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| navigate: home: magazine: fall 2002: article | |
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Putting theory into practice Penn State McKeesport instructor teaches real-world skills By Kerry A. Newman | ||||||
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Elayne Shields believes in practicing what she preaches. An information sciences and technology (IST) instructor at Penn State McKeesport, she has developed a way to incorporate her experience and expertise as a business owner, corporate trainer and student of educational theory into her course curricula. The success of her winter 2002 IST classes proves that her techniques are effective.
“My philosophy is give them something real. Students want ownership of what they are working on, and they want to make decisions,” Shields said. “You have to understand business to make things happen, but you cannot without an understanding of technology in a business environment today.”
Shields’ classes give students the freedom to make choices and set the direction of their learning. For IST 421, Information Technology and Systems Integration II, a class for upper-level IST majors, Shields developed the course curricula around the premise that the students needed to identify and solve a real business problem. Working in six groups, the 19 students immersed themselves in a semester-long project that had them partnering with professionals from the Pine Richland School District. The common objective was to analyze the district’s current information processing practices—those methods that they employed to collect, organize and manage the school data—and identify whether technology could help improve the system.
Ultimately, the goal was to recommend a solution that would help Pine Richland School District better manage its data. The district had already decided to move to an electronic information management system, but wanted further documentation, so the partnership occurred at an ideal time.
“They [Pine Richland School District] were very interested, because they knew that they wanted to get a school management software system in place,” Shields said. “They felt that the students would help clarify that decision for them.”
Shields’ class worked with Dr. Ron Meisberger, Jan Schnaufer, Laura Davis and Sally Schuster from Pine Richland School District to analyze the current system, identify the strengths and weaknesses and propose solutions. Over the course of the semester, the students used a variety of tools to conduct their research and formulate their conclusions. They analyzed 400 to 500 pages of organizational forms and reports, interviewed faculty and administrators and mapped out models of the communication systems. In addition, the students were required to make a minimum of three site visits.
Each group prepared a report that summarized the progress of their research project from their initial data-gathering efforts to their final recommendations for the school district. At the end of the semester, the students presented their findings to the school district.
Pine Richland School District worked with the students throughout the process providing them with information, reviewing their work, discussing their ideas and giving them feedback. Ultimately, the students recommended the purchase and implementation of the same software program that Pine Richland School District opted to buy. The administration was so impressed with the students’ work that they have invited Shields to consider having a future class come back to the school district and assess how the system is working.
“Every student met the course requirements,” Shields said. “Not one person got less than an A or B+ in the class. They did everything, because they took ownership of it, because it was business and it was real to them. It gave them a perspective of what was going on out in the workplace.”
From the school district’s perspective, Meisberger affirms the project was a valuable experience for all involved. “Students, instructor and client all became learners as the dynamics and complexities of our operation were examined,” he said.
“I was impressed with the cooperative spirit, organization, flexibility and thoroughness of both the Pine Richland and Penn State teams. Perhaps the most profound impact of the project was the insight gained into familiar processes we thought we already understood,” Meisberger added.
For the immediate future, Shields is teaching two sections of IST 421 in the fall. She plans to keep the same project-based real-life approach and is making plans to have her classes work with the Penn State McKeesport administration to map out the computer infrastructure of the campus. The goal is to assess the different hardware and software systems and which units are responsible for the various components. After completing the mapping, one group will measure the competency of the student computer labs, while the other will analyze the different databases and systems of organizing information on campus. Both groups will then make recommendations for improving the systems and present them to the Penn State McKeesport administration.
In addition to IST 421, Shields also employed a hands-on approach to learning in her instruction of IST 440W, IST Integration and Problem Solving, a course she co-taught with Mike Manojlovich. They worked in conjunction with Wayne Smouse, an IST 440W instructor from Penn State New Kensington. “Since we believe in a community approach to education at Penn State, we had no problem sharing resources,” Shields said.
Since a project was required for the course, it gave Shields another ideal opportunity to give her students practical real-world experience. The objective was for the class to examine an information technology process, and the class was organized around a combination of seminar time and hands-on work in a place of business.
Drawing on an existing relationship with the FedEx Ground corporation, a partnership was established to examine the company’s Request for Service system, an internal computer system for employees to request information technology services within the corporation. Taking a problem-solving approach, the students used root cause analysis to identify the problems with the system. Shields described root cause analysis as a process that entails going past the symptoms to the actual event that causes the problem and can cause the recurrence of the problem.
Using a combination of data provided by the FedEx Ground corporation and working within the company, the students analyzed the entire Request for Service process, identified its flaws and proposed solutions. Both of the Penn State McKeesport and Penn State New Kensington classes worked with FedEx Ground and shared a common curriculum, but worked independently of one another and did not share their conclusions until the end of the course.
One of the common recommendations was to move to an Intranet-based system. Some students proposed developing their own Web-based tool, while others researched outside vendors that could provide a system for FedEx Ground.
“Each group of students had the freedom to take a different approach to solving the problem,” Shields said.
Like Pine Richland School District, FedEx Ground implemented a new information technology system before the students had completed their research. They, too, were impressed with the professional level of work the students completed and will continue to partner with future IST 440W classes.
Shields commented that the class was beneficial to both the students and the corporation. One IST 440W student, Casey O’Malley, who also interned at FedEx, was offered a position with the company upon his graduation. Overall, four out of the five graduating students received job offers from Pittsburgh-area companies before spring commencement.
Shields’ success provides opportunities for others to follow in her footsteps. Not only does her work serve as a model for other Penn State IST courses, but it is being noticed outside of the University system. She is currently working with an educational publisher to use some of her materials in faculty supplements.
Shields believes her understanding of and background in business, technology and educational theory has given her the ability to strategize and make the components work together in course curricula.
“I have an entrepreneurial approach to teaching,” she said.
For more information, contact Elayne Shields by phone at 412-675-9148 or by e-mail at eas13@psu.edu or visit her Web site at www.personal.psu.edu/eas13. | |||||
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© 2002 Outreach Communications, Outreach & Cooperative Extension, The Pennsylvania State University phone: (814) 865-8108, fax: (814) 863-2765, e-mail: outreachnews@outreach.psu.edu |
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