School of Accounting & Information Systems
College of Business
Louisiana Tech University
Winter 2014-2015
TENTATIVE COURSE SYLLABUS
(Subject to change without notice)
COURSE TITLE
INSTRUCTOR
E-MAIL
Dr. James Courtney, Professor
Dr. Selwyn Ellis, Associate Professor
courtney@latech.edu
ellis@latech.edu
OFFICE
HOURS
OFFICE
PHONE
CIS 510
COBB 325C
COBB 203A
318-257-3804
318-257-3886
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
By appointment
10:00 – 11:30
1:00 – 2:00
---------------8:00 – 10:00
10:00 – 11:30
1:00 – 4:30
--------------8:00 – 11:00
10:00 – 11:30
1:00 – 2:00
--------------8:00 – 10:00
By appointment
---------------8:00 – 11:00
TEACHING
ASSISTANT
PREFIX &
NUMBER
Information Resource Management
William (Yaojie) Li
E-MAIL
yli018@LaTech.edu
OFFICE
UH G26
Course Information
TEXTBOOK:
Managing and Using Information Systems, 5th Edition, 2013
Keri E. Pearlson, KP Partners
Carol S. Saunders, University of Central Florida
ISBN: 978-1-118-28173-4 © 2013
OTHER REQUIRED
MATERIALS:
Several additional readings will be made available via Moodle.
COURSE
DESCRIPTION:
In this course we will study the management of information technologies, systems and
personnel, including the alignment of IS strategy with the business and organizational
strategy. We will study decision support systems, emphasizing financial planning in an
IT environment and will use software called the Planners Lab to develop IT financial
plans and NetLogo to simulate IT security issues. We will also study the Wordpress
web development software package and develop simple websites with it.
Managing the fast and ever-changing IS environment will be a theme throughout this
course. The essence of this course is that effective technology management requires an
understanding of the technology itself, the organizational environment in which it will
be developed and applied, and the encompassing society’s overall technological flow
and absorption processes, and that such management must be done in an ethical manner.
You will have your choice of doing a technical report (term paper) on an IT topic of
your choice or a Planners Lab, Wordpress or NetLogo project that will be a major part
of the course. You may work in small groups on these or alone, but the quantity and
quality of the work will be commensurate with the number of people working on the
report or project. Information on technical reports and projects will be available on
Moodle.
GRADING:
CIS 510 Winter 2014-15
Your grade will be based upon your performance on homework assignments, quizzes,
your term paper and your class participation. Online students will participate in
Moodle discussion forums for participation. I may be traveling to professional
conferences this quarter. For the meetings when I am gone, I will set up discussion
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forums for both the online section and the classroom section. You will be evaluated
using the following points:
Quizzes (4 @ 25 points each)
Technology Report or PL Project
Homework
Case Presentation / Forum Discussion
Participation & Professional conduct
Total
Letter grades: A: 360 up
B: 320 - 359
C: 280 – 319
D: 240 – 279
F: Below 240
100 points
100 points
100 points
50 points
50 points
400 points
APPEALS:
If you have a concern about your grade, you must make an appeal in writing (e-mail is
acceptable) in standard business format to the instructor within one week (7 calendar
days) of the receipt of your grade. The appeal must clearly state why you feel the grade
to be unfair or the nature of the error. Make-up exams are at the discretion of the
instructor.
RESPONSIBILITY
OF STUDENT:
You should prepare for each week by reading the text, thinking about the material and
completing required and recommended assignments. Please refer to the tentative
schedule for text reading and assignments. Additional assignments may be made during
the quarter. Assignments are to be turned in via Moodle.
Students in the face-to-face class (f2f) will be organized into small groups of 3 or 4
students and each group will present a case from the textbook and lead the discussion of
the case in the class. Your participation grade will be based mostly on these discussions
and the manner in which you conduct yourself in class. You may choose the case you’d
like to present on a first come, first served basis. A forum will be set up on Moodle for
signing up for cases and setting up groups.
For the students in the online section, your participation grade will be based on the
quantity and quality of your contributions to the online forums for these cases on
Moodle. I will select these cases. Frivolous or inappropriate comments will be counted
against you. Thoughtful and insightful comments will be counted in your favor. Lack of
participation will also count against you. You should make at least one comment in
each forum. Flaming (attacking other students) is not allowed and will also count
against your participation grade. Conducting yourself professionally and in a businesslike manner is also part of your grade.
ACADEMIC
DISHONESTY:
All forms of academic dishonesty will result in a course grade of Failure (F). Students
caught cheating will be asked to leave the class and will not be permitted to attend
future class meetings for the remainder of the quarter. Unless explicitly stated as a
group assignment, you must work alone on your assignments. Plagiarism on technical
reports will not be tolerated.
STUDENT
DISABILITY:
Anyone with a disability that may limit participation with regular classroom activities
should inform the professor at the beginning of the term. Proper adjustments will be
made to compensate for limitations.
Tentative Schedule
CIS 510 Winter 2014-15
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Week of:
Dec. 4
Topic
Introduction to course
Introduction to Wordpress
Assignment
Pearlson & Saunders Introduction
Introductory Email – 10pts
Dec. 9, 11
IS Strategy Triangle
Dec. 16, 18
Strategic Use of Info Resources
Jan. 6, 8
Quiz 1 Dec. 18
Business of IT
Organizational Strategy and IS
Pearlson & Saunders Chapter 1
Case 1-2 (Google) & Reading “IT Doesn’t Matter”
Wordpress assignment due Dec. 12 – 20 pts
Pearlson & Saunders Chapter 2
Case 2-2 (Zipcar) on Dec. 18
All material covered so far.
Pearlson & Saunders Chapter 7
Pearlson & Saunders Chapter 3
Case 7-2 (BIOCO) on Jan. 6
Case 3-2 (FBI) on Jan. 8
Jan. 13, 15
IS and the Design of Work
IS for Managing Business Processes
Pearlson & Saunders Chapter 4
Case 4-2 (Social Networking) on Dec.15
Pearlson & Saunders Chapter 5
Case 5-2 (Boeing) on Jan. 15
Jan. 20, 22
Planners Lab
Decision Support Systems
Decision Modeling
Jan. 27, 29
Quiz 2 Jan. 27
Architecture and Infrastructure
IS Governance
Feb. 3, 5
Introduction to NetLogo
Complex Adaptive Systems
Agent-based Modeling
Feb. 10, 12
Quiz 3 Jan. Feb. 10
IS Sourcing
Project Management
Feb. 19
Ethics
Feb. 24, 26
Knowledge Management
Inquiring Organizations
Mar. 3
Quiz 4
Download and install the Planners Lab software and User
Guide from http://www.plannerslab.com
Planners Lab Tutorials
Decision Support Systems notes on Moodle
Planners Lab assignment 1 due Jan. 23. – 20 pts
Material since quiz 1.
Pearlson & Saunders Chapters 6 & 8
Case 6-2(Extreme Scientists) on Jan. 27
Planners Lab assignment 2 due Jan. 29 – 30 pts
Case 8-2 (Toyota Motors) on Jan. 29
http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/
NetLogo notes and tutorial
CAS and ABM notes on Moodle
NetLogo assignment due Feb. 5 – 20 pts
Material covered since quiz 2.
Pearlson & Saunders Chapters 9 & 10
9-1 (Crowd Sourcing @AOL) on Feb. 10
Case 10-2 (Traffic Jams in London) on Feb. 12
Pearlson & Saunders Chapter 12
Case 12-2 (Midwest Family Mutual) on Feb. 24
Pearlson & Saunders Chapter 11
Case 11-2 (Business Intelligence) on Feb. 5
KM & Inquiring Organization notes on Moodle
Material covered since quiz 3.
CIS 510 Winter 2014-15
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