Abstract: Information Systems (IS) departments are facing challenging times as enrollments decline and the field evolves, thus necessitating large-scale curriculum changes. Our experience shows that many IS departments are in such a predicament as they have not evolved content quickly enough to keep it relevant, they do a poor job coordinating curriculum development, and they do not market the major well. For these very reasons, our IS department was on the verge of extinction, as enrollment was down over 56% (down from 475 to 208 students) over a two-year period (2001-2003), while college enrollment remained constant at approximately 1900 students. We submit that these issues can and must be addressed proactively in order for IS programs to survive. This paper conveys the approach we used to revamp our IS curriculum. We present the curriculum overhaul process and lessons learned in our successful revamp project that enabled us to transform our program into one of the most successful in our business college. Through our efforts, we have increased enrollment 75% from 2003. We hope that our lessons learned will help others facing similar challenges.

Keywords: Information systems curriculum model, IS pedagogy, Integrated curriculum, System development lifecycle

Download this article: JISE - Volume 18 Number 1, Page 49.pdf

Recommended Citation: McGann, S. T., Frost, R. D., Matta, V., & Huang, W. (2007). Meeting the Challenge of IS Curriculum Modernization: A Guide to Overhaul, Integration, and Continuous Improvement. Journal of Information Systems Education, 18(1), 49-62.