UMUC-EUROPE GRADUATE PROGRAMS
BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY

INSS510 Syllabus

Course Title Computer Concepts
Term TERM 1, 2004/2005
Education Center SPANGDAHLEM-GRAD
Faculty Member Manfred Trostmann - mtrostma@faculty.ed.umuc.edu

Faculty Contact Information:

Lecturer: Manfred Trostmann
Phone 06171 78194 or +491715496690
Mail trostmann@rz.uni-frankfurt.de

Consultation:

The lecturer is available for consultation one hour before class starts.
Class Meetings
Time: 09:00 to 17:00
Dates:
21/22 August
11, 18/19 September
2/3 October

Required Texts and Readings:

Englander, I.  (2003).  Architecture of Computer Hardware & Systems Software, (3rd ed.).  Hoboken, NJ:  John Wiley and Sons.

Supplementary Readings:

The standard for papers in the graduate program is the APA style. All participants in this course and all graduate INSS, MGMT, PUAD, and ECON courses should have a copy of the style guide:
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition. Washington DC: Author.All graduate students should be prepared to utilize the UMUC online library at http://www.umuc.edu/library/.  The library contains a large number of full text academic journals that are free of charge and immediately available.  The library homepage also contains a number of links related to improving students' research and writing skills.

Recommended Journals:

Publications of the various professional societies (such as ACM -- the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE Computing Society, and the various management professional societies) are strongly recommended.  In addition, there are many trade journals (such as eWEEK) that MIS professionals should become familiar with, many of these being published both weekly and on-line.
 

Course Description:

3 semester hours credit.  Prerequisites: Undergraduate programming and college algebra, or permission of the Program Director. Provides an overview of basic computer concepts as they apply to MIS professionals. Emphasis is on basic machine architecture including data storage, manipulation, the human-machine interface including the basics of operating systems, algorithms and programming languages. In addition, the basic concepts of data organization including data and file structures are examined. Emerging trends in computer technology and their impact on organizational information systems are also discussed.

Course Goals:

Upon completion of the course, participants should:
1. Understand basic principles of computer architecture
2. Understand major operating system concepts, including the interrelationships between operating systems and computer hardware
3. Understand concepts of programming languages
4. Understand computer logic and data representation
5. Be conversant with the terminology describing computer hardware and software
6. Understand how computer peripherals work
7. Understand basics of network architectures
8. Understand new developments in computer technology

Course Objectives:

At the conclusion of this course the student will be able to:
1. Define the basic terms and processes related to computer systems architecture
2. Discuss components of an operating system
3. Describe the mechanisms by which an operating system manages hardware and software resources
4. Describe progression of operating system development
5. Describe the various types of programming languages
6. Describe the processes of translating and executing a program
7. Describe the process for developing applications
8. Describe basic methods of data representation
9. Describe the characteristics of data storage technology and how it influences the performance of computer systems
10. Describe the use of buffers and caches to improve computer system performance
11. Describe the use of data compression to improve computer system performance
12. Describe the concepts of file systems
13. Describe the characteristics and implementation of input and output devices
14. Describe the basic concepts of communication protocols
15. Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of distributed computing systems
16. Describe the technological trends in computer development
17. Discuss ethical issues in computing
18. Research current topics in computing

Grading Information:

Grades for this course will be assigned as follows:

A 92%
B 80 – 91%
C 70 – 79%
F Below 70%

Please note that Bowie State University does not use "D" for graduate students. The grade F(a) is used to designate academic failure. F(n) is used to designate failure for non-completion. Grades of Incomplete or Withdrawal are governed by UMUC-Europe policies. For further details, please refer to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog, available in your local Education Center or online at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/general_info/publications/catalogs.

Course Requirements:

Graduate school at the masters level focuses on helping students obtain the education needed for success as professionals in their chosen fields. Thus, UMUC-Europe Graduate Programs and Bowie State University share the common goals of promoting excellence in academic scholarship through thoughtful inquiry and the skillful application of knowledge and theory for the betterment of society.
 
In order to maximize your graduate educational experience in general and this course in particular, you are required to:
 
-  Participate in classroom discussions
25%  -  Complete graduate level projects or programming assignments, write graduate level papers or case studies
15%  -  Mini cases
20%  -  Midterm
40% - Final

Description of Course Requirements:

Participate in classroom discussions: You are expected to come to class prepared to engage in all discussions in a professional and informed manner. Usually this requires two to three hours for every hour of a face-to-face class and approximately ten hours of preparation per week for a DE class.
 
Complete graduate level projects or programming assignments, write graduate level papers or case studies:  You are required to conduct professional-level research, including appropriately citing works of others and avoiding plagiarism. Resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an automatic failure on the assignment.
 
Orally/visually present prepared material: You are required to present your results in a professional manner. In a face-to-face course, this typically means an oral presentation accompanied by appropriate visual material. In a DE class, this means creating a visual/textual presentation for your instructor and classmates.
 
Complete one or more written examination(s): The examination process in this class will assist you in developing the writing and critical thinking skills necessary for successfully passing the comprehensive exam required of all graduate students. The examination questions used for this course will either be taken directly from past comprehensive exams or written as though to be included on a comprehensive exam.
 

Course Schedule:

This schedule presents 16 units or modules, with each unit corresponding to a regular three-hour weekday meeting, a half-day on weekends, or a full week of DE.

Initial meeting:
Introductions
Review of syllabus
Clarification of goals, objectives and requirements
Orientation to subject
Overview of computer systems Chapter 1

Second meeting:
DATA IN THE COMPUTER
Number system Chapter 2

Third meeting:
DATA IN THE COMPUTER
Data formats Chapter 3

Fourth meeting:
DATA IN THE COMPUTER
Integers and floating point numbers Chapter 4 & 5

Fifth meeting:
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE AND HARDWARE OPERATION
The little man computer Chapter 6

Sixth meeting:
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE AND HARDWARE OPERATION
The CPU and memory Chapters 7 & 8

Seventh meeting:
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE AND HARDWARE OPERATION
Input/output and peripherals Chapters 9 & 10

Eighth meeting:
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE AND HARDWARE OPERATION
Modern computer systems Chapters 11 & 12

Ninth meeting:
THE SOFTWARE COMPONENT
An overview of operating systems Chapters 13

Tenth meeting:
THE SOFTWARE COMPONENT
The users view of operating systems Chapter 14

Eleventh meeting:
THE SOFTWARE COMPONENT
The internal operating system Chapter 15
Three operating systems Chapter 18

Twelfth meeting:
THE SOFTWARE COMPONENT
File management Chapter 16

Thirteenth meeting:
THE SOFTWARE COMPONENT
Programming tools Chapter 17

Fourteenth meeting:
Examination
Student presentations
Course evaluations

Academic Policies:

The University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism from internet resources. I may be using this service in this class by either requiring students to submit their papers electronically to Turnitin.com or by submitting questionable text on behalf of a student. If you or I submit part or all of your paper, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database throughout the term of the University's contract with Turnitin.com. If you object to this temporary storage of your paper, you must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. Please Note: If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I may utilize other services to check your work for plagiarismThe official university policy on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty can be found at http://www.umuc.edu/policy/aa15025.shtml. Section I.C. states: "Faculty may determine if the resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC), partially or in its entirety, is acceptable when assigning a grade on that piece of course work. Faculty must provide this information in their written syllabi. If the resubmission of course work is deemed to be unacceptable, a charge may not be brought under this Policy and will be handled as indicated in the written syllabi."

Please refer to Description of Course Requirements for specific information on how resubmissions will be treated in this course and to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog for information on the following:

Academic Integrity
Course Load
Exception to Policy
Grade Appeal Process
Make-up Examinations
Nondiscrimination
Students with Disabilities

Hard copies of the catalog are available at your local Education Center.

Faculty Bio:

Manfred Trostmann
got his Diploma in Electrical Communication from the Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University and in Electrical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences at Cologne.
After working for DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION (DEC) and Mobil Oil he managed the computer center of the University of Frankfurt and build the network for this university.
He is teaching for University of Maryland since 20 years and belongs to the graduate faculty where he is teaching several classes in the MIS program in Germany.


Last updated by Manfred Trostmann: July 28, 2004, 5:20 pm
Find this syllabus linked from the schedule at: http://www.ed.umuc.edu/schedule