Information Systems Capstone Course Project Selection and Course Delivery Methods

The online and hybrid delivery methods for Information Systems (IS) courses have rapidly grown even though many questions remain concerning these formats\u27 quality, practicality, and reliability. Especially, the COVID-19 has resulted in closing universities across the world and changing the course delivery methods dramatically with the distinctive rising of online learning. Some predict that online learning may even continue to stay for higher education after the Pandemic. IS faculty are particularly concerned about these no-or-less interaction delivery methods since numerous IS courses require hands-on development and extensive practice to build the knowledge and skills students need to master. This study aims to find the impact of course delivery methods of the preceding courses on the IS capstone course project selection. At the end of a study program, a capstone course is offered to help students synthesize what they have learned in the terms preceding it. Each student in the capstone course undertakes a project that should integrate the specific knowledge and skills acquired during their study. The project is intended to involve substantial complexity, but students are given substantial freedom in project type ranging from a programming project which requires significant coding to a research paper that requires a considerable number of references. This study analyzes and compares the project selection of three different groups of students who took different delivery methods of preceding courses. This study finds that students’ preceding IS courses\u27 delivery methods significantly influence their project selection. This study also finds that the delivery method is highly associated with the technical complexity of the project