Managing

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Managing IT/Community

Partnerships in the 21st Century

Jonathan Lazar

Towson University, USA

Hershey • London • Melbourne • Singapore • Beijing

Idea Group

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Information Science

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Copyright © 2002 by Idea Group Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Managing IT/community partnerships in the 21st century / [edited by] Jonathan Lazar.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-930708-33-5 (cloth)

1. Community and college. 2. Information technology--Study and teaching (Higher) 3.

Industry and education. 4. Education--Computer network resources. I. Lazar, Jonathan.

LC237 .M36 2002

378.1'03--dc21 2001059440

eISBN 1-59140-022-0

British Cataloguing in Publication Data

A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Managing IT/Community

Partnerships in the 21st Century

Table of Contents

Preface ........................................................................................................... viii

Jonathan Lazar, Towson University, USA

Section I: Course Partnerships

Chapter I

Service-Learning Partnerships in the Information

Systems Curriculum ........................................................................................1

Jonathan Lazar and Doris Lidtke

Towson University, USA

Chapter II

Active Learning in Higher Education: A Model and Roadmap ............ 17

Murali Venkatesh and Ruth V. Small

Syracuse University, USA

Chapter III

A University/Community Partnership to Build a K-8

School Network Infrastructure ................................................................... 52

David Ruppel, University of Toledo, USA

Cynthia Ruppel, Rollins College, USA

Chapter IV

University/Community Partnerships: Capstone Projects that Make a

Difference....................................................................................................... 70

Ann Roberts and Roger Boyle

University of Leeds, UK

Section II: Educational Partnerships

Chapter V

Building Educational Technology Partnerships Through

Participatory Design ..................................................................................... 88

John M. Carroll, Virginia Tech, USA

George Chin, Jr., Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory, USA

Mary Beth Rosson, Virginia Tech, USA

Dennis C. Neale, Virginia Tech, USA

Daniel R. Dunlap, Virginia Tech, USA

Philip Isenhour, Virginia Tech, USA

Chapter VI

Cybercamp: A University/Community Partnership for Universal

Empowerment ............................................................................................. 116

Steven Hawley, Wright State University, USA

Section III: Business Partnerships

Chapter VII

A Stage Model for Academic-Corporate Partnerships:

Using an Advisory Council to Build Bridges Between an

Academic IS Program and the Business Community ........................... 133

James R. Coakley, Oregon State University, USA

Craig K. Tyran, Western Washington University, USA

Chapter VIII

The Development of IT/Community Partnerships at a

Small Regional University ......................................................................... 157

John Borton and Kathy Lassila

University of Southern Colorado, USA

Chapter IX

Theoretical Foundations for Enterprise Systems Technology

Collaborations: An Adaptive Structuration Framework....................... 178

Cindy LeRouge and Harold W. Webb

University of South Florida, USA

Chapter X

Success Factors for Industry-University Collaboration

Through IS Industry Boards: A University Case in a

Developing Country ................................................................................... 204

Carlos Navarrete, California State Polytechnic

University–Pomona, USA

James Pick, University of Redlands, USA

Section IV: Digital Divide Issues

Chapter XI

The Camfield Estates–MIT Creating Community

Connections Project: High Technology in a Low-to-Moderate

Income Community .................................................................................... 221

Randal Pinkett, MIT Media Laboratory, USA

Chapter XII

Research Partnerships to Support Rural Communities

in Malaysia with Information and Communication Technologies ....... 247

Roger Harris, Central Queensland University, Australia

Chapter XIII

Service-Research Partnerships: Research Projects that

Help Bridge the Digital Divide................................................................. 271

Jonathan Lazar, Towson University, USA

Anthony Norcio, UMBC, USA

About the Authors ...................................................................................... 284

Index .......................................................................................................... 290

Preface

vii

Many people have a stereotypical view of the university as an “ivory tower” of

scholars who keep to themselves and are not involved with the day-to-day activities

of the communities around them. In reality, most universities have multiple partner￾ships through which they make an immediate impact in the local communities.

Community partnerships cross all boundaries within the university – faculty, staff,

and students; academic departments; administrative departments; student affairs;

and athletic departments – all can make a difference in their surrounding communi￾ties. Many universities even have offices of community service, or offices of

community partnerships. The relationship between universities and their communi￾ties is a living, breathing relationship.

Academic departments of information technology can play a major role in

these community partnerships. While these academic departments may have a

variety of titles (Information Systems, Management Information Systems,

Computer Information Systems, Information Sciences, Management Science),

and may fall under multiple academic units (Colleges of Business, Engineering,

Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Library Sciences, etc.), these departments

all have an important role to play, and important resources to share. As the

importance of information technology increases, there are many technology

needs in the community that go unfulfilled. Information technology must be not

only for those who are economically privileged. Information technology must be

used to improve the quality of everyone’s life.

The chapters in this book provide a sampling of the many different types of

partnerships taking place between communities and academic departments of

information technology. The partnerships described take place in different universi￾ties, large and small, with different missions, in many different countries. They

demonstrate the wide range of partnerships that have taken place, and they can

provide a base of literature with which to build future partnerships.

I have organized the chapters along four major themes: course partnerships,

educational partnerships, business partnerships, and digital divide partnerships.

Although these themes, and the related partnerships, are not mutually exclusive, they

provide a conceptual framework in which to present these partnerships. For

instance, many of the course partnerships involved partnerships with local primary

and secondary schools. Some of the business partnerships involve course curricula.

Some of the business partnerships involve the educational system—local primary

and secondary schools. Some of the course partnerships involve the digital divide.

These different types of partnerships should not be viewed as individual solutions;

rather, combinations of all of these partnerships should be sought to best meet the

needs of the university and the community.

The first chapter, “Service-Learning Partnerships in the Information Systems

Curriculum,” by Lazar and Lidtke, provides a background on service-learning

courses within the information systems curriculum. Service-learning courses involve

students taking part in community service that is structured in a way to build on the

classroom curriculum. In this chapter, the advantages and disadvantages of service￾learning are discussed, and the infrastructure needed to successfully operate a

service-learning class is presented. The major courses in an information systems

curriculum are then presented, with corresponding information on how to present the

class as a service-learning class, and where possible, examples of how service￾learning has been successfully utilized. From personal experience and the published

literature, the lessons learned can assist those attempting to implement service￾learning in their classes. Finally, important issues that impact on the information

systems curriculum, such as cheating and accreditation, are presented in the context

of service-learning.

“Active Learning in Higher Education: A Model and Roadmap, “ by Venkatesh

and Small (Chapter 2), continues the discussion on service-learning and other

experiential learning processes. The chapter provides an excellent discussion of the

educational theories that inspire experiential learning in universities. The authors

discuss their experiences with field projects at Syracuse University, including a

number of design and networking-related courses. Venkatesh and Small also provide

a discussion of the infrastructure at Syracuse University that has allowed their

experiential learning programs to flourish.

In Chapter 3, Ruppel and Ruppel describe in detail a service-learning class

that has worked with the same community partner for five semesters. In this

Systems Analysis and Design class at the University of Toledo, students have

helped a small K-8 private school with their computer networking needs. In the

different semesters, the student groups assisted with the planning, design, and

wiring of the computer network for the school. The students also assisted with

grant writing, cost-benefit analyses, and web site development. This chapter

provides an interesting view of a service-learning class, because students and

faculty worked with the same non-profit organization over five semesters.

Ruppel and Ruppel discuss the benefits of this course to both university students

and the local school, and present their lessons learned, to be applied in courses

that focus on networking or systems analysis and design.

Roberts and Boyle present the partnerships at the University of Leeds, a large

university in the United Kingdom, which is surrounded by economically disadvan￾taged neighborhoods. This chapter, entitled “University/Community Partnerships:

Capstone Projects that Make a Difference,” describes the final-year projects that

have benefited the community. All undergraduates are required to take part in

capstone projects that last a minimum of 300 hours, and students can choose to do

things such as perform research or develop new informational systems. Many of

these final-year projects have been structured to assist local schools in meeting their

viii

information technology needs. These students have helped local schools with tasks

such as infusing information technology into the curriculum, developing summer

school programs in technology, organizing student clubs for those interested in

technology, and building web sites. These projects have made a positive impact in the

local community, and have also generated positive press for the university. Roberts

and Boyle discuss the problem of evaluating these student projects for quality, given

the variation in topics and location.

New methodologies for developing informational systems are increasingly focus￾ing on more user participation in the development lifecycle. In participatory design,

the user becomes a true member of the design team, to determine the outcome of the

systems development, rather than playing only a minor role in systems development.

Chapter 5, “Building Educational Technology Partnerships Through Participatory

Design,” by Carroll et al., presents a participatory design partnership between

researchers at Virginia Tech and local public school teachers in Montgomery

County, Virginia. The human-computer interaction researchers at Virginia Tech

were interested in learning more about how participatory design practices could

apply to building educational technology to be successfully used by teachers and

students. Based on their experiences over a five-year period, Carroll et al. describe

the infrastructure, as well as the challenges and successes, of developing a design

partnership with local schools and teachers. A model is presented that discusses the

different and changing roles of the teachers over the course of the technology

development. To assist in those forming similar design partnerships, Carroll et al.

discuss some of the lessons learned from this type of educational partnership.

In Chapter 6, Hawley presents a university/community partnership to help meet

the technology needs of schools in Ohio. State and federal funding was increasingly

available for the purchase of computer equipment and service for primary and

secondary schools; however, there was a lack of school staff experience in using and

managing the information technology. A partnership was formed through the

University of Cincinnati to help meet the technology training needs of Ohio’s schools.

A summer camp program was developed in which separate groups of teachers and

students would come to the university campus and take part in intensive training on

the effective uses of technology in education, standard software tools (such as word

processing and spreadsheets), the Internet, and maintenance of technology. The

partnership grew from the university and the K-12 schools to now include other

community organizations and corporations.

Coakley and Tyran present the Corporate Partnership Program at Oregon State

University in Chapter 7. This partnership between Oregon State University and

businesses and non-profit organizations in the Pacific Northwest offered numerous

benefits. The development of the partnership program over 10 years is presented

within the framework of a “stages of growth” model. At a critical time in the

development of the information systems program at Oregon State, the business

community was instrumental in preventing the elimination of the program. From this

point, the partnership between the IS program at the university and the business

community grew, and has been mutually beneficial. The business community assisted

ix

with curriculum suggestions, encouraged the university administration to increase funding

for the IS program, and helped to increase the visibility of the IS program. Coakley and

Tyran discuss the internship program and placement activities that help both the business

community and the student population. Guidelines are presented for successful develop￾ment and management of industry advisory councils.

Universities may differ based on their mission, their location, and their size, and

partnerships that are appropriate for a large research university may not be

appropriate for a smaller teaching university. In Chapter 8, Borton and Lassila

present the “Partners in Excellence” program at the University of Southern

Colorado, a regional university with fewer than 5,000 students. The program started

as an industry advisory board in 1977 to help develop the curriculum and increase

enrollments in the Computer Information Systems program. The partnership pro￾gram grew to include partnerships with local K-12 schools for student tutoring, career

counseling, a web design contest, and a summer camp program. In the summer camp

program, local high school students can experience college-level courses in CIS.

Business partnerships include the industry advisory board for curriculum input, a

guest lecture series, job placement services, and internship programs. In addition,

students in the senior capstone course assist regional for-profit and non-profit

organizations in the development of information systems. Borton and Lassila

postulate some of the future possibilities for the “Partners in Excellence” program,

such as visiting professors from industry, a new web-based program in CIS for

working professionals, a student-faculty-industry research program, and a student IT

consulting center.

“Adaptive structuration” is a theory relating to organizational change through

the influence of technology and social processes. In Chapter 9, LeRouge and

Webb extend adaptive structuration theories to the area of IT/community

partnerships. This provides an interesting theoretical framework for forming

community partnerships, but LeRouge and Webb also explain the theoretical

framework through university/business partnerships involving enterprise sys￾tems software, also known as enterprise resource planning or ERP. ERP

software consists of modules that relate to the traditional business functions

(marketing, accounting, human resources, etc.), and can be easily modified and

integrated to track processes within a company. Through the adaptive structuration

framework, the challenges of implementing partnerships involving ERP software

are discussed. LeRouge and Webb present issues such as the technology

infrastructure, educational structure, and curriculum approaches necessary for

successful ERP partnerships, and the resulting beneficial outcomes.

As previously stated, different types of universities will be able to offer, and will

require, different types of partnerships. In Chapter 10, Navarrete and Pick describe

the need for industry advisory boards at universities in developing nations, through

a case study at the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) in Mexico City, Mexico.

Through the assistance of the industry advisory board at the UIA, the number of IS

faculty was increased, IS faculty salaries increased, technical training was offered to

faculty, and IS students had access to superior computer equipment, as well as industry

x

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internships. However, years later when the industry advisory board was not as active, IS

faculty salaries dropped, fewer IS faculty members were employed, the IS curriculum

was not being updated, student enrollment in IS programs dropped, and the IS graduate

program lost accreditation status. Navarrete and Pick describe some of the challenges

of successfully running an IS program in a developing nation, and how the industry

advisory board can assist in overcoming those challenges. From their experiences,

Navarrete and Pick provide success factors for industry advisory boards.

In Chapter 11, Pinkett presents an interesting partnership between the Massachu￾setts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Camfield Estates, a low-to-moderate

income housing development. Researchers at MIT were interested in the role of

technology for assisting those who are in low-income communities with building

community, empowerment, and self-sufficiency, to help bridge the growing “digital

divide.” A number of foundations and companies provided funding and/or computer

hardware, software, and network service, and a partnership was formed with four

research groups at MIT and the Camfield Tenants Association. Among other roles,

the researchers at MIT have developed software specifically for community￾building, administer and maintain the computer resources in the community, and

provide training sessions for the community. While research and evaluation is taking

place, the Camfield Estates community and the residents of the community are

becoming empowered. Pinkett presents recommendations for universities that want

to take part in partnerships relating to community networks.

Digital divide issues are not limited to North America. In Chapter 12, Harris

discusses some of the digital divide issues in Malaysia. After providing a background

on rural economic development and community informatics, Harris focuses on the

rural Malaysian state of Sarawak. A partnership between the university, the business

community, and the state of Sarawak is currently under development, with the hope

that providing access to technology will assist in the economic development of

Sarawak and improved economic conditions. The infrastructure required to create

such a partnership is presented along with the many organizations involved in this

effort and the role of the university in such a complicated effort. As a part of this

process, research is being performed to determine success factors, and new

approaches are being developed for bridging the digital divide in rural areas.

In the final chapter, Lazar and Norcio present an agenda for service-research. In

service-research, academic research is structured in a way that some sort of service

is immediately provided to the local community as a part of the research process. We

investigate the ways in which digital divide challenges can be addressed as a part of

the data collection required for serious research. Service-research can help recruit

larger numbers of subjects for research studies, and can possibly help lower the

expenses to researchers of recruiting subjects. Possible applications of service￾research are discussed in the context of research in areas such as: user training,

interface usability, user behavior, documentation, information systems management,

and design processes. Two examples of service-research are briefly discussed.

xi

Acknowledgments

Intellectual growth can only occur when one has a supportive, insightful, and

challenging group of colleagues. I am fortunate to have many such close colleagues.

Thanks to James Clements, Alfreda Dudley-Sponaugle, Julie Jacko, Doris Lidtke,

Chao Lu, Gabriele Meiselwitz, Anthony Norcio, Jenny Preece, Andrew Sears,

Cheryl Schroeder-Thomas, and countless other colleagues at Towson University

and in the human-computer interaction community. In addition, my work on

community partnerships has been financially supported by the Center for Applied

Information Technology at Towson University and the Shriver Center at UMBC.

Special thanks go to the enthusiastic publishing team at Idea Group Publishing.

Michele Rossi was always available to provide valuable suggestions in an upbeat

manner. Mehdi Khosrowpour provided continuing encouragement and the benefit of

his publishing experience. Thanks also to Carrie Stull for assisting with the marketing

of the book.

An edited book is a group process, and it is the contributing authors who make the

book into a reality. Thanks to the authors for their valuable contributions, and best

wishes for continued success in their community partnerships. In addition, I also want

to thank all of the people who assisted in the reviewing process. And thanks to the

continuing support of my close family–Libby and Martin Lazar, Berniece and

Herbert Kumin, Mollie Lazar, and Joel and Sandra Lazar.

Dr. Jonathan Lazar, Editor

Towson University

Towson, Maryland, USA

October 2001

xii

Section I

Course Partnerships