University of Baltimore
Merrick School of Business

INSS300 - Management Information Systems
Fall 2011

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 six 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

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. Cedar Rapids Vision Center (available in SAKAI)
2. Feingold Investments (available in SAKAI)
3. Volkswagen B2B (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

TEXTBOOK

OUTLINE
Week of	Topics	Assignments
08/31	Course overview, information and systems concepts [1, except pages 16-22]. Review of using PowerPoint up 2003 and for PowerPoint 2007. References: (a) Office tutorials for the Macs, and (b) PowerPoint for PCs by Act360 both for PowerPoint 97-2003 and 2007.	Introduce yourself  (09/04) and group selection (09/13)
09/07	Information Technology: hardware and software [A]	Quiz 1 - chapter 1, except pages 16-22. due: 09/12
09/14	Telecommunications, networking [E]	Case 1: Cedar Rapids Vision Center due: 09/26
09/21	The Internet and the World Wide Web [B]. References: (a) Internet 101 and (b) Wikipedia	Case 2: Feingold Investments due: 10/03
09/28	Your home page and using FTP to upload your page [F], [L] (online here).	Home page project due: 10/17
10/05	TPS and MIS. ERP, CRM, and CSM [2],[7, pages 309-322]. References: (a)More in TPS, and (b) More in SOA and ERP.	Work on home page project due: 10/17
10/12	Systems Development and alternatives to SDLC[6]	Finish working on home page project due: 10/17
10/19	Files, Data Base concepts, DB design [3, p. 111-124],[C]. MS Access Review [J]. Other on-line tutorials: Baycon and Microsoft.	Quiz 2 - chapters 2, 6, and chapter 7, pages 309 to 322 due: 10/24
10/26	Data Base and Data Warehouses [3, p.125-135],[D]	Project 2 - OPC case due: 11/14
11/02	Decision-making and Information systems. Decision Support Systems. [4]	Continue working on Project 2 due:11/14
11/09	Electronic Commerce. [5]  Overview of project 3. [Online class on Pivot Tables]	Finish working on Project 2 due:11/14. Start working on Project 3 - Northwind due: 11/28
11/16	Strategic Impact of IS/IT. McFarlan's Strategic Grid, Porter industry model. and Virtual organizations. [1, p.16-22], [2,p.73-76]	Finish  working on Project 3 - Northwind due: 11/28 . Start working on case 3: Volkswagen B2B due: 12/1
11/23	Thangsving Break	Thangsving Break
11/30	Security and Ethics [8]	Quiz 3 - Chapter 4 due:12/05
12/07	Emerging Trends and Technologies [9]. Review for the Final Exam.	Quiz 4 - chapters 8 and 9 due:12/12
12/14	Final Exam (no face-to-face meeting)	Take home due: 12/15

This page is maintained by Al Bento who can be reached at abento@ubalt.edu. This page was last updated on November 12, 2011. Although we will attempt to keep this information accurate, we can not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided.