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University System of Maryland in Europe, MIS Program

INSS 680 - Information Systems Practicum (3 s.h.)

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Location: Harrogate Term 1, 2000/01

Dates: Weekends : 19/20 August, 2/3, 16/17, 30 September, 1 October 9.00 to 16.00

Lecturer: Dr.Richard J.Housden.

Prerequisite: Advancement to Candidacy and Completion of 21 Semester Hours.

Course Description:

This practicum provides the student with practical experience in planning, analysing, designing, constructing and evaluating an information system within a real world environment. The student will be assisted in the choice of a suitable systems development project in which all the phases of the systems development life cycle will be experienced.

Course Requirements:

Students are required to work singly or in pairs to solve a problem in some aspect of information system development. (The advantages and disadvantages of individual effort versus team co-operation should be considered carefully before choosing one or the other mode.) On the first day of the course, students will choose a problem they might like to solve. This could be a problem arising from their work experience but it is preferred that it is not something they are doing as part of their daily work. The instructor will assist with the choice of project.

Students will be required to present their ideas and progress reports to the class for critical appraisal via class presentations each weekend. Each presentation should take about 30 minutes and will be followed by 30 minutes or more of discussion and questioning from their peer group and the instructor. These presentations will detail work in progress and will take the form of a structured walkthrough as would be used in professional systems development. Every student must make a full presentation of their (contribution to the) work and produce appropriate documentation (interim reports) for their review. Students should be prepared for a rigorous and detailed examination of their work. In addition to presenting their own work, all students will be expected to participate in the structured reviews of other students' work. These presentations and reviews will be assessed and will count towards the final grade. The detailed schedules for the presentations will be determined when class numbers are finalized.

At the end of the course, students will submit a final written report of their work. Where students work in pairs, the reports must show clearly which student was responsible for each section. (It is expected that joint projects will involve the same amount of effort per student as for a student working alone.) The final project report should show relevant sections of the solution process as described in courses INSS 540 Information Systems Analysis and Design and INSS 550 Database Management and Decision Systems and the phases should be clearly demarcated. It is impossible to prescribe the length of a report - each problem is unique. However, it is strongly recommended that students select a small problem, which they can complete in the set time in preference to one which is too large and which can be only partially solved within the time constraints.

 Grading:

Grades for this course will be assigned Pass(P) or Fail(F) only. To be awarded a Pass, a student must achieve at least 75% of the marks awarded according to the following scheme. The grade of Incomplete(I) is awarded only rarely and then only in very exceptional circumstances e.g. an important TDY or some serious problem.

Grading scheme:

Presentations (4)		Content		Quality	Spoken Visual aids,etc.
Presentation #1 Initial proposal		15%		5%	5%
Presentation #2 Work in Progress		15%		5%	5%
Presentation #3 Work in Progress		15%		5%	5%
Presentation #4 Final Report		15%		5%	5%

Final Written Report:

Content and correctness			60%
Degree of completion			15%
Quality of structure, organization, English			25%

Participation in Reviews of other students' work - a percentage grade.

The final percentage grade will be determined using the formula :

Final grade = 0.3 ´ Presentation Percentage + 0.6 ´ Final Written Report Percentage

+ 0.1 ´ Review Participation Percentage.

Schedule of Classes:

Weekend 1	Introduction and discussion of course requirements.
	Review of Systems Analysis and Design, discussion of SDLC, the structured review process.
	Presentation of initial proposals by students (Sunday).
Weekends 2,3	Student presentations of work in progress (walkthru's)
Weekend 4	Student presentations of final reports/results, hand-in of final written reports.

 

Office hours: Professor Housden will be available for consultation as required before and after each class meeting. He may also be contacted by telephone at home most evenings on Milton Keynes (01908) 583488 or by electronic mail. His address is:

15 Wood Lane, Aspley Guise, Milton Keynes, MK17 8EJ.

Email : R.J.Housden@open.ac.uk .

 

Instructor: Dr. Richard J. Housden

Dr. Housden is an Emeritus Professor of the Open University (UK). He received his MA(Hons) in Mathematics and qualified teacher status in Mathematics from Cambridge University, and the Academic Postgraduate Diploma in Numerical Analysis and Doctor of Philosophy (Computer Science) from the University of London. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Chartered Information Systems Engineer and a Chartered Mathematician. He has some forty five years experience of teaching, curriculum development and course accreditation. Until his retirement in 1997, he was Professor of Computing at the Open University where, as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Resources), until July,1995, he had overall responsibility for all University resources: financial, human and physical including responsibility for IS Strategy and IT Strategy. He is currently an Academic Advisor to the University of Buckingham. He has been a term appointed lecturer for the University of Maryland and Boston University for more than sixty terms since 1985.

   

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