Course Syllabus

NOTE: IT is ESSENTIAL that you read this syllabus during the first week of class and that you contact me if there is anything about the syllabus that you do not understand.

 

Course Syllabus for MNGT 142

Management Information Systems

Dr. Jocelyn Sirkis

COURSE INFORMATION

Welcome! I am glad you are here and I look forward to getting to know you better as the semester progresses. Management information systems (MIS) is an exciting topic to learn about because information and information systems are all around us! Every day brings about new and more and more fascinating ways that data is being collected and used. Information is driving our economy and our future.

  

CONTACTING DR. SIRKIS:

Please email me through the Canvas online classroom.

  

CANVAS ISSUES:

Should you experience difficulty using Canvas, please contact the Distance Education office at Distance_Ed@ccp.edu

 

OFFICE HOURS:

You can either email me via Canvas or arrange to speak with me live. To arrange a time to speak, please send an email via Canvas letting me know the subject you would like to discuss and the times that you are available. I am generally available at noon on weekdays and occasionally in the evening.

 

COURSE PREREQUISITES: CIS 103, MNGT 121 

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course provides students with an understanding of the systems analyst's job requirements and skills, and familiarizes students with the methods of creating and maintaining a management information system. Students are also exposed to management functions and project management techniques and will trace the five phases of a systems study. Data-gathering methods are studied, as well as interviewing and documentation techniques, cost analysis, hardware and software acquisition and the finalization of systems implementation.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES:

At the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Apply the major tools of information systems in global business today.
• Compare and contrast ethical and social issues in information systems.
• Describe information technology infrastructure and emerging technologies.
• Identify and explain how companies achieve operational excellence and customer intimacy through enterprise applications.
• Identify the types of electronic commerce and electronic payment systems.
• Describe systems development and organizational change when building information systems.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

In order to take this course, you must:

• Have access to a computer with continuous broadband internet access.
• Be able to view online video content including flash content (for videos)
• Be able to view pdf documents
• Have the ability to open and create Microsoft Office Word and PowerPoint files (you can use "open office" as long as you save your file as a word or powerpoint type file, as appropriate)

 

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK AND SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS:

• You can find the textbook by visiting the College's bookstore web site and searching for the required text for this course. For this semester, the text is: Laudon, K. C. and Laudon, J. P., (latest edition). Management information systems: Managing the digital firm. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
• Case studies: These will be posted in the Canvas classroom for you
• Supplemental readings or videos will be posted in the Canvas classroom for you
• Library databases: You may find that you want to access the library databases to search for information required to complete the industry analysis assignment. If you are not yet familiar with the online databases, please visit the CCP library website and set up an account. You should also try searching the databases on a topic (just for fun) so that you’ll be familiar with how the database search works.

 

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY (CHEATING):

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. If you are found cheating on any assignment for graded work, you will be given an “F” on that assignment and face disciplinary action through the College. If you are caught cheating more than once, you will be further penalized grade-wise (including failing the class) and the matter will again be brought forward for disciplinary action through the College. Cheating can occur in a variety of ways. Some examples include:

• Copying work from another student or asking another person for answers.
• Having someone else create graded work for you.
• Plagiarism or claiming the work of another individual as your own. Copying from someone else, copying text from a book, or copying from the internet are all example of plagiarism.
• Obtaining, without permission, materials that are intended to be used on a test, quiz, or graded assignment.
• Aiding another student by providing him or her with access to your work or assistance on assignments that are supposed to be performed individually.
• “Lifting” sections of written work either from the textbook or from any other source including the internet and not attributing that work to its rightful author. Please note that paraphrasing, which occurs when you rewrite what someone else has written (even if you change some of the words) is cheating unless you attribute what you have written to the original author. “Summarizing” is not cheating and involves condensing something you have read into your own words.
• If you are not certain if a specific activity would be considered “cheating,” I suggest that you refrain from that activity or ask me about it before proceeding.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

A number of announcements will be made during the course of the semester. It is YOUR responsibility to read all announcements. Announcements appear in the Canvas classroom. Announcements might be used to tell you about a change in a deadline, or to remind you about an important requirement. 

 

ONLINE WEEKLY CLASS SESSIONS:

Each week, beginning on Monday, we will begin a new lesson. The lesson will cover one chapter from the text and, often times, a supplement (short article, web article, video, etc.) For each textbook chapter, there is a PowerPoint presentation. I recommend that you use these as notes to guide you as you read through the chapter. You may or may not want to print these out - but they are the equivalent of "notes" on a blackboard. Each week, there will be a graded written assignments (alternating between written reports and written case studies) along with required participation in a graded on-line discussion. Any week that you do not participate in the discussion is considered a week that you are entirely absent from the class. After two weeks of absence, you may be dropped from the class. In addition, every other week you will have to complete a case study. Graded work is discussed in greater detail, below.

 

The graded work for each lesson is listed on the class schedule below. The week closes each Sunday night at 11:59. Be sure to submit your work before the end of the week. Do not wait until the last minute. Computers sometimes have glitches and having a computer glitch will not entitle you to an extension.

 

LATE WORK:

You are expected to manage your time and anticipate activities that might compromise your ability to complete your work on time. Because this is an on-line class, you must maintain your motivation. Slow and steady will win the race! Complete your reading early in the week so that you can complete your initial discussion posting before the Wednesday 11:59 deadline. Complete your written assignment and your discussion post response prior to 11:59 on Sunday. Late work will not be accepted.

 

EXCUSED LATE WORK:

Because of the flexibility afforded by an online classroom, there are very few reasons, barring serious illness or the death of an immediate family member, why lateness will be excused. The course is set up in Canvas so that if you miss an assignment deadline, you will not be able to submit your work.

GRADING AND GRADED ASSIGNMENTS:

Here’s the GOOD NEWS: there is NO midterm! Instead, you are expected to perform graded work every week.  Graded work is intended to help BOTH OF US understand how well you are learning and how well you are able to APPLY WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED.  There are 100 points available for the semester. This includes:

 

Weekly Multiple Choice Quizzes (1 point each, students who complete ALL quizzes and have an average score of 75% or higher will be given 5 extra points at the end of the semester) 14% 

Each week, you will be required to take a 15 minute, 10 question multiple choice quiz. Quizzes are based upon reading assignments from the textbook and are used to help both of us understand your level of comprehension of the reading material.  Each quiz is only worth one point, but all together they make up 14% of your grade! Quizzes must be completed on time. Canvas is set up so that you can no longer access a quiz after its due date. 

 

Weekly Participation in Gradable Discussions (2 points each) - 28%

Throughout the term, participation will be evaluated. You will be graded for each of our “gradable discussions” and your grade will be determined by the quality and frequency of your contribution. Completion of reading assignments is essential for full participation. You must first post your initial response (approximately 200 words) to the week’s question by 11:59 on Wednesday of the week that the discussion is assigned. Once you have made your initial post, you must also make a substantial response (approximately 100 words) to at least one initial post from another classmate and then continue to engage in the online discussion. 

To be as clear as possible, I have removed the "guidelines" for discussion posts and added a rubric for grading the discussion posts, below.

Grading Rubric for Discussion Posts.pdf

 

14 Weekly Assignments consisting of 7 Written Assignments and 7 Case Studies  (3 points each, lowest score will be dropped) - 39%

• Written Assignments:

Your written assignment should be approximately 600-750  words (two to three typed, double-spaced pages) and be reflective of your level of understanding of the material and your ability to think critically. Your paper should make at least one significant reference to the assigned reading and at least one other authoritative source (including business and industry journals).

It is not enough to have the "right" number of words; you must demonstrate to me that you have given the matter some thought and applied what you've learned.

Grading Rubric for Writing Assignments and Case Studies.pdf

 

• Case Studies:

Case studies give you a chance to put what you have learned into practice. They also help me to understand how well you are learning, thinking, and synthesizing the material. Each case study should be roughly 600-750 words in length and should draw upon the reading and other authoritative sources (including business and industry journals). It is not enough to have the "right" number of words; you must demonstrate to me that you have given the matter some thought and applied what you've learned.

 

PowerPoint Industry Analysis Assignment - 19%

Your Industry Analysis assignment will require that you delve deeply into an examination of a specific industry and how that industry manages and uses data.  Your assignment is to create a structured PowerPoint presentation (about 20 slides long) describing the industry you have chosen along with a description of the industry’s management information systems providers, the provider’s products, and the industry’s data and data management needs. You will be able to select which industry you would like to examine and you will find that much of the material to complete this assignment can be collected as you complete discussion assignments over the course of the semester. I highly recommend that you create a folder (physical or virtual) where you collect information concerning the industry and company you have chosen to investigate.

 

EXTRA CREDIT: At the instructor's discretion, extra credit assignments may be made available if I believe they will advance student learning. 

WRITING, GRAMMAR, AND SPELLING:

While this is not a “writing” course, you are expected to use standard English, correct spelling, and full sentences in your on-line discussions, your written assignments, and your case study write-ups. Occasional typos and misspellings may occur - but bad English and poor spelling may result in a deduction of points.

REFERENCES AND CITATIONS IN WRITTEN WORK

When you refer to the work or ideas of an author (whether it is the author of our textbook or the author of an article found in a magazine, journal, or on the web) you MUST include a reference and a citation – otherwise, you are plagiarizing. For this course, we will use APA style references and citations. Here some examples that will help make this easy for you:

 

CITATION EXAMPLE FOR A JOURNAL ARTICLE:

Here is the basic formula for citing a journal article:

Last name, first initial, middle initial if available. (year published). Title of the article: Only capitalize the first word of the title and the first word after a colon. Title of the journal in lower case italics. Volume number(issue number), pages. Retrieved from include the URL for the website where you found the article if you found it online

This is what it looks like:

Sagarin, B. J., & Lawler-Sagarin, K. A. (2005). Critically evaluating competing theories: An exercise based on the Kitty Genovese murder. Teaching of Psychology, 32(3), 167–169. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top3203_8

In-text citation:

(Sagarin & Lawler Sagarin, 2005)

 

EXAMPLE FOR A BOOK:

Here is the basic formula for citing a book:

Last name, First initial. (year published). Title of book in italics with only the first word and words after colons capitalized. Publisher city, publisher state: Name of publisher.

Here is an example of what it looks like using our textbook:

Laudon, K. C. and Laudon, J. P., (2013). Management information systems: Managing the digital firm. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

In text citation:

(Laudon & Laudon, 2013, p. 3)

 

EXAMPLE FOR CITING AN ARTICLE FOUND ON THE FREE WEB (I.E. NOT VIA THE LIBRARY DATABASES):

Here is the basic formula for citing a web page:

Name of Web Site with Capital Letters (year the article was posted if available). Title of article with only the first word capitalized. Retrieved from URL where you found the article 

Here is what it looks like:

Sea Turtle Restoration Project. (2006). Threats to sea turtles. Retrieved from http://seaturtles.org/section.php?id=104 

In-text Citation:
(Sea Turtle Restoration Project, 2006)

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Students who believe they may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss their accommodation form and specific needs as soon as possible, but preferably within the first week of class. If you need to request reasonable accommodations, but do not have an accommodation form, please contact the Center on Disability, room BG-39, phone number 215-751-8050.

Students who are registered with the Center on Disability must inform the instructor by the end of the first week of classes if special accommodations are requested.

 

CHANGES TO THE SYLLABUS

This syllabus may change at any time at the instructor's discretion.

 

CLASS SCHEDULE AND GRADABLE ASSIGNMENTS

Note: please refer to the session modules for detailed information

Date (2014)	Topic/Gradable Assignment NOTE: During some weeks there might be an additional  article or video added as part of the required week's reading/viewing. These will appear in the weekly modules.
January 13 – January 19	Chapter 1:  Information Systems in Global Business Today Welcome and “about me” paragraph READ YOUR SYLLABUS! Chapter 1 Quiz Gradable Discussion Written Assignment
January 20 – January 26	Chapter 2: Global E-Business and Collaboration Chapter 2 quiz Gradable Discussion Case Study Walmart
January 27 – February 2	Chapter 3: Information Systems, Organizations and Strategy Chapter 3 quiz Gradable Discussion Written Assignment
February 3 – February 9	Chapter 4: Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Chapter 4 Quiz Gradable Discussion Case Study: Aaron Swartz and the SOPA/PIPA Debate
February 10 – February 16	Chapter 5: IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies Chapter 5 Quiz Gradable Discussion Written Assignment
February 17 – February 23	Chapter 6: Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management Chapter 6 Quiz Gradable Discussion Case Study REI
February 24 – March 2	Chapter 7: Telecommunications, the Internet and Wireless Technology  Chapter 7 Quiz Gradable Discussion Written Assignment
Enjoy your Spring Break!
March 10 – March 16	Chapter 8: Securing Information Systems Chapter 8 Quiz Gradable Discussion Case Study Evolution Healthcare
March 17 – March 23	Chapter 9: Achieving Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy: Enterprise Applications  Chapter 9 Quiz Gradable Discussion Written Assignment
March 24 – March 30	Chapter 10: Ecommerce: Digital Markets, Digital Goods Chapter 10 Quiz Gradable Discussion Case Study Groupon
March 31 – April 6	Chapter 11: Managing Knowledge Chapter 11 Quiz Gradable Discussion Written Assignment
April 7 – April 13	Chapter 12: Enhancing Decision Making Chapter 12 Quiz Gradable Discussion Case Study ETSY
April 14 – April 20	Chapter 13: Building Information Systems Chapter 13 Quiz Gradable Discussion Written Assignment
April 21 – April 27	Chapter 14: Managing Projects Chapter 14 Quiz Gradable Discussion PowerPoint Presentations are DUE!! Case Study IBM Watson
April 28 – May 1	Last Few Days Wrap Up!