B

C2C

10 Chapter 11: Security

and risk

management

Theory review

exercise

Access workshop 4

Completion and

Review


Resource: CIA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VXZJ1r-vEw)

Tweet reminder about assessment 2

Discussion: At RMIT, our information assets include student information,

teaching materials and research to name a few. What kind of risks could

damage these assets? And how could you prevent or treat these risks?

Poll: Is it ethical for a company to use your information to spam you, if

you have agreed for them to send you messages? By law they have done

nothing wrong.

Yes

No

11 Chapter 12: Change

management

Assessment 2: In-

class Database

assessment (60 min)

– during workshop

session


Resource: Why change fails

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulx7-uUmK_Q)

Resource: Ethics

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vlsMxPqWuQ)

Discussion: Why do companies fear change?

12 Course Review

Course revision

exercise

Sample exam solution

Create Q & A session Create Q & A session

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VXZJ1r-vEw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulx7-uUmK_Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vlsMxPqWuQ

Appendix B - Piazza Roadmap

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Week Lecture PIAZZA Note PIAZZA Question Workshop PIAZZA Poll

1 Course Overview

1. Each lecturer introduces and asks students to introduce themselves at group level. Give instant feedback or make it resolved (viewed) as they keep introducing

Summary: WK1-Introduction

Note:

Hello Students,

Welcome to ISYS2109. I am your lecturer for the Business Computing workshop this semester. I've taught ISYS2109 for three years now and I really do enjoy teaching ISYS2109. I hope that you'll enjoy studying it too.

I thought we'd use this thread to introduce ourselves as a start to getting online activities happening.

1. Summary: WK1-1

Question 1: What technology could you not live without?

2. Summary: WK1-2

Question 2: What technology is it that businesses cannot operate without?

1. Introduce PIAZZA

2. Ask students to post questions if they have any

3. Business communication

Posted in the Course Level and not in Group Level


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Please introduce yourself in this thread.

I'd like to wish you all the best of luck with ISYS2109!

2 Chapter 2: Making knowledge work

1. Summary: WK2-1

Question: Identify a technology-based application to facilitate storage and sharing of business information in organisations.

2. Summary: WK2-2

Question: Visit this website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_information.

Discuss how business information can be considered as a product (i.e. can be sold, exchanged, and consumed)

3. Summary:WK2-3

Question: What are the benefits when organisations participate in knowledge and business information sharing with others?

PIAZZA review discussion (repeat this process in weekly review session)

- ask students to discuss one particular answer using follow-up discussion option

- ask students to rate the best answer(s)

- ask students to improve their answers after discussion

Excel workshop 1

Posted in the Course Level

- students asked to complete the quiz at the end of the week


(Session 1 – up to Introduction to Business Information Systems)

Read the first section of these articles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_thinking

“Think Different: Use systems thinking to solve the right problem the right way”

http://asmarterplanet.com/studentsfor/blog/2012/03/systems-thinking-an-effective-approach-to-solve-problems.html

1. Summary: WK3-1

Question: Describe 3 benefits of using system thinking in problem-solving

2. Summary: WK3-2

PIAZZA review discussion (see week for details)

Excel workshop 2


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_thinking




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Question: Organisation A is a sales driven company selling kitchens. Sales are down and the manager decides the answer must be with the sales staff who are obviously not doing their best. Right, or Wrong?

New question:

Eat Well is a family restaurant chain which provides its customers with healthy food. Eat Well has three outlets, 2 in Hochiminh City (HCMC) and 1 in Hanoi. The company has the following departments: Marketing, R & D (Research and Development), Accounting, Logistics, Human Resources and Management. Eat Well’s goal is to be the number one healthy food outlet in Vietnam in the next 5 years.

Eat Well has been successful at most of their outlets. The outlet in Hanoi is always busy and full of customers, and one of the outlets in HCMC is just as busy. However the other outlet in HCMC seems to be losing customers and the company has received complaints about the quality of the food. This has confused the management at Eat Well, as all outlets receive their ingredients from the same supplier.

Apply “Systems Thinking” to analyse this problem situation (try to identify all business components relevant to the case)


(Session 2 – continue with different Business Information Systems)

Demonstration of Excel spreadsheet to make business decisions

TPS

http://www.techopedia.com/definition/707/transaction-process-system-tps

MIS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_information_system

DSS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_Support_System

ES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_system

1. Summary: WK4-1

Question: Identify a business problem where each of the following systems can be useful.

TPS - Transaction Processing System

PIAZZA review discussion (see week for details)

Excel workshop 3







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MIS - Management Information System

DSS - Decision Support System

ES - Expert System

New question

Eat Well is currently processing all their transactions manually. When a customer comes into the store and purchases a meal, a staff member takes the order and writes it down in a notebook. If the customer has a discount voucher, this is also recorded in the notebook. At the end of the day, the manager of each outlet will check the sales data with the money actually collected. This can be a time consuming process and many errors occur. The manager has experienced many times that the sales data and actual money collected did not match.

There are 4 Information System types which are covered in the course: Transaction Processing System (TPS), Management Information System (MIS), Decision Support System (DSS) and Expert System (ES).

Which one of the 4 Information Systems above would best serve Eat Well in this situation to improve its accuracy and efficiency? Provide two reasons to justify your answer.

What can be potential uses of the other Information Systems to Eat Well?


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5

Chapter 8: Human-computer interaction

1. Summary: WK5-1

Question: Read the following

“Human-Computer Interaction and Your Site” http://www.sitepoint.com/computer-interaction-site/ http://naldzgraphics.net/design-2/professional-web-design-benefits/

Identify 3 benefits of improving a website design to the business

2. Summary: WK5-2

Question: Read the following

Most favourite 2012 Vietnamese E-commerce websites (in Vietnamese) http://eca.trade.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/Front/Default.aspx?f=110

Visit 2 websites from the list above and identify three HCI heuristic rules that those websites satisfy.

PIAZZA review discussion

Excel workshop 3 (cont) + Extra Excel exercises

In-class Excel Assessment Discussion


http://www.sitepoint.com/computer-interaction-site

http://naldzgraphics.net/design-2/professional-web-design-benefits/

http://naldzgraphics.net/design-2/professional-web-design-benefits/









http://eca.trade.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/Front/Default.aspx?f=110


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6 Chapter 4: Designing effective business solutions

1. Summary: WK6-1

Question:

Read “Root Cause Problem Solving” http://www.threesigma.com/problem_solving.htm

Why it is essential to distinguish symptom and true cause in solving business problems?

2. Summary: WK6-2

Question:

Sales at Hammer Wines (HW) have reduced recently. HW owner can’t generate useful information from its current sales figures to gain better understanding of the situation. Apply the 5-step problem solving process to resolve the problem of “not able to generate useful information from current sales figures”.


Assessment 1-part 1: In-class Excel assessment (60 min) – during workshop session

Assessment 1-part 2: Release of Business Report requirement


7 Chapter 9: Managing data resources

1. Summary: WK7-1

Question:

Read the article “Advantage of Relational Database” http://www.teach-ict.com/as_as_computing/ocr/H447/F453/3_3_9/database_design/miniweb/pg8.htm

What are the advantages of using a relational database system?

2. Summary: WK7-2

Question:

Identify the differences between the purpose of a report, form, and query used in MS Access.

Based on the Hammer Wines database, provide an example of each.


Access workshop 1 ERD Exercise


8 Chapter 7: Networks and mobile technology

1. Summary: WK8-1

Question:

Read “What is cloud computing” http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-is-cloud-computing.html


Access workshop 2

Assessment 1-part 2 (Business Report) due


http://www.threesigma.com/problem_solving.htm

http://www.teach-ict.com/as_as_computing/ocr/H447/F453/3_3_9/database_design/miniweb/pg8.htm

http://www.teach-ict.com/as_as_computing/ocr/H447/F453/3_3_9/database_design/miniweb/pg8.htm

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-is-cloud-computing.html


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Identify 2 Cloud Computing applications that could be used at Hammer Wines

2. Summary: WK8-2

Question:

Identify 2 benefits of using Cloud Computing to businesses such as Hammer Wines.

9 Chapter 10: e-Commerce

1. Summary: WK9-1 Question:

Case study: As a business development manager for Hammer Wines, you are required to evaluate e-commerce opportunities to expand the company’s market, reduce marketing and customer service cost. One opportunity is to make all the product information available for online access and allow online purchases.

Discuss 2 benefits and 2 disadvantages to Hammer Wines’ customers of purchasing products online

2. Summary: WK9-2

Question:

Exercise: Visit Apple support https://discussions.apple.com/community/iphone/using_iphone

A. Explain the benefits of using the online forum for Customer Support to Apple

B. Are there any negative impacts to Apple in using an online support forum like that?


Access workshop 3



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10 Chapter 11: Security and risk management

1. Summary: WK10-1

Question:

Case Study:

Hammer Wines is implementing an e-commerce website to enable employees and its customers to access the company’s information resources including product information, prices, and stock inventory, and order status. Hammer Wines needs to assess security issues that can affect its online services, company information and its reputation

Describe 2 benefits of implementing a. data backup b. user authentication and authorisation

when protecting Hammer Wines’ information assets (identify which CIA characteristics of information are protected)

2. Summary: WK10-2

Question:

What are 3 unethical actions that Hammer Wines could take with its customers’ information?


Access workshop 4

Completion and Review


11 Chapter 12: Change management

1. Summary: WK11-1

Question:

Case study: Hammer Wines is implementing an e-commerce website to enable employees and its customers to access the company’s information resources including product information, prices, and stock inventory, and order status. Hammer Wines needs to assess the success of the changes brought by the new e-commerce project.

What are the signs that Hammer Wines should look for to evaluate tuser acceptance of the

Assessment 2: In-class Database assessment (60 min) – during workshop session



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changes?

2. Summary: WK11-2

Question:

Case study: Hammer Wines is implementing e-commerce website to enable employees and its customers to access the company’s information resources including product information, prices, and stock inventory, and order status. Hammer Wines needs to assess the success of the changes brought by the new e-commerce project.

What actions can Hammer Wines take to assist the staff to accept the changes?

12 Course Review

Course revision exercise

Sample exam solution


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Piazza Poll Questions

Week Poll Question Options

Week2: Making Knowledge Work

P1. An e-Commerce expert, Mr Ross at a retail company, collects the count of the number of visits to the company website that are made by Internet users and analyses the visit pattern by time and location of users. Which word BEST describes the count numbers collected:

P2. Mr Ross then recommends changes to the website to attract more customers to visit and purchase online. Which word BEST describes the contribution of Mr. Ross in developing such a system

Data

Information

Knowledge

Data

Information

Knowledge

Week3: Systems for Business Solutions

P1. Decision support systems

P2. Which of the following is not example of a transaction processing system?

P3. Which of the following is not a system characteristic?

automate handling of data about business activities

are designed to help the decision makers to make decisions

attempt to codify knowledge rather than information

take raw data captured previously and convert it into meaningful aggregated information for the managers to carry out their responsibilities

airline reservations

information technology

information systems architecture

system design

interface

boundary

input

scope

Week4: Systems for Business Solutions P1. MIS systems aid with the exercise of decision making responsibilities. What type of reports are

generated by Management information systems?

Demand Reports

Predictive Reports

Exception Reports

Scheduled Reports

All of above


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P2. A decision support system(DSS) is an organized collection of people, procedures, software, databases and devices, used to

P3. The dependency of a subsystem on one or more subsystems to achieve predetermined objectives within a system environment is called.

make decisions for management

provide summaries of data

help in the problem solving process

help the management to identify the most effective decision for specific situation

all of above

Input

Output

Interrelated components

Interfaces

Week 5: Human Computer Interaction P1.During the designing of an interface, following guidelines, standard sand using uniform icons, wording,

and format, are examples of

P2. An important usability attribute is 'memorability'. What type of user will benefit from a focus on this attribute?

P3 Usability is focused on all aspects of a system with which a human might interact. What are the traditional attributes of usability on which we focus?

Subject Satisfaction

Using Simple and Natural Dialogue

Learnability

Help and documentation

None of above

novice

intermediate

expert

casual

social acceptability, usefulness, cost, compatibility, reliability

easy to learn, efficient to use, easy to remember, few errors and subject satisfaction

robustness, maintainability and cost

user performance, ease of learning, ease of use, physical comfort


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Week 6: Designing Effective Solutions

P1. The steps in the problem solving process are

P2. Fact finding techniques include

P3. The design and implementation of an effective solution to a specific problem is dependent on:

analysis, understanding, fact finding

analysis, understanding, decision making

analysis, design, implementation

analysis, understanding, decision making, solution design, implementation

sampling of existing documents

questionnaires

interviews

all of above

the effective use of system analysis and design methods and tools

redesign of workflow to improve personal productivity

representation of all stakeholder requirements

all of above

Week7: Managing Data Resources

P1. The objects in a relational database are P2. IPO charts show P3. Entity relationship diagrams are common tools to illustrate

forms, reports

queries, tables

unbound and bound controls

all of above

The relationship between tables in a relational database

The input to, process and logic to create the output

Input to forms, processing and output required by reports

input to tables, forms and queries and the output required by reports

data models

data hierarchy

the organization of forms and reports within a database

the relationship between database models

Week 8: Networks and P1. A local area network (LAN) is a type of network restricted to a particular area


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mobile technology P2. The purpose of a computer networks is P3. Cloud Computing is delivery of

spanning a wide geographical location

none of the above

File sharing

Hardware sharing

Software and information sharing

All of above

computer devices

shared resources, software, and information to computers and other devices as a utility over a network (typically the Internet)

none of above

Week 9: Ecommerce P1. The form of e-commerce where customers directly deal with the organization online is P2. e-Bay is an example of P3. Finding supplies of products using the internet is

B2C

C2C

B2B

B2C

C2C

B2B

e-purchasing

e-Sourcing

e-supplying

e-Payment

Week 10: Information Security Management

P1. Information assets include P2. Potential threats to IT systems include

infrastructure and particular buildings

data, information, equipment, storage media

personal digital assistants

informal communications

theft, environmental disaster, human error

standards and performance indicators for monitoring change and improvement

a stock market crash

the adoption of web technologies


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P3. A Firewall

acts as buffer to ward off intrusion into a private network

provides a means to dispose of disks containing viruses

is a program that replicates itself

all of above

Week 11: Project and Change Management

P1. Change is defined as P2. A change agent is P3. The role of a project manager is

substitution of one thing to another

alteration from one working system to another

adopting a new plan or position

all of above

a company project manager

an end user

an employee who ignores the new technology

none of above

to define the project boundaries

planning and scheduling activities

determine the requirements , optional solutions and institutionalize the changed work procedures

all of above

Appendix C - Business Computing 1 Conceptual Map of Deliverables

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Week Lecture Pre-Studio Diagnostic Studio Assessment

1

The Business

Computing Context:

How is IT currently

used by Business? \

How might it be used

in future?

How did we get to this

point – some history?

Course Overview

Lecture: What role does/should IT play in the world of

business?

Introduction to the role IT plays, and might play in

the future, in the world of business

Introduction to present and some emerging future

technologies

Studies of some of the key Business IT players and

their contributions over recent decades – Bricklin,

Gates, Jobs, Berners-Lee, Zuckerberg, …)

Obtain access to multimedia

resources

Set up devices, software etc

Collaborative Teaching exercise

Studio: Introduction to

Studio/Workshops

Getting to know each other

Getting to know the

collaborative environment

Collaborative Exercise –

Introducing Hammer Wines

Role Play

2

Business Analytics:

How can we use IT to

help us understand

Business and make and

communicate Business

Decisions?

Lecture: What is Business Analytics?

Data, information, knowledge

Management of Data

Selection, Sequence, Iteration

Arithmetic (BODMAS), IF, Filter, Sort

IPO Chart

Introduction to Business Analytics

Learning analytics

Analytics using Spreadsheets

An introduction to “what if” analysis using Excel

Diagnostic Excel Workshop 1

Enter data into a

worksheet

Distinguish between

labels and values

Change fonts texts and

colours

Format using Format

painter

Use page-setup to alter

orientation, margins,

insert headers and

footers

Use Autosum and drag

to copy the formulae

Use simple formulae

Workshop Learning Activity 1:

Excel

Develop an IPO chart

Create a validation list box

Use dynamic linking

Create simple formulae

Distinguish between absolute

and relative cell referencing

Use absolute cell referencing

Create range names

Sort data

3

Lecture: Using Business IS to understand business

situations

Using IT to Visualise and Explore Data

Some Simple Descriptive Measures

Case studies in visualising data to support business

decision making, using Excel


SUMIF

AVERAGE

MINIMUM

MAXIMUM

COUNT

COUNTIF


Excel

Use of VLookup

Analysing data using

outlining and filtering

Creating sub-totals

Creating charts to help


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IF

visualise data

4

Lecture: Using Business Analytics to create Business

Intelligence

Business Case Studies (Pivot Tables) illustrating

the capacity of Excel features to analyse and

visualise data to answer business questions

Illustrations of the capacity of Excel combined with

Internet searches to evaluate business performance

against internal and external benchmarks

Reporting and KPI’s

SWOT – Strength and Opportunity

Business Intelligence – Using internal and external

benchmark data to strategically plan, budget,

improve market share, report to stakeholders and

innovate

Insight not information

o Characteristics of information - Accuracy,

timeliness …

o Latency – Data, Decision and Action

o Data latency; feeding data faster into the

data warehouse. The apocryphal example

is the supermarket chain where the data is

available for analysis in the data

warehouse before the customer has left the

car park.


Create and use a Pivot

table to analyse data

Create a linear trend

from a series of data to

predict growth


Excel

Review of all Excel material

completed

Analyse the Hammer Wines

trial using the

skills/techniques developed

over the previous two weeks

Multi-

Choice

Excel Test

Feedback

Available at

the end of

the week

5

Business Networks

and Mobile

Technologies:

How can we use social

media for business

purposes?

How can we apply the

Internet to the world of

commerce?

Lecture: Social Networks and Mobile Technology

Why study mobile technologies?

Mobile Devices

Web 2.0

Definition

The Emergence of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 - Functionality

Web 2.0 - Usage

Cloud Computing

Preparation Mobile

Technology Workshop

Prepare for Excel Test

Workshop Learning Activity –

Mobile Technology

Workshop: Prepare Excel Test

Introduction to contemporary IT

applications – Using a tool to design

and implement a simple smart phone

app, to boost personal productivity


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Implementing Web 2.0 Tools in Business

Examples

Social Networks and Mobile Technologies – Some

Case Studies

Personal Productivity – Pros

Personal Productivity - Cons

Business Applications

Policy Issues and Responses

6

Lecture: e Commerce

What is eCommerce?

The various forms of eCommerce (Business-to-

consumer (B2C), Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)

and Business-to-business (B2B))

Examples of B2C, C2C and B2B eCommerce

The concept of a Supply Chain and the role of

Supply Chains in the world of B2B eCommerce

Just-in-time (JIT) Inventory Management as an

example of the operation of B2B eCommerce

activity

Other emerging models of B2B eCommerce

Key eCommerce technologies, including those

particularly used in B2B eCommerce

B2B eSourcing and eProcurin

Criteria that might be used to evaluate the operation

of eCommerce technologies and business processes

Diagnostic/Preparation e-

Commerce Workshop?

Diagnostic E-Commerce

preparation

Workshop Learning Activity –

Understanding Business-to-Business

eCommerce

Play a Supply Chain

simulation - the “Beer

Game”

What the Beer Game teaches

us about B2B eCommerce

Role Play meeting – Design Business

process to solve problems experienced

Workshop:

Excel Test

Feedback

Week 8

7

Designing Business

Solutions:

Lecture: Identifying Business Design/Redesign

Opportunities

Problem symptoms and problem causes

Taking a systems/design approach

Identifying the causes – TOP Analysis

Capturing the symptoms – Rich Pictures

Designing and documenting the associated

Business Processes

Preparatory Access activity 1

1. Designing a database to

address a business

problem

2. Implementing a

business database

Pearson Ed Multi-media library

Workshop: Rich Pictures

Scenario role play

Rich Picture Workshop

Design Business Process to solve

identified issues


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Access – Design Problem Solution

Access Workshop 1

8

Lecture: Innovation and Designing Business Solutions

Org Structure Chart

Business Functions

The business solution design approach (the 5 step

problem solving method)

Innovation - Creativity

Functional and empathetic design

Design Rules for data storage – 1. Reduce items to

component parts, no repetition, no calculations

inbuilt e.g. DOB not age

Documenting the design E-R Models

Preparatory Access Activity 2

Workshop: Business Problem

Solving (Access)

Designing Information queries

Multi-

Choice

Access Test

Feedback

Available at

the end of

the week

9

How should we

manage business IS?

Managing IS projects?

Managing change?

Managing security?

Behaving Ethically?

Lecture: Managing Ethical Conduct, IS Security and Risk

IT Security – What has to be protected?

Physical and Logical Security Controls

Networks and Security:

o Authentication

o Authorisation

o Verification

o Encryption

o Malicious Attacks

Recovery Measures – Backup

Formulating an Organisational Security Plan

Ethical Business

Ethics – Definition

Ethics - History

Ethics and the Community

Ethics and the Law

Ethical Dimensions – Cultural Ethics; Professional

Codes of Ethics; Business Ethics

Some Professional Codes of Ethics (“The Ten IT

Commandments”; The ACS Code of Ethics)

Business Ethics

Preparatory Access Activity 3

1. Self- assessment

Access Multi choice

test

Workshop: Reporting(Access) and IT

Security

Workshop: Behaving Ethically

Self- assessment Access

Multi choice test

Pearson Ed Multi-media

library Ethical issues and

Business – Role plays and

exercises


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10

IT Management

Issues:

How should we

manage business IT?

Managing IT projects?

Managing change?

Managing security?

Behaving Ethically?

Lecture: Lecture: Communicating business problems

and business solutions

Definition of business analytics

The role that Business Communication plays in

sharing the knowledge gained through Business

Analytics

The various forms of Communication (Non-verbal;

Verbal; Written)

Forms of Non-verbal Communication

Forms of Verbal Communication

Forms of Written Communication

Verbal Communication – Common Mistakes

Presentations – Common Mistakes

The process of preparing a Business Report

Diagnostic/Preparation

Business Communication

Workshop: Business Communication

and Reporting

Email

Google

Activity 4 - Planning a report

focussing on reporting business

analysis and business

recommendations

Workshop:

Access Test

Feedback

Week 12

11

How can we put usable

Business IT Systems

in place?

Lecture: User Experience - Business Systems

Why study usability?

Interface technologies – Now and the future

Measuring Usability

Usability Design Heuristics

Heuristic Evaluation

Cognitive Walkthroughs

Diagnostic/Preparation

User Experience Workshop

Workshop: User Experience –

Business Systems


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12

The Business

Computing Context

Lecture: IS Project Management and Change

Project Management Principles

a. Managing Time

b. Managing Cost

c. Managing People

d. Managing Quality

Change Management Principles

a. Why do organisations change?

b. Why do organisations resist change?

c. Being a Change Agent

Signs of Project/Change Management Failure

Prepare Business Report

Hand in Business Report

Review

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