Sabbatical Report 2023

I requested and was granted sabbatical leave for the Spring 2023 semester due to the COVID19 pandemic. My request included this summary of aims and objectives:

• The primary focus of my sabbatical will be my component-based case study development research, the purpose of which is to make the experiential component of project-based courses more manageable and reduce temptations for academic dishonesty. The component-based development approach allows instructors to substantially alter and thereby reuse the case descriptions of hands- on projects in any courses that apply learning to real-life situations, such as my database courses and systems analysis and design courses, by swapping various modules in and out. Component-based development serves as the focus of my research study, tentatively titled "Component-based Development of Project Case Descriptions to Maximize Reusability and Scalability". The conceptual paper will propose an approach for better managing the practical component of software development courses and achieving project extensibility through reusable case description components in situations in which real-world applications are not practical.
• In summary, the plan for my sabbatical is to produce one, and perhaps two publications that will allow me to share my innovative teaching approaches with other professors.

The Spring 2023 semester was spent working on a set of companion papers, work that extended into July 2023. On July 6, 2023, two papers were submitted to the Communications of the Association for Information Systems:

• Parker, K. R., & Chiang, C-T. (2023). Modular Design of Teaching Cases: Reducing Workload While Maximizing Reusability.
• Parker, K. R. (2023). Wind Riders of the Lost River Range: A Modular Project-Based Case for Software Development.

Both papers were ultimately accepted for publication in the Communications of the Association for Information Systems IS education category, which has only a 7% acceptance rate.