UB University of Baltimore
Merrick School of Business


INSS300 - Management Information Systems
Spring 2013

Wednesdays 8:15- 9:45 PM - BC 221 and one hour on the Web

Professor Al Bento

Office Hours: Tuesdays 4:30 - 7:30 PM
office BC 473 v-mail (410)837-5272
e-mail abento@ubalt.edu URL http://home.ubalt.edu/abento

(Projects)(On-line Quizzes)(Case analysis)(Final Exam)(Outline) (SAKAI)

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Over the past 20 years, information technology (computers, telecommunications and office automation) and the management of information technology have changed dramatically. The need to learn how to use and deploy information systems and technology became a must for business professionals. E-Business is here to stay and Web is an integral part of both internal (intranet) and external (Internet) information systems and networking.

In many industries, obtaining competitive advantages became directly related to the deployment of information technology to design, create and provide the main products/services. In many instances the information technology became an integral part of the product/service. The course aims to provide you with learning experiences in the use, development and management of information systems and technology.

Some of the class activities are done individually, while others are group work. I created seven groups, which have no members in the beginning of the semester. After our first class meeting you will choose what group to join by replying on-line to what group to join in SAKAI.


ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Projects (3) 35%
On-line quizzes (4) 20%
Case analysis (3) 15%
Final exam 30%
The conversion from points to a letter grade will be relative to the class performance, using the method of grading using a curve. The top 5-10% will receive an A, etc. Read this article on Wikipedia for more details of this method.

Projects

Your grade in the projects will depend upon the content and structure of the final system and written documentation.

  1. World Wide Web (10%): the objective is to create your home page, in your UB Web space, like an one-page resume. You will use a graphical HTML editor in order to do so. After the course is over you can keep this page and use it for recruiting purposes. This is an individual project.

  2. Data base management (15%): you will use Microcrosoft Access to create two tables, join these tables, do queries, and produce reports for the Office Product Case (OPC). This is a group project.

  3. Decision Support Systems (10%): you will start using Microsoft Access to perform a query in the Northwind data base and then save the results to be analyzed in Microsoft Excel, where you will use pivot tables to look at the data. This is a group project.

On-line quizzes

The four quizzes are done individually, on-line. Each quiz is comprised of 20 randomly selected multiple choice questions related to class topics (5% per quiz).

Case analysis

The three cases are done in group. Each group will prepare a report answering the "Case Study Questions" in the Assignments area for each of the following mini-cases:

  1. Celanese Chemicals and Others (available in SAKAI)
  2. Progressive Insurance and Unifirst Corp (available in SAKAI)
  3. Denver Health (textbook pages 236-237)

Each group will create a presentation for each case using PowerPoint software and will write a report in Word or RTF format providing the details of the presentation. The quality of the slides, the depth of the topic coverage, and the richness of the report will determine the grade in the cases (5% per case).

Each group can have many postings inside of their group area, but be sure to post only one group presentation slides and report in the Assignments area of the case for the group, and do not submit case materials by e-mail, or any other format.

Final exam

The final exam is an open book, in class exam, comprised of sixteen multiple choice questions about key concepts seen in the course, plus four open questions about a mini-case. The exam will available in Tests & Quizzes area of SAKAI in the day of the exam.

TEXTBOOKS

Baltzan, Paige and Philips, Amy (2013) M: Information Systems , 2nd edition McGraw-Hill. (required). See also the book Student Resources Online Appendices, etc.

Murray, Katherine  (2010) First Look Microsoft Office 2010. Microsoft Press (required)  Free downloaded book.

Johnson, Steve (2010) Office 2010 on Demand. Que Publishing (recommended). $20.00 in Amazon.com.

OUTLINE
Week of Topics Assignments
01/29 Course overview, information and systems concepts [1, pages 6-13].
Review of using PowerPoint (PCs, Macs, or 97-2003 and 2007) {7}, (12-13).
Introduce yourself  (02/04) and group selection (02/11)
02/05 Information Technology: hardware and software [A]. Windows 7 overview. Quiz 1 - chapter 1, pages 6-13. Opens 02/08 and is due: 02/11
02/12 Telecommunications, networking [7,B] Case 1: Celanese Chemicals and Others due: 02/25
02/19 Web, Internet, and Your Web home page. Wikipedia: Web and Internet. Case 2: Progressive Insurance and Unifirst Corp due: 03/04
02/26 Electronic Commerce [3] Home page project due: 03/11
03/05 Files & Data Base concepts, DB design [6, pages 130-139, and C].  Finish working on home page project due: 03/11
03/12 MS Access Review {11}, (14-16)  Project 2 - OPC case due: 04/15
03/19 Spring Break Spring Break
03/26 Business Intelligence [6, pages 141-149] Quiz 2 - chapters 3,6 and Appendix C. Opens 03/28 and is due: 04/03
04/02 TPS and MIS, ERP, CRM, and CSM [8] Continue working on Project 2 due: 04/15
04/09 Systems Development and More in Systems Development [9] Finish working on Project 2 due: 04/15
04/16 Decision-making and Information systems. Decision Support Systems. [2], {5} Quiz 3 - chapters 8,9. Opens 04/19 and is due: 04/22
Start working on Project 3 - Northwind due: 04/29
04/23 Security and Ethics [4] Finish working on Project 3 due: 04/29 .
Start working on case 3: Denver Health due: 05/06
04/30 Strategic Impact of IS/IT [1,pages 14-23] Finish working in Case 3 due: 05/06
05/07 MIS Infrastructure [5] Quiz 4 - chapters 1,pages 14-23,4 and 5. Opens 05/09 and is due: 05/13
05/14 Final Exam in class.  

[ ] corresponds to Textbook chapters or Online Appendices; { } corresponds to the free Office 2010 Microsoft book chapters; ( ) corresponds to optional Microsoft Office 2010 on Demand book chapters.


This page is maintained by Al Bento who can be reached at abento@ubalt.edu. This page was last updated on January 16, 2013. Although we will attempt to keep this information accurate, we can not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided.