IAB402 - IS Consulting – 2023 S1
Mini-Proposal | Assignment 1
DUE - WEEK 7 via Canvas
[due by Friday 21 April 2023 @ 11:59 PM (23:59)] 20% = 15% Proposal + 5% (Peer & Tutor Review)
Write a 5 page (maximum) Mini-Proposal for the following Consulting Engagement
We write to invite your consulting firm to submit a brief proposal outlining your proposed approach to identify and detail a feasible means of equitably examining mixed on-campus and online students.
Technology University of Queensland (TUQ) are a major player in the international online education market. Headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, TUQ revenues have grown exponentially, exceeding $110M in 2021, this rapid growth no doubt aided by COVID.
TUQ has historically wrestled with many of the same issues associated with effective examination of students as have other online higher education institutions. In 2022 TUQ opened their first physical campus in Edmonton, a Brisbane suburb. The resultant mix of on-campus and online students enrolled together in subjects, has engendered new issues.
A key problem we struggle with is how to cost-effectively (for both students and TUQ) and equitably examine a mix of both on-campus and online students enrolled in the same subject. We seek to ensure that no cohort of students is either advantaged or disadvantaged by the examination approach employed.
While it is possible to physically invigilate exams on-campus for those students who are enrolled locally, many on-campus students perceive this tighter control (relative to online students) as inequitable. They suggest that online students, who are less visible, can have access to materials inaccessible to on-campus students. One approach is to have overseas students travel to a local examination centre to be examined and physically invigilated. Yet, this can be a substantial inconvenience for the overseas student (testing centres may be a significant distance from many students), and does entail related costs (money, time …) for both the student and for TUQ (e.g., funding the testing centres). Such an approach is particularly questionable for smaller quizzes, where the costs remain just as high, but for a smaller value activity.
Cara Gee, CIO TUQ knows you from QUT. She is aware that your small consulting company has experience designing and introducing systems in universities. And while she is not convinced the solution to the problem is necessarily heavily IT-based (perhaps it is), she knows that your group has broad knowledge of university operations, and she demands that whatever solution is proposed, it must align with existing organisational subsystems, procedures, and culture. She also recognises there may be no perfect solution and that the ultimate solution arrived at may have to be a compromise.
Page 1 of 2