Bringing a Multidisciplinary Perspective of IT to the Classroom: A Theory-Based Development of a Second Course for Non-Majors

Executive Summary IT instructors in information systems and computer science departments are often the target of complaints from colleagues in other disciplines who argue that students need to see how IT is applied in their own specific disciplines. We try to address these complaints by devising a course where IT concepts are taught from the perspective of different disciplines. The course presents IT concepts through case studies of complex and specialized IT systems that are used to solve problems in well-defined domains. A pilot implementation of the course is analyzed, with three case studies in anthropology, sociology and chemistry.