Systems Development Projects

Future Information Systems (IS) professionals need to be equipped with a range of analytical and critical thinking skills that will enable them to solve business problems. At the University of Jordan, the capstone course of the IS undergraduate curriculum is a group systems development project that require students to apply these skills in a real-world context. However, students generally experience difficulty in the areas of problem-solving, coding and testing, all of which are required for successful systems development. A reflective approach has been applied to the course design, resulting in the development of a framework that implements the action learning cycle to encourage deep learning. This paper describes how the course has evolved through four phases, culminating in an approach that guides students in transcending from the basic level of following, through detachment towards fluency.