Dr Noel Carroll, J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics, University of Galway, Ireland

Introducing Citizen Development
As a lecturer in information systems, I believe we need to continue to support all learners
from all different backgrounds (including religious, racial, cultural backgrounds, and social settings). As a university, I also believe that the best talent is highly mobile, diverse, and we need to ensure that equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are central to our teaching and learning to ensure that students do not feel disadvantaged. To drive student interest and success, inclusive teaching approaches are critical. Inclusive teaching typically focuses on a range of approaches to teaching that consider the diverse needs and backgrounds of all students in order to create an engaging learning environment where all students feel valued and where all students have equal access to learning opportunities. As an exemplar of a teaching case where I developed new teaching innovations to drive student interest and success, I will present a recent teaching innovation in collaboration with Microsoft and the Project Management Institute (PMI) to launch the Citizen Development University Hub in the University of Galway (see Figure 1).

Fig 1: University of Galway Citizen Development Hub

Citizen Development is a new method of delivering low-code/no-code development which was introduced to accelerate and expand students’ digital skills. I teamed-up with Microsoft and the PMI to teach students how Citizen Development hides the complexity of coding but empowers subject matter experts to innovate, design, develop, and deploy applications as though they were full-on, experienced coders, that in turn can eliminate inefficient processes and contribute to organisational change and public good

I introduced Citizen Development to our undergraduate and postgraduate students to empower them to develop the skills, competences, and confidence to work with digital technologies. Specifically, the Citizen Development University Hub was designed to educate students on Citizen Development through my research-led teaching1. The Citizen Development University Hub is now available to all staff and students across the University of Galway and I hope to expand on training opportunities.

Objectives of Introducing Citizen Development

There are growing demands for digital skills across various aspects of society. But just as the pandemic accelerated the need for change though information and communications technology (ICT), it laid bare the massive global shortage of digital skills. The pandemic placed growing pressures on the need for digital skills for remote working and learning. In 2021, the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) launched a report, Digital Inclusion in Ireland: Connectivity, Devices & Skills, which focused on Digital Inclusion. In this report, it describes how greater digital inclusion is needed to ensure that “Ireland’s households, businesses and public sector are prepared for a just transition towards the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, as ICT changes the shape of enterprise, employment and living conditions.” The report also outlines a number of key dimensions which citizen development can help to address, namely: (i) digital skills to keep up with the pace of change in ICT, and (ii) the confidence to overcome poor literacy and engage with ICT. The skills gaps are a critical challenge when it comes to the pace of change in ICT. Digital competency requires continuous learning. As well as the technical skills of being able to use devices, ICT users also need to be able to evaluate the accuracy and trustworthiness of online resources. In addition, confidence challenges are also encountered by those with poor digital literacy. Students from poorer socio-economic backgrounds tend to lag in ICT skills and find it difficult to engage with parts of society and/or gain employment in digital-related roles. The Citizen Development University Hub supports our students to address many of these challenges. For our first year in launching the Citizen Development University Hub (AY 2021/22), over 600 NUI Galway students (undergraduate and postgraduate) completed the training and received the industry certification from PMI and availed of Microsoft certifications – and this continues to grow each year. All students receive a digital badge upon completion of the courses

Teaching Practices and Incremental Monitoring

The Citizen Development University Hub was piloted at an undergraduate level module (i.e., MS2101: Managing Digital Transformation) and postgraduate programme-level (accessed by all 65 students on the “MSc in Information Systems Management”). Students were provided with a self-directed learning environment and had open access to the course material. Students were provided with free access to all of the Citizen Development University Hub resources (see examples in Figure 3). The Citizen Development University Hub was incorporated into an 8-week continuous assessment strategy to accommodate for an inclusive and flexible learning approaches. By completing the online course material and assessments, students could complete the integrated learning journey and successfully learn how to quickly build business solutions and transform workflows using low-code development. This has become an in-demand skillset by IS leaders around the world.2,3,4 Students could also get certified (i.e., micro credentials) with PMI and in Power Platform lowcode development by completing the courses assessment in the order listed presented on the Citizen Development Student Hub. There are 15 short courses listed on the Citizen Development University Hub (Figure 1) in the following order and developing student skills in digital literacy and digital solution development:

1. Citizen Developer Foundation

2. Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentals

3. Citizen Developer Practitioner

4. Create a Canvas App in Power Apps

5. Create a Model-Driven Application in Power Apps

6. Automate a Business Process Using Power Automate

7. Manage Permissions and Administration for Dataverse

8. Get Started Using Dataverse

9. Master Advanced Techniques for Power Apps Canvas Apps

10. Use Best Practices to Secure and Govern Microsoft Power Platform Environment

11. Create and Use Analytics Reports with Power BI

12. Bring AI to Your Business with AI Builder

13. Use the US and Controls in a Canvas App in Powers Apps

14. Create a Business Process Flow in Power Automate

15. Create Apps, Chatbots, Flows and More with Microsoft Dataverse and Teams

Summary of Student Feedback
Below are a sample of some student module feedback on the use of Citizen Development as part of my inclusive and digital skills teaching strategy:

“The lecture is inspiring me since the module contains knowledge that goes well beyond of what’s a basic understanding of digitalisation. Citizen Development really interests me, and I’ve never heard about that before and the opportunity to earn the badge was grand…”

“The lecturer is very accommodating when it came to continuous assessment, giving plenty of notice and support on how to carry out the PMI course online which was very helpful. This organisation made it a lot easier to learn and get work done on time for the module and learn about the prospects of citizen development!”

“Clear, concise approach to teaching, good insights into real world examples, very fair when it comes to online open approach to complete various modules in the citizen development student hub. This shows a genuine passion to teach students in an engaging way rather than throw material at us.”

“Noel speaks about the topics being covered with passion and ease, he uses real life examples, and it makes the learning very engaging. When I first started covered information systems and all things digital back in first year, I dreaded the idea of it and assumed I would be bad at it. All the modules covered around IS so far have been interesting, well organised and the lecturers are all really passionate about what they are teaching. Noel is understanding towards the student experience and it’s a pleasure to attend his lectures. Citizen development has opened my eyes to the prospects of empowering people to engage in a digital transformation process.”

“I found the current assessment for this module great, and we get to avail of certification from the PMI and Microsoft. Not only did the CA take on a different form it was an interesting task to complete. I was exposed to a platform that I might not have interacted with have I not been given the time or chance to do so. Of course, it also took the pressure off from having regular CA tests. It was a great experience and I thank Noel for giving students the opportunity to take part in it and giving us an experience for a different CA. I also find with modules such as this, that we as students learn so much more about the topics when the module isn’t covered by an exam, purely for the fact that we can better learn and delve into complex topics through research for end of year assignments. I will continue to use citizen development to build digital solutions for my university projects and hope to take it forward into my professional career.”

“The assessment for this module was beneficial. Instead of requiring an MCQ or essay assignment for continuous assessment for this module we completed citizen practitioner program. This for me is beyond beneficial as we have now received certificates and have something that will be of wroth to us in future employment. How cool is that!”

Conclusion
The Citizen Development University Hub proved to drive student interest and success in digital transformation through Citizen Development. In addition, the Citizen Development University Hub allowed me to achieve a number of key objectives including: (i) gauge students’ needs, (ii) be sensitive and proactive about student needs, (iii) use asynchronous approaches to offer students flexibility, (iv) adopt low bandwidth pedagogies to cater for different learning styles, (v) offer flexibility and options to students on various leaning pathways, (vi) made learning materials accessible and industry certification, (vii) developed a scaffold for online learning, (viii) offered a frequent and transparent guide for student learning, and (ix) start small to recognise that the course would evolve to support students’ needs in a flexible manner. I hope the above teaching case demonstrates my commitment to students in IS education and drive student interest and success in IS. I plan to build on this experience going forward and to empower students to develop the skills, competences, and confidence to work with digital technology initiatives.

Further Reading

  1. Carroll, N. and Maher, M. (2023). How Shell Fueled a Digital Transformation by
    Establishing DIY Software Development, MIS Quarterly Executive (forthcoming)
  2. Carroll, N., Móráin, L. Ó., Garrett, D., & Jamnadass, A. (2021). The importance of citizen development for digital transformation. Cutter IT Journal, 34, 5-9.