E-Commerce and the Undergraduate MIS Curricula: an Exploratory Study

Journal of Information Systems Education, Summer 2006 by Moshkovich, Helen M, Mechitov, Alexander I, Olson, David L

The current version of the IS 2002 Model Curriculum includes eleven modules (Davis et al., 2001). The list of these modules is presented in Appendix 1. The main difference in the structure of IS 2002 model at this level from that of the 1997 version (Couger et al., 1997) is the addition of the previously non-existing module "Electronic Business Strategy, Architecture and Design" and changing the title of the module "Physical Design and Implementation with a Programming Environment" to "Physical Design and Implementation in Emerging Environments."

The prerequisite module IS 2002.0 "Personal Productivity with IS Technology" is usually covered within the general education curriculum. This still leaves 10 modules to be covered within the business school curriculum for an MIS major. One MIS course is often present in the business core. If this course covers one module of the model curriculum, there would still be nine modules left for the MIS major. Limitations of the number of courses in the MIS major may influence decisions on the inclusion of new content into the program. The first question we would like to investigate is: "What are the trends in the number of courses in MIS major programs?"

A recent study (Williams & Pomykalski, 2004) tried to evaluate MIS curricula in AACSB accredited business schools relative to the IS 2002 Model Curriculum. Those authors surveyed courses in MIS majors in 134 accredited business programs. Each of the courses was categorized as belonging to one of the modules in the IS 2002 Model Curriculum (according to content). Results showed that only four of the modules were overwhelmingly present among MIS major programs (see Table 1). All other modules were present as separate courses in less than 50% of schools. The new module for e-commerce (IS 2002.3) was present in 23% of schools, while module IS 2002.9 (Design in Emerging Technologies) was present in 28.1% of schools. These data support previous findings about the structure of MIS major (Gamble & Maier, 1998) but raise questions about the coverage of appropriate fundamental knowledge in MIS curricula.

The disadvantage of the study mentioned above is the perception that each module of the model curriculum should be covered by a separate course. One of the premises of the authors of the model curriculum (see, e.g., Gorgone et al., 2002) was that its implementation would not require the inevitable change in the course structure but may lead to changes in course content. Different courses in the MIS major may cover parts of several modules from the model curriculum. As a result, the next question we would like to investigate is: "How often is the content connected with e-commerce/e-business knowledge and skills included in MIS major curricula?"

While mapping the content of the courses to the learning goals within the curricula, it is important to identify if the content is present in the required or the elective courses of the major. If an essential part of fundamental knowledge considered necessary for all MIS students is present only among elective courses, some of the students may graduate without required content due to the specific combination of selected electives. An example of mapping courses using the IS 2002 Model Curriculum is provided in Daigle et al. (2003). Those authors stated that in the actual inventory of courses in their institution they found that elective courses covered a substantial number of learning goals. Therefore, we would like to investigate how the content e-commerce/e-business knowledge and skills is distributed between the required and elective parts of the MIS program.