Abstract: Given the rapid changes in the employment market as well as more demand for higher-level thinking skills in jobs, university programs are required to develop students’ industry-relevant skills. One of the most important skills is critical thinking, which is hard to find in graduates. This study aimed to examine whether teaching students how to design and build dashboards, which served as an experiential learning tool, fostered their critical thinking skills over the course of four years. It also investigated students’ and instructors’ perceptions about implementing student-built dashboards. A design-based research approach was employed whereby quantitative and qualitative data were triangulated. The quantitative data were collected from students’ performance on summative tests before and after implementing dashboards with appropriate training. The qualitative data regarding student and staff perceptions about implementing student-built dashboards were obtained using a survey and a semi-structured interview, respectively. The findings indicated that students’ performance on the final assessment, which mainly targeted their critical thinking abilities, was enhanced compared to the previous semesters. The results of the satisfaction survey also suggested that learners were highly satisfied with the unit and benefited from dashboards. Moreover, the interviews with staff revealed that they also favoured using dashboards as they increased students’ critical thinking and higher-order thinking abilities. This study unravels the potential of student-built dashboards to foster students’ critical thinking and increase graduates’ employability, thereby implicating educators to teach and assess dashboard design.

Keywords: Experiential learning & education, Critical thinking, Dashboards, Industry-relevant skills

Download This Article: JISE2025v36n3pp304-314.pdf

Recommended Citation: Kachouie, R., Sadeghi, M., Spiers, M., & Steel, M. (2025). Fostering Critical Thinking Skills in Higher Education: The Impact of Student-Built Dashboards. Journal of Information Systems Education, 36(3), 304-314. https://doi.org/10.62273/LWNB7588