Designing a Scalable In-Class Required College Course Twenty-fourth Americas Conference on Information Systems, New Orleans, 2018 1 Go Back to Your Room: Designing a Scalable In-Class Required College Course Emergent Research Forum (ERF) Biagio Palese Louisiana State University gpiccoli@cct.lsu.edu Sun Tae Kim Louisiana State University skim68@lsu.edu Joaquin Rodriguez Louisiana State University jrod122@lsu.edu Gabriele Piccoli Louisiana State University bpales1@lsu.edu Abstract Our work is motivated by the need to scale an introductory information systems course to prepare about 1,000 business college freshmen per year. The point of departure for our work is the centrality of human interactions in learning environments. Thus, we leverage IT to design a required in-class introductory college course that can scale to large numbers of students, under resource constraint. We adopt a design science research approach, grounding the work in intervention theory, and we report the results of the evaluation from the first instantiation of the artifact in a semester course. Keywords Socio-Technical artifact, Design Science Research, Information Systems education Introduction Conceptualizing a semester-long college course is an act of design, “engineering an environment in which [students] learn” (Bain 2004). Thus, we adopt a design science approach and conceptualize the crafting of a required in-class introductory college course that can scale to large numbers of students, under resource constraint, as the design of a Socio-Technical (ST) artifact (Gregor and Hevner 2013). Intervention Theory The kernel theory underpinning the meta-requirements (MR) for our proposed ST artifact design is intervention theory (Argyris 1970). It identifies three principles that guide the design of interventions: leveraging valid and useful information, allowing free informed choice by the client (in our case the student) and fostering internal commitment. Previous research (Piccoli et al. 2017), draws on intervention theory to articulate the meta-requirements (Walls et al. 1992) upon which to build and scale a learning environment for required introductory college courses under resource constraint. Valid information is that which can be publicly verified and shown to affect the phenomenon of interest. Useful information is that which the client would be able to use to “control their destiny” (Argyris 1970). For example, while students’ natural aptitude will reliably predispose them to master specific subject matter, they cannot modify natural ability. From an intervention theory standpoint, natural aptitude provides valid, but not useful information. Study habits are also reliably shown to affect subject matter mastery. An understanding of study habits provides information that is both valid and useful. MR1: An in-class required introductory college course that can scale to large numbers of students should record students’ behaviors both in class (e.g., attendance) and outside (e.g., study patterns).