Teaching Information Systems to International Students in Australia: A Global Information Technology Perspective

Abstract

GIT and GIS have a significant impact on the undergraduate and postgraduate programs offered in universities in Australia. Further, how to teach IT and IS to international students has been becoming a significant issue for IT and IS programs offered in Australia, in particular in the context of a fiercely competitive market of international students and in the context of GIT and GIS. However, these topics have not drawn the attention of academic researchers so far. This chapter will fill this gap by examining the impact of global information technology on universities in Australia in such areas as curriculum development, textbooks and teaching, and looking at some issues in teaching information technology and information systems to international students from different countries with different IT and IS backgrounds based on the author’s working and teaching experience in three different universities in Australia. This chapter also makes a daring prediction for the impact of GIT on international education in Australia and proposes a few viable strategies for resolving some issues facing international education for IT and IS in Australia. The proposed approach is very useful for research and development of GIT and GIS as well as for IT/IS programs in Australian universities.