Faculty Contact Information:
| I can be contacted using the e-mail address at the top of this syllabus or via your personal study group within the Web Tycho (WT) classroom. Each student will be assigned a pesonal study group within the WT classroom. This study group has each student and the instructor as members. We can use this group to communicate separately from the rest of the class on issues regarding the course. | |
Consultation:
| I am always available for consultation via e-mail and the WT personal study group. | |
Required Texts and Readings:
| Englander, I. (2003). Architecture of Computer Hardware & Systems Software, (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. | |
Supplementary Readings:
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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.ed.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:
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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.
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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:
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Grades for this course will be assigned as follows:
A 90% +
B 80 – 89%
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.
Please note that the deadline for withdrawing from this course is 19th January 2007. | |
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:
10% - Participate in online conferences and discussions
40% - Complete two short (5 - 7 pages) papers OR one program
25% - Complete an online open book/notes midterm examination
25% - Complete an online open book/notes final examination
Important note: 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. Additionally, I check each assignment (programs and papers) turned in to see if it has been copied from the Internet or other sources. I consider this to be cheating. Cheating is not acceptable in this course and will result in at least an automatic failure for the assignment. In more severe cases, it may also result in an automatic failure for the course. | |
Description of Course Requirements:
Participate in classroom discussions: You are expected to engage in the online conferences. Usually this requires the student to log into the classroom five to six times per week for about a half an hour per session. Each week's conferences will have numerous informational topics as well as one or two mini assignments. In the mini assignments, students will be asked questions on various real-world, textbook, and case-study topics, which they are required to answer to receive participation points.
Additionally, each student will be required to complete either two short (5 - 7 page) written papers on a technical subject related to the course material (topics chosen by the instructor) OR one program (topic chosen by the instructor). If the student chooses to write a program in leiu of a technical paper, he must use one of the programming languages: ANSI C, C++, C#, Java, Pascal, or Visual Basic (not VB Script). If the student writes the paper, each one will be worth 20% of the total course grade, for a total of 40%. If the student chooses the program, the one program will be worth 40% of the course grade. | |
Course Schedule:
This course consists of thirteen weeks of instruction, which includes two weeks for testing and one week for a break. This means there are 10 weeks of lectures. Topics covered by week will be as follows:
Week 1 (30 Oct - 5 Nov 06)
-- Introductions
-- Review of syllabus
-- Clarification of goals, objectives and requirements
-- Orientation to subject - Computer Systems
-- Course programming project or paper # 1 assigned to students
-- Students should have read chapter 1 of the text
Week 2 (6 - 12 Nov 06)
-- Week 2 conferences - Number Systems and Data formats
-- Students have read chapters 2 & 3 of the text
Week 3 (13 - 19 Nov 06)
-- Week 3 conferences - Representing Integer Data & Floating Point
Numbers
-- Students have read chapters 4 & 5 of the text
Week 4 (20 - 26 April 06)
-- Week 4 conferences - The Little Man Computer & the CPU and
Memory
-- Students have read chapters 6 & 7 of the text
Week 5 (27 Nov - 3 Dec 06)
-- Week 5 conferences - The CPU and Memory: Design,
Implementation, and Enhancement
-- Students have read chapter 8 of the text
Week 6 (4 - 10 Dec 06)
Week 6 conferences - Input/Output
Students have read chapter 9 of the text
Week 7 (11 - 17 Dec 06)
-- Week 7 conferences - Computer Peripherals
-- Students have read chapter 10 of the text
-- Paper # 1 is due by 17 Dec 06
Week 8 (18 - 24 Dec 06)
-- Online Open Book/Notes Midterm Examination (Ch 1 - 10 of text)
-- Students writing papers receive paper # 2 assignment
-- Students begin working on paper # 2 or programming assignment # 2
Week 9 (25 - 31 Dec 06)
-- Break
Week 10 (1 - 7 Jan 07)
-- Week 10 conferences - Modern Systems, Clusters, and Networks
-- Students have read chapter 11 of the text
Week 11 (8 - 14 Jan 07)
-- Week 11 conferences - The Internal Operating System and File Management
-- Students have read chapters 15 and 16 of the text
Week 12 (15 - 21 Jan 07)
-- Week 12 conferences - Programming Tools
-- Students have read chapter 17 of the text
-- Paper # 2 or Programming Assignment due by COB 21 Jan 07
Week 14 (22 - 28 Jan 07)
Online open book/notes final examination (Chapters 1 - 11, 15 -
17) | |
Academic Policies:
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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 plagiarism
The 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.
Students with disabilities should contact the appropriate support office at UMUC-Europe.
Jan Keller, Director of Student Services
UMUC-Europe, Heidelberg
Phone: +49-6221-378299
Email: edstudent_svc@ed.umuc.edu
Mailing Address: Unit 29216, APO AE 09102 OR Im Bosseldorn 30, D-69126 Heidelberg, Germany
Please refer 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
Code of Civility
Hard copies of the catalog are available at your local Education Center. | |
Faculty Bio:
James Helton is a Senior software developer and analyst working for Lockheed Martion Corporation. He has been the software project lead or architect for several medium to large size information systems projects. He is well-versed in multiple programming languages and operating systems and has experience with a multitude of hardware platforms.
He has taught undergraduate computer science and information systems management courses for the University of Maryland since 2001, graduate courses for Bowie State University since 2002, and graduate MSIT courses for UMUC since 2006. He has an undergraduate degree in Computer Information Systems and a Master's degree in M.I.S. | |