A generalisable method to inform the design of learning experiences responsive to, and empathetically located within, relevant contexts is described. The purpose of the method's preliminary implementation was to design a post-graduate program for mid-career IT professionals which acknowledges the inherently situated nature of knowledge, skills and behaviours and authentically reflects the field of IT practice. The method frame its activities by creating scenarios and exploring a company's response to challenges within it. The scenario-base framework is conceptualised as a four stage progression which begins with a company creating a brief description of its own business context and specific situations that arise in it. The second stage draws upon a more extensive range of perspectives to discover alternative responses to challenges in the scenario and articulate some of the values that influence these responses. The third stage identifies the professional understandings, required for each response and potential learning goals and indicators of attainment for theses. The final stage enables one-to-one or one-to-many mapping of professional understandings to learning goals and arraignment-indicators across the set of responses. The scenario-based method proved to be an effective tool for identifying and articulating industry-situated gaps in the understandings of mid-career IT professionals. The educational bridges required to foster better involvement of technological expertise in the evolution and execution of business decisions became more apparent to curriculum designers by immersion in the company's responses to genuine challenges it faces. |
| Cite as: Bidwell, N.J., O'Brien, M.B. and Kaplan, S.M. (2003). Identifying Salient Learning Experiences: A Scenario-Based Method Enabling Industry-University Partnerships in IT. In Proc. Fifth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE2003), Adelaide, Australia. CRPIT, 20. Greening, T. and Lister, R., Eds. ACS. 127-135. |
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