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Towards coherent practice in capstone courses for IS majors

Includes bibliographical references.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Scott, Elsje
Other Authors: Sewchurran, Kosheek
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Information Systems 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Scott, Elsje
author2 Sewchurran, Kosheek
author_browse Scott, Elsje
Sewchurran, Kosheek
author_facet Sewchurran, Kosheek
Scott, Elsje
author_sort Scott, Elsje
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13056
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:12.136Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Department of Information Systems
publisherStr Department of Information Systems
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13056 Towards coherent practice in capstone courses for IS majors Scott, Elsje Sewchurran, Kosheek Information Systems Includes bibliographical references. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are used to support almost all areas of human activity, and information systems play an increasingly important role in organisations and in society as a whole. At the same time, continuous and dramatic changes in the field of Information Systems (IS) and its context pose serious challenges to educators preparing students for professional practice. This study is therefore about the search to design, develop and implement a framework for constructing a capstone course that will be both flexible and efficient, while simultaneously embracing the interdisciplinary character of the IS field. A capstone course can be viewed as a man-made artefact intended to meet the needs of the world we live in and the activity of building theory in such a world is embedded in the sciences of the artificial. The research paradigm for this environment thus comprised a combination of the behavioural science and design science paradigms. The evolution of a capstone course at the University of Cape Town commenced in 2001 and led to the development of a conceptual framework for a coherent practice. During 2010 and 2011 the conceptual framework acted as a bridge enabling the researcher to develop, refine and evaluate a design science theory. This was done through a series of themed action experiments each consisting of several interventions, to create a synthesis of theory and practice for preparing thoughtful practitioners. The theory includes prescriptive statements of actions leading to specific outcomes that provided evidence of how a reflective practice nurtures deep involvement of students in their learning experience. It further demonstrated how accompanying theories within this framework can be utilised either to underpin or to make sense of the different activities within this practice. These meaning-making activities initiated the reconstruction of interventions and actions to promote transcendence and embodied cognition, nurturing competence and lifelong learning. Ultimately, the intention of the theory is to extend the boundaries of the capabilities of IS majors (or students of other exit level courses) to such an extent that they become empowered to cope with the complex and changing demands of the real world. 2015-06-04T12:35:09Z 2015-06-04T12:35:09Z 2012 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13056 eng application/pdf Department of Information Systems Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Information Systems
Scott, Elsje
Towards coherent practice in capstone courses for IS majors
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Towards coherent practice in capstone courses for IS majors
title_full Towards coherent practice in capstone courses for IS majors
title_fullStr Towards coherent practice in capstone courses for IS majors
title_full_unstemmed Towards coherent practice in capstone courses for IS majors
title_short Towards coherent practice in capstone courses for IS majors
title_sort towards coherent practice in capstone courses for is majors
topic Information Systems
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13056
work_keys_str_mv AT scottelsje towardscoherentpracticeincapstonecoursesforismajors