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My teaching experience at Penn State has so far been largely centered on the Information Systems Design & Development undergraduate option. I designed and delivered the first instance of IST 240, Introduction to Computer Languages and designed and delivered the first instance of IST 311, Object-Oriented Design and Software Applications. Most of my teaching has been in IST 311. This course presents many challenges including the need to deliver a technical course to students with a broad range of skills, experience, and interests. I believe the course is effective in providing students with a solid grounding in complex systems design. The course is, however, difficult for many students but I firmly believe that their experiences on the course help prepare them for the kinds of positions many IST students are likely to obtain upon graduating from the program. This approach is colored by my own experiences as an undergraduate where with the benefit of hindsight I can see that the larger proportion of my learning was achieved in courses that at the time were both difficult and time consuming. Most of the positive feedback I receive from students is when they face their first technical job interview, or after they move on into industry and find that the skills they acquired in the course are representative of those employers look for in project team members. I have received correspondence from my undergraduates who tell me that their experiences in my class helped them both to obtain a position and, importantly, to perform once in that position. I continue to work with Dr. Larry Spence to improve the course. We are currently developing an approach to micro-assessment of course assignments designed to help focus course activities on those most effective in promoting learning. At the graduate
level, I designed and have twice delivered the IST 597 seminar on
Design Research. My work on this seminar has been immensely rewarding.
The seminar explores the role of design as a research method in
information sciences and technology. I believe that in this role
design is central to the i-School concept. Student feedback on the
seminar has been very positive, both formally and informally. In
addition, the seminar has led to development and delivery of two
ACM workshops, one at DIS 2006 and one at CHI 2007, on Exploring
Design as a Research Activity. My hope is that the seminar will
some day become part of the graduate research methods core. |