MGMT 240 Introduction to Information Systems

Course Syllabus

Course Overview:

This course will introduce the topic of information systems (IS) and discuss how organizations use information systems to support for a variety of tasks ranging from basic day to day activities to creating competitive advantage in the market place. Following an overview of basic IS hardware and software, we will discuss topics such as business process reengineering, collaborative computing, electronic commerce, the impacts of IS upon organizations and society, ethical use of information systems, types of information systems, and how to analyze and design information systems. This broad topic coverage within information systems will provide you with the necessary foundation to understand the ever increasing relationship between information systems, organizations, and society in general. Throughout the semester, topics from the text will be supplemented with examples and cases from real-world organizations as they appear in news and trade magazines such as InformationWeek,Business Week, Fortune, etc. It is important to keep in mind that this syllabus is just a plan for the semester. As most plans go in life, the final product may vary slightly from the original vision. We will use this flexibility to our advantage.

Other Class Materials: Be sure to check out the Dilbert cartoon! There is more Information Systems and Management insight there than you may think!

Goals of This Course:

It has become nearly impossible to live in today's society and not be dependent on information systems of one type or another. Individuals, organizations, and society at large all depend on information systems in order to survive and thrive. This course focuses primarily on the impacts of information systems on organizations, thus, the overall learning goal of this course is to understand technology’s impact on organizations and the interplay between technology and the organization.

There are two specific learning objectives associated with this overall learning goal:

1) For students to be able to identify technologies that are appropriate to use for solving organizational problems, opportunities, and directive, and

2) for students to understand the problems that arise during the implementation of various technologies and how to solve and or avoid these problems.

E-Mail Account:
E-mail will be an absolutely vital communication channel for this course! I will periodically distribute updates to course materials and other notes via e-mail and it will be extremely important to use e-mail to communicate with your project group members and perhaps even with your organization project sponsors!

Grading:

Exam #1	25%
Exam #2	25%
Quizzes	10%
Project Paper & Presentation	30%
Active Participation & Case Studies	10%
Total	100%

There is typically an OPTIONAL Final Exam for this course. If you opt NOT to take the exam, the weight of Exams #1 and #2 will each remain at 25%. Should you opt to TAKE the final, the weight of each of the three exams will be reduced to 16.7%. Either way (final exam or not), exams in this course will comprise 50% of your final grade.

Grading for coursework is likely to follow the standard criteria of 90-100=A, 80-89=B, 70-79=C, etc., however, this is not carved in stone. In addition, I use "+" and "-" in grading. Typical numeric designations, for example, would be 80-82: B-, 83-86: B, and 87-89: B+, though actual criteria for the end of the semester can vary. Under no circumstances will "extra credit assignments" or "makeup points" be offered as a result of poor performance on an exam or quiz. Exam dates are fixed at the beginning of the semester - please do not wait until the last minute to study or notify me of a conflict that you know about now...

Cell Phone Policy: Cellular telephones have become a ubiquitous communication tool in today's society. They serve many useful functions, however, they are often less than useful in a classroom setting. Semester after semester, it seems that class is interrupted on an increasing basis by ringing cell phones because people forget to turn them off when they enter class. Therefore, each time your cell phone rings in class, you will lose one point off of your final semester grade. Each person gets a one-time "grace" period. That is, the first time your phone rings in class will not impose a penalty. The point deductions begin the second time.

Exams:

The exams for this course will take place in class and will be closed book and closed notes. There will be NO MAKEUP EXAMS offered unless you provide to me one of the following: 1) documentation from the Dean's office concerning an emergency that causes you to be off-campus on the day of the exam, or 2) a NASA-confirmed videotape featuring your abduction by aliens the night before the exam.

Quizzes:

Quizzes will occur on a random basis and will generally not be announced ahead of time. When they occur, quizzes will take place at the beginning of class time and be approximately 5 minutes in duration. Thus, arriving to class on-time will be important because all quizzes will be collected at the same time. If you arrive after the quiz has been collected, or are absent on the day of the quiz, you will receive a zero for that quiz. I do not offer makeups for quizzes.

Exceptions to receiving a zero when you are absent on the day of the quiz include medical events and University-related travel (athletics and job fairs/interviews). When documentation is provided for these events, your absence will not be counted against you, you will simply have one less quiz grade than the rest of the class to average together at the end of the semester. I expect to offer 5 to 7 quizzes for the semester, and I will probably drop one lowest quiz grade.

Group Project:

Successful completion of this course requires partcipation in a group project. The goals for the group project are two-fold. First, projects are a key component of the learning experience, and allow you to explore material in greater depth than the classroom allows. Second, experience with group projects will help you with your job search. Over the many years that I have worked with job recruiters that visit college campuses, the two primary skills they look for are the ability to work in a team setting and the ability to make competent presentations. The project for this course is designed to help you achieve each of these goals. More details about the group project can be found on the group project page.

The weight for the group project is higher than any of the individual exams because the project represents a sustained effort, whereas the exams occupy only a single class period. Additionally, there exist individuals whose performance on exams does not adequately represent their understanding of the materials covered during the semester. This is why exams represent only half of your final grade. You have all semester to work on your projects - get started right away and impress me!

Attendance & Participation:

Attendance and class participation will be recorded each class period. Participation is part of your grade and you can't participate unless you attend class. On the other hand, simply attending each class will NOT earn full participation credit - you must actively participate to receive full credit. Of the 10 points available for your participation grade, simply showing up to class each day and paying attention will earn you 3 points at the end of the semester. Active participation means asking & answering questions, engaging in class discussions, and contributing relevant current events, emailing me current events that are relevant to class, etc. I will help you discover that you do indeed know more than you think you do and that your opinions are important.

Academic Integrity:

The field of Information Systems is highly collaborative in nature. Individuals and organizations frequently work together to achieve results that are impossible to achieve alone. We will see many examples of this during the semester. However, exams in this course will be completed and graded individually. Any form of collaboration during an exam will be considered cheating.

Another topic related to cheating is that of not providing proper citation to work which is not your own. During this course, you will be exposed to a wide variety of materials and sources of information. It is perfectly acceptable to integrate the work of others into your project papers and presentations, so long as the original source of the information is properly acknowledged. Ideas of others that are not properly acknowledged constitutes plagiarism and will be viewed as cheating.

Cheating is a very serious offense to academic, personal, and professional integrity. ALL incidences of cheating will be referred to the Associate Dean's office and handled according to Bucknell University policy.

Course Schedule:

The schedule for this course can be found here.