Real World Project: Integrating the Classroom, External Business Partnerships and Professional Organizations

Introduction The rapid changes in technology as well as the struggling economy demand that organizations efficiently utilize their resources in order to remain competitive. These constraints translate into an increasingly competitive and discriminating hiring process for recent college graduates (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2009). A college graduate must possess more than the technical skills acquired through his or her degree program. "There is an increasing need for managerial and professional employees with a range of personal competencies that extend beyond the exhibition of technical expertise" (Brown & Scase, 1994, p. ix). The literature strongly suggests that many graduates with IS degrees lack soft skills (Bullen, Abraham, Gallagher, Simon, & Zwieg, 2009; Russell, Russell, & Tastle, 2005). These soft skills generally include, but are not limited to project management, teamwork, presentation and communication. Some universities have attempted to make curriculum changes to strengthen these skills through adding new courses or programs (Hanna & Sullivan, 2005; Russell et al., 2005; Seethamraju, 2007). Since many IS departments may not have the flexibility to expand their programs, there is a need to address these issues within their current curriculum. Education must go beyond the classroom in order to prepare students for today's job market. We introduce a pedagogical model that integrates "real" world projects with business partnerships and professional organizations in order to facilitate and reinforce technical, communication, presentation, teamwork and project management skills. Background IS Skills Gap The IS model curriculum (Davis, Gorgone, Couger, Feinstein, & Longenecker, 1997; Gorgone, Davis, Valacich, Topi, Feinstein, & Longenecker, 2003; Topi et al., 2010) has evolved over the years to recognize the changing nature of information systems. The curricula guides acknowledge each university's responsibility to adjust the model curriculum to meet the needs of its target job market. Matching skills learned to employer needs is widely accepted as a means to review and adjust the IS curriculum. In order to understand and properly align IS curriculum, researchers have studied the effect of the ever changing Information Technology (IT) industry and how it relates to the preparation of future IT workers. The concern that curriculums match industry needs has led to research that involves the in-depth study of business needs based on informal focus group discussions and follow up surveys of IT professionals (D. M. S. Lee, Trauth, & Farwell, 1995). D. M. S. Lee et al.'s (1995) study found that the lower-level IT jobs are rapidly disappearing and the requirements for IT professionals are becoming more demanding in multiple dimensions, particularly in the areas of business functional knowl edge and interpersonal/management skills. While new jobs require some technical competencies they also require the soft skills necessary to apply information technology to solve business problems. Other studies have also surveyed IT professionals to determine job-hiring expectations for either specific IT occupations or within a specific region in order to better map the IS curriculum with employers needs (Banerjee & Lin 2006; Downey, McMurtrey, & Zeltmann, 2008; Janicki, Kline, Gowan, & Konopaske, 2004; Janicki, Lenox, Logan, & Woratschek, 2008). All of these studies confirmed the findings of D. M. S. Lee et al. (1995). The consistent theme in the studies is the need to hire IT professionals that possess a blend of technical and soft skills. These soft skills include, but are not limited to, the ability to communicate, solve business problems and have some project management expertise (S. M. Lee & Lee, 2006). While many of these soft skills have been taught in the classroom, "learning techniques, beyond classroom activities, have been recognized as essential ingredients to enhance learning outcomes" (Kamoun & Selim, 2007, p. …