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Title

Generating a gender balance: making introductory information systems courses a positive experience

Author(s)

Stockdale, Rosemary;  Stoney, Susan

Abstract

There is a growing shortfall of graduates entering the IT profession. The situation is exacerbated by the continuing decline in the number of women undertaking IT related degrees. However, there are an increasing number of students taking business degrees that have a small information systems component, although few students choose to major in IS. Using a qualitative reflective approach we identify the perceptions and experiences of female undergraduates taking introductory IS courses in two universities, one in Australia and one in New Zealand. We discuss ways of improving the delivery of introductory IS courses in order to make information systems more interesting to women undergraduates, thus enhancing their learning experiences and encouraging further uptake of IS majors. The paper concludes with some reflections on other influences that impact on the ability of IS departments to deliver appropriate introductory courses.

Publication type

Journal article

Source

Australasian Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 15, no. 1 (Dec 2007), pp. 25-39

Publication year

2007

FOR Code(s)

0806 Information Systems;  1503 Business and Management

Keyword(s)

Education;  Gender;  Higher education;  Information technology;  Information technology industry;  Introductory courses;  Undergraduate students;  Universities;  Women

Publisher

Australasian Association for Information Systems

ISSN

1449-8618

Publisher URL

http://dl.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis/article/view/477

Copyright

Copyright © Australian Computer Society Inc. General permission to republish, but not for profit, all or part of this material is granted under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Australia License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/au/) provided that the copyright notice is given and that reference is made to the publication, to its date of issue, and to the fact that reprinting privileges were granted by permission of the Copyright holder. The published version is reproduced in accordance with this policy.

Full text

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