Information Systems Textbook Design for South Africa G.J.Erwin Information Systems & Technology Department, Faculty of Commerce and Administration, University of Durban-Westville, Private Bag X54001, Durban, 4000, South Africa. Phone: (W) +27 (031) 204-4435 Fax: (W) +27 (031) 204-4300 e-mail: erwin@is.udw.ac.za C.N. Blewett Business Information Systems, Faculty of Economics and Management, Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Natal, King George V Ave., Durban, 4001, South Africa. Phone: (W) +27 (031) 260-2161 Fax: +27 (031) 260- 3292,e-mail: blewett@bis.und.ac.za Abstract Changes in South African politics and society since the election of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa in the first democratic election in April, 1994, have brought about changes in the background of student audiences. This has stimulated a review of the areas of governance, syllabus, curriculum, teaching methods and research in educational institutions. In this paper we describe the first-year textbook which we created to match these changes with an Information Systems textbook which meets South African needs, rather than echoes the technology and methods of developed countries. We discuss the "product-driven" and "problem-driven" arrangements of current textbooks and summarise a survey of Information Systems students using the textbook. We discuss problems with non-South African textbooks and describe some of the features of an Information Systems course designed locally. We conclude with recommendations on teaching methods, textbook design and support material which are appropriate to a developing country such as South Africa. 1. Introduction and Background “There are ever-fewer white students and the trickle of Africans has become a flood. Universities (et al, added by authors) must adapt to the needs of a new and very different clientele.” [7]. The student audiences at, for example, University and Technikon, in South Africa are rapidly changing. Moulder discusses how the change in student audiences requires us to: 1. alter the “composition of student, academic and ..... administrative bodies”; the governance structures of our institutions. 2. change the syllabus by moving away from “geriatric, northern hemisphere cultures”. 3. change the curriculum, “the whole way in which teaching and learning are organised”. and 4. change the “criteria (for) research”. In other words, Moulder is summarising the areas of attention for the transformation of educational efforts [7]. Since 1994, major changes in all four areas have taken place. For example, the University of Durban-Westville over 65% of its enrollment is African, compared with 2% five years ago. This paper describes work we have done to address the syllabus issue, with our textbook [4], and the curriculum issue, by reshaping the presentation of Information Systems to be problem-driven, items 2 and 3 above. We begin by describing the design of current Information Systems textbooks, and the problems which students face using foreign textbooks. We then present the features of our Information Systems textbook which address those problems, discuss the problem-driven approach to teaching and learning, compared with the product-driven approach, and, after reporting on a survey of Information Systems students using our textbook, draw some conclusions about the success of the textbook and the problem-driven approach. These issues also apply in business, and at primary/ secondary schools, but, this paper does not address those areas, except in passing. Many new students will be and are educationally disadvantaged, under-prepared and unprepared. For example, Crossman et al report that they still register students for their Business Information Systems courses “who have lived their whole childhood in homes without electricity” [2]. These students come from very different backgrounds to previous entrants to our tertiary institutions. The growing penetration of sectors of our society by Information Technology (IT) means that such students will encounter courses in subjects such as Information Systems (IS) and Computer Studies. Many of these students “are studying in a foreign language” [7]. Teaching methods and materials are under review by many educational institutions. 2. Notes on Current Textbooks and Student Learning