Course Introduction
MIS 3501, Spring 2016
Jeremy Shafer
Department of MIS
Fox School of Business
Temple University
1/12/2016
Agenda
Our agenda for today:
1. Why MIS?
2. Why this class?
3. Why PHP?
4. The best teacher in the world
5. The structure of this course
6. The strategy for success
Slide 2
Why, why, why?
Slide 3
Why MIS?
Technology
Ninja
“Business Systems Analyst”
Business
Samurai
Noble
* Bear in mind, that everything I know about ancient Japan I learned from reading
“Magic Treehouse” books to my children. So take this analogy
with a grain of salt.
Slide 4
Why this class?
Our Advisory Board says …. “We want the best of both worlds.”
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•
•
•
We want
We want
We want
We want
self-starters who can tackle any technical problem.
business savvy, team players.
programmers.
self-starting, business savvy, team players that can write code.
You say … “I want a good job” or “I want to be CIO”
• You won’t get that good job based on your good looks and personality.
• You will be competing with students from other disciplines
(e.g. Computer Science, Engineering) for that good job.
• You should be looking for ways to “get in the door” so that someday
you can be CIO.
The faculty in this department (myself included) say …
• We want you to be successful and happy in your career.
• Learning how to write code is an essential skill that will make you competitive.
Slide 5
Think about it…
In order to do business today you need:
•
•
•
•
•
A web presence
A mobile presence
A database infrastructure
An understanding of networking and security
The ability to learn new technologies and adapt quickly
In learning to
write a web
application,
you become
familiar with
each layer of
the solution.
Slide 6
Why PHP?
Hold on a minute…. You
actually learn more than just PHP in
this class.
You also learn: HTML, CSS, and
MySQL.
More importantly, you learn
how acquire new technical skill, then
apply it. This is something you will
need to do over and over again in
your professional IT career.
Slide 7
Why PHP? (continued)
You need to start somewhere.
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•
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PHP has a massive install base
PHP is a mature, well established language
PHP is open source
PHP focuses on server side scripting
PHP Database Objects can interface with all
major RDMS systems (Oracle, SQL Server,
MySQL, MariaDB)
PHP is “good enough” for …
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Facebook
Amazon
E-Bay
DropBox
Uber
Snapchat
Wikipedia
Wordpress
Drupal
Etc….
What is the hardest programming language to learn? The first one.
There’s always one more thing to learn!
Good alternatives to PHP would be Python, JavaScript / Node.js
Slide 8
The best teacher in the world…
Slide 9
Learning to code is not like this…
The teacher tells
me the answers
I move on to the
next task
I memorize the
answers
I win!
I tell the
answers back to
the teacher
I get a good
grade.
Slide 10
Learning to code is like …
SWIMMING
RUNNING
MARTIAL ARTS
JUGGLING
RIDING A
BIKE
PLAYING AN
INSTRUMENT
Slide 11
The best teacher in the world…
The best teacher in the world is … you.
No one else can really teach you.
What goes on outside the classroom is more important than
what happens inside the classroom.
“No use going to class unless you go to the
library.” ~ Ray Bradbury
Slide 12
Course Overview
MySQL
•Weeks 6 & 7
To do:

PDO
•Week 8 & 9


Organize your code with MVC
(week 11)
Work with forms (week 12)
Use cookies and sessions (week 13)
PHP
•Weeks 3 – 5
HTML &
CSS
•Weeks 1 & 2
** This is all in the syllabus. You should really read the syllabus.
Slide 13
Quizzes and Exams
All quizzes and exams are “hands on” evaluations of
This quiz may come as a shock to
technical skill.
some of you because I really
expect you to apply skills you have
learned outside the classroom.
Don’t expect it to get easier after
this.
HTML
Quiz
Exam 1
Here, some of you will come to me
saying “what can I do?” and/or “I am
very worried about this class.”
MySQL
Quiz
This exam may be the first one in
your academic career that you fail.
It may also be the the first one that
you are unable to complete in the
allotted time.
Exam 2
Exam 3
Here I will expect you to apply
concepts that you originally
encountered in MIS2502.
Slide 14
Quizzes and Exams (continued)
• This semester, all students must
use the lab workstations to
complete their quizzes and exams.
• You will not be allowed to use your
own personal equipment for quizzes
and exams.
• Quizzes and exams are open book,
open notes, and partially open
internet. (Only a limited number of
web sites will be available to you
during the exam.)
Slide 15
The strategy for success
1. Commit to yourself learning to code outside of the classroom.
2. Be curious. Ask questions. Make the code your own.
3. Do the work I assign you. The exercises and challenges are NOT graded.
You experiment and fail many times without penalty.
4. If you can’t figure out a solution on your own, make sure you understand the
solution provided.
5. Realistically assess your own comprehension of the material.
6. Set up your own computer outside the classroom so you can do your work
at home, on the train, at the beach, etc. etc.
• Remember, frightened people
do stupid things.
• You can beat tomorrow’s fears by
preparing today.
Slide 16
#LeaveNoDoubt
Slide 17