UB University of Baltimore
Merrick School of Business


INSS300 - Management Information Systems
Spring 2009

Professor Al Bento
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)

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 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 WebTycho.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Projects (2) 30%
On-line quizzes (4) 20%
Case analysis (4) 20%
Final exam30%
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 (15%): 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 and Data Warehousing (15%): you will use Microsoft Access to perform a query in the Northwind data base and then save the results to be analyzed in Microsoft Excel. 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 four 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 WebTycho)
  2. Feingold Investments (available in WebTycho)
  3. Volkswagen B2B (textbook pages 236-237)
  4. Sun and Supply Chain (textbook pages 84-85)

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, take-home exam, comprised of short essay questions and modified multiple choice questions (you have to explain your selection). The exam questions will posted in the Conference area and the individual answers in Word or RTF format are to be posted in the Final Exam tab in the Assignments area. Do not submit exam answers by e-mail, or any other format.

TEXTBOOK

Haag, Steven.,Cummings, Maeve., Phillips, Amy. Management Information Systems for the Information Age, 7th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2008 (required, textbook with CDROM). [ ]

OUTLINE
Week of Topics Assignments
01/26 Course overview, information and systems concepts [1, except pages 16-22]. Review of using PowerPoint. Introduce yourself and group selection
02/02 Information Technology: hardware and software [A] Quiz 1 - chapter 1, except pages 16-22.
02/09 Telecommunications, networking [E]  
02/16 The World Wide Web and the Internet [B] Case 1: Cedar Rapids Vision Center
02/23 Your home page and using FTP to upload your page [F], [L]. Case 2: Feingold Investments
03/02 TPS and MIS. ERP, CRM, and CSM [2],[7, pages 309-322]  
03/09 Systems Development [6] Home page project due
03/16 Spring Break Spring Break
03/23 Files & Data Base concepts, DB design [3, p. 111-124],[C]. MS Access Review [J]. Quiz 2 - chapters 6 and 7
03/30 Data Base and Data Warehouses [3, p.125-135],[D]  
04/06 Decision-making and Information systems. Decision Support Systems. [4] Project 2 - Northwind due
04/13 Electronic Commerce [5] Quiz 3 - chapters 4
04/20 Strategic Impact of IS/IT [1, p.16-22], [2,p.73-76] Case 3: Volkswagen B2B
04/27 Security and Ethics [8] Case 4 - Sun and Supply Chain
05/04 Emerging Trends and Technologies [9] Quiz 4 - chapters 8 and 9
05/11 Final Exam  

[ ] corresponds to chapters or materials in the CD-ROM.

This page is maintained by Al Bento who can be reached at abento@ubalt.edu. This page was last updated on January 17, 2009. Although we will attempt to keep this information accurate, we can not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided.