Project-centered course: Collaborative computing

This paper describes four years of experience designing and teaching a project-centered course in collaborative computing that seeks to integrate new experiences into the MIS curriculum. The course grew out of our desire to expose students to collaborative computing in a fashion that we hope will help them to bridge their knowledge from the classroom to the realities they will face throughout their careers. We have become increasingly aware that collaborative computing technology, often termed `Groupware', is changing how people work. We are also aware that research in this area has been ongoing for over thirty years; yet we also feel that many MIS students, especially undergraduates, have little or no practical exposure to this technology, prior to graduation. We developed a project-centered course in collaborative computing and as a result it has become a popular elective in our MIS curriculum and of benefit to our students.