First Impressions: An Alternative Way to Start a Systems Development Course

The first meeting of any course and its many activities sets in motion the establishment of a course climate and addressing student expectations. How can students be actively and collaboratively engaged, in a non-threatening environment, having their curiosity aroused, and begin to learn about the course all during the first class meeting? This paper describes an approach used to begin a Systems Development course that attempted to do just that. Students were asked to interview one another using a set of questions provided by the instructor. The debriefing process was used to introduce the students to the importance of the interviewing process and interpersonal communication in the systems development process