To be rich is to have choices. I want my students to be rich. While I design and teach programming courses, I am also aware that only a handful of my students will go on to hold the words “Programmer” or “Developer” in their job title. But I am convinced that most of my students will use programming concepts, technologies, and techniques in their work after graduation. And those who do not, will wish they did. The topics I teach open the door to careers filled with interesting, challenging and rewarding work.
I am an Associate Professor in the Management Information Systems Department at the Fox School of Business, Temple University. I began teaching as a second career in July, 2014. I hold a Master of Science degree in Management Information Systems from Temple University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from SUNY Brockport University.
My research interests lie in S.T.E.M. pedagogy.
Recent awards, grants, presentations, and activities are listed below.
Outside of academia, I am a busy father. My wife and I are the proud parents of seven children: four biological and three adopted. We are closely affiliated with several charitable organizations, most notably: Fostering Hope PA and Foster the Family.
Spring 2025 Courses
MIS2402.004 – Web Application Development
MIS3502.001 – Web Service Programming
MIS3502.003 – Web Service Programming
MIS3536.001 – Information Systems Innovation with A.I.
Awards
- Andrisani-Frank Undergraduate Teaching Award, May 17, 2023
- MIS Faculty Leadership Award, April 5, 2019
- AIS IS Education SIG, Best Paper Finalist, December 4, 2018
- AIS Chapter Advisor of the Year, April 13, 2018
- MIS Faculty Teaching Award, April 10, 2018 (Spring and Fall 2017 semesters)
- MIS Faculty Leadership Award, April 5, 2016
Grants
- Teach Access Faculty Grant, May 15, 2023
Awarded a $5,000 grant to advance the teaching of the design and development of accessible technologies.
Presentations
- Doyle, M., Shafer, J., “Grade-O-Matic: A Tool to Test and Grade Programs”, Completed Research Paper, in the Proceedings of the 2023 AIS SIGED International Conference on Information Systems Education and Research, Panama City, Panama, August 10-12, 2023. (Presenter)
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2023/sig_ed/sig_ed/7 - Schuff, D., Shafer, J., “API-based Web Development”, Presentation, Presented at the IT Teaching Workshop, University of Rochester, Simon Business School, Rochester, New York, May 28, 2021. (Presenter)
https://simon.rochester.edu/research-conference/2021-it-teaching-workshop - Shafer, J., “A Framework for the Qualitative Comparison of Sentiment API Service Providers”, Completed research paper, in the Proceedings of the National Association of Business, Economics and Technology, State College, Pennsylvania, October 22-23, 2020 (Presenter)
http://www.nabet.us/proceedings-archive/NABET-Proceedings-2020.pdf - Doyle, M., Shafer, J., “The Impact of Cold-Calling on Student Learning and Student Satisfaction”, TREO Talk Paper, in the Proceedings of the American Conference on Information Systems, Cancun, Mexico, August 14-18, 2019. (Presenter)
https://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1518&context=amcis2019 - Shafer, J., “A Quantitative Consideration of Rigor and Retaliation: Investigating Student Evaluations of Teaching, Rigor, and Grade Distributions”, Completed Research Paper, in the Proceedings of the 2018 AIS SIGED International Conference on Information Systems Education and Research, San Francisco, California, December 12-14, 2018. (Presenter)
https://aisel.aisnet.org/siged2018/23 - Mandviwalla, M., Shafer, J., “Serverless and APIs: Rethinking Curriculum in Higher Education”, Presentation, Presented at the IT Teaching Workshop, Boston University, Questrom School of Business, Boston, Massachusetts, June 1, 2018. (Presenter)
Activities
- Created the MIS Helpdesk for Coding (September 2019 – Present)
- Association for Information Systems SCLC National Conference (April 2019), Program Chair
- Association for Information Systems SPO, MIS (July 2016 – June 2019), Advisor
- Representative of the Fox School of Business in the Faculty Senate (July 2017 – July 2020, July 2023 – present)
- Taught “Upward Bound” and B3USoar students in the Summer of 2021
- Taught Pre-College Workshop (Introduction to Web Design) in the Summer of 2022
- Institute for Business Information Technology: Digital Innovation Foundry projects
- IoT research and recommendations to AmerisourceBergen Corporation
- Faculty advisor for a team developing Risk Analysis software for AmerisourceBergen
- Faculty advisor for a team of Fox MBA students providing market analysis and recommendations to Synacor Inc.
- Software development for the Siminoff Research Group (2016-2019)