An Active Learning Approach to Teaching Undergraduate Introduction to MIS Course

The undergraduate Introduction to MIS course is generally taught as a core course in business schools to introduce information systems concepts. In addition, the course serves as an important entry point to recruit MIS majors. For instructors wanting to do well in the MIS course, use of traditional lecturing alone may not be entirely effective. This paper proposes an active learning approach to supplement traditional lecturing for teaching the MIS course. The use of various active learning techniques and their implementation in the classroom is discussed. Qualitative and quantitative feedback from students suggests that students like the active learning-based approach and report increased levels of subject matter understanding and ability to apply the material in real world contexts.