Teaching case: Towards bridging disciplinary divides in IT education

Information Technology (IT) now plays a central role in almost all aspects of business. However to best realise the potential of IT, it is vital that educators adopt strategies that challenge rather than reinforce existing disciplinary divides in IT education and business. This paper supports the application of active learning, via the use of a serial teaching case, towards bridging disciplinary divides in IT education. Specifically, the case calls for the design, development and implementation of an Integrated Management Information System. Students are therefore required to demonstrate analytical as well as technical skill-sets in the areas of IT, accounting and business. The paper describes the business context facing AHN Ltd. and illustrates the pedagogic use of the case as a means of integrating IT with aspects of accounting and business knowledge, towards helping educators contribute to answering the calls from academia (Panko, 2008) and industry (Chan and Reich, 2007) for graduates with a hybrid of business and IT skill-sets.