Addendum

Course Enrollment
Areas of Study
Survey

Course Enrollment

Plot of Students per Course (SIMS)
With the exception of courses taught in SIMS’ areas of expertise, students from SIMS and other departments are not filling the seats set aside for them. On average, SIMS classes attract about 11 students rarely reaching the maximum seat allotment. [summary]

It is during the Fall that students spend a good portion of their time attending classes outside of SIMS. The data supports this observation. During the Fall, the number of MOT courses with SIMS enrollment above 100% rises. At the same time, the average number of students in SIMS classes drops from 11 in Spring to 8 in Fall.

Percentage of Course Enrollment (SIMS) and (MOT)
As outlined in our Research Methods, we used course enrollment data to identify the Top 5 SIMS courses for each semester. The “Top 5” were identified by dividing the Total Number of Students Enrolled by Available Seats; the number of available seats was given in the schedule of classes.

A number of SIMS courses appeared on the Top 5 list more than once – in some cases every time they were offered. These courses tended to cluster around human computer interaction (e.g. user interface design, usability/needs assessment) information technology (e.g. networks, database management, document engineering), and policy (e.g. economics).

* Note: These courses are new to the SIMS curriculum. They have been offered twice; each time they appeared they appeared on the Top 5.

Top MOT Courses
A number of MOT courses consistently had over 100% enrollment by SIMS students. Such high enrollment figures indicate a strong interest by the SIMS student body in the subject matter. SIMS should work with Haas to allocate more spots to SIMS students or consider incorporating aspects of these courses into the SIMS curriculum.

Concentrations
Students’ education at SIMS clustered around four broad categories, which will be referred to as Cluster 1, Cluster 2, etc. It is important to note that many students pursued hybrid degree tracks, taking several technical classes in conjunction with business courses, which yielded over forty different combinations. Therefore, these findings represent general characteristics or broad categories.

Cluster 1
This concentration is primarily concerned with the study of information organization and retrieval, and its applications. Cluster 1 focuses on the theoretical concepts of organizing and retrieving information from large data sets; students in this group generally did not take many technical courses, which accounts for its distinction.

Recently, the trend for this concentration has been one of declining interest. Beginning with the class of 2002, 9 students or 16.7% pursued this track, while only 2 students or 3.8% from the class of 2004 are currently focused in this area. For the three year period under consideration, only 15 people or 10.6% of the student population pursued this area of study.

Besides the core courses, a majority of the students who were identified as following the Information Organization & Retrieval track had the following classes in common:
• IS 240 – Principles of Information Retrieval
• IS 245 – Organization of Information in Collections
• IS 257 – Database Management
• IS 296A – Information Access

Cluster 2
Students pursuing this degree track were primarily interested in managing the use and/or development of technology within firms while also developing ancillary business skills such as finance and organization. This focus differs from traditional MIS programs that have evolved out of computer science, business, and journalism schools, in that those programs are narrowly focused on managing or administering information systems to further business interests. MOT incorporates MIS, but takes it further by considering how technology affects business strategy and organization.

Students identified as pursuing this track took several courses at Haas, and the most prominent were the following:

• IS 224 – Strategic Computing and Communications Technology
• IS 290 – Introduction to Management of Technology
• IS 290 – Managing the New Product Development Process
• IS 290 – Marketing for High-Tech Entrepreneurs
• IS 290 – Information Technology Strategy

Cluster 3
This course of study generally focuses on how the law and/or public policy affects and interacts with technology, e.g. how intellectual property law affects file-sharing and peer-to-peer networks, or how privacy laws/policies affect the dissemination of information.

Predictably, this was the least popular concentration, but is not representative of its value because this is an emerging field, and law and policy will inevitably lag behind the rapid deployment of technology. For example, peer-to-peer file sharing technology was prevalent long before digital copyright law began to be studied and understood as it applied to this phenomenon. Only four students, or 2.8% of the MIMS population since 2002, pursued this focus.

Cluster 4
Students in this concentration focused on the design and implementation of information systems, while also applying many of the fundamental skills learned in core and elective classes, and consequently students in this concentration have a fairly wide breadth in terms of specialization.

As expected, this focus was the most popular among SIMS students. Seventy-nine students, representing over 55% of students since the class of 2002, have or are following this track, ranging from a low of 17 students or 48.6% in 2003, to a high of 34 students or 63% in 2002. Currently, 28 students or 53.8% of the class of 2004 are pursuing this track.

In addition to SIMS, classes primarily resided in the Computer Science and Engineering departments. The following courses appeared relatively frequently in the schedules of most students pursuing this track:

• IS 213 – User Interface Design and Development
• IS 250 – Computer-Based Communication Systems & Networks
• IS 257 – Database Management
• IS 290 – Document Engineering

Cluster 4A
Within Cluster 4, there was a strong concentration around the classes below, which could be considered the HCI cluster based on the nature of the courses. This track deals with designing information systems by studying and incorporating principles of Human Computer Interaction. Specifically, it focuses on studying how the user actually interacts with information and computers in order to design a more intuitive, user-friendly, and productive system, i.e. user-centered systems design.

• IS 213 – User Interface Design and Development
• IS 214 – Needs and Usability Assessment
• IS 247 – Information Visualization and Presentation
• IS 290 – Human Centered Computing
• COG SCI C126 – Perception
• COG SCI 201 – Graduate Seminar on the Mind and Language
• PSYCH 229 – Cognitive Seminar

Cluster 4B
Students in this degree track were interested in organizing information in a logical, structured way in order to design better systems, learning skills such as data, document, and process analysis and modeling. Again, students in this track generally took more technical courses as compared to the other tracks, and therefore were placed in this cluster. Besides many of the courses listed above, several students took some or all of the classes listed below:

• IS 240 – Principles of Information Retrieval
• IS 245 – Organization of Information in Collections
• IS 296A – Information Access

Survey

Perceived Areas of Distinction
Respondents were asked to identify all of the academic areas in which SIMS’ excels. Responses clustered into three groups which can easily be seen in the graph to the left. The first tier, garnering 60% of responses, was Usability and User Interface Design. The second tier was more diverse including Document Engineering, Information Architecture, Law Technology and Public Policy, XML and Web Services. The final cluster included the topics of Database Management & Design, Distributed Computing & Networks, Information Economics, Library & Information Services, Multi-media Information & Systems, Privacy, Security and Cryptography.

In addition to identifying these areas, we asked students whether these core competencies influenced their decision to attend SIMS. Surprisingly, 59% of respondents did not choose or did not know if they had chosen SIMS because of its strengths. This indicates the lack of awareness of the academic work done at SIMS.

Of the 40% who chose SIMS because of its academic strengths, multiple respondents indicated the following areas as influential in their decision:

• User Interface Design
• Policy
• XML and Information Architecture
• Multimedia/Multimedia Usability
• System Design
• Information Organization and Retrieval
• Database Management & Design

Academic Areas of Concentration
Both in the survey and in casual conversations with students, an interesting tension has been revealed around the amount of structure that SIMS requires of students’ academic experience. We asked two types of questions in an attempt to quantify the degree to which students want independence versus clearly defined areas of concentration. The first set of questions asked about the breadth and depth of the curriculum and the second set focused on the satisfaction with SIMS’ identified areas of concentration.

First, respondents were asked how focused the SIMS’ curriculum is. Sixty-five percent thought the curriculum was broad compared with only 8% who felt it is narrow or too narrow and 18% who felt it is just right. The next question sought to determine how satisfied students were with the focus. The degree of satisfaction was very mixed as Figure 3 above shows. Thirty-seven percent of respondents are satisfied with the degree of focus of the program curriculum. However, one-third of respondents are either dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied and about one-quarter of respondents are still undecided. The high number of respondents who are either unsure or dissatisfied might be the result of highly variant expectations of the program.

Two sets of questions on the survey sought to measure respondents’ expectations and how well they were met by the SIMS experience. The first set asked about the degree to which they knew what they wanted to study and the second was concerned with how helpful the established concentrations were in choosing SIMS and their courses. Many students, 63% of respondents, knew what they want to study prior to attending SIMS. However, the broad nature of the SIMS curriculum and methodology allows students’ interests to grow and change. Approximately 36% of students chose to stay with their original area of study, and 37% changed their course of study. Unfortunately, however, the survey did not address the reasons for changing the course of study. More investigation into the motivation for changing would be useful.

Regarding the pre-established areas of concentration or tracks, approximately half of the respondents thought the tracks/concentrations played into their decision to attend SIMS. However, once they were attending SIMS, only 13% of the total respondents actually used the suggested tracks and 58% did not find them to be helpful in selecting classes. Comments about tracks suggested more people might have utilized concentrations more, but courses in their area of choice were not offered. Therefore, the results of the survey suggest that students value the independent nature of SIMS but not to the exclusion of guidance.

Student-Identified Concentrations
As discussed above, students do not perceive the recommended tracks as accurately representing the work done at SIMS. To address this division between perception and reality, we asked students to identify their area of concentration at SIMS. The results fell into four tiers, which are shown in the chart on the left. The first, Information Architecture receiving a selection from 43% of respondents, is perhaps the most surprising, since it is not a term that is used in the SIMS core courses. Tier 2, each garnering a response from roughly 30% of the respondents, is comprised of Database Management & Design, User Interface Design and Usability. The third tier of concentrations includes XML and Web Services, Library and Information Services, and Document Engineering. The bottom tier of concentrations includes: Law, Technology and public Policy, Product Management, Project Management and Technical Consulting.

Complimentary Disciplines
Due to the interdisciplinary nature of Information Management, we understand that SIMS cannot be all things to all people. As our charter document states, we use the approaches of several social sciences and professional and technical disciplines to address “a core set of information-related issues.” Other schools provide domain specific knowledge that is essential to the SIMS learning experience. Part of the survey sought to identify the degree to which students go outside of the department for course work. As anticipated, a high proportion, 67%, of students take courses in other departments. Predominately SIMS’ students identify Haas Business School as the most important to their education with 70% of respondents having taken classes there. Other schools on campus received significantly less with only 20% of respondents taking classes in Computer Science, Journalism, and Boalt Law School. These responses provide a useful guideline for understanding how our coursework is can be complimented by outside curricula.

The SIMS Skill Set
The final component of the survey was directed at understanding the skills SIMS’ students and graduates use in the course of their work. Of the total respondents, 65% have a job/internship that is related to SIMS. Below we identify the responsibilities they have in their work and which courses provided the skill sets necessary to do that work.

Job Responsibilities After SIMS
The chart to the right shows that students perform similar job responsibilities after SIMS. Half of all students identified Information Architecture as a primary job function. The second cluster of responses focused on database management & design, project management, and user interface design. Roughly one third of respondents have responsibilities in technical consulting, usability, and XML and Web services. One-fifth of respondents are taking on responsibilities in Library & Information Services, Management Consulting, and Product Management.

Courses Used Most in Information Management Work
In addition to identifying the skills SIMS’ students use, we thought it would be useful to understand which classes provide those skills. Forty percent of respondents identified IS202 and IS213 as the coursework they use most often in their job. One-third of respondents pointed to IS204, IS206, IS214, and IS257 as critical to their work. A third cluster of responses averaged 15% and identified IS245, IS247, IS250, IS255, and Doc Engineering as core to their job function.