Successful graduate students in American universities dedicate approximately three hours of preparation/study time for every hour spent in the face-to-face classroom. Thus, the following course requirements were developed on the assumption that students would be prepared to spend approximately 150 hours of their own time working on them. In an 8-week term, that is the equivalent of a half-time job. Most 14-week graduate distance education courses require at least 10 hours per week of dedicated time, plus time spent in the virtual classroom.
STATEMENT ON WRITING REQUIREMENTS:
Effective managers and leaders are also effective communicators. Written communication is an important element of the total communication process. The Graduate School recognizes and expects exemplary writing to be the norm for course work. To this end, all analyses and papers must demonstrate graduate level writing ability and comply with the format requirements of the Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association. All writing assignments will be graded on the basis of content, logic, analysis, mechanics, organization, and research. Careful attention should be given to source citations, proper listing of references, the use of footnotes, and the presentation of tables and graphs. Work submitted online should follow standard procedures for formatting and citation.
POLICY ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
Academic integrity is central to the learning and teaching process. Students are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that will contribute to the maintenance of academic integrity by making all reasonable efforts to prevent the occurrence of academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty includes (but is not limited to) obtaining or giving aid on an examination, having unauthorized prior knowledge of an examination, doing work for another student, and plagiarism of all types.
PLAGIARISM:
Plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional presentation of another person's idea or product as one's own. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to the following: copying verbatim all or part of another's written work; using phrases, charts, figures, illustrations, or mathematical or scientific solutions without citing the source; paraphrasing ideas, conclusions, or research without citing the source; and using all or part of a literary plot, poem, film, musical score, or other artistic product without attributing the work to its creator. Students can avoid unintentional plagiarism by following carefully accepted scholarly practices. Notes taken for papers and research projects should accurately record sources of material to be cited, quoted, paraphrased, or summarized, and papers should acknowledge these sources in footnotes. The penalties for plagiarism include a zero or a grade of F on the work in question, a grade of F in the course, suspension with a file letter, suspension with a transcript notation, or expulsion. 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.
DISABLED STUDENTS:
Students with disabilities who need to register or request services should contact the Staff Support Team four to six weeks in advance of registration to request and register for services.
COURSE EVALUATIONS:
Feedback on each graduate course and instructor is important to the university, your professor, and to all UMUC students. UMUC has the responsibility to assess the effectiveness of classroom instruction, and each student has the responsibility to provide accurate and timely feedback through completion of the course evaluation form. This is a shared obligation for us all. It is therefore important that you complete the evaluation form for each course you attend. This should be viewed as an additional course and program requirement.
The In-Class Case Exercise (ICE) is to be selected from a Chapter in the textbook by the students project team, and is subject to approval by the instructor. As indicated on the schedule, the Case Exercise is to be submitted to the instructor the first day of the course. After approval of the exercise, the student project team is to give a twenty to thirty minute instructional Powerpoint presentation of supporting material dealing with the proposed exercise. The presentation must give a background for the In-Class Case Exercise. During this presentation, it is expected that other students will propose additional aspects of the exercise to be considered in this team project. The student project team will then conduct the class through the In-Class Case Exercise over a one hour class period. When complete, the student project team will give a fifteen minute debriefing/evaluation of their ICE team project.
Participation and In-Class Work
There will be in-class exercises and discussion questions. 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.
The project for this course is a Current Issues Paper. (CIP)
The Current Issues Paper (CIP)
The CIP is divided into four sections, each with a different due date throughout the term.
You will complete each section separately and submit it separately to your Assignment Area on or before the due date. The due dates for each section of the CIP will be posted in the Syllabus/Schedule with reminders in each of the Weekly Conference units.
The description of the work to be done in each unit is explained below.
The total CIP is 300 points. CIP I is worth 30 points; CIP II is worth 60 points; CIP III is worth 60 points; and CIP IV is worth 150 points. Twenty percent of the points for each CIP (CIP-1 through CIP-4) are directly related to organization, grammar, verb tenses, pronoun use, spelling, punctuation, and writing competency and other requirements - including being submitted on time and following directions.
CIP-1
In today's world, IT and business professionals are concerned with the following issues (among others) in today's contemporary competitive environment.
1. The Efficacy of Firewalls
2. IDS Versus IPS: Which Security Is Best?
3. Best Practices in Network Security
4. Hackers, Malicious Code, and Trojans
5. Security Planning and Policy
6. Viruses and Worms: How to Defend Your Network
7. Spyware and SPAM: Best Approaches to a Persistent Problem
8. Corporate Insiders: How to Defend Against the Enemy Within
9. Cryptographic Security: An Applied Study of Encryption
10. To Catch A Thief: HoneyPots, Sniffers and New Technologies
Please select one of these leading IT issues to explore for your CIP. In no more than one page of text, explain your reason for selecting it.
Keep in mind that you will be spending the rest of this term researching your selected topic, so make sure you like your topic. Please be specific about the sub-topic on which you will be focusing.
Submit your choice and your reason(s) for your choice to me via your Assignment area under the tab "CIP-1."
CIP-2
Determine three critically important questions you would like to address regarding your topic for your CIP, with a minimum of two sub-questions under each main question, which will serve as a rough outline of your paper.
Submit your questions in Microsoft Word on a single page of paper with a cover sheet (as specified below).
Remember, include a cover page and follow all formatting requirements.
CIP-3
Using the UMUC databases and other sources of information, conduct a literature search on your selected marketing topic.
Submit a list of 10-15 references with clickable links (for me to easily access and review them) to your Assignment area under the tab "CIP-3."
CIP-3 should follow the formatting requirements in the Project Description. CIP-3 should include a cover page with formatting requirements. The reference page should be titled References. The title References is placed at the left margin of the page. Use APA style formatting.
To make a "clickable link" in Microsoft Word, copy and paste the link from your browser into the Microsoft Word document or type it. If typed, remember to press the Enter key for the link to turn "blue."
In one paragraph, you should explain why you have selected the references you have submitted.
It is best to give the exact source whether it is an article, a book, a newspaper article, or a special Web site.
If a reference is a Web site, you will generally need to give me the exact URL of the information you used.
Hint: Do not give me a search engine as a reference! For example, http://www.google.com is not a reference.
CIP-4
Start reading as much as you can about your topic and expand your thoughts as you read.
Start putting your thoughts in writing. In 4-6 pages, answer the three questions you submitted for CIP-2. Address arguments for and against your topic, if any. If you can think critically, try to now write critically.
Make sure your thoughts are cohesive and your paragraphs are clear by demonstrating one issue/thought/idea at a time and then moving on to the next.
However, since you have had plenty of time to work on your project, please make sure you incorporate all you have learned from this course to date and the skills you have developed throughout the session into your CIP-4 assignment.
When I grade CIP-4, I will look for critical thinking skills, logical and clear arguments, cohesive writing, proper citations and quoting, quality of references, flow of ideas and good transitions between paragraphs, grammatical-correct phrases, and - of course - no spelling errors.
Submit CIP-4 as a Microsoft Word attachment to your Assignment folder.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EACH CIP
1. WRITING QUALITY
Grammar, Verb Tenses, Pronoun Use, Spelling, Punctuation, and Writing Competency.
Remember: spell-check, then proof read. Better yet, have a friend or colleague read it before submitting it. Read it out loud to yourself.
Remember: there is not their, your is not you're, its is not it's, too is not to or two, site is not cite, and who should be used after an individual, not that. For example, "the person WHO made the speech" not "the person THAT made the speech."
Remember: In a professional paper one does not use contractions (doesn't, don't, etc.) and one does not use the personal you or your. Use the impersonal as I have in the previous sentence. It is more business-professional than saying, "Also in a professional paper you don't use contractions."
Remember: twenty percent of the grade for EACH CIP (CIP-1 through CIP-4) are directly related to organization, grammar, verb tenses, pronoun use, spelling, punctuation, and writing competency and other requirements.
2. REFERENCES
Use the APA format for your references. The CIP-3 assignment is a Reference List. (Reference List = same as a Bibliography)
In CIP-4 you will not need to re-submit the Reference List from CIP-2. However, you will need to correctly reference your sources within the body of your paper. Here is an example referencing a source within the text of a paper,
Mossman (2001) described the research design more clearly, "When developing a marketing proposal, one should always ........."
Marketing research is a requirement before any new product is introduced to the market." (Gomez and Breegle, 1999)
The references on the Reference List (CIP-2), must be Clickable links. I will check them. To make a link "live" (Clickable) in Microsoft Word, simple press the space bar or the enter key after typing it. If you are using a reference that is not from the Web, obviously you will not have a live link to it.
3. WORD PROCESSOR
Use Microsoft Word. If you do not have Microsoft Word, Save As a word document.
Use Page Setup in the Printer to configure it.
Use 1" margins top, bottom, left and right sides.
Use Times New Roman, size 12.
Use double spacing.
In all CIPs use appropriate headings and subheadings. Headings and subheadings should be placed at the left margin.
The first word of each new paragraph should be indented 1/2" from the margin. 1/2" on my Page Setup is 1 tab space.
For CIPs that are longer than 1 (one) page, number each page in the bottom right corner. The cover page should never be numbered.
4. COVER PAGE
Use a cover page for each submission. In the center of the page, in this order, double spaced, put:
Your Name
CSMN 655
CIP #
Title of the CIP
Nothing else needs to be added to the cover page.
5. COMMENTS
Using the CIP system, following the above requirements, and getting frequent feedback will help you not only in this course, but in your other courses as well.
6. Rubrics that Will Be Employed to Grade Your CIP Paper will be distributed the first day of class.
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