MIS 353 - Principles of Information Systems
Creighton University, College of Business Administration
Section D: Tuesday-Thursday, 4:45 – 6:00pm
Spring 2002


Terry Begley MBA, MCSE
COBA Technology Coordinator
tbegley@creighton.edu
280-2619 (office) 280-2172 (fax)
http://eden.creighton.edu/mis353d

 

Course Resources

The textbook is Management Information Systems for the Information Age by Haag, Cummings and McCubbrey, third edition. We will also use HTML 4 for Dummies – Quick Reference, Second Edition by IDG Books. The ISBN is 0-07-245872-0. The company website for the textbook is http://www.mhhe.com/haag/. Our course website is http://eden.creighton.edu/mis353d. Check the link to news for updated class information before every class. We also have a class listserv, called mis353d@creighton.edu that you should subscribe to. Finally, all sections of MIS 353 share a common Usenet newsgroup, cu.mis353.

You will also need a Creighton University email account, an account on Grackle, and access to the World Wide Web, either at a computer lab, home, or office. I will provide some of the supplements. Others will require a library or World Wide Web (WWW) search by the student.

Contact Information

I am a Creighton staff member, and my office is located in BA 112A. I am at work generally from 8:00am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday. See above for phone and email information. If you send email with attachments, please note that Creighton does not allow emails over 1.5 megabytes in size. When you email, please use a subject line with the words MIS 353 in the title so I can identify the message in my inbox easier.

Summary

The Principles of Information Systems presents an introduction to the fundamental concepts and issues relevant to the successful development, management, and use of organizational Information Systems (IS). The course includes an overview of current and emerging Information Technologies (IT), and covers the support commonly offered by IS for operations, transactions processing, tactical management, and strategic decision-making. The course emphasizes the areas that reflect the future directions of the field, such as artificial intelligence, telecommunications and networking, the Internet, Intranets, CASE (Computer-Assisted Software Engineering) tools, and end-user computing.

HTML and Unix Assignments

We will be creating individual websites on our Linux server, Grackle, as well as using it for hands-on exercises in networking. Your research paper will be published on your website at the end of the semester.

Tech Tips and News

There is always something new and exciting in the technology field. Twice during the course you will make a presentation to the class on an interesting website, a new product, a new service, or something new and exciting in the technology field. You can use any of the presentation media in the classroom. You must turn in a one-page sheet to me describing to me your site, item or news as you present your Tech Tip and News. Each item should take about three minutes to present.

Quizzes

There will be a total of twelve quizzes. A quiz cannot be made up under any circumstances. Quizzes may be short answer, true/false, matching or multiple choice. They may be given out on paper, assigned via email or on a web page. The lowest two quizzes will be dropped.

Research Paper

You will research an issue in technology during the course, and present the results of your research as a paper published on your website during the final exam time. Your paper will be turned in on paper as well as published on your website. More information on the paper will be forthcoming.

Grading and Grading Scale

The student is required to take notice of where he or she stands in regards to their performance and attendance in this class. If special needs arise, or their is a problem with the students attendance, or grade, the student is responsible for contacting the professor to discuss those concerns, in as timely a manner is as reasonable. Students may contact me by any of the methods listed earlier at any time. Email and telephone voicemail are available 24 hours a day. Failure on the part of the student to proceed under these guidelines, or to violate any rules set out in this syllabus, or in the Student Handbook, including those dealing with academic honesty, may result in a lowering of the students grade, or a grade of F or AF, at the discretion of the professor.

The following are the grades and their descriptions available to the students. A student’s grade totally depends on what he or she has achieved during the course: the grades will be earned, not given.

"A" indicates not only outstanding achievement but also an unusual degree of intellectual initiative.
"B" indicates attainment of above the average, satisfactory for 500-level courses.
"C" indicates satisfactory but minimum quality work in courses above the 500-level.
"D" indicates failure—no credit.

Percentage Grade

Letter

90–100%

A

88-89%

B+

80-87%

B

78-79%

C+

70-78%

C

60-69%

D

59% or less

F

Incomplete

I

Final Exam Not Taken
(Presenting paper in class)

IX

 

The point values of the assignments and exams are given below:

ITEM

Points

Quizzes
(10 @20 points each)

200

Research Paper

150

Research Paper preps

50

HTML pages

100

Unix and Email Assignments
(2 @50 points each

100

Tech Tips and News
(2 @50 points each)

100

Exam One

100

Exam Two

100

Final Exam

100

TOTAL

1000

 

Make-Up and Late Policy

All assignments that are handed in late will be docked 10% per day that they are late, unless arrangements have been made at least 24 hours before the due date. The term LATE refers to all assignments turned in after the class time on the assignment's due date.

Attendance Policy

Please note that all students are expected to attend every class session on time. Students are responsible for the material covered each class time, and missed notes, handouts and URL's should be obtained from another student who was in class that day. In the case of severe weather closings and cancellations, call the Creighton Weather Hotline at 280-5800 to find out if the University has closed due to severe weather.

 

Course Outline and Assignments

January 17

Introductions and Administrivia
Syllabus and Class Overview
Set up AMI accounts, etc.

January 22

Chapter 1, The Information Age in Which You Live
ELM A, IT Systems in Your Organization

January 29

Chapter 2, Strategic and Competitive Opportunities
Chapter 3, Databases and Data Warehouses
ELM B, Building a Database and E-R Diagramming

February 5

Hardware Presentation

Tuesday: Research Paper Topic Due

February 12

ELM D, Hardware and Software

February 19

February 21

Tuesday: Exam One

ELM C, Network Basics

February 26

ELM C, Network Basics, continued
Tuesday: Research Paper Outline Due

March 5

ELM E, A Tour of the Internet
Tuesday: Research Paper Bibliography Due

March 12

SPRING BREAK – no class!

March 19

Chapter Four, Decision Support and Artificial Intelligence

March 26

March 28

Catch-Up day

NO CLASS, Holy Thursday, all classes cancelled after 17:00

April 2

Chapter Five, Electronic Commerce

April 9

April 11

Tuesday: EXAM TWO

Chapter Six, Emerging Technologies

April 16

Chapter Seven, Developing IT Systems
Tuesday: Rough draft of research paper DUE

April 23

Chapter 8, Protecting Information and People

April 30

Catch-Up
Research Paper and Website presentations
Tuesday: Final version of research paper due in printed form and posted on your website

May 7

Tuesday: FINAL EXAM