Making it Better: Value Perceptions of Usability Workshops in Education Outreach

Abstract

Abstract

IS Education outreach programs are important today, as the need for Information Technology (IT) professionals has risen in the last decades. Information Systems (IS) outreach efforts are often short lived and rely heavily on interested individuals to make them happen. This study looks at one case in Finland, where two universities collaborate with a company to create usability improvement workshops to upper secondary school students. By interviewing the stakeholders, this study aims to map the value for each stakeholder group, and their reasons for participating in the studied outreach project. Service dominant logic and value co-creation are used as the theoretical framework to categorize stakeholders’ value expectations, perceptions, and propositions. The paper reports the value experienced by each stakeholder group, compares those to what others expect them to gain, and seeks to find ways to create outreach programs that benefit all participants.