Integration of Technology Theory and Business Analysis: A Pedagogical Framework for the Undergraduate MIS Course in Data Communications and Networking, The

Journal of Information Systems Education, Winter 2003 by Gendron, Michael, Jarmoszko, A T

2.2 Course Objectives

The objectives of this course are to:

1. provide an overview of business data communications;

2. discuss the impact of distributed systems on the business enterprise;

3. analyze the features of centralized, decentralized, and distributed systems

4. explore the technology implications as they relate to analysis, design, and development of distributed processing systems within the enterprise.

2.3 The Approach

Our approach to teaching DCN is driven by our experience, the IS'2002 guidelines, and our belief that students should possess both technical theory and business oriented networking practical knowledge at the completion of this course. We accomplish these goals by juxtaposing a solid technical DCN foundation along side a methodology to analyze and design a network to meet the needs of the enterprise. The technical material is fairly straightforward in that it is handled very well in many undergraduate DCN textbooks. Through lectures, in-class activities, and testing, we can be fairly sure that the students comprehend the technical material. The practice of network design is another matter since we have not found its treatment to be very complete in any of the undergraduate DCN textbooks that we have reviewed or used in class. We filled this gap by creating a simulation which require business analysis to determine network needs, juxtaposing it with technical theory so that one supplements and supports the other, and introducing students to a network analysis and design methodology which has grown from our years in industry.

2.4 The Simulation

The DCN course has been taught for many years at our university. During that time, the standards and expectations for DCN course content have evolved, and it has become necessary to add a practical component which will strengthen our students DCN business analysis skills. We have designed a business case simulation to teach the practical material for several reasons:

1. since we are in a business school, the case method is a teaching style with which students are familiar and which would be readily understood;

2. it allows students to gain experience and insight into how large assets are often procured (i.e. the request for proposal cycle discussed below)

3. it allows us to integrate technical theory and business analysis while presenting students with a real-life problem to solve; and

4. it provides an appropriate vehicle for teaching NAAD methods.

The simulation consists of a company, Ticket Sales, Inc. (TSI), which needs a metropolitan-area network (MAN) implemented using virtual private network (VPN) technology, a main office site network, several satellite office site networks, Internet connectivity for all locations, and an Internet presence. They have just received a large amount of venture capital as startup funding and have developed a request for proposal (RFP), which it has sent to a number of potential vendors (student team are formed to act as potential vendors). The RFP contains instructions that the vendors are to respond with a proposal containing a network design, cost, and other pertinent information. The specifics of this RFP will be discussed in a case being prepared for future publication.