UMUC-EUROPE GRADUATE PROGRAMS
BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY

INSS630 Syllabus

Course Title Information Systems in Organizations
Term TERM 5, 2007/2008
Education Center DIST-ED_EUROPE_GRAD
Faculty Member Robert Mann - rmann2@ed.umuc.edu

Faculty Contact Information:

Dr. Robert E. Mann
mannr@bunt.com

Class dates:

9 June 08 – 17 August 08

 

Consultation:

Via e-mail and WebTycho (CET)

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. (2008). Management Information
   Systems
(8th 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:

Governing.comis 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%     or for regular 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%

Papers (2 X 15%)                    30%

Participation in Class              10%

Description of Course Requirements:

Portable MBA Paper and Presentation:
Each student will present 1 chapter from The Portable MBA book. The instructor will assign the chapters. There may be more than one student assigned to the same chapter, depending on class size. Note: these chapters may be covered on the midterm and the final exams. Minimum requirements for the chapter review are:

Chapter review must include a summary, at least five (5) major points, and must compare and contrast the ways in which the chapter topics apply in the business world and in public administration. The presenting students are also to prepare and post 1 or 2 discussion questions.

Comps Questions
Each student will be assigned a sample COMPS question. The instructor will assign the questions. There may be more than one student assigned to the same quesion, depending on class size. This activity is meant to provide students with a chance to go through a COMPS exam process. The actual questions from previous COMPS exams will be used.

All papers must conform to the APA style.

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:

Module

 Date

                Topics           

Assignments

Author(s)

1

9 June 08

Introduction & Overview

 

Foundations in Information Systems in Business

 

 

Assign first paper: Due module #6

 

 

O’Brien

Chap 1

 

2

16 June 08

Computer Hardware

 

 

Telecommunications and Networks

O’Brien

Chap 13

 

O’Brien

Chap 4

3

23 June 08

Computer Software

 

 

Data Resource Management Assign topic from the

 

 

Fundamentals of Organizations, Public and Private

 

Portable MBA

O’Brien

Chap 14

 

O’Brien

Chap 3

 

 

4

30 June 08

Introduction to e-Business Systems

 

 

O’Brien

Chap 5

 

5

7 July 08

Enterprise e-Business Management

 

 

Electronic Commerce Systems

 O’Brien

Chap 6

 

O’Brien

Chap 7

 

6

14 July 08

Mid-term Examination

 

First Paper Due

 

 

 

 

7

21 July 08

Developing Business/IT Strategies

 

 

Decision Support Systems

 

 

Assign Second Paper--Due 10th Module

 O’Brien

Chap 9

 

O’Brien

Chap 8

8

28 July 08

Developing Business/IT Solutions

 

 

Enterprise and Global Management of Information Technology

 

 

Competing with Information Technology

O’Brien

Chap 10

 

O’Brien

Chap 12

 

O’Brien

Chap 2

9

4 August 08

Competing with Information Technology

 

 

Enterprise e-Business Management

 

 

Security and Ethical Challenges

 

O’Brien

Chap 2

 

O’Brien

Chap 6

 

O’Brien

Chap 11

10

11 August 08

Final Examination

 

Second Paper Due

 

 

 

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:

Hello, my name is Dr. Robert E. Mann and I will be your instructor for this course for the next several weeks.

I grew up in the northern Rocky Mountain area where I obtained my education through the undergraduate level. I spent some time in the military: in command of lower level field artillery units, teaching, various staff jobs as a human resource manager, comptroller, special operations, manpower staffing and other odd jobs in several parts of the world. The opportunity become available to join private industry, so for several years I worked for various companies ranging in size from 4 to 45,000. In private industry the jobs were varied: as an analyst, functional expert, project leader, resource management and human resource manager.

My current full-time job is as a collegiate professor for UMUC-Europe at the undergraduate, graduate level and director of the public administration program. I have been teaching for over twenty-five years in the European program.

UNIVERSITIES

1958 - 1962 Montana State University, Bozeman Montana, USA
Bachelor of Science (BS), Liberal Arts
1973 - 1976 Boston University, Boston Massachusetts, USA
Master Science in Business Administration (MSBA)
1980 - 1981 Boston University, Boston Massachusetts
Master of Education (M.Ed.)
1983-1988 University of Southern California
Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.)


Last updated by Robert Mann: May 23, 2008, 10:31 am
Find this syllabus linked from the schedule at: http://www.ed.umuc.edu/schedule