Loyola University, Maryland
Sellinger School of Business and Management
Undergraduate Class
IT for Financial Services (IS 356)
COURSE SYLLABUS
Fall 2014
Professor:
Paul Tallon
Information Systems and Operations Management (ISOM)
Room 325, Sellinger Hall
Email: pptallon@loyola.edu
Phone: (410) 617-5614 (office)
Fax:
(410) 617-2118
Office hours: Monday, 1:00pm – 2:45pm (or by appointment)
Class times:
Tuesday, Thursday 3:05pm – 4:20pm (Sellinger 102).
Resources:
Copies of the course syllabus, project guidelines, articles, and PowerPoint slides for each
class are available on my website: http://www.evergreen.loyola.edu/~pptallon/is356.htm.
There is a link to this site from Moodle; grades will also be added periodically on Moodle.
Pre-requisite: IS 251.
Class blog:
http://itforfinancialservices.blogspot.com/
Course Materials (Required):
Case Studies: A packet of Harvard Business School case studies in PDF format is available for purchase
and download at: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/access/28151560. These cases cannot
be bought at the campus bookstore. The expected cost is $27.65 payable by credit card.
Introduction:
Firms in the financial services sector traditionally spend more on information technology (IT) than any
other sector. Often considered at the vanguard of early IT adoption, retail banks, insurance and brokerage
firms have been quick to identify opportunities for how IT can improve their efficiency and effectiveness.
As a result, the shape of the financial services sector has been radically altered by IT. In this course, we
will examine how IT has impacted different parts of the financial services sector including stock markets,
brokerage houses, mutual funds, retail banking, insurance, and credit cards.
Organization of the Course:
The class will be an evolving, collaborative effort between me, students in the class, traditional course
materials (case studies), and non-traditional course reading materials (web readings or blogs). Remember
that the material we are covering is still changing. I will be responsible for maintaining a cohesive learning environment for all students. Although I will rely on lectures to communicate much of the course content, other topics will be introduced in an interactive forum where open class discussion will play a critical
role. For example, a key part of the class will involve an interactive stock-market game that will allow
groups of students to trade a wide range of global financial instruments (bonds, equities, derivatives, etc.)
in much the same way as a portfolio or fund manager. A key pedagogical goal of this exercise will be to
showcase how investment decisions can be informed by the use of active IT-based research tools, and how
IT facilitates the trading process. As such, we will make extensive use of Thomson Reuters Eikon. We
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will use real time data from Eikon to develop trading models using the Excel add-in. These models will
showcase arbitrage opportunities in the securities and FX space. I also encourage you all to consider getting certified in Thomson Reuters Eikon. We will also use Excel to demonstrate how spreadsheets can be
used to value certain types of derivatives. For the Excel part of the course, I will leverage material taught
in a similar course at Columbia University in New York.
Course Objectives (Topics Covered)
By the end of this course, you should have a thorough understanding of how IT has impacted the financial
services sector and be able to function as an intelligent user of IT in all areas of financial services. This is
not a technical class. Instead our goal is to span IT and financial services, allowing IT students to see how
their expertise might be applied in a finance setting but also giving finance students a clear understanding
of how much of what they learn in their traditional finance classes – the theory of the markets – is actually
implemented in practice. Theory and practice often diverge. Specific topics covered in the class include:
1. Securities markets: how IT has changed securities trading, virtual and emerging markets.
2. Brokerage models: Merrill Lynch’s decision, survival of online brokerage firms.
3. Banking models: online banking, e-banking strategies, creating IT-enhanced banking products.
4. Miscellaneous: credit card systems, pricing financial instruments, evaluating IT investments
Philosophy and Style of the Course:
The course will expose students to case studies depicting real-life events faced by corporations and the
decisions they have to make. You will be presented with a large volume of reading materials from the
course packet and web sites. You should try to read all material before each class.
Students will be expected to participate in open forum discussions during each class. Please do not be shy
about voicing your opinions in class. In many cases, there is no right or wrong answer, so you will never
be penalized for speaking up. Participating in classroom discussion helps to improve the learning process
for the entire class and will be favorably regarded when I assign final grades.
In order to maximize your learning, you need to consider four factors that form the basis of a social contract between me (the instructor) and you (the student). These factors are especially relevant in the context
of case studies, but are equally applicable to any homework assigned in the class:
Preparation:
If the student does not read and analyze the case before class or does not prepare answers
to questions that the instructor may circulate ahead of time (in verbal or written form), the
ensuing in-class discussion will be meaningless.
Presence:
If a student is not physically present in the class, he or she cannot learn, and more importantly, cannot lend his or her unique perspectives to the debate. Your insights are what
will make this class a worthwhile learning experience for everyone. You will not be
graded for being physically present in class, however. Instead, you will be graded on your
in-class participation (see below), which requires you to be physically present in class.
Promptness:
Students who enter the classroom late will often disrupt the class so please be on time.
Participation: Students are expected to participate in open forum discussions during class. Please do not
be shy about voicing your opinion. Where possible, especially if doing case studies, I will
use the Socratic-method to assess your contribution to the case study discussion. This approach involves a series of instructor-led questions and student-led responses to move the
discussion forward. There is no right or wrong answer, so you will never be penalized for
speaking. Participating in discussions improves the learning process for the entire class.
Participation is not the same as attendance – for example, you could attend all classes but
not participate in the discussion at any time. Participation is not being able to say that, “I
spoke in every class”. Students can give yes/no or short answers to questions but this
does not constitute thought provoking conversation and will not move the debate forward. I am looking for thoughtful points that inform the issues that we are discussing.
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Service-Learning Option:
IS 356 is a designated Service-Learning course. The service-learning component of the course is optional
but highly recommended. For those wishing to avail of this option, you will work with teams of seniors at
a local service partner high school for a period of 20 hours over a 10 week period in lieu of doing three of
four article critiques and the first midterm. You should deliver 8 classes to your students. Service-learning
maps directly to our course objectives in terms of understanding the role of IT in global financial markets.
What is service-learning at Loyola?
Service-learning is distinct from volunteering, internships, and other types of experiential (hands-on or on
the job) learning. The Office of Service-Learning at Loyola University defines service-learning this way:
Service-learning refers to experiential learning within academic courses that is gained through
structured reflection on community-based service. In most courses, service-learning pedagogies are
combined with more traditional modes of teaching and learning. Essential components of servicelearning include: learning and service, which enhance one another; reciprocal partnership with the
community; and meaningful, structured reflection. Service-learning courses at Loyola intentionally
contribute to those Undergraduate Educational Aims which promote justice, diversity, leadership
and social responsibility. These values are central to the Jesuit educational mission of Loyola Univ.
What type of service is involved?
A key part of this course involves building an understanding of the investment process and the role that IT
and the stock market plays in executing that process. Students at the high school level are often aware of
but unable to articulate or to understand how the stock market works. Financial literacy is often lacking in
many areas of society. We will address that issue through our outreach to high school students. Based on
your learning in this course, you have an opportunity to teach students how the markets work, to explain
what it means to own stock, to raise capital, to save for retirement, etc. Your goal is to teach, to inform, to
motivate, to educate, and to inspire these young high school students to understand something about the
market and the broader financial system upon which our society is based. Part of what we try to do for our
high school students is to run a separate stock market game with teams in each school competing against
each other. You are in charge of setting the rules of the game. Service is, and should never be, judged as a
chore. You are in a unique position to make a difference in peoples’ lives. I urge you to strongly consider
this service option. Try to create a teaching plan that will deliver your materials in eight one-hour blocks.
Reflections
I am not going to grade your teaching abilities… you will know yourselves whether you have made any
worthwhile impression on your students. What I ask you to do is to write two five page reflection papers
(1.5 spacing, 11pt Times Roman font). The first paper captures your thoughts on what you see as the state
of financial literacy in your high school student group. Think about and reflect upon differences in society
and what the markets mean to your high school students. Paper #1 is due in week 2 of the 10 week period,
basically after you have completed the second class with your students. Paper #2 is due at the end of your
service with the partner – whenever that is, probably at the end of the semester. Reflect upon what your
students learned, how that learning might be applied throughout their lives, and what you might propose
to resolve the broader issue of financial illiteracy in our society. I ask that you write your final reflection
paper in the form of a letter to someone you think might be able to act upon your ideas. It could be to the
U.S. Secretary for Education, a State Senator, etc. You do not have to actually mail your letter; that’s your
call. You may need to have some stats on hand when you write your letter so that you sound convincing.
Please feel free to use the materials on our class Dropbox account when creating your class teaching plan.
If you create new materials, please post them to Dropbox so that others can benefit from your efforts in
future. Remember that you must complete a timesheet to keep track of your hours; hand it in at the end of
the semester. You must also attend a CCSJ orientation at the start of the semester before service can start.
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Deliverables:
Short Exams
There will be two (75 minute) exams (requiring short essay style answers) given during the semester. The
format of each exam is open book, open notes, but closed Internet. Note: S-L students do not have to take
the first exam but they will need to take the second exam (dates for each exam are on the class website).
News or Magazine Article Analysis (Service-Learning students need to complete one blog post only)
Since the financial services sector is constantly changing, thanks in part to new forms of innovative IT, it
is essential for you to understand and keep pace with current events. For that reason, I expect that students
will read through magazines and newspapers to learn about these changes and to think through how they
might impact consumers and the world around us.
To help you analyze the articles that you find, over the course of the semester you will be required to
submit a 500-word (exact) critique/analysis of 4 news articles. These articles can come from newspapers,
magazines, online sources, etc. Your critique will appear on a class blog for the entire world and your
peers to see. The submission date for each article appears on the class website. You can also earn bonus
participation points (up to a max of 5% of the course grade) for blogging about what other students have
submitted. Your blog on what others have submitted will not be treated as one of the four required article
critiques. For those of you who prefer not to contribute in class or are not sure that you comments in class
will yield a good participation grade, I strongly urge you to use the class blog as a way to compensate.
Each blog will earn a max of 0.5% bonus. You can submit a maximum of 10 comments over the course of
the semester – you cannot add more than 2 (two) comments in a given week. A contribution to what one
of your classmates has written must be something substantial, not a half hearted attempt to write any old
thing at all. You may find that you contribute something to their blog and it does not earn a bonus 0.5%
because it really doesn’t say anything new. The blog software will automatically let me know if something has contributed a comment so you do not need to let me know if you submitted something. If you
receive a bonus, I will let you know as soon as possible after your comments are on the blog for all to see.
Remember that there is no room in blogging for plagiarism. I expect that whatever you submit will be
your’s and your’s alone. If you include material from a source article, include it in quotes and give the full
citation each time. If you are uncertain as to how to cite something, please ask me.1
Certifications instead of One Class Blog
I cannot overstate the growing importance of software certification (Thomson Reuters Eikon, Bloomberg,
and Morningstar), particularly for those of you who plan to work in financial services and most especially
in sales and trading. As an incentive for you to pick up one of these certifications, I will accept evidence
of a certification in any one of these three products in lieu of one blog. So if you pick up a certification or
if you have it already, you get 10 / 10. Please email me with evidence of your certificate to receive credit.
Excel Spreadsheets
Despite its relative simplicity and pervasiveness, Excel plays a critical role in modern day businesses. We
will not teach Excel skills in this class (this is something you are expected to know already). What we will
do instead is to apply Excel in the context of financial modeling. Specifically, we will spend a number of
classes reviewing and valuing options (puts and calls), term structure of interest rates, futures, forwards,
swaps, mortgage-backed securities, CDOs, and portfolio optimization. The material that I will use in this
part of the course is based on material gleaned from a Coursera course entitled Financial Engineering and
Risk Management, taught by Dr. Martin Haugh (Center for Financial Engineering, Columbia University)
and his colleague Dr. Garud Iyengar from the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research department
at Columbia University. We will have two excel assignments during the semester based on this material.
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A week is defined as Sunday morning through Saturday night. Please note that the class blog is scheduled to close
at 11:59pm on Saturday, December 13, 2014. No submissions of any kind will be accepted after this date.
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Triangular Arbitrage Spreadsheet – group exercise using FX component of Eikon
Each group is required to develop two models in Excel, using real time currency data in Reuters Eikon, to
move USD$1,000,000 in a roundtrip fashion through two other currencies (model 1) and through four
other currencies (model 2) before moving it back to USD. You need to compute whether it is profitable to
move USD in this way through either model. Model 1 must contain Yen and another currency (not EUR).
Model 2 must contain EUR, AUD, and any other two currencies (not YEN). You can decide the order of
the currencies, just so long as you start out and end up with USD. You should use conditional formatting
to signal whether your roundtrip generates a profit (use green) or a loss (use red).
Cases
Submit a one-page summary of each case (11 pt Times Roman, single space, 1” margin). Present the main
facts and the most important lessons drawn from the case. We will cover seven cases during the semester.
IT and the Investment Process Report – Group Project (two people per group or you can work alone)
The job of any portfolio manager is never as simple as just buying and selling equities. When large sums
of money are at stake, portfolio managers use IT to devise investment strategies that, among other things,
help them to identify what stocks will form part of their portfolio, what the balance of equities should be
in that portfolio (i.e., small vs. large cap), and when they should execute a trade to create, remove or alter
a position in a stock. Oftentimes the issue is not a lack of data but rather a glut of data that leads to information overload and outright confusion. The proliferation of information on the web is also problematic.
There are lots of chat-rooms offering free, but not always good advice. Comments in chat-rooms or blogs
can lead investors to make inappropriate trades. In other cases, chat-rooms and spam spread false rumors
about company future prospects.
It is critical for you to know how IT impacts the investment process, not just in terms of how you buy a
stock, but in how you decide what stock to buy and when to buy it. To help you understand this highly
involved and complex process, the class will form teams (two students per team). Each team will then use
the Trader Workstation system (http://www.interactivebrokers.com/ibg/main.php) to place trades over the
semester. Each team can buy or sell a wide variety of stocks. The lesson in this deliverable is for you to
understand how IT enables the decision process of what to buy / sell and when to trade. I will help you to
navigate through the Eikon software as you plan your investment strategy and as you study the companies
you will be trading to understand their performance, analyst ratings, etc. Once you have decided what
stocks to buy or sell, you enter those trades into the game and track their progress over the semester; the
game mirrors the US markets exactly with real time pricing data, the only difference being that the money
that you invest is funny money so you do not have to worry about losing anything – the key point is for
you to see how IT impacts the investment process. Of course, as the semester progresses, you are free to
change your portfolio in any way you wish – for example, you can increase your holding, or sell and reinvest the proceeds somewhere else. You are not obligated to stay with the stocks that you bought at the
start of the game. If you change your portfolio, however, you should be careful to document how IT
shaped your decision: what research did you do, what made you change your mind? I want you to experiment with short selling and algorithms. There will be other events (surprises!) that occur during the semester that will affect the game (and that help make it interesting), so you will need to watch for these.
The deliverable for this part of the course is a final report towards the end of the semester. The due date
appears on the class website. The report should be completed by your team rather than by each person,
although it is essential that all members play an active and equal role in writing the report. The report (12
pages maximum excluding tables, figures, appendices) – should detail the decisions that your team made
in building your portfolio, the websites that you used to conduct your research and any analysis you did
(e.g., on spreadsheets) in helping you to decide if this was the right time to buy or sell. From my perspective, I am not concerned about the stocks that you picked for your portfolio – I specifically want to know
how IT led you to that decision and how IT shaped your thought process and you worked through the different investment choices. You must also analyze the performance (gain or loss) of your portfolio (i.e.,
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you will be expected to do some basis Excel analysis). Equally, if you altered your portfolio at any time, I
want you to document why you made this change and what role IT played in your decision: e.g., did you
find a piece of research that said that the corporation was not going to do well in the future? Remember to
detail any websites used to inform your decisions or press releases that made you change your mind as to
whether a company was appropriate or not for your portfolio. The key lesson in this report is to tease out
how IT shaped your decisions both for your initial investments and any subsequent changes you decided.
Final Exam
I will administer a final exam during exams week. The exam will likely involve a number of short essaystyle questions. The exam will be open book, open notes, closed Internet. The exam will test your overall
understanding of the material that we have covered in class and will include what was previously tested as
part of the shorter midterm exams.
Grading:
Participation
Blog assignments (4x3% each)
Service-Learning Reflection (7% + 14%)
Midterm Exams (2 x 12%)
Case write-ups (7 x 2% each)
Excel Options Assignments (2 x 4%)
Triangular Arbitrage spreadsheet (group)
Investment strategy report (group work)
Final Exam
Non S-L
S-L
10
12
10
03
21
12
14
08
04
14
14
100%
24
14
08
04
14
14
100%
Points
94 – 100
90 – 93.9
85 – 89.9
80 – 84.9
75 – 79.9
70 – 74.9
65 – 69.9
60 – 64.9
55 – 59.9
40 – 54.9
0 0 – 39.9
Grade
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
F
You must complete all assignments to pass the class. If you do not hand in an assignment on time, you
will be subject to a 20% late penalty per day. Please submit all deliverables on time to avoid this penalty.
If you are not able to meet a deadline due to illness or some other extenuating factors, please let me know
as soon as possible beforehand so that we can work out an alternative plan for you to submit your work.
The curricular and policies section of the Loyola University undergraduate catalog defines the criteria to
interpret each letter grade:
A: Excellent – denotes not only high achievement but also an unusual degree of intellectual initiative; it
is reserved for outstanding and unquestioned excellence.
B: Very Good – denotes attainment above the average and is a mark of distinction.
C: Good – denotes work of medium or average attainment.
D: Passing – denotes mere fulfillment of basic requirements; a mark of inferior work.
F: Failure – denotes complete failure with the obligation to repeat the course if the course is required
and the student is permitted to remain in attendance.
Participation
Please note that 10% of your grade is awarded for in-class participation. The class is quite large but there
will still be ample opportunity for you to comment during our case study reviews. If you have personal
experience or insights from a parent, sibling, and friend, I would especially welcome your input. Students
who are often absent from class will receive a partial participation score and so any prolonged absence (or
unexcused absence) from class will almost certainly hurt your final course grade. I will take a roll if I feel
that students are missing class. Note: if you have 6 or more unexcused absences, you will receive zero on
your participation grade. If you miss any class, it is your responsibility to find out from your peers what
was discussed in class, including any announcements or other things such as changes to project dates, etc.
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There will be ample opportunity for students to keep track of their grade at all times. You will know how
close you are to the next highest letter grade but it is your responsibility to work to achieve that grade. I
have posted a grading spreadsheet template on Moodle which you can download and use to keep track of
your grade at all times. This is an exact copy of the spreadsheet that I will be using to record your grade. I
will also posted regular updates to the grade book on Moodle. What you see on the grade book in Moodle
should be identical to the grade that you see if you use the grading spreadsheet (just be sure to enter your
participation score in your grading spreadsheet). Please note also that since we are podcasting the course
that you will be able to view any classes on Moodle that you may have missed in person. I expect that if
you do miss a class for some reason that you will take advantage of the podcast.
Guest Speakers
It is my expectation that if we have guest speakers at any point during the semester, you will attend class.
On those occasions when we have a speaker, I expect you to be engaged and actively listening at all times
– as a sign of respect, you should not use your phone or computer when the speaker is presenting. I expect
you to act professionally. Pay attention and listen… do not allow Facebook or your phone distract you.
Student Athletes
If you are a student athlete, please provide me with your travel and game schedule indicating when you will
need to miss class to participate in athletic events. While travel for athletics is an excused absence, you will
need to make up any missed work.
Learning Disabilities
To request accommodations due to a disability, please call the Disability Support Services Office at (410)
617-2062 for a letter indicating that you wish to have extra time on exams. If you do need extra time, you
must let me know at the start of the semester so that I can coordinate as necessary with DSS.
Honor Code
Honesty is expected of all students and so work submitted by students as their own will be taken by me
and graded as such. Materials taken from any other source shall be clearly identified/cited. Acts of cheating, plagiarism or other violations of academic honesty are not acceptable. Penalty for any violations of
the honor code will receive an “F” grade on the activity (for all individuals involved), and violations will
be reported in writing by me to the Honor Council through the Director of Academic Services and Support. Furthermore, I expect that students will carry their weight on all team projects. It is unreasonable
and unethical to expect your team to make up for your poor work ethic and general lack of team spirit. If
teams have a free loader on their teams, please notify me and I will adjust your grades acordingly.
Everything that we do in our lab/classroom – SH102 – is potentially viewable by tour groups (parents and
prospective students) who on occasion will peek through the glass door and windows at the back of the
room. We are ambassadors for Loyola and, as such, must hold ourselves to a higher standard when what
we do can be seen by others. I have a strict computer usage policy in the classroom and I expect you to
abide by that policy at all times. When I have looked in the windows at the back of the room when other
professors are teaching, I have on occasion seen students playing games, looking at Facebook or checking
our sports websites or otherwise wasting their time. Loyola did not invest thousands of dollars in building
this room – one of perhaps 30 such rooms in the country – nor have we procured software valued at over
a million dollars annually for students to squander these resources wasting their time on other activities. If
you abuse our trust, it will negatively impact your grade.
Senioritis is Not an Excuse
I expect that many of the students in this class will be graduating seniors and will, therefore, be prone to a
disease called senioritis. I expect each student to pull their weight. You are expected to come to each class
unless you have a legitimate excuse. Your pending graduation is no reason for you to slack off.
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Detailed Class Description
Introduction
Week 1:
Course Overview, introduction to stock market game, and class deliverables
NYSE Trading Systems
Part 1: Securities Markets
Week 2:
NYSE, liquidity vs. technology, market consolidation
Week 3:
Brokers and Specialists – what types of IT each uses and for what purposes.
NASDAQ vs. the ECNs – review of level II screens in Eikon
OptiMark, Super Montage, Liquidnet, Program trading, Algorithmic trading
Week 4:
The Major Global Stock Exchanges (e.g., European markets)
The Role of IT in Creating Efficient Markets in Developing Countries
Triangular arbitrage exercises
Case Study: Oriental Fortune Capital: Building a Better Stock Exchange
Part 2: The Brokerage Industry
Week 5:
Information Technology at Schwab and Merrill Lynch – back office operations
Understanding the role of IT in the Day Trading craze
IT and the Bond Market – understanding the fixed income side of Eikon
The TradeKing model
Case Study: Charles Schwab in 2002
Part 3: Retail Banking and Banking Products
Week 6:
Personalized Banking – How Banks use CRM
Account Aggregation (Yodlee) – discussion of screen scrapping and web services
Peer-to-peer banking: Crowdfunding through Lendingclub.com
Case Study: Internet Customer Acquisition Strategy at Bankinter
Week 7:
Shopping for a Mortgage? How can IT Help? (IT at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac)
Cash Alternatives – Digital Wallets and Smart Cards, Electronic Checks
Case Study: Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank
Week 8:
Banking Mergers and new technologies
Case Study: Merger of Equals: The Integration of Mellon Financial & The Bank of NY (A)
Week 9:
Mobile banking strategies
Introduction to Foreign Exchange Trading Systems (Eikon trading spreadsheet)
Case Study: Bank of America Mobile Banking
Part 4: Miscellaneous Financial Services
Week 10:
Capital One Financial Corporation – IT and credit card operations
Case Study: Capital One
Week 11:
Options pricing, futures, forwards, term structure of interest rates
Week 12:
Mortgage backed securities, portfolio optimization
Week 13:
Online Insurance: Whatever Happened to e-Coverage? XBRL
Stock market game discussion and postmortem – what did we learn about IT?
Week 14:
Course wrap-up
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PHONE AND COMPUTER USAGE POLICY
Please read, sign, and date the following page to acknowledge receipt of the IS356 policy for phone and
computer usage in SH102.
The following pertains only to your conduct in IS356. It does not apply to any other class.
1. Personal Phone Use / Texting in Class:
There is no reason for students to make phone calls during class or to send text messages during class.
If you need to make a phone call or reply to a text message, please be professional and step outside
the class. Texting in class is distracting to the professor who is endeavoring to maintain a professional
environment. It also distracts others around you who are trying to concentrate. Please be respectful.
2. Laptop or PC Use:
While in our IS356 class in SH102, the computer systems (hardware and software) in SH102 should
only be used for the purposes of our class and for no other class. It is inappropriate to do homework
for other classes during our class period. Similarly, there is no need to play computer games, check
Facebook, review sports scores, etc. If you access the internet, it should only be for the purposes of
our class. SH102 is like a fish bowl. Much of what students do on the PCs closest to the back door
and beside the windows can be seen by people outside the room. From time to time, tour groups will
walk by and peek into the room. My expectation is that in a room with the latest trading technology
(Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters Eikon, and Morningstar), the PCs will only be used for the reasons for
which they were intended. We have had problems with students on the back row using Facebook or
watching sports. We are among a handful of college trading rooms in the country to have the unique
resources described above at our finger tips. Consequently, please do not give the wrong impression
to others by misusing the technology in SH102. I expect you to be professional at all times when in
class.
I have zero tolerance for IS356 students who use the systems in SH102 during our class period for other
non-IS356 assignments or who use the systems in the room for activities unrelated to our class such as
Facebook, sports scores, and computer games. As such, misuse of the technology in the room will reduce
your participation score at the end of the semester. FYI, there is technology installed on the teacher’s PC
in SH102 which allows the teacher to see what applications you are running on the PCs in the room. I will
use this technology on occasion to see that students are in compliance with our class policy.
___________________________________________
I acknowledge receipt of the above policy as to appropriate use of cellphones, texting, and computer use
in SH102 for the duration of our IS356 class.
Name: _________________________________________
Signed: ______________________________________ ____
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Date: _____________________