A MODEL AS A PLATFORM TO IT AND CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING

The central role of information technology (IT) in the digital age is largely unquestioned. This has led to a growing demand for IT professionals to design, develop, implement, and support IT infrastructures in the public and private sectors. However, in recent years there has been a shortfall of IT graduates entering the job market. Nowhere was this more pronounced than in Ireland, where the ‘Celtic Tiger’ was the fastest growing economy in the world, and a global leader in the software industry. In order to keep up with demand, educational institutions adopted innovative programmes to increase the skill-set and knowledge base of IT graduates. Two such programmes delivered by University College Cork saw a collaboration between industry, a state sponsored organization and third-level institutions. The first, the Diploma in Applied Business Computing, provides socially disadvantaged students with a third level qualification in IT. The second is a masters programme in Management Information and Managerial Accounting Systems. The construction and implementation of any course is very much emergent, given the unique institutional nature of academic programmes and the diversity of the participants involved. This paper reports on an action research study of two contrasting approaches to delivering course modules in both programmes. A conceptual framework drawn from Davis’s (1989) work on the acceptance of information technology and the introduction of other necessary components is employed as a theoretical lens with which to describe and analyse this study’s findings, which illustrate IT acceptance by students is vital if academic programmes are to fully leverage technology to support educators and learners alike in crossing the digital and cultural divides.