Curriculum Adaptation Model for IS Undergraduate Education

Towards A Curriculum Adaptation Model for IS Undergraduate Education in sub-Saharan Africa

Collaborators: Ulf Larsson and Richard Boateng

ABSTRACT

Improving information systems undergraduate education is an important measure for developing countries to take advantage of information and communication technologies for socio-economic development.

However, the current discourse on development of information systems education programmes in developing countries identifies a gap between proposed models for curriculum development and the adaptation to the local context. This paper argues for the need to address local adaptations when implementing a globally defined information systems curriculum for undergraduate education in sub-Saharan Africa. The case is made from a review of research on global information systems curriculum processes, lessons learned from development work in the sub-Saharan region in general, and from information and communication technologies implementations in particular. A question-based curriculum adaptation model is suggested which highlights relevant considerations in making sustainable and scalable local adaptations of a global curriculum model. The model provides a structural approach to aid the formulation of a locally adapted curriculum, where the global topics of an information systems education are merged with the areas of the local societal environment, the current status of information and communication technology infrastructure, and issues of sustainability.

Keywords: Information systems curriculum, ICT education, sub-Saharan Africa, developing countries

Reference: Larsson, U. and Boateng, R. (2009). Towards A Curriculum Adaptation Model for IS Undergraduate Education in sub-Saharan Africa, Conference on Informatics Research in Scandinavia (IRIS 32), Norway, August 9-12 2009.

 

Introduction

There is a growing consensus on the potential role information and communications technologies (ICTs) can play in helping address the resource-poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This has led to the efforts by academics, practitioners and governments to make this potential a reality. Among these efforts, the teaching of information systems (IS) or ICTs at the tertiary level is arguably prime. Empowering the region to develop right solutions for their multi-prong challenges in health care, industry and policy requires educational institutions to increase the output of much needed graduates. The starting point to this is expanding content and improving access to scientific and technical information and training (Darkwa and Mazibuko 2000).

Some countries including Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and Ghana have formulated national policies to promote the teaching of ICT in tertiary levels of education (Saint 1999; Farrell 2007; Rodrigues 2008; Mohammed 2008). Current degree programmes and related courses at the undergraduate levels may be fairly conceptualised in four categories related to the wider umbrella of ICTs;

  1. sciences – computer science, library and information science, and computer technology/IT;
  2. engineering – computer engineering, software engineering and electronic engineering;
  3. business (and humanities) – information technology management, management information systems and information systems; and
  4. development – ICT for development.

Different countries may exhibit different resource strengths, maturity and approach in offering these degree programmes and related courses. However, it has arguably been noted that some degree programs are out of sync with the contextual needs of the region (Thapisa 1999). Rodrigues (2008) suggested this mismatch in Kenya, stating that universities offer ICT degree programmes “without a detailed analysis of the ICT labor market or the national areas of focus”. The content of these degree programs may be considered to be more of an adoption rather than the adaption of content from universities in developed countries, usually North America and Europe. There is still much to be done in developing appropriate ICT degree programs for sub-Saharan Africa.This mismatch takes SSA countries quite further away from developing the requisite human resources and expertise to take advantage of ICTs for socio-economic development. This paper attempts to address the mismatch.

The paper focuses on the identification of factors important to consider when formulating a curriculum for IS undergraduate education in developing countries. The research question being addressed is as follows:

  1. What are the important considerations when adapting an IS undergraduate curriculum for the SSA region?

The paper can be characterized as a position paper presenting current status of research with regards to IS undergraduate curriculum formulation and emerging aspects of development in SSA, and then merging this into a model for adaptation of IS curriculum in an SSA context. The paper is structured in five sections, including the introduction. The second section presents the methodology used in this literature review. The third section provides an overview of the current international work within the IS community to re-define content blocks of a undergraduate curriculum. This serves as a foundation for developing a curriculum model. In the fourth section, aspects on local context and IS maturity are presented as additional considerations when formulating undergraduate education curriculums in the SSA region. In order to provide a context for the formulation of a curriculum for the SSA region, the paper discusses developmental aspects of the SSA region in general and influence and effects of ICT implementations in the region. In the last section, a model for curriculum adaptation is presented and future research directions are outlined.