Course Syllabus MMIS 620

Instructor:

Eric S. Ackerman, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean and Director of Graduate Programs
Nova Southeastern University
Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences
3301 College Avenue
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33314
(954) 262-2063
1-800-986-2247 ext 2063
esa@nova.edu

Course Description:

This course covers major concepts and architecture of computer information systems including information concepts; information flow; types of information systems; the role of information in planning operations, control, and decision making; integrated information systems across a range of functional elements and computer information systems in organizations.

Required Software:

All software used can be downloaded at no cost directly from the course web site.

Exit Competencies:

Upon completion of this course, the student will comprehend the following:

• How to use and manage information to revitalize business processes, conduct electronic commerce, improve business decision-making, and gain competitive advantage.

• Fundamental behavioral, technical, business, and managerial concepts about the components and roles of information systems including basic information system concepts derived from general theory or competitive strategy concepts used to develop information systems for competitive advantage.

• The major uses of information systems for the operations, management, and competitive advantage of an inter-networked E-business enterprise, including electronic business, commerce, collaboration and Decision-making using the Internet, intranets, and extranets.

• How end users or information specialists develop and implement information systems to meet E-business opportunities using several application development approaches.

• The challenges of effectively and ethically managing E-business technologies, strategies, and security at the end user, enterprise, and global levels of a business including the managerial challenges of information technology.

• Major concepts, developments, and managerial issues in information technology - that is, hardware, software, network, data resource management, and many Internet-based technologies.

Course Outline:

Foundation Concepts

• Understand why knowledge of information systems is important for business professionals and identify five areas of information systems knowledge they need.

• Understand how E-business, electronic commerce, or enterprise collaboration systems could support a firm’s business processes, managerial decision-making, and strategies for competitive advantage.

• Provide examples of several major types of information systems from business organizations in the real world.

• Identify several challenges that a business manager might face in managing the successful and ethical development and use of information technology in a business.

• Identify several basic competitive strategies and how they can use information technologies to confront the competitive forces faced by a business.

• Identify several strategic uses of information technologies for electronic business and commerce, and how they give competitive advantages to a business.

• Understand how business process reengineering frequently involves the strategic use of E-business technologies.

• Identify the business value of using E-business technologies for total quality management, to become an agile competitor, or to form a virtual company.

• Understand how knowledge management systems can help a business gain strategic advantages.

• Identify and evaluate several factors that could help a company sustain a strategic competitive advantage.

Business Applications

• Identify the major types and usage of electronic business applications supported by the Internet, intranets, and extranets in an E-business enterprise.

• Identify several of the hardware, software, data, and network components of an intranet's information technology architecture.

• Enterprise resource planning

• Customer relationship management

• Enterprise application integration

• Supply chain management

• Online transaction processing

• Identify the major categories, processes and trends of E-commerce applications.

• Understand the benefits and trade-offs of several E-commerce clicks and bricks alternatives.

• Identify the changes taking place in the form and use of decision support in E-business enterprises.

• Identify the role and reporting alternatives of management information systems.

• Describe how online analytical processing can meet key information needs of managers.

• Understand decision support system and expert system concepts.

• Understand how neural networks, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, virtual reality, and intelligent agents can be used in business.

• Identify several groupware tools for electronic communications, conferencing, and work management,

and give examples of how they can enhance the collaboration of teams and workgroups in a business enterprise.

Development Processes

• Understand the role of planning in an E-business enterprise

• Understand the role of E-business planning in the development of E-business strategies, architectures, and applications.

• Identify several change management solutions for end user resistance to the implementation of new E-business

Strategies and Applications

• Use the systems development process and the model of IS components as problem-solving frameworks to help propose information systems solutions to simple business problems.

• Understand each of the steps of the information systems development cycle to develop and implement an E-business system.

• Understand how prototyping improves the process of systems development for end users and IS specialists.

• Identify the activities involved in the implementation of new information systems.

• Describe several evaluation factors that should be considered in evaluating the acquisition of hardware, software, and IS services.

• Identify several ethical issues in how the use of information technologies in E-business affects employment, individuality, working conditions, privacy crime, health, and solutions to societal problems.

• Identify several types of security management strategies and defenses, and explain how they can be used to ensure the security of E-business applications.

• Identify several ways that information technologies have affected the job in E-business companies

• Understand how problems of information system performance can be reduced by the involvement of business managers in IS planning and management.

• Identify the seven major dimensions of E-business organization and how they affect the success of E-business companies.

• Identify each of the three components of E-business technology management

• Identify several cultural, political, and geo-economic challenges that confront managers in the management of global E-business technologies.

• Understand the effect on global E-business strategy of the trend toward a trans-national business strategy by international business organizations.

• Identify several considerations that affect the access choice of IT applications, IT platforms, data policies, and systems development methods made by a global E-business enterprise.

Management Challenges

• Identify several types of ethical issues in information technology

• Identify several types of security management strategies and defenses

• Identify how information technologies have affected the job of managers

• Identify major dimensions of the E-business organization

• Identify several cultural, political, and geo-economic challenges that confront managers in E-business technologies.

Review of Information Technologies

• Identify the major types, trends, and uses of microcomputer, midrange and mainframe computer systems.

• Outline the major technologies and uses of computer components, functions and peripherals for input, output, and storage.

• Describe several major trends occurring in computer software.

• Outline the functions of an operating system.

• Describe the main uses of high-level, fourth-generation, object-oriented, and web-oriented programming languages and tools.

• Understand how database management software helps business professionals and supports the operations and management of a business.

• Identify several major developments and trends in the industries, technologies, and applications for telecommunications and networks.

• Identify the basic components, functions, and types of telecommunications networks used in business.

• Understand the functions of major types of telecommunications network hardware, software, media, and services.

Instruction Methods and Tools:

Students will submit work using WebCT

Assignments:

Ten written assignments which are10 points each for a total of 100 points.

Grading Criteria:

Student grades will be based upon the level of performance in meeting course requirements. These requirements include product content, product organization, scholarship (in text citations and references list), writing style, and timely submission. Course products found deficient in these areas are subject to grade point reduction.

Note that a cumulative course percentage below 70% earns an 'F'

School and University Policies and Procedures:

1. Standards of Academic Integrity For the university-wide policy on academic standards, see the section Code of Student Conduct and Academic Responsibility in the NSU Student Handbook. Also see the section Student Misconduct in the GSCIS catalog.
Each student is responsible for maintaining academic integrity and intellectual honesty in his or her academic work. It is the policy of the school that each student must:

• Submit his or her own work, not that of another person

• Not falsify data or records (including admission materials and academic work)

• Not engage in cheating (e.g., giving or receiving help during examinations; acquiring and/or transmitting test questions prior to an examination; or using unauthorized materials, such as notes, during an examination)

• Not receive or give aid on assigned work that requires independent effort

• Properly credit the words or ideas of others according to accepted standards for professional publications (see the next section Crediting the Words or Ideas of Others)
  
  
• Not use or consult paper writing services, software coding services, or similar services for the purpose of obtaining assistance in the preparation of of materials to be submitted for course assignments or for theses or dissertations.
  
  
• Not use term paper writing services or consult such services for the purpose of obtaining assistance in the preparation of materials to be submitted in courses or for theses or dissertations

• Not commit plagiarism (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (2004) defines plagiarism as “stealing or passing off ideas or words of another as one’s own” and “the use of a created production without crediting the source.”) (see Crediting the Words or Ideas of Others below)

Crediting the Words or Ideas of Others

When using the exact words of another, quotation marks must be used for short quotations (fewer than 40 words), and block quotation style must be used for longer quotations. In either case, a proper citation must also be provided. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition, (2001, pp. 117 and 292) contains standards and examples on quotation methods.

When paraphrasing (summarizing, or rewriting) the words or ideas of another, a proper citation must be provided. (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition (2001) contains standards and examples on citation methods (pp. 207–214) and reference lists (pp. 215–281)). The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1993) defines paraphrase as “An expression in other words, usually fuller and clearer, of the sense of a written or spoken passage or text…Express the meaning (of a word, phrase, passage, or work) in other words, usually with the object of clarification…”. Changing word order, deleting words, or substituting synonyms is not acceptable paraphrasing—it is plagiarism, even when properly cited. Rather than make changes of this nature, the source should be quoted as written.

Original Work

Assignments, exams, projects, papers, theses, dissertations, etc., must be the original work of the student. Original work may include the thoughts and words of others but such thoughts or words must be identified using quotation marks or indentation and must properly identify the source (see the previous section Crediting the Words or Ideas of Others). At all times, students are expected to comply with the school’s accepted citation practice and policy.

Work is not original when it has been submitted previously by the author or by anyone else for academic credit. Work is not original when it has been copied or partially copied from any other source, including another student, unless such copying is acknowledged by the person submitting the work for credit at the time the work is being submitted, or unless copying, sharing, or joint authorship is an express part of the assignment. Exams and tests are original work when no unauthorized aid is given, received, or used before or during the course of the examination, reexamination, and/or remediation.

2. Writing Skills

Students must demonstrate proficiency in the use of the English language. Grammatical errors, spelling errors, and writing that fails to express ideas clearly will affect their grades and the completion of their academic programs. The faculty will not provide remedial help concerning grammatical errors or other writing difficulties. It is the student’s responsibility to proofread and edit his or her work which, in both form and content, should be letter-perfect. Work that is not properly edited will be rejected. It is university policy that students must submit their own work, not that of another person. Consequently, they should refrain from using outside editors to redo their work.

Several books contain general guidelines for writing. On Writing Well (Zinsser, 2006) is an excellent guide to clear, logical, and organized writing. The Elements of Style (Strunk and White, 2000) is a compact handbook on the basic principles of composition, grammar, word usage and writing style. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) (2001), a comprehensive handbook on writing for publication, addresses editorial style, grammar, and organization. Give particular attention to Chapter 1, Content and Organization of a Manuscript; Chapter 2, Expressing Ideas and Reducing Bias in Language; and Chapter 3, APA Editorial Style. Chapter 2 also has good advice on writing style and grammar. Another excellent handbook on writing for publication is The Chicago Manual of Style (2003). The APA manual and the Chicago manual contain guidance on punctuation, spelling, capitalization, abbreviations, quotations, numbers, statistical and mathematical material, tables, figures, footnotes, appendixes, and reference citations in text. Students should use a good dictionary such as Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.).

3. Disabilities and ADA

NSU complies with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). The universitys detailed policy on disabilities is contained in the NSU Student Handbook. Student requests for accommodation based on ADA will be considered on an individual basis. Students with disabilities should discuss their needs with their academic advisors before the commencement of classes if possible.

4. Communication by Email

Students must use their NSU email accounts when sending email to faculty and staff and must clearly identify their names and other appropriate information, e.g., course or program. When communicating with students via email, faculty and staff members will send mail only to NSU email accounts using NSU-recognized usernames. Students who forward their NSU-generated email to other email accounts do so at their own risk. GSCIS uses various course management tools that use private internal email systems. Students enrolled in courses using these tools should check both the private internal email system and NSU’s regular email system. NSU offers students web-based email access. Students are encouraged to check their NSU email account and their course management email daily.

5. The Temporary Grade of Incomplete (I)

Course withdrawal requests must be submitted to the program office in writing by the student. Requests for withdrawal must be received by the program office by the calendar midpoint of the course (see dates in the academic calendar in the catalog and program brochures or websites). Withdrawals sent by email must be sent from the student’s assigned NSU email account. Requests for withdrawal received after 11:59 p.m. EST on the withdrawal deadline date will not be accepted. Failure to attend class or participate in course activities will not automatically drop or withdraw a student from the class or the university. Students who have not withdrawn by the withdrawal deadline will receive letter grades that reflect their performance in the course. When a withdrawal request is approved, the transcript will show a grade of W (Withdrawn) for the course. Students with four withdrawals will be dismissed from the program. Depending on the date of withdrawal, the student may be eligible for a partial refund (see the appropriate catalog section Refund Policy Regarding Withdrawals).

7. Acceptable Use of Computing Resources

Students must comply with the university’s Policy on Acceptable Use of Computing Resources (see NSU Student Handbook).

8. Academic Progress, Grade Requirements, and Academic Standing

Students must be familiar with the school’s policies which are contained in its catalog.

9. Student Research Involving Human Subjects

Students must be familiar with the university’s policy (see paragraph in catalog).

10. Responsibility for Payment of Tuition and Fees

Once registered, students are personally responsible for the payment of their tuition and fees.  Returned checks, cancelled credit cards, employer or agency refusal to pay, ineligibility for financial aid, and other reasons for non-payment may result in a direct bill to the student, and/or referral to a collection agency.

Payment and refund policies are based on the view that a student registering for a class is reserving a place in that class and that tuition and fees cover the opportunity to secure that place in the class. Since no other person can purchase that place, the student is responsible for the tuition and fees associated with it.  Simply not attending does not constitute a reason for non-payment.