UMUC-EUROPE GRADUATE PROGRAMS
BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY

INSS530 Syllabus

Course Title Information Systems in Organizations
Term TERM 1, 2004/2005
Education Center RHEIN-MAIN-GRAD
Faculty Member Robert Mann - rmann@faculty.ed.umuc.edu

Faculty Contact Information:

Dr. Robert E. Mann
CMR 420 Box 1643
APO AE 09063
mannr@bunt.com
06224-73033

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 andSons, Inc.

O'Brien, James A. (2003). Management Information Systems: Managing
   Information Technology in the E-Business Enterprise
(6th ed.). 
   New York: McGraw-Hill.

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.

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.comis 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.  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 92%+    B 80 – 91%    C 70-79%
F Below 70% F(a) or 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:

Midterm and Final Examinations will be in-class.

All papers must conform to the APA style. The paper should be in the format described in the guidelines for the INSS 690 final paper (see http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~meinkej/inss690/apaguidelines.pdf). A Powerpoint summary of using references in the APA style can be found at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/pp/APA2.PPT and a more extensive description of the APA style is available at http://owl.english.purdue.edu.

Participation:
Every member of the class will be provided with access to the Webboard for this class (http://webboard.ed.umuc.edu/~mis/) 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 the Webboard. 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 the Webboard.

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:

Module Date Topics AssignmentsAuthor(s)
1 21 Aug 04 Introduction & Overview
Sat
Morning Foundations in Information Systems in Business
O’Brien
Chap 1
Assign first paper: Due module #8

2 21 Aug 04 Computer Hardware O’Brien
Sat Chap 13
Afternoon Telecommunications and Networks O’Brien
Chap 4

3 22 Aug 04 Computer Software O’Brien
Sun Chap 14
Morning

4 22 Aug 04 Data Resource Management O’Brien
Sun Chap 3
Afternoon Assign topic from the Portable MBA

5 11 Sep 04 Fundamentals of Organizations, Public and Private
Sat
Morning Student Presentations of Portable MBA topics

6 11 Sep 04 Introduction to e-Business Systems O’Brien
Sat Chap 5
Afternoon Enterprise e-Business Management O’Brien
Chap 6
Electronic Commerce Systems O’Brien
Chap 7
Review for mid-term

7 18 Sep 04 Mid-term Examination
Sat
Morning

8 18 Sep 04 Developing Business/IT Strategies O’Brien
Sat Chap 9
Afternoon Innovation and technology management MBA
Chap 9
First Paper Due

Assign Second Paper/Case--Due Module Fourteen
9 19 Sep 04 Decision Support Systems O’Brien
Sun Chap 8
Morning Developing Business/IT Solutions O’Brien
Chap 10
Enterprise and Global Management of
Information Technology O’Brien
Chap 12

10 19 Sep 04 Competing with Information Technology O’Brien
Sun Chap 2
Afternoon Strategy: Defining and Developing
Competitive Advantage MBA
Chap 13
Competing with Information Technology
O’Brien
Chap 2

11 2 Oct 04 Enterprise e-Business Management O’Brien
Sat Chap 6
Morning Security and Ethical Challenges O’Brien
Chap 11

12 2 Oct 04 Security and Ethical Challenges O’Brien
Sat Chap 11
Afternoon Review for final exam

13 3 Oct 04 Final Examination
Sun
Morning Second Paper Due

14 3 Oct 04 Student Presentations
Sun
Afternoon Special Issues and Discussion


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 plagiarismThe 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 and 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
Students with Disabilities

Hard copies of the catalog are available at your local Education Center.

Faculty Bio:

Hello, my name is Bob 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 eight 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 an adjunct instructor for UMUC Europe at the undergraduate and graduate level. I have been teaching for over twenty years in the European program.



Last updated by Robert Mann: July 28, 2004, 10:40 pm
Find this syllabus linked from the schedule at: http://www.ed.umuc.edu/schedule