Syllabus: WBIT 2000 Enterprise in IT course - Sandra Jones Fall 2008

This course will cover the structure and management of an information technology infrastructure. From the management aspect the course will touch on principles and practices of managing both people and technology to support an organization. The course will emphasize how to make an information technology infrastructure effective, efficient, and productive. The management of hardware, software, data, networks and other supporting IT functions will be studied.

WBIT 1100

• Discuss the value, roles, and goals of IT as a part of the corporate infrastructure.
• Discuss ways in which IT might be used to gain competitive advantage
• Discuss the main roles and functions of computer operations management.
• Explain the impact of capacity and availability management for systems.
• Discuss the role of service level agreements.
• Identify challenges to information technology budgets and discuss strategies for addressing these challenges.
• Describe the role of teams in information technology projects and evaluate team effectiveness.
• Identify common ethical issues surrounding the use of technology in organizations and analyze strategies for addressing these issues.
• Explain how telecommunications policies and regulations affect the application of information technology.

Required text: Applegate, Austin and McFarlan, Corporate Information Srategy and Management, Seventh Edition, Text and Cases,, McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2006, ISBN 0-07-294775-6

Beware: There is a paperback version of this book without the cases in it. You will need the cases, so don't buy that. Only the Text and Cases version will do.

E-mail will be the official tool for contacting the instructor. Following are the e-mail policies for this class:

• Students are required to use their WebCT e-mail account for all communications.
• Students are expected to check their e-mail accounts on a daily basis.
• The instructor will respond to student e-mails during the work week (Monday – Friday) within 24 hours of receipt.
• Follow-up to unanswered e-mail is welcomed, as there are instances in which messages get “lost.”

The professor reserves the right ot change the syllabus and class schedule, including assignments and tests with prior notice give to the class.

While class cancellation does not apply to an asynchronous online course, should instructional delays occur due to server or connection problems or other unforeseen circumstances, we will endeavor to remain on schedule. Such remedies may include adjustments to due dates, online discussion or tutoring sessions, etc.

All students enrolled in the WebBSIT Program must verify their enrollment via WebCT Vista.

Enrollment verification information is provided to the Financial Aid Office of your home institution. To verify your enrollment you must log-in to each of your WebCT Vista courses by 5:00 PM on the first dya of course instruction.

Consistent participation is required. Activities include, e-mail correspondence, discussion threads and study groups, assignment submissions, etc.

http://www.webbsit.org/StudentPortal/enroll.asp

Withdrawal policy varies by institution. In general, students who stop attending class without doing the necessary withdrawal paperwork will receive an automatic grade of ‘F’. Students who withdraw after midterm will receive an automatic grade of ‘WF’. Withdrawal policy and procedures are published in the Academic Catalog of your consortium institution.

Students must log into each of their WebCT Vista courses by 5pm of the day classes begin (Academic Calendar) to confirm their attendance. Remember, you are taking an online course and participation in the course is the only way the instructor can "see" you.

If you fail to log into your courses by 5pm of the day classes begin, or fail to complete course activities within a tow-week period at any time during the semester, the instructor will conseder your lack of activity as an indication of your intention not to continue in the course. At this point, the instructor may choose to remove you from group activities or interactions. Failure to participate without officially withdrawing from the course will result in a grade of F.

The special circumstances of taking a WebBSIT course demand regular and consistent participation. Be sure to pace yourself throughout the semester making sure your responses to communications and assignments are timely. If you are not able to participate in any assigned class activities, contact your instructor immediately.

A registered student, who has failed to attend class (in person or by electronic equivalent) by the final payment deadline for the term, is considered a “no show.” The “no show” student will be administratively withdrawn and will not be reinstated. The “no show” student is obligated to pay for all registration in effect at the end of drop-add even though he or she did not attend.

Unless otherwise indicated, all assignments, projects, examinations, etc are individual assessments and evidence of excessive collaboration between students will be treated as cheating. Note that representing the work of another is considered cheating. The usual penalty for cheating is an 'F' in the course.

Any student guilty of a dishonest academic activity such as (but not limited to ) copying sections from another student's paper or plagiarizing from another source such as a website will receive an F in this course.

For further information on Academic Dishonesty review that section of Academic Catalog of your consortium institution.

Technology Requirements

Computers located in on-campus labs or libraries cannot be used as the primary computer resource for taking online classes. You will need the reasonably small suite of hardware and software listed below

Required Hardware:

• Computer: A personal computer with Windows XP or higher, or a MacIntosh with OS X.
• Sound: A sound card with speakers or headphones.
• Monitor: A VGA (or equivalent) or better monitor.

Strongly Recommended Hardware:

• Printer connected to the computer
• CD-ROM drive
• Microphone

Internet Connectivity:

• Internet access. For a dial-up connection, at least a 56k modem is recommended. Slower dial-up connections will affect course performance. High speed Internet connectivity (cable or DSL) is strongly recommended.

Required Software:

• Microsoft Office XP or beyond, including: Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint
• Web Browser: A JavaScript enabled Web browser. These include Netscape 7.1, Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer versions of either. (Note: Internet Service Providers [ISP] with proprietary browsers such as Prodigy or some versions of AOL, may have difficulty with JavaScript-based activities. Contact the ISP to determine if the browser will work with JavaScript.)
• Virus protection software
• Flash Player
• Animations (Tutorials) used in this course require the installation of the cross-platform Flash Player.
  • Download Flash Player 8 for Windows or Macintosh

Your course grade will be computed as follows:

15% Discussion Participation
35% Individual Assignments
25% Group Assignments
25% Term Paper

This course does not have examinations.

Participation is measured by your activity on the discussion board for this class. For each unit, you will be required to create at least two meaningful posts AND two thought-filled responses to other students' posts.

Homework assignments will receive a numeric grade of 0 - 100. Most assignment remarks are included in the "comments" section of the assignment grade returned to you. Should a "marked" paper be returned to you as an attachment, you should ALWAYS download and review. I try to make notes about things that are good and things that need improving. Failing to heed my notes on future assignments will have an impact on your assignment grades, and it's hard to heed notes that you haven't read.

Cases and your term paper will also receive numeric grades on a scale of 0-100.

Absolutely no late assignments will be accepted.

A generous amount of time is allotted to complete all assignments. Please refer to the Course Calendar and or GANTT chart to stay on track and submit your assignments on time.

This course has no proctored examinations.

Here are six things you can do that will greatly improve your chances of earning a satisfactory grade in this class:

Read the syllabus: It is a lot of trouble to prepare so detailed a syllabus. You should assume I had a reason for it. You should read every word in the syllabus during the first week of classes. I will not be sympathetic to complaints that you didn’t understand something about the course if it’s written down in the syllabus.

Read the textbook: You will get a lot more out of this class, and so be able to give back more on the assignments and examinations, if you read the assigned parts of the textbook before the material is first due to be discussed. In my experience, students who don’t complete the reading before it is discussed either never complete it or try to cram it all in just before work is due. That doesn’t work.

Learn from the on-line lessons: The lessons cover some of the material in the text, it is true. Sometimes an explanation from a different point of view will make material clearer to you. Furthermore, the lessons present material not in the textbook, including information on best practices. You are responsible for this material.

Participate in the online discussions: A portion of your course grade is based on participation. In addition, if you don’t participate, you are missing an opportunity to have things that may not be clear explained to you, to ask me questions, and to interact with your colleagues and me. If classes weren’t important, we wouldn’t have them.

Do the homework: The homework assignments and cases are both tools to help you learn and the principal method by which I will assess your progress.

Allow enough time: More unsatisfactory grades are due to procrastination than any other cause. Do not assume that you can complete the homework in the thirty minutes before the due date and time; you cannot. The most successful students start this work this work the several days before it it due.

Online classes, particularly, seem to invite procrastination. So, online students should be particularly careful to avoid it.

The course calendar is your friend. The course calendar tool shows the due dates for all assignments and provides a unit-by-unit reading guide for each week of the term. You should check the calendar each week.

From time to time the instructor may revise the course calendar. If that happens, you will see the "New Calendar Entry" icon next to the course on your "My WebCT" page. Click the icon to be taken directly to the revisions.

There is also an Excel file on the Home Page that contains a GANTT chart for the class. Print this out so that you will have a quick reference for how long you have to complete assignments and when they are due.

All writing assignments are expected to demonstrate proper spelling and grammar. Take the time to review your work carefully before submitting as these types of errors will cause you to lose points in your assignment grades.

Style Guideline: Your work should be prepared in a form that can be opened with Microsoft Word and saved with the following naming convention: "[name]assignment[#]". Use a type face of approximately twelve points and leave at least a one-inch margin on all four sides of the page in order to give me a place to add comments to your work. Double space your work.

If the work you are turning in has more than one part, include all parts in a single file; do not turn in two or more files.

In the upper right corner of the first page of each assignment, put the following information in the order shown:

Your name

The date the item is turned in

Identification of the item (Homework #1, Term Paper etc.)

If the item is being resubmitted, the word "resubmitted"

Remember, this information goes in the upper right corner. Do not use a cover page.

As in "real life" the members of each group are expected to make allowances and take up the slack when one member of the group has an emergency.

Also as in real life, a group may "fire" a member who consistently fails to carry his or her part of the load. The mechanism for firing a member is that every other member of the group, individually, must send the instructor email requesting the individual's removal. All emails must arrive within a single seven-day period.

A member who is removed from a group must complete the group assignments individually, must submit them on time, and will receive a grade based on his or her individual work.

Note that if one is removed form a group just before an assignment is due, the person removed is still expected to turn that assignment in on time or receive a zero. That may be very difficult when time is short. In other words, getting fired is an extremely bad thing which each of you should try to avoid. OK?

A portion of your course grade will be derived from a term paper. As explained in Preparing Your Term Paper in the "Course Resources" section, a successful term paper is one that earns a grade of A and doesn't kill you in the process! The key to a successful term paper is a narrow scope. That's how you get enough depth with a reasonable amount of work.

Choose a general topic from one of the units of this course. Then find a very specific area within that topic which you will research further. You have some time to think about this.

In about the third week of the course (the exact date is in the Course Calendar and the Assignments tool) turn in a Term Paper Proposal. In your proposal, provide the title of your paper, a draft "Statement of the Problem," an abstract that explains in a paragraph or two the topic you intend to research and write about, and list at least three references to material on that topic. (You will have to have done some research to list the references; that's how you know you can find enough material on your chosen topic.) Your proposal will not be a part of your grade, but will be marked "Approved" or "Not Approved." If your proposal is approved, proceed. If it is not approved, the instructor will tell you why. You must then submit a revised proposal for approval.

Your term paper will not be graded (and will count as a zero!) if you do not work from an approved proposal.

About two weeks before your paper is due, you will have the opportunity to submit ONE term paper draft. Your draft will not be graded, but will be approved or disapproved with comments. You will not have the opportunity to submit multiple drafts, so you should pay close attention to suggestions made to you on your returned draft. The purpose is to be sure you're on the right track so that you earn a good grade on the final paper. Your term paper draft must have all the required sections described in Preparing Your Term Paper, and the problem statement must be in final form. The literature review may be in draft form, but should be mostly complete. The discussion and conclusion may be in draft or outline form.

Your term paper will not be graded (and will count as a zero!) if you do not work from an approved draft.

Your final paper must be at least six and no more than 12 typed, double-spaced pages, exclusive of references and figures. It must be prepared in the format described in Preparing Your Term Paper. You must cite at least six references, of which one may be from the class text. Your remaining references must come from books or papers published in respected journals. At most three references may come from popular publications or Internet publications.

Refer to the Standards of Academic Conduct paper and be careful to attribute comments, observations, and ideas which are not your own. There is a writing example in the "Course Resources" section that will show you how to do this.

Plagiarism, fabrication, reference padding, or other academic misconduct will result in a grade of zero on the paper, a letter-grade reduction in your course grade, and possibly other penalties. I reserve the right to screen your papers using an anti-plagiarism service like Turnitin.com. (I am sure no one will plagiarise, but I have to put it in the syllabus.)

Be careful what you upload. I will not accept, "I uploaded the wrong thing" as an excuse for unsatisfactory work or academic misconduct.

Lesson Title

Orientation to the Course

Objectives

After completing this orientation you will:

Lesson Title

Introduction

This course will examine the structure and management of an information technology infrastructure. From the management aspect the course will touch on principles and practices of managing both people and technology to support an organization. The course will emphasize how to make an information technology infrastructure effective, efficient, and productive. The management of hardware, software, data, networks and other supporting IT functions will be studied

Objectives

Upon completion of this unit, you should be able to:

• describe the roles and goals of information technology in the enterprise
• discuss the two important facets of information technology in the enterprise: infrastructure and competitive advantage.
• analyze the idea that information technology has been "commoditized" and the implications of this idea to the enterprise.
• distinguish among data, information and knowledge.
• explain models of competition and sources of competitive advantage.
• discuss the implications of ubiquitous networking for the enterprise.
• describe the possible implications of information technology on the idea of the value chain.
• differentiate between business and consumer transactions in electronic commerce.

Readings

Applegate, Austin and McFarlan, Corporate Information Strategy and Management, Seventh Edition, Text and Cases, Introduction and Chapter 1 .

Unit One Online Lessons

Lesson Title

This Unit addresses the following course objectives:

• identify challenges to information technology budgets and discuss strategies for addressing these challenges.

Objectives

Upon completion of this lesson, you should be able to:

• identity the key components of an IT budget
• explain how IT managers forecast for growth
• explain how technology innovations affect IT budgets

Readings

Applegate, Austin and McFarlan, Corporate Information Strategy and Management, Seventh Edition, Text and Cases, Chapters 2-4.

Applegate, Austin and McFarlan, Corporate Information Strategy and Management, Seventh Edition, Text and Cases, Reading 1-5: IT Doesn't Matter. by Nicholas Carr

Lesson Title

This unit covers the following course objectives:

• Discuss the main roles and functions of computer operations management.
• Explain the impact of capacity and availability management for systems.
• Discuss the role of service level agreements.
• Describe an effective change management system.

Objectives

Upon completion of this unit, you should be able to:

·    explain the value of systematization in operations management.

·    define "capacity" and "availability."

·    explain how redundancy relates to capacity and availability.

·    develop a strategy for managing organization capacity needs.

·    describe factors that affect availability.

·    analyze strategies for addressing availability.

·    evaluate the need for business continuity planning.

·    evaluate the components of service level agreements

·    explain the role of service level agreements for both internal and external services

·    explain how service level agreements may be used to justify a company's overall computing requirements, ease capacity planning, justify resources and establish a case for business continuity planning

·    explain how to manage customer service expectations through the use of contracts and service level agreements

·    Explain the importance of a change management system

Readings

Applegate, Austin and McFarlan, Corporate Information Strategy and Management, Chapters 5, 6, and 7.

Lesson Title

This unit addresses the following objectives:

• Describe the role of teams in information technology projects and evaluate team effectiveness.
• Discuss methods for effectively communicating expectations and project progress.

Objectives

• explain the importance of establishing and developing a team correctly at the start of a project;
• compare and contrast effective teams based on composition and dynamics
• identify techniques for managing group behavior;
• define the characteristics of the stages of group development: "forming", "storming", "norming", "performing";
• recognize commonly used models for managing people;
• explain the importance of managing communications and expectations;
• describe methods used to communicate progress;
• given a case study contrast effective and ineffective methods of progress reports;
• given a scenario develop a structure to communicate project status.

Readings

Important Dates