Faculty Contact Information:
Instructor: Martin Warren
Mail address: Info Div, RMCS Shrivenham, Swindon, Wilts, SN6 8BF
Tel num: 01793 785980 (work)
Please put INSS 510 in the subject of emails.
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Consultation:
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Any time over the phone. Half an hour prior to class and one hour after class on Saturdays & Sundays, 25/26 October; 8/9, 22/23 November; and 13/14 December.
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Required Texts and Readings:
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Englander, I. (2003). Architecture of Computer Hardware & Systems Software, (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
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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.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.
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Recommended Journals:
Publications of the various professional societies (such as ACM -- the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE Computing Society, and the various management professional societies) are strongly recommended. 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.
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Course Description:
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3 semester hours credit. Prerequisites: Undergraduate programming and college algebra, or permission of the Program Director. Provides an overview of basic computer concepts as they apply to MIS professionals. Emphasis is on basic machine architecture including data storage, manipulation, the human-machine interface including the basics of operating systems, algorithms and programming languages. In addition, the basic concepts of data organization including data and file structures are examined. Emerging trends in computer technology and their impact on organizational information systems are also discussed.
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Course Goals:
Upon completion of the course, participants should:
1. Understand basic principles of computer architecture
2. Understand major operating system concepts, including the interrelationships between operating systems and computer hardware
3. Understand concepts of programming languages
4. Understand computer logic and data representation
5. Be conversant with the terminology describing computer hardware and software
6. Understand how computer peripherals work
7. Understand basics of network architectures
8. Understand new developments in computer technology
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Course Objectives:
At the conclusion of this course the student will be able to:
1. Define the basic terms and processes related to computer systems architecture
2. Discuss components of an operating system
3. Describe the mechanisms by which an operating system manages hardware and software resources
4. Describe progression of operating system development
5. Describe the various types of programming languages
6. Describe the processes of translating and executing a program
7. Describe the process for developing applications
8. Describe basic methods of data representation
9. Describe the characteristics of data storage technology and how it influences the performance of computer systems
10. Describe the use of buffers and caches to improve computer system performance
11. Describe the use of data compression to improve computer system performance
12. Describe the concepts of file systems
13. Describe the characteristics and implementation of input and output devices
14. Describe the basic concepts of communication protocols
15. Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of distributed computing systems
16. Describe the technological trends in computer development
17. Discuss ethical issues in computing
18. Research current topics in computing
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Grading Information:
Grades for the course will be assigned as follows:
A 90 - 100%
B 80 - 89%
C 70 - 79%
Below 70% F(a) or F(n) for non-attendance
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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 skilful 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:
10% - Participate in classroom discussions
20% - Assignments one and two
20% - Project written up as a graduate level paper
10% - Presentation of project
20% - Mid-term written exam
20% - Final written exam
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Description of Course Requirements:
Participate in classroom discussions: You are expected to come to class prepared to engage in all discussions in a professional and informed manner. Usually this requires two to three hours for every hour of a face-to-face class.
Complete graduate level projects and write graduate level paper: You are required to conduct professional-level research, including appropriately citing works of others and avoiding plagiarism. Plan on committing approximately 150 hours over the duration of this course to producing professional level deliverables, to include programs, projects, papers, and/or case studies.
Presentation of project: You are required to present your results in a professional manner. This means an oral presentation accompanied by appropriate visual material.
Complete two written examinations: The examination process in this class will assist you in developing the writing and critical thinking skills necessary for successfully passing the comprehensive exam required of all graduate students. The examination questions used for this course will either be taken directly from past comprehensive exams or written as though to be included on a comprehensive exam.
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Course Schedule:
This schedule presents 16 units or modules, with each unit corresponding to a regular three-hour weekday meeting, a half-day on weekends, or a full week of DE.
The course meets weekends 0900 - 1600 on the following dates:
Sat 25 Oct:
Introductions
Review of syllabus
Clarification of goals, objectives and requirements
Orientation to subject
Chapter 1 An overview of Computer Systems
Chapter 2 Number Systems
Sun 26 Oct:
Chapter 3 Data Format
Chapter 4 Representing Integer Data
Chapter 5 Floating Point Numbers
Sat 8 Nov:
Chapter 6 Model of a Computer
Chapter 7 CPU and Memory
Chapter 8 Input/Output
Sun 9 Nov:
Chapter 9 Computer Peripherals
Chapter 10 CPU Design and Organization
Mid Term exam Chapters 1 to 10
Sat 22 Nov:
Chapter 11 Modern Computer Systems
Chapter 12 Three System Examples
Chapter 13 Clusters, Networks & Data Comms
Sun 23 Nov:
Chapter 14 Operating Systems - an overview
Chapter 15 The User View of an OS
Chapter 16 The Internal Operating System
Sat 13 Dec:
Chapter 17 File Management
Chapter 18 Programming Tools
Presentations
Sun 14 Dec:
Presentations
Final exam predominately chapters 11 to 18
Course evaluations
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Academic Policies:
Please refer to the UMUC - Europe Graduate Catalog, available online at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/general_info/publications/catalogs/index.html or from your local Education Center, for information on the following:
Academic Integrity
Course Load
Exception to Policy
Grade Appeal Process
Make-up Examinations
Nondiscrimination
Students with Disabilities
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Faculty Bio:
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I have being working for Maryland for over 12 years and in that time have taught many of CAPP, CMIS, CMST and IFSM classes and more recently INSS graduate classes. These have covered Visual Basic to Data Communications, Ethics in IT to Systems Analysis and much more. Currently I am a senior lecturer and departmental head at the Royal Military College of Science Shrivenham, where I lecture in software engineering, object oriented analysis and design, and programming languages such as Ada, VB & Java. These courses vary from short one week course to a year long graduate degree. My main area of interest is IT security in all it forms and I have just completed an MSc in this subject at University of London. I also have an MBA from Kingston University and an MSc from Cranfield University.
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