UMUC-EUROPE GRADUATE PROGRAMS
BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY

INSS630 Syllabus

Course Title Information Systems in Organizations
Term TERM 3, 2006/2007
Education Center HARROGATE-GRAD
Faculty Member Edward Wiggins - ewiggins@faculty.ed.umuc.edu

Faculty Contact Information:

ewiggins@faculty.ed.umuc.edu

Consultation:

Instructor will be available before and after class or by appointment.

Required Texts and Readings:

Bruner, R., Eaker, M., Freeman, R., Spekman, R., Teisberg, E., and
    Venkataraman, S.   (2003). The Portable MBA (4th ed.). New York: John     Wiley and Sons, Inc.

O'Brien, James A. and Marakas, George M. (2006). Management Information
   Systems
(7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

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.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.

Throughout the course, the instructor will assign specific articles that students are expected to read and discuss as part of the “Participation” component of the course grade.

Recommended Journals:

A variety of full-text, online, free-of-charge, and pay-per-view academic journals are available through the MIS Webboard at http://webboard.ed.umuc.edu/~mis.

Governing.com is especially useful, as are the publications of the various professional societies (such as ACM -- the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE Computing Society, and the various management professional societies). 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.  (Formerly INSS 530.)  Prerequisites: Undergraduate principles of management and economics, or permission of the Program Director. Introduces basic management information systems concepts and examines the fundamental types of information systems.  Personal, work group, and enterprise information systems are discussed.  The challenge and use of information to gain competitive advantage are also examined.  Other topics to be discussed include:  the economics of information, use of value added concepts to evaluate information system effectiveness, and the application of system theory to information system architecture.

Course Goals:

As a required course in both the M.S. in Management Information Systems and the M.P.A., as well as the Information Systems Analyst Certificate, the Certificate in E-Government and the Certificate in Public Management, this course seeks primarily to:

  1. improve the professional skills of the participants,
  2. provide students with a foundational knowledge of the various
     roles of information systems in organizations, and
  3. assist degree-seeking students in preparing for the comprehensive
     exam, and
  4. improve the students' comprehension of the link between information
     management and public administration.

Course Objectives:

At the conclusion of this course the student will be able to:

  1. Compare and contrast the various roles information systems play
     in organizations and discuss how these roles are reflected in the
     organization's structure,
  2. Analyze different organizational situations involving the use of
     information systems and/or the application of information
     technology and make recommendations for improvement,
  3. Analyze and demonstrate the impact of advancements of information
     technology on organizational variables (such as: communications,
     work groups, management decisionmaking, and security),
  4. Demonstrate knowledge of basic techniques and elementary skills in
     in using application software (such as: databases and spreadsheets),
  5. Demonstrate familiarity with the literature in information systems
     or a field of their own interest (e.g., medicine or welfare) with
     a focus on the use of information technology in that field,
  6. Demonstrate knowledge of the other functional areas of an
     organization (such as: finance, marketing or public relations,
     operations, human resources, and research and development) so that
     information systems analysis of any organization can be performed
     in a more comprehensive fashion,
  7. Analyze ethical issues surrounding the use of information technology
     in organizations,
  8. Discuss the importance of networkds to organizations, including
     issues of security and privacy,
  9. Analyze the extent to which an organization's use of information
     technology contributes to its competitive advantage, and
 10. Apply value added concepts in the evaluation of information system
     effectiveness.

Grading Information:

Grades for this course will be assigned as follows:
A 90% +
B 80 – 89%
C 70 – 79%
F Below 70% F or non-attendance F(n)


Please note that the Bowie State grading system does not include the grade of D.

Grades of Incomplete or Withdrawal are governed by UMUC – Europe policies. Please refer to the UMUC – Europe Graduate Catalog available at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/general_info/publications/catalogs/index.html or your local Education Center.

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:

Midterm Examination: 30%
Final Examination: 30%
MIS Project and Presentation 20%
Participation in Class (IS articles, discussions, & exercises) 20%

Description of Course Requirements:

Midterm and Final Examinations will be in-class.

All papers must conform to the APA style. 

Applications Exercises, Discussion Questions:
Exercises and questions from the O’Brien text (and other sources) will be assigned throughout the course. Some of these will be done in-class, others will be assigned as homework exercises. Details of these assignments will be posted to Webtycho or the Webboard.

Participation:
Every member of the class will be provided with access to Webtycho and will be expected to check there frequently.
From time-to-time, questions will be asked in class (by the instructor and/or by students) for which you will be told to search out an answer (using the web, library, or other sources) and share the information found with the rest of the class via Webtycho. This is part of “Participation,” as the Webboard is our mechanism for communication during the weeks between class meetings.
The remainder of the “Participation” component of the grade comes from traditional in-class discussions.

Absences:
If you must miss class, you are responsible for getting information from fellow students regarding what you missed. Assume that there will be discussion and/or lecture information that is not in the textbook. Realize also that the Course Schedule shown below is subject to change by the instructor as needed. The instructor is willing to help you regarding what you missed, but will not have notes regarding the discussions that take place in the classroom, nor on the presentations, and cannot repeat the class. Your “Participation” for the missed class should come in the form of postings to Webtycho.

If you must miss an exam, you are responsible for making arrangements with the instructor, in advance if possible.

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.

Course Schedule:

Date Module Topics Assignments
1 20 Jan 07 Sat
Morning Introduction & Overview
Chapter 1 - Foundations in Information Systems Business
Chapter 2 – Competing with Information Technology
Assign Project

2 21 Jan 07 Computer Sun
Chapter 3 – Computer Hardware
Chapter 4 Computer Software
Topics for Project due

3 03 Feb 07 Sat
Chapter 5 – Resource Management
Chapter 6 – Telecommunication Networks

4 04 Feb 07 Sun
Chapter 7 – Electronic Business Systems
Chapter 8 – Enterprise Business Systems
Mid-term

5 17 Feb 07 Sat
Chapter 9 – Electronic Commerce Systems
Chapter 10 – Decision Support Systems

6 18 Feb 07 Sun
Chapter 11 – Developing Business/IT Strategies
Chapter 12 – Developing Business/IT Solutions

7 03 Mar 07 Sat
Chapter 13 – Security and Ethical Challenges
Chapter 14 – Enterprise and Global Management of Information Technology

8 04 Mar 07 Sun
Final Examination
Project presentation

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 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:

Edward Wiggins is a Service member with 19 years of active duty service. He live in Harrogate, England accompanied by his wife and twin daughters. Edward will be your Instructor for Information Systems in Organizations.

Edward has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with emphasis in Procurement and Acquisition Management. His Bachelor of Science degree is in Management/Computer Information Systems.


Last updated by Edward Wiggins: December 25, 2006, 6:41 pm
Find this syllabus linked from the schedule at: http://www.ed.umuc.edu/schedule