Survival Guide for BUS150 Online
Course Catalog Information and Tidbits:
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Course Title: Introduction to Information Systems and Applications
Course Number: BUS150
Units: 3
Advisory Reading Level: 3
Subsequent Appropriate Courses: The student will be prepared to take
advanced course work in spreadsheets and database.
Platform Software: Blackboard Courseware will house our virtual
classroom.
Email: Student provided
Catalog Description: Introduction to computer concepts, and
management information systems. Application software used to
solve business problems.
Additional Information:
o Matriculates to Management Science 265 at California State
University, Fullerton.
Course Objectives:
o Through the completion of Excel and Access projects students will
be prepared to demonstrate critical thinking and problem solving
skills through the proper usage of Excel and Access applications for
project solutions.
o As a result of student participation on the discussion board, weekly
tech related topics, and reading and lecture material reviews,
students will be able to use ethical reasoning and communication
skills in their expression of thoughts.
o Through completion of research activities students will demonstrate
the ability to locate and recognize valid sources of information and
implement them into their decision making process.
We will be using the computer extensively. You do not have to have a
computer at home in order to take this course, but it is strongly suggested
that to be a successful student in this course that you are familiar with the PC
or Mac and the Internet. As a student registered for this course, you can use
the PCs in the Computer Lab or Library. If you plan to use your own computer,
please refer to Computer Essentials.
Course Facts:
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Class Meetings: One introductory meeting for course orientation on our
Virtual Classroom, E-mail, course introduction, Discussion Boards and
Chat. All other class discussions/course work will be done on-line, using
Discussion Boards, E-Mail and Chat. The Final Exam will be taken at the
Santa Ana College Testing Center.
Textbooks: Three Textbooks are Required:
1. Information Systems Today
2. Excel 2010
3. Access 2010
 You must purchase all three textbooks for this course. (Access
codes provided with new textbooks will not be used. Please
ignore any publisher references to these.)
 The bookstore sells the texts (with the custom text) bundled at
a reduced cost. You can purchase the texts either in person at
the SAC bookstore (Don bookstore) or you can purchase from
the Don bookstore online. If you do not have a USB flash
drive you should purchase one. If you need to port your files
around from home/work/campus, a USB drive is the way to
go! If you are familiar storing files in the cloud, that’s fine too!
The textbooks are also available directly from the publisher in
an e-book format, although I do not think that an e-book for
your Excel and Access project work will work out well.
ISBN: 0558257275
Valacich & Schneider
Information Systems Today:
Managing the Digital World
(This is a CSUF custom edition
of the text below. It is the same
textbook with three chapters
removed. Either textbook will
work for our class.)
OR
ISBN: 0135098149
Gaskin & Vargas &
Marks
GO! with Microsoft
Excel 2010
Introductory
ISBN: 0132454645
Gaskin & McLellan
& Graviett
GO! with Microsoft
Access 2010
Introductory
ISBN: 0136078400
Valacich & Schneider
Information Systems Today:
Managing the Digital World, 4/E
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Course Evaluation:
o The course grade will be determined by test results, project scores,
and Discussion Board participation.
o The Breakdown is as follows:
Final Exam
150
Quizzes (8 x 40)
320
Intro. Project
Projects (12 x 37)*
Discussion Board (15 x 5)*
Total points
11
444
75
1000
Final Grading Scale
A
1000 - 900
B
899 - 800
C
799 - 600
D
599 - 500
F
499 - 0
*5 points will be deducted for late work. Add'l 5
points are deducted for each add'l week late
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Academic Honesty Policy: You should be familiar with the Academic
Honesty Policy at Santa Ana College. There is absolutely NO tolerance for
cheating in this class. Academic dishonesty or cheating is defined as an
intentional act of fraud in which a student seeks to claim credit for the
work or efforts of another without authorization. This includes assisting
other students in acts of dishonesty or coercing students into acts of
dishonesty, whether it is in coursework or on exams. There is absolutely
NO tolerance for cheating in this class. Any student caught cheating or
assisting another student in the act of cheating, will receive a zero score
for the assignment or quiz.
o Working with another student on an assignment meant for
individual completion, is considered an act of dishonesty. Files may
not be shared.
o Working with another student or another person is considered an
act of dishonesty on a quiz or on a project. Your work needs to be
your own.
o If you have any questions regarding this policy or application of this
policy, please let me know.
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Attendance and Absence Policy: College policy states that a student
may be dropped for nonattendance.
o In this course:
 Students must attend one of the mandatory introductory
sessions offered during the first week of classes or they
will be dropped for non-attendance.
 Students must complete the “Orientation Exercises” and
participate in Week #1’s discussion board by Monday of
the second week of classes or they will be dropped.
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Students must participate on the course site with
discussion board posts, online quiz submissions, project
submissions or other online interactions for that week
(blogs, wikis, chat). If two consecutive weeks of nonparticipation is observed by the instructor, the student
may be dropped.
However, please note that it is ultimately the student's
responsibility to drop the class, not the instructor's. Do not rely on
the instructor to drop you if you wish to drop a course. Log on to
webadvisor and drop your course.
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Microsoft Office: MS Office 2010 will be used for all application projects
in this course. We will be using Excel and Access. If you have an earlier
version of M/S Office you will not be able to complete many of the
projects. There are new features that are not available in earlier versions.
I strongly suggest that you use M/S Office 2010 from start to finish on
your projects. Many of the menus and toolbars in Office have changed
dramatically from earlier versions. There are some good options if you do
not have Office 2010:
o The Computer Lab and Library at the college have Office 2010 for
you to use (A-106).
o Purchase Microsoft Office 2010. Best to purchase through the
Foundation of California Community Colleges, of which Santa Ana
College is a member. The rates are highly reduced!
http://www.journeyed.com/fccc/ (There are many flavors of MS
Office - "student", "professional", "enterprise", etc. Be sure to look
at the details/contents of the product you select. You want to make
sure (at least for our class purposes) that you have Excel and
Access included in the Office package. The Student version does
not generally contain Access.)
o Use the free 90 day trial for Office 2010 that comes with your
textbook package if you purchased it from the Don Bookstore.
o Use the free 60 day trial trial from Microsoft.
o ** Please keep in mind that our course is longer than 60 days,
although if you'd like to work ahead, all projects are posted from
the start of class.
Mac users: MS Office for the Mac 2011 is the version that is most similar
to Office 2010 for Windows. However, not all features will be found in the
same place as in our textbook (which is for Windows) and your Office
version will not contain Access. (Access has never been available in the
Mac version.) Fair warning folks: I have had many students struggle in
the Excel portion, searching around for the features (which are there,
just difficult to find in the Mac version with our PC/Win textbook). My
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strong suggestion would be to use a PC for both Excel and Access, unless
Excel is not new to you. Otherwise there will be quite a bit of struggle to
do our projects. This four unit course takes a lot of time - best not to
spend even more time trying to figure out a tool on your own.
Email: In this class you must use your own email for our course. You
may create a free email at Google or at hotmail if you do not have an
email account. Although, quite frankly, if you do not already have an
email account, this online class probably isn't the class for you. You must
be an experienced email and Internet user to take this course.
ALL email that you send must use the following format in email
Subject
Subject: BUS150, Your Name - Subject
Examples: BUS150 Online, Jane Doe, Orientation (this is a
sample subject line if you are responding to the Orientation
exercises) BUS150 Online, Jane Doe, Quiz Question (if you
have a question on a quiz)
Email that is not sent with this format will probably automatically go
directly into the "Junk Email" folder and won't be looked at for a long
period. To assure that your email is read/responded to, use the proper
email format!
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Projects: Students will learn spreadsheet and database tools. We will be
using Microsoft Office applications; Excel and Access. All projects will be
submitted electronically into our Course Management System,
Blackboard, as an assignment submittal. (upload into Bb)
Computer Labs: Located in the Caesar Chavez Building (A-Bldg.),
Rooms 104, 106 and 108. Bring your registration card to enter the lab.
After the first few weeks, students are only allowed access to the lab with
a photo student ID card. You can obtain a student Photo ID card in the
Johnson Campus Center (U bldg) on the first floor, across from the game
room, during registration. After registration, when classes have
commenced, you can obtain a student photo ID at the Bursars Office in
the Admin bldg. (S-104). There are student assistants available at the
labs. They are there to assist students in general application assistance
and general Windows assistance. They are not tutors and will not do
assignments for students. Lab Hours at SAC generally are: Mon - Thus
9:00am - 9:00pm and Fri 9:00am - 6:00pm. The lab is closed on the
weekend.
Test Center: The Final Exam is at the Testing Center at SAC. You will be
able to take the test on any of the days selected for the test - check out
the syllabus! You will need answer sheet, ACCUtrac #100AS, available at
the Don Bookstore and Don Express.
o Location: Santa Ana College , L building, #L-221 Phone (714) 5646147
o Hours will be posted the week prior to our test week as test center
hours vary week to week There will be at least several days for
which they are open until 8pm.
o You must present a photo id card, either a Driver’s license or
Student ID card will do.
o If you do not live in the county, find a proctor in your local area. It
can be a local community college test center, work test center, or
public library. The Distance Education Office can provide you with
proctor forms to give your test proctor. Please contact me if you will
need to utilize a test center other than the one at SAC. I have had
students nationally and internationally take this course successfully
online. We can work it out!
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Accommodations for Disabilities: A student with a disability, who
would like to request an academic accommodation, is responsible for
identifying herself/himself to the instructor and to the Disabled Student
Programs and Services (DSPS). To make arrangements for academic
accommodations, contact the Disabled Student Office in Johnson Center,
U-103, or phone (714) 564-6264, TTY (714) 564-6284 for a referral to
the appropriate DSPS Department.
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Instructor: Cherylee Kushida - In this course, perhaps more than any
other, you should not hesitate to ask questions! If you are having any
trouble getting on the Internet, using an application, or understanding
the material, let me know! Make sure that you get help right away. Try
not to get behind. But, should that happen, contact me and we will work
it out. You can contact/find me at:
E-mail: kushida_cherylee@sac.edu (email is the usually the
best way to reach me!)
Office Location: Caesar Chavez Building, A-101
Office hours: Tues & Thurs: 8:00am – 9:00am
Office phone: (714) 564-6766 - If I am not available, please
leave a message with your name, class, and a phone number
to return your call. I only check my voice mail when I am oncampus... the fastest way to reach me is by email!
A bit about me: I graduated from University of California,
Irvine, with a B.S. in Mathematics and continued my education
at Claremont Graduate School with an M.B.A. in Management
Information Systems. I have been teaching full-time at SAC for
16 years and three years part-time prior to teaching full-time.
Before working in education I was a Systems Engineer at IBM.
I worked mainly in the large systems (mainframe) arena and
operating systems. It was a terrific job, but after having
children, a more time flexible career was better suited to my
new family lifestyle. I enjoy teaching at SAC and working with
the variety of students here. It is especially rewarding to assist
students in achieving their educational goals! I hope I can help
you achieve yours!