Abstract: A survey concerning the topics taught in the systems analysis and design course, how much time an instructor devoted to each topic and the perceived importance of the topics, was assembled from responses received from a posting to ISWorld list and the Information Systems Education Conference list of past participants. Using a consensus or agreement measure based on the Shannon entropy, the results are tabulated and ranked in order of entropy. Not all topics present in the "standard" textbooks are viewed as equally important, and some topics, like the creation of data flow diagrams and data modeling, while viewed as definitely important by IS educators, have a modest amount of time devoted to it by those same educators. Most topics could be grouped based on the agreed importance given that topic by IS educators and evaluated by the entropy measure. No agreement could be reached with regard to object-oriented technology.

Keywords: Systems analysis and design, Systems content, IS education, Agreement measure, Consensus measure

Download this article: JISE - Volume 14 Number 1, Page 77.pdf

Recommended Citation: Tastle, W. J. & Russell, J. (2003). Analysis and Design: Assessing Actual and Desired Course Content. Journal of Information Systems Education, 14(1), 77-90.