Specification:

Educational setting:

Interface analysis,
Information studies,
Bachelor’s level,
10 ECTS,
on site

Time:

30 minutes

Number of students:

100

The teaching of this course on Interface Analysis was located in a lecture hall, with 100 bachelor students in Information studies.

The aim of the activity was to create an awareness among the students about the existence of direct and indirect stakeholders, and that they represent various types, needs and interests.

In the first part of the exercise, the students were asked to work in pairs for 15 minutes to fill out the worksheet for direct and indirect stakeholders analysis (see “Materials”) and their values of eBay. During the exercise, the teacher showed a slide listing several values for inspiration.

In the second step of the activity, the students were asked to use Mentimeter to report back:

• Three most relevant stakeholders (direct or indirect),
• Three most relevant stakeholder values.

The result was visualized as a word cloud projected on the wall. The teacher asked the students to reflect on the differences and similarities, but also the challenges and benefits of identifying diverse stakeholders. The span of stakeholders ranged from the police and relatives to people who had been burgled, to sellers and buyers.

Fig 1 and 2. Word clouds of Relevant stakeholders and Stakeholder values.

Afterwards, the teacher published the result of the activity on the university learning management system so that the students could access it (see “Materials”).

The teacher is facilitating the learning through providing a short introduction to the activity, keeping time, answering questions, controlling the Mentimeter, and facilitating discussion afterwards.

After having completed the teaching activity, students will be able to know the difference between indirect and direct stakeholders, and to distinguish specific types of stakeholders.

When running this kind of exercise, students tend to spend too much effort trying to familiarize themselves with and formulate values, and less time to come up with stakeholders. So make sure there is enough time and emphasis on both. However, in the given time, the activity was successful in the sense that they all managed to list some direct and indirect stakeholders with corresponding values, and as so, lived up to the expected learning goals.