After completing this course, the student should be able to:

* Discuss the evolution of computers, including societal events leading to increased demands and technological developments

* Create a specification for purchasing a personal computer 

* Identify the basic parts and functions of computer systems 

* Differentiate between the roles and functions of application and systems software, both nationally and internationally 

* Make effective use of the Internet

* Create simple word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases, and Web pages

* Describe how several basic national and international data communication systems function

* Analyze issues faced by information system professionals, including security, ethical, and privacy problems

Introduction to Computer-Based Systems is an introductory survey course aimed at presenting state-of-the-art information on technology and technological issues.

The goal of this course is for the student to feel computer literate when the course is finished. Literacy means understanding the history of information technology and basic computer terminology. A computer-literate person also understands how computers are used and is able to converse about major issues and trends in computing. Lastly, computer literacy also means having a basic proficiency in an operating system and basic software applications (e.g. word processing, spreadsheets, presentation graphics, and databases).

Read this entire syllabus, paying particular attention to the project descriptions and required elements. Should you have any questions, please contact your instructor.

Grades are determined as follows:

Participation          20 points
Word assignment        35 points
Excel assignment       35 points
PowerPoint assignment  35 points
Access assignment      35 points
Midterm examination    120 points
Final examination      120 points
Total                  400 points

Grading Scale:
Letter grades will be assigned as follows:
360-400 points= A
320-359 points= B
280-319 points= C
240-279 points= D
0-239 points= F

Do not expect an Incomplete in the course unless you have serious personal problems very close to the end of the term or have official TDY orders or other documentation of official duties. The University of Maryland University College regulations are strict about the assignment of an Incomplete. Please consult the Undergraduate Catalog for further information on grading policies.

Late Policy: The assignments, participation (discussion topics and Web activities), and exams should be submitted on time. Students have a long lead-time in which to prepare, ask questions, and seek help. Therefore, unless a major accident, illness, or work assignment (with supporting documentation) prevents a student from submitting work on time, five points will be docked from each late assignment's grade.

Extra Credit: Extra credit is not normally given.

Attendance: Although attendance is not counted in the grade, participation is.

Writing and Research: Effective writing is critical to the intellectual life of university students and graduates within the workplace. Effective managers are usually effective communicators. Your work in this course must demonstrate your ability to master and effectively communicate course content. Effective writing
* Meets the needs of the reader
* Adequately covers the subject
* Uses expected conventions of format and organizations
* Demonstrates use of credible reasoning and evidence
* Satisfies standards of style and grammatical correctness
* Requires 100% compliance with UMUC's zero-tolerance policy regarding plagiarism.

Suggested projects:
Imagine you are the proud new owner of an "Internet café." All four projects listed below are in support of that major theme. So as not to stifle your creative nature and freedom, aside from the theme restriction I have imposed upon you, you are free to decide all other aspects of your business (name, location, products, size, etc.).

You will be required to complete 10 minimum elements for each project that I will define below. Each element is worth four points (40 total points). All other details you may want to include to enhance your projects is up to you. However, I will take into account only the 10 minimum elements when I grade your projects. I am not grading your artistic or graphic abilities, but rather your understanding of how to perform these basic functions.

The Halvorson and Hunt text may assist you in working with MS Office Applications. You should review the contents and work through the unit exercises in order to understand the operations of Microsoft Office Applications. On some of the exercises below, you will see Unit references from the Halvorson and Hunt text for your projects in the project descriptions. These references will help you complete the assigned tasking for each project.

Word Assignment No. 1

Create a flyer for your new business.

Element #

1. Create your flyer on no more than one 8.5" x 11" page, with margins at .75" on all edges.
2. Use WordArt to create the name of your business on the flyer.
3. Center the name and address of your business, using the center alignment function.
4. Use a logo (insert clip art) somewhere in your flyer.
5. Use a table (using the auto format feature) to show at least five of your products and their associated prices.
6. Use bullets or numbering somewhere in the text (see the help menu if you are unclear on how to do this).
7. Use normal, bold, and italic text somewhere in the design.
8. Use at least two colors for your fonts, at least two font styles, and at least two different font sizes.
9. Create a footer and include the: 1) name of the business, and 2) the date (using the date function).
10. Spell check and grammar check your work and save the file with your name (e.g. myname.doc).

Excel Assignment No. 2

Create a spreadsheet to display the sales for your five main products for the last four weeks.

Element #

1. Place a title for your worksheet (e.g. Last Month's Sales) at the top of the spreadsheet. Center it over your table using the "Merge and Center" button on the toolbar (near the alignment buttons). See help if necessary. Use a size 16 font for your labels and the default font size for your data. Use any color except black for your labels.
2. Create a spreadsheet that lists products down the left column and Weeks 1 through 4 across the top row. Enter fictitious data for sales for each week by product. Make the product names and the week names bold. Do not bold the data.
3. Use the Sum function to add the totals for each week for all products (at the bottom) and the Sum function to add the totals for each product for all four weeks (right side).
4. In the row beneath the sum function for the product totals, use the Average Function to calculate the average sales per week. You do not need to calculate the average for each product on the right side.
5. Format the data to Currency with decimal points to two places (e.g. $365.43) for all data, totals, and products of the functions. In other words, everything.
6. Set each column width to 12. Set all row heights to 20.
7. In page setup, create a footer that has your name and the date the sheet was created, choose landscape, and center horizontally and vertically.
8. Set the print area to include all the data in the table you have created.
9. Using the chart command, chart the data (be careful not to include the totals or averages in your range) using a bar chart. Choose the option that places the chart in your spreadsheet and not as a separate sheet. Your chart should show all five products together grouped by weeks. This should happen automatically.
10. Spell check and grammar check your work and save the file with your name (e.g. myname.xls).

PowerPoint Assignment No. 3

Create a presentation for your new business to explain to lenders why they should loan you money to expand your business.

Element #

1. Your presentation should consist of five slides, including the title slide, two bullet slides, one graph slide, and one bulleted summary slide.
2. Choose and use a design template for your presentation.
3. Insert clip art on at least four of the slides.
4. Place: 1) a logo, 2) page numbers and 3) a date in the master slide (see PowerPoint help if necessary).
5. Create a graph (bar chart or line chart) on one slide to show increasing sales over the last year. You can use the charting function inherent in PowerPoint or embed the chart created for assignment 2 (Excel) (copy and paste) from Microsoft Excel (Unit C).
6. Create speaker notes on each of the slides using the notes function in PowerPoint.
7. Use at least two colors for your fonts, at least two font styles, and at least two different font sizes.
8. Set the preset timings and create transitions for each slide for the online presentation mode.
9. Omit the background from the graph chart only, and change its background to a solid color (other than white) of your choice.
10. Spell check and grammar check your work and save the file with your name (e.g. myname.ppt).

Access Assignment No. 4

Create a customer database to allow you to conduct mailings in the future. Customers will put their business cards into a jar in hopes of winning promotional items. Their business cards will give you their name, the company they work for, and all the other information you need to set up your database. This project will closely parallel the one in the text.

Element #

1. Create a table with all the same fields and settings as the one in Unit A. Save this table as "Customer Data." Exclude the "billing address" and "active" fields.
2. Build a data entry form similar to the one in Unit A.
3. Design the format of the form any way you choose, but do format it.
4. Add some clip art to your form (anything you choose).
5. Enter data for at least 10 customers, using the data entry form. Use the form instead of using the table so you can make sure it works.
6. Sort your database table by the customer's last name.
7. Create and save a query that pulls all the company names from the company name field. Sort them alphabetically ascending.
8. Note: Do not set a password for your database.
9. Create a report that contains your customer's name, address, city, and zip code (a report of mailing addresses) only. Format your report in some way (title, clip art, font colors). Save your report as "customer mail report."
10. Spell check and grammar check your work and save the file with your name (e.g. myname.mdb).

Session    Assignments and Readings

1. Course Introduction  Read Chapter 16: You and Your Computer

2.
Chapter 1: Introduction to the World of Computers
Chapter 2: Using your PC, Windows, and the Web

3.
Chapter 3: The System Unit:  Processing and Memory
Project 1 (MS Word) due

4.
Chapter 4: Storage
Chapter 5: Input and Output

5.
Chapter 6: Systems Software
Project 2 (MS Excel) due

6.
Chapter 7: Application Software

7.
Chapter 8: Communications and Networks

8.
Review and Midterm exam

9.
Chapter 9: The Internet and the Workd Wide Web
Chapter 10: Multimedia and the Web

10.
Chapter 11: E-Business and E-Commerce
Project 3 (MS PowerPoint) due

11.
Chapter 12: Information Systems and Systems Development

12.
Chapter 13: Program Development and Programming Languages 

13.
Chapter 14: Databases and Database Management Systems
Project 4 (MS Access) due

14.
Chapter 15:  Ethics, Computer Crime, Privacy, and Other Social Issues

15.
Review and Class Discussion


16.
Final Examination