NATCHITOCHES – Dr. Eddie Horton, assistant professor in Northwestern State University’s Department of Computer Information Systems, won the Distinguished Paper Award presented at the Association of Business Information Systems/Federation of Business Disciplines. Horton collected the award at the FBD conference in San Antonio earlier this month prior to social distancing.
“My paper focused on the issues students and faculty have in communication and what are some things that can be done,” he explained. “Essentially, findings are that faculty still prefer face to face and phone conversations where students overwhelmingly prefer email or some other form of asynchronous communication.”
Horton holds the deVargas, LaCaze and Pierson Endowed Professorship of Business at NSU and is vice president of the Association of Business Information Systems.
Current events brought the topic into sharp relevance as NSU will operate with online and alternate coursework delivery for the remainder of the semester amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Horton said students and faculty will be forced to be more flexible and the university could consider a policy in which students and faculty respond to emails within a specified time period.
“Faculty have to be more diligent in emails and students have to increase other methods of communication,” he said. “In light of all the recent events, I’d like to conduct the study again in about a year, and see if this forced online time changed any perceptions,” Horton said.
NSU’s Computer Information Systems program offers curricula leading to the Bachelor of Science degree in CIS. The program is offered on-campus in Natchitoches, online and in a competency-based format through Electronic and Continuing Education. CIS classes are also streamed to the Leesville/Fort Polk, Alexandria and Barksdale campus each semester.
For information on CIS at Northwestern State, visit https://www.nsula.edu/computer-information-systems/.
