Business Information Technology (BIT), a relatively new study at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, started this year with the fourth crop of students. In the first term of the third year, BIT inc. 2 is presented to the students. The project is the final one in a series of seven projects that are performed in each term of the curriculum. The students form a 15-person company that has to perform assignments on five different areas. The term starts with a selection procedure in which the students apply for the company. In a very short period the students have to immerse in the case-company and deliver the first 'quick scan' of Stork Kettles inc. One of the objectives of BIT inc. is to provide professional training under conditions similar to those encountered in a real-world work environment. Another important objective is to teach students to work together in a large group. For each course that is scheduled in this term, a significant amount of time is scheduled for assignments within BIT inc., namely:
- Projectmanagement (20 hours); Make a project plan for an Information planning study at Stork inc.
- Information Management and Information Planning (60 hours): Make a Stork information plan.
- Specification Methods (20 hours); Show the use of specification method in a large Stork system.
- Investment in Information Technology (40 hours); Make a costs/benefit analysis for a development project of a 'Project control system' at Stork Kettles inc ..
- Statistics (20 hours); Make a quantitative analysis of the reliability of the Stork mainframe computer.
Beside these course assignments the students spend 100 hours immersing in the organization, building and evaluating project teams, discussing, reporting, presenting and generally working together which are all (sub)objectives of BIT inc.
BIT inc. was evaluated with an on-line World Wide Web quality system on which the students could directly make comments about the project. Beside that from each company students were interviewed about the project and all students had to fill in a questionnaire. On curriculum level, the project was evaluated by all teachers that were involved in making the assignments, supporting the companies and grading the reports and presentations. The co-ordination of the project was done by three 'managing directors'. Every Tuesday, feedback and grades were given for last week assignments. During the whole term these grades were used in a business game to stimulate the student companies. The managing directors received the following positive and negative remarks from all parties mentioned above:
- The students declared that the individual learning result was improved by the group work (feedback, working together, discussion);
- BIT inc.2 is very appropriate to learn skills because the students are forced to act and therefore learn by doing;
- Feedback plays an essential role in the effectiveness of the project. The grading should be made more explicit to make a better feedback possible;
- The forming and evaluation of project teams within the companies was negatively evaluated because the subgroups (4 students) were too small.
From the central innovation fund, a budget is received to continue the development of the project with making an interactive case-video on CD-ROM which has to be ready for the next run of the project.