Herding CATS: Creative and Thought-provoking Suggestions

Susan Crosson, Santa Fe Community College (susan.crosson@sfcc.edu )

Joann Segovia, Minnesota State University Moorhead (segovia@mnstate.edu )

Carol Yacht, Textbook Author (carol@carolyacht.com )

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Objectives

• Share results of survey– Demographical Information– Curriculum– Systems support and IT environment

• Facilitate a discussion – Discuss and share best practices– Innovations– Visions– Other information of interest

3

Distribution of Survey

• Present and past Convergence attendees

• AIS Educators Conference attendees

• N=20

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Demographics

5

Where do you teach?

Doctorate university

Four-year university

Two-year collegeOther

Doctorate university

Four-year university

Two-year college

Other

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What department do you teach in?

AccountingBusiness

Information SystemsManagement Accounting

Business

InformationSystems

Management

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How many years have you taught?

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

0-5 years

5-10 years

10-15 years

over 15 years

over 15 years

10-15 years

5-10 years

0-5 years

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How many years have you taught systems or software?

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

0-5 years 5-10 years 10-15 years over 15 years

0-5 years

5-10 years

10-15 years

over 15 years

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What courses do you teach?

Accounting Professors (n=14)

IS Professors (n=6)IS Courses:

Intro to IS or IT ManagementSystem Analysis & Design ProgrammingDatabase Design/Management ERP Enterprise Project or ERPOperations ManagementSupply Chain ManagementQuality ManagementDecision ModelsVirtual Business TechnologyClient/Server DatabaseProjects in MISStatsBusiness Research MethodsEconomics

AIS Profs: Other Courses TaughtSystems Analysis & DesignDatabasesEnterprises Application Dev.Statistics and DataminingAuditing ISBusiness FinanceManagerial FinanceStrategic ManagementBusiness Software EthicsIS Small Business Current TopicsPhD Seminar

Financial/Advanced

Principles/Introductory

Managerial

Audit

Tax

Financial/Advanced

Principles/Introductory

Managerial

Audit

Tax

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CURRICULUM

What software does your college and courses emphasize?

0 5 10 15 20

Office Applications

Access

Great Plains

Database

Computer languages

Audit

QuickBooks

Peachtree

Tax Tax

Peachtree

QuickBooks

Audit

ComputerlanguagesDatabase

Great Plains

Access

OfficeApplications

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Software Taught

Wide variety of accounting software taught by AIS profs– Small Business: GP, Peachtree, QuickBooks,

Office Accounting– Medium-Sized Business: GP– Large Business: SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft,

Oracle• More commonly taught by IS rather than AIS

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Number of Projects Assigned

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1 Project 2-5 projects 6-12 projects 12 or more

1 Project

2-5 projects

6-12 projects

12 or more

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Use of Academic Alliance Data Sets

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Not sure if courseobjectives met

No time to incorporateprojects into course

No time to developprojects

Did not know data setsexisted

Did not know data sets existed

No time to develop projects

No time to incorporate projects into course

Not sure if course objectives met

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Where do students complete software projects?

Student's individual comptuers

School computer lab

Both school and personal computer

School computer lab

Student's individual comptuers

Both school and personal computer

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Systems Support/IS Environment

• Generally systems support installs and supports software in computer labs– Some instructor or student tech involvement

• Generally, software applications are installed both on individual computers and on the network

• Generally few specific software installation problems– Intuit authorization and registration each term– Security issues Business One

• Generally schools ghost software with few problems• Generally schools do not require students to

purchase their own laptop

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CATS: Creative and Thought-provoking Suggestions

Topics for Further Discussion

• Opportunities with partners

• Development of new projects

• Using software throughout the curriculum

• Other issues raised in the survey

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Opportunities with Partners?

• Only 3 faculty in the survey have contacted a Microsoft partner for help with their course or their students….

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What new AIS materials are needed?

• Accounting projects rather than transaction processing– Flowcharting business process– Designing and implementing systems for the

process– Internal control and security issues

• Projects for use with datasets• Projects that integrate software (GP, Access,

Excel)

What new IS materials are needed?

• ERP Simulations

• Visio: How used as development tool in creating SQL script for creating database

• SQL 2005: From creation to implementation

• Template (Enterprise Project Model) for a variety of industries

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Integration of Software?

Within accounting

Within IS

Within accounting

Within IS

Key observations: Three out of six IS instructors integrate across courses. Only one out of fourteen AIS instructors integrate across courses. Accounting integration is not accounting software. 21

Examples of how software is integrated

• Accounting: one doctorate university includes Java, Unix, shell scripting in systems analysis and design, enterprise applications, S-plus for stats and data mining, Oracle and Access database course

• IS: three (one doctorate, two 4-year): Access, Visio, Project, MS Excel, SPSS, MS Dynamics-GP in Operations Management & Supply Chain

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Publisher Designed GL, Peachtree; QuickBooks; Office Accounting 2007

Peachtree

Dynamics-GP

Financial/Principles I

Managerial/Principles II

IntermediateCost

Excel

Excel

Access

Computer Accounting

AISTax

Excel

Dynamics-GP

Tax Software

Accounting Course Sequence

Audit

ACL

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Concluding Comments by IS Profs

• Microsoft support for generating new projects“Microsoft needs to change their support methods for people generating

new projects. Their support hindered me in my project development rather than helped me. It was most frustrating. I ultimately abandoned working with them and solved my own problems.”

• ERP simulation for various classes“Regarding ERP Simulation, I would like to see if there are any projects

to build simulations for various classes (Marketing, Accounting, Mgmt) into Dynamics. I would be interested in participating in a project such as this.”

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Concluding Comments by IS Profs

• How to promote MIS degree?“I would like to see the discussion continue on how to promote the MIS

degree. I think it would be very valuable to MS to partner with their partners and develop a marketing plan to focus on the promotion of MIS degree and more specifically what a student.”

• How can GP be integrated with other software packages?“How can Great Plains be integrated with other business software packages,

e.g., CRM?”

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Software 2006-7 Educational Cost Retail Cost

Peachtree by Sage

FREE to schoolswww.peachtree.com/training/educational_partnerships.cfm

$69.99 - $699.99

QuickBooks by Intuit

Educational pricing: $99.95 - $599.95

Or 30 day FREE Online Edition

www.intuitadvisor.com/education

$99.95 to $3,000.00+

Online: $19.95-39.95/mo.

Office Accounting 2007 by Microsoft

Two versions:Express or Professional

Office Accounting Express 2007:http://www.ideawins.com/home.html

Office Accounting Professional 2007:

http://us1.trymicrosoftoffice.com/product.aspx?family=officeaccounting&culture=en-US

Express FREE download or part of

Office Small Business,

Professional, or Ultimate Suites

Professional (with texts):

$149 new or $99 upgrade

Dynamics-GP by Microsoft

Academic Alliance FREE to schools or 120 day educational

versionwww.microsoft.com/education/academic_alliance.mspx

$15,000.00+

Peachtree; QuickBooks; Office Accounting 2007; Dynamics-GP Resources

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