Requirements:
Task Summary This assessment task requires you to reflect on your experiences in MIS500 this trimester by following a four-step process to gain insights into the work you have done and how it relates to your own career and life more broadly. In doing so, you will need to produce a weekly journal to record your learning and then as the trimester comes to a close reflect on these experiences and submit a final reflection of 1500 words (+/- 10%) that will include the weekly journal as an appendices. Context This is an individual assignment that tracks your growth as a student of Information Systems over the trimester. It is scaffolded around your weekly learning activities. Completing the activities and seeking input from your peers and the learning facilitator is essential for you to achieve a positive result in this subject. Before you start this assessment, be sure that you have completed the learning activities in all of the modules. This reflective report gives you the opportunity to communicate your understanding of how information systems relate to your career and future. Task Instructions 1. During Module 1 – 5, you were ask to produce a weekly journal to record your learnings each week. Based on these weekly journals, please write a 1500 word reflective report about your experience. 2. You are required to follow the four steps of Kolb’s learning cycle when writing the reflective report. You will keep a learning journal throughout the trimester. Each week as you complete the learning activities you record your experience in spreadsheet or word document. A suggested format for the learning journal is as follows: Date Learning Activity Impact (what it means to you) Evidence (attach record of activity). This might be a set of slides, word document or pictures of work you have completed in class For each day in your learning journey, write the date and then the learning activity you engaged in. Detail what impact the learning had on you and then include any evidence you might like to keep for use later on. This journal should be appended to this assessment when you submit it. MIS500_Assessment 3_Brief_Module 6.1 Page 3 of 7 (source: Kolb DA 1984, Experiential Learning experience as a source of learning and development, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.)
Step 1 Concrete experience – Keep a learning journal The first step is to keep a learning journal for the trimester (Modules 1.1 through to 5.2 as described above. You should have already completed this step by now.
Step 2 Reflective observation – Summarise what happened You should now be able to comment on your experiences this trimester. This exercise is not a list of what you have done but rather an observation of what you have learned – were there any themes that arose from your journal? The point of a learning journal is to start a discussion on what the key concepts and skills you have learned and acquired during the course of this subject. This is because we often don’t stop to think and reflect on what we have learned
Step 3 Abstract conceptualization – Analyse what this means The next step is to analyse what you have found. Reflective practice is a process of thinking about new experiences with a view of learning. It is a form of personal response to new experiences, situations, events or information. What new knowledge have you gained in response to this exercise? And what does this information mean? You are expected to reflect at a deep level here. This means that it is not just about explaining what you have done in this subject rather it requires you to think about your personal beliefs, your background and the way you perceive the world around you. Did you learn anything in this subject that challenged you or change the way you thought about information systems or business?
Step 4 MIS500_Assessment 3_Brief_Module 6.1 Page 4 of 7 Active experimentation – New action The final step is to discuss what you plan to do with this new knowledge. These new insights may lead to a change of thinking or behaviour. In what ways? Set yourself some specific goals for your future studies or career. 1. You are required to write this assessment in a report format using the following headings: 2. Introduction 3. Reflective Observation 4. Abstract conceptualization
5. Active experimentation
6. Conclusion
7. Appendix of learning journal (with evidence) Please note that simply describing what you have done each week will not be sufficient to pass this assessment. You are expected to go ‘deeper’ and analyse what this subject meant to you and your future. Referencing Formal citation of sources is not required. However, specific reference to your own experiences must be made. It is essential that you use appropriate APA style for citing and referencing research if you do make reference other work. Please see more information on referencing here http://library.laureate.net.au/research_skills/referencing
module 1
Introduction:
Welcome to the Foundations of Information Systems. This subject will set the scene for your introduction to the concepts of Information systems. As you will see from your essential readings, information systems have come a long way from a world of mainframes so large that they required their own computer room to one where you have access to powerhouse computing in your pocket.
Mobile devices have ensured that almost half the planet are ‘digital natives’ – individuals that are so familiar with digital technology that they could not imagine living without a connected device.
This however, has been a process of evolution – and while consumers now view companies through a ‘digital lens’ of customer and user experience, companies still need to fulfil the same internal functions as they have always done. At the core of any business lie key functions, supported by systems that are evolving in a competitive business environment.
Diagram showing the traditional information system landscape within almost any generic organisation
Information technology inside your organisation (Rainer & Prince. 2019. p. 12)
The above diagram shows a traditional information system landscape within almost any generic organisation – many organisations have similar functional areas, although the type of business would certainly influence how large each functional area is and how deeply invested in innovation any one of these areas would be. For example, a mining company may have a deep investment in complex operational systems including autonomous vehicle management for their self-driving trucks, whereas an entertainment company would have highly advanced marketing systems.
Over the duration of this subject we will discuss systems evolution in the areas of knowledge management, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, business intelligence and enterprise architecture. As businesses have matured into digital organisations radical change has shifted their business models and how they manage their profitability. Becoming a digital organisation is now a requirement for competitive strategic advantage.
We all live in a digital world; part of an interconnected network which has meant that organisations not only need to consider their systems from an internal perspective, but also need to consider how they interact with ‘digital natives’. In this module we will be looking firstly at how rapid innovation has spurred revolutions of change in the past 25 years, driving a state of flux and uncertainty for organisations in a rapidly evolving competitive landscape.
As future IT leaders you are on the cusp of the next phase of a career where the internet is changing how we interact both socially and commercially – these are exciting times indeed.
This Module will cover:
Module 1.1 Introduction to contemporary business – a tale of transformation and disruption; Introduction to Agile practice
Module 1.2 – Introduction to Information Systems in a business context
This Module will help you achieve the following outcomes:
a) Critically analyse the key information systems concepts and technologies in the context of contemporary businesses and organisations.
c) Develop and communicate a collaborative strategy which embodies the principles of agile methodology to stakeholders of an organisation.
Time Management:
Your workload expectation is 20 hours for this module.
20 hours per module (two weeks): facilitated study: 3 hours / week. Personal Study: 7 hours / week.
3 hours facilitated study consists of attending class, responding to facilitator feedback.
You are to allocate 7 hours of personal learning. This includes essential time spent on pre-reading and viewing materials, assessment progression and learning activities.
Assessment Progression:
Assessment 1 is due at the end of Module 2.2 (Week 4).
Tasks to undertake in this module to prepare for Assessment 1 include the learning activities that are included in this and module 2
You can prepare for this assessment by utilising the learning resources of this module, which include readings, videos, and learning activities to enhance your understanding of the key concepts in this module.
Student Expectations:
You are expected to have worked through the essential learning resources and activities for this module before attending the facilitated session (face-to-face or online session) – this enables informed discussion and full participation in learning activities.
Participate in all scheduled facilitated sessions.
This time is intended to be used by you and your learning facilitator to work through activities and engage in discussion about the module content.
These sessions provide a space for you to raise questions about the module content and seek guidance on writing your assessments.
You will review, explore and discuss more deeply the information presented in the learning resources.
module 1.1
Introduction:
Later we’ll explore and examine the report “The Global State of Digital in October 2019”. The report states that of the global population of 7.734 billion people there are:
155 billion unique mobile users (66.6%)
479 billion internet users (58%)
725 billion active social media users – of that 3.66 billion are accessing social media on a mobile device (48%).
With the rapid adoption of the Internet, ecommerce and smartphones, consumers are increasingly turning to computers, tablets, mobile phones and smartphones to interact and transact.
Technology Revolutions
In ‘Networked’ (2012) – co-authored by Lee Rainie (Director of Internet and Technology Research at the Pew Research Centre) and sociologist Barry Wellman – a triple revolution is identified:
The Internet Revolution – internet and broadband at home
The Mobile Revolution – first smartphones and then tablets
The Social Revolution
While the Internet Revolution pre-dated the Mobile Revolution – the timing of the Social Revolution could be considered a little more contentious. Even in the era of dial-up internet connections, email and bulletin boards and newsgroups changed the social landscape with an immediacy of contact despite great distance however, the arrival of social media players like MySpace and Facebook brought about heightened accessibility and connectedness.
Each of these revolutions has not only brought about social change but has also disrupted or transformed the way we do business and changed how businesses communicate with their customers creating a commercial digital landscape.
It has also been noted that digital disruption and transformation is leading to a fourth revolution – you will see in the video clip in the Essential Resources that Rainie (2015) references a fourth revolution enabled by the hyper connected sensors of the Internet of Things.
Prof. Klaus Schwab – Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum – is considered a leading expert in this fourth revolution – which is also known as the fourth industrial revolution. It is predicted that a convergence of technological will allows Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality, and the Internet of Things (with sensors in everything from coal carrying train trucks to the fridge in your house) to create a networked Metaverse.
Lexico (n.d.) defines the term ‘metaverse’ as being ‘a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.’ Like electricity it will be less visible, and less dependent on devices for access but deeply embedded in the way we live our lives.
In the Learning Activity: Discussion Forum post, you will find the Digital Knowledge Quiz developed by the Pew Research Institute to understand the digital knowledge, and a link to the report benchmarking the results – you will find this a fun activity for both testing your knowledge and understanding where your knowledge of digital concepts positions.
Introduction to Agile Practice
In this subject, we will work our way through various information systems which have evolved over time and we will discuss how these systems have supported business to achieve the performance required to be successful. As part of this journey of learning we will take you through different generations of technology as well as new and emerging technology and its application.
However, as part of this subject, you will have two individual assessments and a large group project which will need to be project managed. In this subject you will be introduced to the Agile techniques of Scrum and Scrum Boards to help you and your team remain on track for the delivery of your group project. The reading by Rigby (2018) will offer you some insights into how large organisations are adopting Agile so that you can develope a conceptual understanding of its value.
module 2
Data, information management and knowledge management
Introduction:
Technology and information systems have been the source of competitive strategic advantage for many organisations. In this module you will learn about the principles of competitive strategic advantage and data. It would be difficult to underestimate the power of data and how it has become a core driver of innovation in the ‘data economy’. Many countries are raising concerns about privacy and information security in light of how powerful data has become with data and data analytics now producing ‘products’ that organisations can sell based on user activity on their platform. Discussions about ethics are emerging in response to data science and artificial intelligence which depend on data to progress organisation’s interests (Parliament of Australia, n.d.). While legislators are responding to this new emerging economic force, organisations must compete with dominant technology companies.
As an example of how data is influencing strategy, Netflix has emerged as a leader in the virtualization of the ‘the video store’ in their battle against bricks and mortar competitor, Blockbuster (Parker, Van Alstyne & Choudary, 2016. P.63). Some of this success has been attributed to the distribution economics of a large platform and their capability to stream rather than circulate physical copies of movies which were effectively ‘dead stock’ while they were in the mail or waiting to be returned. Netflix were able to capitalise on data to determine viewer preferences and offer them more of what they enjoyed (Parker et al., p163). However now that Netflix has vanquished the video store, what is next? In making series’ like ‘The Crown’, ‘Orange is the new black’ and ‘Stranger things’, Netflix has stepped out of its original field of strategic competition and is changing the rules of play by challenging broadcasters like NBC, ABC and HBO (Parker et al. p204). The question here is: ‘Does Netflix and their platform have sufficient competitive advantage to take on new competitors in their own territory based on their platform advantage?’
What happens when a competitor with a mega value chain makes the investment in a platform to distribute their mega library of content? What happens when the competitor has such a well-developed value chain with blockbuster franchises that Netflix’s investment in original content pales in comparison? We are on the verge of finding out with the recent release of Disney+.
Consumers may debate whether Netflix or Disney+ will win the streaming wars based on content, and the war between old media and new media is hotly contested with a sense that old media has been on the losing end of the platform wars. Network effects and rapid scaling may have beaten Blockbuster by virtualising the video store but for sheer dominance in content ownership Disney+ combines a powerhouse value chain with platform data.
The Companies Disney Owns
module 2.1
MODULE 2.1
Data, information and knowledge management in business and enterprise
Introduction:
While Ackoff’s IDKW pyramid (introductory graphic, above) is a source of academic debate it remains a good vehicle to explain the fundamental differences between data, information, knowledge and wisdom. Often the terms data and information get used interchangeably in business, but the difference is important.
Here is an example:
On the Marketing manager’s notepad, you see the following digits written 20200214 – at this point these digits are only data.
However, when positioned as the Marketing manager’s marketing plan this becomes information and it takes on meaning and value – 14 February is Valentine’s Day! The next step – is where knowledge comes in to play.
As a chocolate and confectionery manufacturer, you know that Valentine’s Day is one of the peak sales opportunities for your organisation and therefore the Marketing department will be planning several initiatives to market your product to customers over this period.
Wisdom – well, better not forget to buy your Valentine chocolates this year – it didn’t go well when you forgot last year!
These concepts form the key foundations for data, databases, database management systems, reporting, analytics, data warehouses, data lakes, knowledge management, business intelligence, big data…..the list is almost endless….
With all the attention that data is receiving now, with focus on ‘the data economy’ and data science, it can be easy to forget that none of these things would be possible if it were not for the humble relational database with their tables listing rows of entities with their attributes in the columns.
While all forms of Business Intelligence rely on databases, in this section we are looking specifically at two concepts: Knowledge Management and Big Data.
Knowledge Management
For Knowledge Management, we will look at the following areas:
The difference between explicit and tacit knowledge
The Knowledge Management Cycle
Roles and of knowledge management systems and how they create value for the organisations, including different types of knowledge systems.
Big Data
In learning about Big Data, we will look at the following areas:
What is Big Data – definition and characteristics
Challenges with Big Data
How to use Big Data
How the organisation can use Big Data in its functional areas: HR, Operations, Product Development, Marketing etc.
MODULE 3
Business Information Systems
Introduction:
Drawing on Module 2 and Porter’s Value Chain, a business is made up of many parts with many processes that need to be co-ordinated for the organisation to be successful.
If you look at both the primary and secondary activities, you can see that for one area to work well it is dependent on another area for its success. Often a process is cross-functional – it starts in one area and completes in another. It can be complicated.
Porters Value Chain model illustrating the primary activities of an organisation
Porter’s Value Chain Model (Rainer & Prince, 2019, p. 57)
Imagine you are the CEO of a small but growing manufacturing company. You are evolving rapidly, and customers love your products, but it hasn’t been easy building your company from scratch. The bigger your little company gets, and the more volume you manufacture the less a quick chat between departments is enough to ensure that everybody has the information they need.
How do you ensure that all departments are working well together? How is it going right now?
The accountants are complaining that there is inventory lying as ‘dead stock’ because the goods are incomplete – no more money should be released until production pull their socks up!
Your production team are furious because the accountants won’t release payment to a supplier and so they cannot complete goods to release to customers.
Sales is upset because their orders cannot be met, and customers are defecting to competitors.
Marketing have a great campaign to sell widgets next season because they are the ‘hot item’ in the market but Sales is warning against aggressive campaigns owing to non-delivery of goods.
It has reached the point where Executive Leadership Team (ELT) meetings are about putting out operational ‘fires’ rather than strategy. Everybody sees the world from different perspectives in each functional area – sometimes it even feels like they speak a different language.
While this is understandable – it really isn’t optimal for the success of the enterprise.
As the leader of this company, how can you get all areas ‘on the same page’ – how do you break ‘windows’ into each functional area’s silo so that they can share information and keep those cross-functional processes working? How do you get consistency in the practices so that there is less friction and smooth success? What would you do?
Becoming CEO has been your big break, and everybody is looking to you for the answers because you have been with the company from day 1.
Surely other businesses have solved this problem before – there must be a system to help?
Indeed, Pearlson, Saunders & Galletta (2016) define an Enterprise System as “a set of IS tool that many organisations use to enable information to flow within and between processes across the organisation.”
MODULE 3.2
Enterprise Systems – Business Intelligence
Cartoon illustration of signposts, checklists, devices, sources of information
Introduction:
Pearlson, Galetta & Saunders (2016) describe Business Intelligence (BI) as falling within the umbrella of organisational knowledge management (p.260). They consider the term to cover the processes and technologies that leverage data to analyse and business activity and support decision making. While they differentiate between intelligence and analytics (being modelling of data -algorithms, quantitative techniques etc) they recognise that others use the terms interchangeably.
Laudon & Laudon (2017. P. 491) discuss elements of the BI landscape and capture it in a nutshell with this diagram:
Business intelligence environment diagram showing inputs and outputs
The Business Intelligence Environment (Laudon & Laudon, 2017. P.491)
What is the difference between Business Intelligence and Big Data you might ask?
Big Data is a subset of Business Intelligence with very specialist requirements and techniques to master huge and disparate data sets.
In Module 2 we discussed the difference between data, information and knowledge – in this module we will advance your understanding of:
Why business intelligence and analytics is vital for an organisation – by sifting through large quantities of data to find actionable insights that will help the organisation to create value. This value might be cost savings, additional revenue or a product that is more attractive to the market that will allow the organisation to gain market advantage and greater share of the market.
The technologies that make BI possible:
Databases & Database Management Systems (many students have been exposed to this concept before – if you haven’t there are links to quick explainer video clips in the Additional Reading section).
Data warehouses & Data marts (short video clip and reading in Essential Readings).
Software library frameworks like Hadoop which allow for the VOLUME, VARIETY and VELOCITY of big data to be processed from large disparate datasets (short video clip in Essential Readings and on p. 131 of Rainer & Prince in the Essential Readings about Big Data).
This leads to other data sources – outside of the organisations internal data stores. There is now a wealth of information in other sources that can be used to gain broader insights (see additional reading Social Media Analytics if this is of interest to you):
The unstructured data in social media and search engines – different trending topics identify behaviours in response to conditions.
Social and search analytics – whether it be ‘likes’ that suggest sentiment, or high frequency use of certain search terms.
Internet of Things – a myriad of sensors giving information to help achieve optimal and efficient use of resources.
The tools and techniques that enable the paring down of data into useable information via analytics: It is important to note that the question you are likely to ask would suggest the type of analytic technique you would select (if you wish to understand more of the specific analytics techniques, please see additional reading – otherwise there is a video clip explainer of the aim of each technique in essential resources):
Descriptive – “What has happened?”
Predictive – “What could happen?”
Prescriptive – “What should we do?”
The tools that enable decision making – reports and dashboards which allow managers in the organisation to see how their areas are tracking to target or agreed key performance indicators – the video clip in Essential Resources shows a real dashboard designed for a marketing area in a company.
Ultimately, as you will see from the collaborative learning exercise, business intelligence can make a phenomenal difference to an organisation in terms of establishing strategic competitive advantage. Creative questions answered with good data can be what sets an organisation apart from competitors with a very strong lead, and the limitations are less about finding the data than having the imagination to ask the best questions for managers.
MODULE 4
Applications of business information systems
Unrecognizable-corporate-data-operator
Introduction:
The project manager is sitting scratching her head. The project team have worked through three vendor proposals for a new system and it was easy enough to eliminate vendor C. They scored lowest on functional capability, have very demanding infrastructural requirements and cost four times the price of the next most expensive vendor.
Deciding between vendor A and vendor B however is not proving easy for the panel who have assessed and scored the solutions against the requirements.
The project manager keeps reading over the words in the original request for proposal (RFP) – the words ‘cloud first’ stands out in the infrastructural requirements section of the original RFP document.
Both remaining vendors offer cloud-based solutions, however vendor A’s solution is a pure web service solution allowing team members with access to the internet to access the system from anywhere that has an internet connection – a highly desirable capability.
But vendor B’s solution offers a much more mature functional capability which meets 10% more of the business’s functional requirements. Besides that, vendor A can only reach their functional capability score with the support of partners and they cannot guarantee their partner’s performance
Of course, vendor B is a bit more expensive too…
This isn’t going to be easy thinks the project manager as she tidies up the last elements of the presentation that she and the business analyst will be taking to the enterprise architects to seek guidance from the Architecture Review Board.
She is relieved that the decision isn’t hers, because it is not going to be easy to tease out all the complicated layers in this decision.
But ultimately the enterprise architects have a clear understanding of the organisation’s strategy and the Architecture Review Board have clear insight into the future needs of the business and have a good relationship with the business partners.
The project manager is comfortable the board will come back with an answer regarding which vendor will be able to provide alignment between the business and IT and the project will be able to move through the selection gateway to the next phase … thank goodness for enterprise architects!
MODULE 4.1
Enterprise architecture: decision making
man using hand on touch screen, selects ‘Enterprise architect’
Introduction:
What do architects do? They design buildings…
Unsurprisingly, Rainer & Prince (2019, p. 12) use the image of a building to describe how the technology comes together within an organisation.
Diagrammatic of information technology inside the organisation
Source: Rainer and Prince (2019, pg 12).
Who better to guide the building of the organisation/enterprise’s house of IT than an Enterprise Architect (EA)…?
In the video clips below you will find out more about what enterprise architecture is, why it is important and what frameworks are used by EA’s.
Pearlson et al. (2016) discuss how strategy translates into IT architecture (and architectural philosophies) which in turn translates into IT infrastructure. They identify that EAs are the pivotal role in determining how business strategy is maps to information systems, which in turn becomes the ‘concrete’ infrastructure of the organisation
As a student, you might be asking yourself “What difference does this make and why does it matter?”.
Many IT investment decisions are being made based on enterprise architectural philosophies outlined by Pearlson et al. in a table on p. 131 which outlines different types of enterprise architecture:
Common Architectures (Pearson et al.2016. p 131)
Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) also known as Cloud-based architecture, and Software-defined architectures (SDA) also known as Network virtualization enjoy great popularity as they reduce the effort required to build solutions and reduce the cost and effort of supplying IT services. Web-based and cloud architectures offer capacity-on-demand without considerable investment in in-house IT infrastructure.
This is where cloud computing and virtualization with models like Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) become architecturally influenced decisions to support to organisation’s operating model.
In making decisions, organisations define guiding architectural principles. You can find examples of architectural principles in Pearlson et al. p. 135. It is fair to note that different organisations will have different priorities and therefore different architectural principles.
illustration of cloud computing platforms and their characteristics
Cloud Computing Platforms (Laudon & Laudon, 2017, p. 214)
This diagram from Laudon & Laudon (2017, p. 214) offers you an overview of different cloud computing models that have emerged, and video clips below explain more about each type of service.
Bear in mind, that even if cloud computing solutions are cheaper, more scalable and generally more convenient, an organisation may choose not to transition certain systems to ‘the cloud’. Under certain circumstances where total ownership of the data and the system on which it resides is not negotiable for an organisation’s competitive advantage it may remain ‘in-house’. Understanding the business and risk is a key part of the EA’s portfolio.
MODULE 5
Information security and privacy
illustration of an electronic lock around binary data
Introduction:
This module offers many opportunities for reflection on practice – in both your present work for this subject and in preparation for your future career.
In Module 5.1 Review of Agile: Reflective writing as practice, you will be taking a ‘step back’ to try and see your group project from an objective perspective.
Some students gain deep satisfaction from successful group work with teams that come together well and deliver high quality work – these teams often seek each other out to work together again. This is not always the case however.
This reflection provides you with an opportunity within the assessment structure of the subject to pause and reflect using Kolb’s framework about not only what you tried while using Agile and Scrum techniques within your project, but also what you would maybe do differently in future. Remember that the principle behind Agile is to create self-organising teams that succeed.
It is important to both celebrate successes as well as acknowledge ‘lessons learnt’ – and to consider how you would do things differently in your future group projects. There are two video clips in additional resources, which offer very interesting insights into teamwork – it is recommended that you watch these to broaden your understanding of what makes for successful teams.
As mentioned earlier – there is also a forward-looking opportunity for introspection about practices which will be part of your future career. We cover the concepts of Ethical, Legal, and Security Issues.
With ethics and privacy – definitions speak about ‘Right’ and ‘Wrong’ and there are numerous examples in the readings which allow you to explore concepts in their complexity. Tools for examining and analysing moral dilemmas are shared in the essential resources to ensure that you can develop techniques to navigate this complex area in your future career.
Security is a vital area for protecting organisational interests and this is covered from multiple angles to ensure that you are well prepared to understand how vital security is to the organisation, what the key points of exposure are and actions that an organisation can take to manage and mitigate risks.
Review of agile: reflective writing as business practice
Hand moving forward to make selection on a hologram
Introduction:
If you were to google the phrase “Journaling for success” your search results would return many results where ‘experts’ discuss the effect that journaling has on one’s life and success. You will hear about gratitude journals, wellness journals, bullet journals, even dream journals in the popular press…
Journals are obviously popular – but is there evidence to back up their use?
A Harvard Business School study conducted by Di Stefano, Gino, Pisano & Staats in 2016 made some interesting findings – their research question? Looking at two sources of learning – accumulating experience or reflecting on and codifying experiences already accumulated – which learning source provides the highest benefits in future performance?
This statement can be found on page 28 of their paper in the Results section:
“Performance outcomes, we find, can be augmented if one deliberately focuses on learning from experience accumulated in the past”.
“…deliberate learnings efforts affect how one approaches the same task afterwards both cognitively and emotionally.”
“…it is the improved understanding of the task (that) drives the actual performance increase”.
They found that the deliberate efforts of learning through reflection offered notable benefits in improving performance.
So – that makes a compelling case for reflection – but life is busy – do we have time for this?
One of the interesting factors in this study is that they did not ask participants to spend long periods of time writing extensive diaries – in fact 15 minutes a day was enough to offer these results.
In preparing you for you third assessment, we have included weekly learning activities focussing aspects of your Agile and Scrum practice. They encourage reflective practice on your Agile and Scrum efforts and would have taken you approximately 15 minutes to complete. The aim of these exercises, and our recommendation of keeping a reflective journal is to help you accumulate material towards your third assessment:
From an educator’s perspective your learning facilitators are eager to build a productive and enjoyable learning journey for you as a student, where you maximise your personal development in the time you invest in gaining knowledge towards your future career path. Therefore, we draw upon the recognised theoretical framework developed by Kolb and Kolb.
Experiential learning has a long tradition, from artisans learning their trades in guild, in skills passed through the generations of a family, to modern day internships – there is no doubt that gaining experience is a powerful learning process. If you look at the learning activities we have asked you to do thus far, you will see that we are encouraging a type of practice:
Concrete experience – have your weekly meeting with your group, work through the in-class activities e.g. scrums or presentations.
Reflective observation – capture the key elements of your experience, make notes in your journal and see if you can identify areas that went well and others that maybe did not.
Abstract conceptualization – apply your mind to see if there are any ideas you can come up with to sustain successes in the groups progress, and ways to try and address areas that require improvement.
Active experimentation – test your ideas through practice in your next weekly meeting.
It is very important to note, that this is not a recount of events or a narrative story where you tell us an order of events that happened or what you did – it requires you to look at those events and steps on your journey and analyse them to see how you were able to learn from the experience by reflecting, coming up with new ideas about how to do things, and then trying out new ways and seeing a result – either positive or negative. We are especially interested to see how Agile and Scrum practice helped you complete your project as you learned how to use the techniques.
The other side of the coin for journaling relates to privacy. You may have experiences that did not go as well as you hoped – you can share this in your reflection – your learning facilitator will keep your information in strict confidence!
Note: If you wish to read Di Stefano et al.’s report it is available as a working paper at present on SSRN – you would need to register on the site, but there is no charge to access the paper.
References:
Cubric, M. (2013). An agile method for teaching agile in business schools. International Journal of Management Education, 11(3), 119-131.
Di Stefano, G., Gino, F., Pisano, G., & Staats, B. R. (2016, June 14). Making Experience Count: The Role of Reflection in Individual Learning. Harvard Business School NOM Unit Working Paper No. 14-093; Harvard Business School Technology & Operations Mgt. Unit Working Paper No. 14-093; HEC Paris Research Paper No. SPE-2016-1181. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2414478
Kolb, A. Y., & Kolb, D. A. (2017). The Kolb Learning Style Inventory. Retrieved from https://learningfromexperience.com/downloads/research-library/the-kolb-learning-style-inventory-4-0.pdf
Step 1 Concrete experience – Keep a learning journal The first step is to keep a learning journal for the trimester (Modules 1.1 through to 5.2 as described above. You should have already completed this step by now. Step 2 Reflective observation – Summarise what happened You should now be able to comment on your experiences this trimester. This exercise is not a list of what you have done but rather an observation of what you have learned – were there any themes that arose from your journal? The point of a learning journal is to start a discussion on what the key concepts and skills you have learned and acquired during the course of this subject. This is because we often don’t stop to think and reflect on what we have learned Step 3 Abstract conceptualization – Analyse what this means The next step is to analyse what you have found. Reflective practice is a process of thinking about new experiences with a view of learning. It is a form of personal response to new experiences, situations, events or information. What new knowledge have you gained in response to this exercise? And what does this information mean? You are expected to reflect at a deep level here. This means that it is not just about explaining what you have done in this subject rather it requires you to think about your personal beliefs, your background and the way you perceive the world around you. Did you learn anything in this subject that challenged you or change the way you thought about information systems or business? Step 4 MIS500_Assessment 3_Brief_Module 6.1 Page 4 of 7 Active experimentation – New action The final step is to discuss what you plan to do with this new knowledge. These new insights may lead to a change of thinking or behaviour. In what ways? Set yourself some specific goals for your future studies or career. 1. You are required to write this assessment in a report format using the following headings: 2. Introduction 3. Reflective Observation 4. Abstract conceptualization 5. Active experimentation 6. Conclusion 7. Appendix of learning journal (with evidence) Please note that simply describing what you have done each week will not be sufficient to pass this assessment. You are expected to go ‘deeper’ and analyse what this subject meant to you and your future. Referencing Formal citation of sources is not required. However, specifi
The post reflect on your experiences in MIS500 appeared first on My Assignment Online.