| Abstract: |
Despite various initiatives concerning undergraduate industrial internship, students from the Enterprise (Information) Systems and E-Commerce tracks (Programs) within the College of Information Technology, United Arab Emirates University lack sufficient exposure and knowledge of the basic operations within a typical business enterprise. By and large, their internship programs lack focused activities due to student insufficient knowledge of enterprise organizational operations. Case studies supporting theoretical foundation within most enterprise systems or information systems related courses, lack realistic student learning experiences and therefore fail to impact in-depth concept articulation. While students are aware of advancement in technology, their appreciation on its extensive application and capabilities leading to effective organizational competitive advantage is superficial. Rather than mere concept appreciation in lectures, supported by Microsoft Dynamics Navison business enterprise systems application, students’ practical laboratory simulation of typical enterprise operations provided the much-needed realism in experiencing real-life enterprise operations. Students’ problem-based active learning experience on core enterprise operations typified in small-medium size Electronic-Enterprises were initially incorporated within selected basic courses. Positive student feedback on its impact to their learning outcomes encourage further extension of such initiative to other courses within the program track. An accompanying SWOT analysis on this approach indicated that the beneficial opportunities outweigh the potential threat of not implementing this initiative. This paper presents the research approach for identifying the problem in students learning, soliciting its research hypothesis and the eventual proposed Enterprise Systems Laboratory Framework in overcoming the identified research problem. It also discussed an overall future program plan as an extension to the proposed framework. This includes active industrial partnership beyond regular student internship to enhance further students learning experience as well as preparing them for potential employment. |