Before going into this chapter, students should have now appreciate EA. EA is not system development. What an organization says that it has an EA program, you know what that some initiatives have been done that integrates and align the business strategy, its business and technology. When a company implements ERP, that is one step into moving into EA. Hopefully that ERP is align with the organizations business and strategy.
This topic is about two things. First, structure of enterprises. Students are being introduced to Leavit Diamond, Parson/Thompson Model and Organizational model. The three models were presented because these are the models mentioned in the textbook. From this model, the author of the textbook relates it with the EA3 Cube Framework. In a way, knowing the structure of the enterprise is important because it helps as to map the structure with the framework.
The second topic was about culture. I conducted an activity using Padlet. I asked the students to write the culture that they feel exists in UTP. Students use this opportunity to its fullest :-)) Late picking up calls, staff not in the counter when they need them and so on etc. But there are also response that concerns themselves e.g it is a culture in UTP to come late to class or submit assignment late and so on. Anyway, the objective of this activity is to see that culture is something that is hidden. It is about someone's beliefs and values. Obviously some of the responses in Padlet were not really culture per se. Secondly, I asked why is it that knowing culture is important. Next, what the students should do, is to relate that with EA. Why is that knowing culture is important in EA? Culture is about people. In EA, changes bound to happen. It is a fact that people have difficulties in changing their ways of doing things. As an EA, we have to appreciate and try to come with ways that could manage that change.
I am not able to cover change management in lecture but there is a question on change management in the tutorial exercises. So, that covers it.
Tutorial
For the tutorial, I asked the students to get together in a group of 4. Two students will do question 1 until 5 and the remaining will do question 6 until 8. Once they are done, the students will explain their answers to each other. The intention is that for the students to interact with one another and to explain their findings. I believe that if a student attempt to explain their findings to a friend, the student will understand better. The goal is for the student to understand not to complete the exercise the quickest.
While trying to give comments on the student's work, I noticed that a few groups have the same answer for Q8. Copying and pasting. The questions were not answered properly even. I suspect the students do not understand what is expected of the question. Only one group answers Q8 perfectly. Need to think of other strategies to ensure that the students participate as I imagine them to be.
Monday, 15 October 2018
SDB4313z Week 4 Overview of EA
The topic presented this week is a continuation of the Overview of EA topic. The previous topic was about the definition of EA. Generally what is EA is all about. This week we go a bit deeper into the components and activities of EA. There are 6 components of EA. I am sure students should have known by now what are the 6 components. The activities of EA can categorized into two: as a management program and as a analysis and design method. I hope that the student could see the difference between the two. I also expect students to be able to describe this and has the ability to give examples.
SDB4313z Week 3 Possible Need for an EA Program
I expect that all students who come to class this morning will already have access to OpenLearning. I also expect that all students have read the case study. But there were some students who just joined the Facebook group and register for OpenLearning where as instructions have been given on Facebook for the past two weeks.
This week, we discussed case study 1: The possible need for an EA program. The activity was a Think Pair Share activity. The student has to work in pairs. The student would post their partner's response on OpenLearning and also write a little bit of reflection on what do they learn from the case study. Some students don't want to work in pairs. They want to be in a group of three. I allowed them do it but I think I shouldn't. To me, the bigger the group that lesser you will learn. So, students take this as a group work but not pair work. I noticed 6 people at the back and they still form a group of 3. Insecurity? Not confident in pairs? Not knowing the partner that well? Not sure. If they say they work better in bigger groups, I am not buying it. The bigger the group, the lesser you will learn. This is something that I experience myself.
I presented the topic Overview of EA Part 1. This topic covers the definition of EA and the drivers of EA. The case study demonstrates why an EA needs to be adopted.
Next week, I will continue with Overview of EA Part 2. That covers the EA components, activities and EA Cube Framework.
SDB4313z Week 2 Introduction to OpenLearning and EA
Openlearning.com was introduced to the students and the students get their first hands on on OpenLearning.com by introducing themselves. I also presented the EA Overview Part 1. In the lecture, I talked about what is EA and also I explained about the problems in organization that leads to EA. I mentioned that this problems can also be seen as the driver of EA. What drives organization to implement EA? That is also another way to look at it. There was also a slide about Why EA? This slide is not about Why organization implement EA. It is about why the term is Enterprise Architecture and what does it signifiy.
For Week 3, I asked the students to read Case Study 1: Possible Need for an EA Program from the Bernard textbook. Students have to read this case study before class so that the discussion of the case study can be effective.
SDB4313z Week 1 Enterprise Architecture
SInce Monday is a public holiday, class is postponed to Thursday 2-4pm at 01-00-02. This session is important as I want to introduce OpenLearning.com to student.
TEB1083 Week 5 Kahoot Quiz on Overview of EA and Case Study 2
This week I started the class at 8:45am. I stated on Facebook that I am not going to assign a quiz and also a discussion on case study 2. Students know how to use Kahoot! That is good it saves me time. The questions were easy. It was meant to be. Students were doing really well but I think that is not true test of understanding. The tests are. But IshaAllah, I thnk they can do it.
After the quiz, I asked the students to an activity that relates to the case study. The ultimate outcome is that I want to see whether the students understand the case study or not. I used the Pair Compositions method in this activity. Pair compositions is one of the activities in active learning and from information gathering it used mostly in language classes. But I think it could be used in any courses that requires student to write as an activity. I took longer than I thought. I believe that if students have ample time reading the case study before class, the activity can be completed earlier. One thing that I learned, anything that require students to read, you need give them ample time to read. I also should remind the students that it is okay to read the article or case study more than once. Breaking the article into smaller chunks can be helpful as well.
After the quiz, I asked the students to an activity that relates to the case study. The ultimate outcome is that I want to see whether the students understand the case study or not. I used the Pair Compositions method in this activity. Pair compositions is one of the activities in active learning and from information gathering it used mostly in language classes. But I think it could be used in any courses that requires student to write as an activity. I took longer than I thought. I believe that if students have ample time reading the case study before class, the activity can be completed earlier. One thing that I learned, anything that require students to read, you need give them ample time to read. I also should remind the students that it is okay to read the article or case study more than once. Breaking the article into smaller chunks can be helpful as well.
Friday, 12 October 2018
TEB1083 Week 4 Sturcture of Enteprises and Culture.
Week 4
The topic for this week is Chapter 2 Structure of Enteprise and Culture of the textbook. I recap with what we did this week particularly on the lab exercises. I recapped about EA3 Cube, the 5 levels, the components and others. I begin my Structure and Culture lecture. My intention was to finish it all, but given the time and the content, I knew that I don't have that much time to cover everything. Again, my goal is for the students to learn in an environment that is not intense, dull and boring. I talked about the structure of enterprise from Leavitt Diamond, Parson/Thomas and ONM and how Parson/Thomas and ONM relates to EA.
In this week's lecture, I can say that interaction in the class is good. I asked a lot of questions. I want the students to be awake and to think. If they need to refer back to their notes, go ahead. That is what I want them to do.
ACTIVITY
I asked the students to write down the culture in UTP. Just for the fun of it. But my goal is to show that culture is something that is not written. It is an individual's beliefs, values. In the end, I managed to cover everything EXCEPT for Culture I.e change management AND the paper by Niemetz. This would give me an idea. Maybe I should ask the students to read the paper and again, I would make a quiz out of that.
PROJECT: My first mentioning about the project. I told the students to have a group between 3-4 members. Students argued that in my earlier lecture I mentioned about 4-5 students. It sounded okay that time but when I think about 3-4 students sound good. The lesser the better actually
In the next session, I told the students that I am going to have quiz on Chapter 1. I will give them a Kahoot quiz. That would be in the morning. I will start the class at 8:30am with a Kahoot quiz.
I might ask the students to read Niemetz paper and discuss with their friends on Friday.
Week 5 is about Chapter 3: Values and Risks. I think the students should do this one. Based on the group, find papers that the student need to read and present. First year first semester students. Can they? :-(( Student has to read Case Study 2 p.63 textbook
TEB1083 Week 3 Overview of EA Part 2
I started the class at 8:30am. Almost all of the students were in the class already. 2-3 late comers. Not bad. Actually, I expect all the students to be in class at 8:30am. I like 8:30am. There is no pressure. For Week 3, I begin the class with the usuals, recapping of what the students learned in n Week 2. Particularly on What is EA and the drivers. Then I continue with Overview of EA Part 2. For the activity, I asked student think of a driver and find a resource that supports the student's driver. I managed to discuss with a few students looking at their response. Some of them gets it. Some of them don't. The think drivers are the same as reasons which is not.
For the tutorial sessions, I gave Chapter 1 questions. I asked their opinion on the questions. Most of them responded that the questions were difficult. It was the first time that they see such questions. I told them that is how the questions look like in Test and Final exam. In the tutorial I recap again on what we have learned. I also asked some student on what questions that they felt was difficult. Most of them answer the question that relates to EA Repository. Fair enough, I did not cover EA Repository as of yet. For question 7, I told the students they can complete it some other time as long as it is within the week.
Next week, I will cover Structure and Enterprises and Culture topic.
For the tutorial sessions, I gave Chapter 1 questions. I asked their opinion on the questions. Most of them responded that the questions were difficult. It was the first time that they see such questions. I told them that is how the questions look like in Test and Final exam. In the tutorial I recap again on what we have learned. I also asked some student on what questions that they felt was difficult. Most of them answer the question that relates to EA Repository. Fair enough, I did not cover EA Repository as of yet. For question 7, I told the students they can complete it some other time as long as it is within the week.
Next week, I will cover Structure and Enterprises and Culture topic.
TEB1083 Week 2 Overview of EA Part 1
The class started the class at 8:30am. Almost all of the students were in the class already. 2-3 late comers. Not bad. To begin the class, I recap what we learn in Week 1. It seems that everybody is in OneNote. That's a good start. I started the class with some brief introduction on enterprise architecture. I about being an enterprise architect and also mentioned that enterprise architecture is not a methodology. I explained about the term enterprise and architecture. Next, is the case study. I asked the students to do W2 Activity. The activity last for more than 40 mins. It can only work if the students actually read the case study. But I think majority of them read the case study. I discussed the outcome of the case study. Next is the lecture Overview of EA Part 1. I stopped at 2 Main Problems in Organization.
The class supposed to finish at 10am. I thought of continuing but there is another class at 10am. The lecturer has arrivedm so I topped the class at 10:05am
What I should do in the future is to time the lecture carefully. I think that is okay if I start at 8:30am but again, may be I should give the students to do something at 8:00am or record something for the students to do between 8:00am – 8:30am . For next week class, I will continue with what I left will Recap on the 2 main problem in organization. Then proceed with EA definition. For the activity, I plan to ask the students to think of a driver and then search for a resource that supports the driver.
The class supposed to finish at 10am. I thought of continuing but there is another class at 10am. The lecturer has arrivedm so I topped the class at 10:05am
What I should do in the future is to time the lecture carefully. I think that is okay if I start at 8:30am but again, may be I should give the students to do something at 8:00am or record something for the students to do between 8:00am – 8:30am . For next week class, I will continue with what I left will Recap on the 2 main problem in organization. Then proceed with EA definition. For the activity, I plan to ask the students to think of a driver and then search for a resource that supports the driver.
TEB1083 Week 1 Introduction
First class was conducted on Friday 14th September. Around 20 plus student come. I introduced the course and two tools that we are going to use this semester which are OneNote and Padlet. For OneNote, I demonstrated the tool. I showed them about sections and pages in OneNote. For practical, I asked the students to create page in their own section about themselves. For Padlet, I asked the students to list three keywords that define enterprise and three keywords that define architecture.
For next week, I asked the student to read Case Study 1: MC Possible Need of an EA . I plan for the students to discuss the case study using the Think Pair Share method. I also expect students to write a reflection about their learning process today.
For next week, I asked the student to read Case Study 1: MC Possible Need of an EA . I plan for the students to discuss the case study using the Think Pair Share method. I also expect students to write a reflection about their learning process today.
Wednesday, 10 October 2018
SDB4323z Week 5 ABAP Dictionary
Week 5 is about ABAP Dictionary. Student need to know the real purpose of ABAP Dictionary before they can go further in writing ABAP programs that use ABAP Dictionary to access the database. In practical sense, you would need to use the objects that you created in ABAP Dictionary in your ABAP program. In Week 4, I explained briefly about ABAP Dictionary. In Week 5, it is going to be hands on. The lab activities enable students to experience ABAP Dictionary. The material that I used in the lab is the the Unit 1 and Unit 2 of the BC430 ABAP Dictionary course in SAP. I do not know whether this course still exist or not. A quick check. Wow! BC430 course still exists. Check out https://training.sap.com/course/bc430-abap-dictionary-classroom-015-us-en/. Lucky students! This BC430 course has a prerequisite which is BC400 ABAP Workbench. That course exists too. Check out https://training.sap.com/course/bc400-abap-workbench-foundations-classroom-016-us-en/. EISD course in UTP is a combination of these 2 SAP courses. Students learn both the Dictionary and the Workbench. Because of we are tied up with the 14 weeks, then I cannot show them all. But, I think the skills that they learn in this course is sufficient to jump start their career in case they are going into this direction.
Unit 1 is about introduction to ABAP Dictionary i.e what is all about and the functions in ABAP Dictionary, definition of data objects etc. In the lab, students had the hands on in defining data elements, domain and how these two objects are used in an ABAP program. They were minor hiccups in which the material that they are referring to i.e BC430 exercises had some minor differences with the IDES system that they were using. But those were really minor.
I think for a first time user of ABAP Dictionary and to actually use it to create data elements and data objects, the students did okay. Students should not feel afraid to try out or make mistakes. That is how the students learn from it. Students have to develop programs that demonstrate the use of this data elements and domain. The data elements were used as types for the objects in the program i.e name, assets and liabilities. Some programs were not working because of the name used for the data elements were typed incorrectly or the data elements were not activated. It is important for the data objects to be activated. Save, Check Syntax and Activate. These are the three things that students need to do for an object or program.
The lecture is about recapping the things we learn/did this week. I gave them a quiz in which the quiz was an open note quiz (not open book or open Google). Students can look at their own notes and other friends' notes. What the students were doing is actually comparing notes. If a student feels that their friends write really good notes, copy them. If both of them don't write notes, then the should be doing something about it.
Unit 1 is about introduction to ABAP Dictionary i.e what is all about and the functions in ABAP Dictionary, definition of data objects etc. In the lab, students had the hands on in defining data elements, domain and how these two objects are used in an ABAP program. They were minor hiccups in which the material that they are referring to i.e BC430 exercises had some minor differences with the IDES system that they were using. But those were really minor.
I think for a first time user of ABAP Dictionary and to actually use it to create data elements and data objects, the students did okay. Students should not feel afraid to try out or make mistakes. That is how the students learn from it. Students have to develop programs that demonstrate the use of this data elements and domain. The data elements were used as types for the objects in the program i.e name, assets and liabilities. Some programs were not working because of the name used for the data elements were typed incorrectly or the data elements were not activated. It is important for the data objects to be activated. Save, Check Syntax and Activate. These are the three things that students need to do for an object or program.
The lecture is about recapping the things we learn/did this week. I gave them a quiz in which the quiz was an open note quiz (not open book or open Google). Students can look at their own notes and other friends' notes. What the students were doing is actually comparing notes. If a student feels that their friends write really good notes, copy them. If both of them don't write notes, then the should be doing something about it.
Coursework: Activities Greatest Hits!
In the lecture, I briefly talked about the coursework. One new component of the coursework is Assignment 3. This assignment 3 involves selecting 5 lab programs that a student has written and explain the programs. I basically want to encourage students to complete the activities in the lab. I call this Assignment 3 Activities Greatest Hits! (Hahaha. I am so impressed with myself right now!. Coming up with such a lame name for an assignment. Wanted to add...."covering all your favorites!" but I guess that is just too much and kind of overdoing it). Well, assignments should not be daunting or terrifying. At least it sounds like really fun.SDB4323z Week 4 ABAP Workbench
This week is about ABAP Workbench. ABAP Workbench consists of tools that developers can use to develop ABAP applications. In the lecture, I mentioned that there are 5 tools that is being used in developing ABAP applications.
Students got to experience some hands on on Object Navigator, ABAP Editor and ABAP dictionary. That is the scope of EISD anyway. I wish that we could have EISD 2, then the Screen Painter and the Menu Painter can be covered.
For the lecture, I covered ABAP Dictionary particularly on what is ABAP dictionary and the data objects in ABAP dictionary namely Field, Data Element and Domain. In the slides, there are some screenshots but it is weird to show screenshots whereas we could get to see the real deal. But at least, the screenshots could be an eye opener for the students. These three objects Field, Data Element and Domain was explained further. Next week (Week 5), I intend to show the students the Field, Data Element and Domain directly from ABAP Dictionary.
- Object Navigator - you would see ALL objects including programs in this one program.You can also access other programs in Object Navigator
- ABAP Editor - you write your ABAP programs here.
- ABAP Dictionary - you define your data objects here, among other things.
- Screen Painter - you develop your screens, the PAI and PBO modules here.
- Menu Painter - you develop the menu bars i.e standard and application toolbars here. The coding for the icons are also developed in Menu Painter.
Students got to experience some hands on on Object Navigator, ABAP Editor and ABAP dictionary. That is the scope of EISD anyway. I wish that we could have EISD 2, then the Screen Painter and the Menu Painter can be covered.
For the lecture, I covered ABAP Dictionary particularly on what is ABAP dictionary and the data objects in ABAP dictionary namely Field, Data Element and Domain. In the slides, there are some screenshots but it is weird to show screenshots whereas we could get to see the real deal. But at least, the screenshots could be an eye opener for the students. These three objects Field, Data Element and Domain was explained further. Next week (Week 5), I intend to show the students the Field, Data Element and Domain directly from ABAP Dictionary.
SDB4323z Week 3 R/3 Architecture
Out first face-to-face lecture starts in Week 3. On Wednesday, students get their first hand on ABAP programming. The objective for this session is to give the students their SAP user id and password. The students have to do two programs that were obtained from a YouTube video. My intention is for them to have the feel of it. Overall, I think that the lab went well. The username and password had some hiccups but really minor. My experience from teaching the course previously really helped me. For example, I told the students don't ask my help for some trivial things. Ask Google, your friend and if that does not help, then you have my permission to ask. That really help the lab to be in control. I hope this will be maintained. The Hello World and Calculator program are easy. To make the activity more interesting, I added extra requirements for the Calculator program. This is to test the student's logic.
For the lecture, I recap the topics that they supposed to learn specifically the R/3 Architecture. I gave a little bit of lecture on this one. Next I talked a little bit about ABAP Workbench and the Basic ABAP statements. One of the impromptu activities that I had was the event keywords. I noticed that the students have talked a little and it was probably too much of information to digest. Lastly, I entertained some Q+A sessions.
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