Dr. Grandon Gill holds an AB (cum laude) from Harvard College and an MBA (high distinction) and DBA from Harvard Business School. He teaches introductory and intermediate courses in programming for undergraduates and also teaches case method capstone courses in the MIS undergraduate, MS-MIS and Executive MBA programs. He has also taught a variety of IT courses during his tenure at USF, from computer systems concepts to doctoral case methods. He received USF’s Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2007 and 2013.
Dr. Gill has published or edited more than 40 case studies, most recently for the Journal of IT Education: Discussion Cases. His recent book, Informing with the Case Method, has been the basis of workshops in the U.S. and around the globe. Thus far in 2013, venues have included the NSF TUES PI Conference in Washington D.C., RMIT: Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, the United Nations Staff College in Turin, Italy, and at the 3rd International Symposium on Integrating Research, Education, and Problem Solving (Special Track on Case Methodologies), Orlando Florida.
Dr. Gill is passionate about using technology as a teaching tool and has studied distance learning, strategy, and practice, alternative course designs, and tools for course development and delivery, all under the general heading of informing science. His research in this area has been published in many journals, including Informing Science, Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, the Journal of Information Systems Education, eLearn, and the Journal of IT Education. He has also published multiple times in MIS Quarterly, the MIS discipline’s leading journal—his most recent article considering the MIS fields from an informing science perspective. His academic service includes stints on the editorial boards of six journals. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Informing Science: the International Journal of the Emerging Transdiscipline and the Journal of IT Education: Discussion Cases. He serves as a Governor and Fellow of the Informing Science Institute.
From whom should a client seek information? In a very simple environment, one where questions typically have a single "correct" answer that does not change much over time and facts are not in dispute, it may not matter very much. Whether information is acquired from an instructor, a textbook, an online source or from acquaintances, it may amount to the same thing. In a complex environment—where many plausible solutions to a problem can co-exist, where context is critical and ever-changing and where alternative information sources each have their own agenda—the question becomes much more difficult to answer.
The presentation introduces an exploratory framework that considers how different types of complex environments may lead an individual or organization to seek out alternative sources of information. It begins with a brief overview of extrinsic complexity, a form of complexity closely related to the notion of a fitness landscape from evolutionary biology. It then summarizes the challenges presented when informing takes place in high complexity environments. Three dimensions for classifying such environments—survivability, maturity and focus—are then proposed. Potential informing sources are also classified based upon the role they play in the environment relative to a potential client. Finally, a prescriptive model is developed that proposes how these alternative informing sources may be prioritized based upon the client's environment.
