Mgmt 418  Management Information Systems Syllabus 

 Spring 2008

Instructor:  Mark Lewis, PhD       

Email:  mlewis14@missouriwestern.edu          Phone:  271-4273

Web Site:  http:\\academic.missouriwestern.edu/mlewis14

Office:  Room 309A Popplewell                       

Office Hours:  1:00-3:00 MW and by appointment, 24/7 available via email

Required Text:

“Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm,” 9^th edition, Laudon and Laudon.  There are several books on reserve in the library.

Information Systems

   Information Systems (IS) can be described as an integrated structure with three major components:  Management, Technology and Organization Behavior.  These combine to create an IS solution to business challenges, such as low quality, high costs, long delivery times, poor customer satisfaction (see Figure 1).  Although Porter's Value chain model for the generic activities of an organization relegate information systems to a supporting role (see Figure 2), information systems are used by all levels of employees in all functional areas of an organization and throughout the value chain.  Global business opportunities, fueled by exponential improvements in technology, are creating digital firms which have most aspects of their organization not only influenced by digital processes, but often transformed by them.

    The Laudon textbook has a website http://www.prenhall.com/laudon/  with lecture slides, sample test questions and other material.  Upon completion of this course, each student should have gained an appreciation for the difficulties and subtleties of managing information technology within an organization.  In addition, you will learn organizational concepts, ethical issues relating to technology advances, hardware / software / database / networking fundamentals, and the uses of IS for managing knowledge & decision making.  Relational database concepts and applications which are key components of most information systems will also be reinforced.

Figure 1.  Socio-technical Approach to Business Challenges & Solutions

Figure 2. Professor Michael Porter's Value Chain Model

Academic Honesty Policy and Due Process Statement

Academic honesty is required in all academic endeavors.  Violations of academic honesty include any instance of plagiarism, cheating, seeking credit for another’s work, falsifying documents or academic records, or any other fraudulent activity.  Violations of academic honesty may result in a failing grade on the assignment, failure in the course, or expulsion from the University.  When a student’s grade has been affected, violations of academic honesty will be reported to the Provost or designated representative on the Academic Honesty Violation Report forms.

Please see the Western Student Handbook and Calendar for specific activities identified as violations of this policy and the student due process procedure. The handbook is available online at http://www.missouriwestern.edu/handbook/index.pdf.  I do not consider working together on homework academic dishonesty – as long as each person is doing their own work. 

Grading

All letter grades are assigned using a 90/80/70/60 per cent scale.

Homework & Attendance

Regular attendance will improve your comprehension of the material and you will get better grades (than if you don’t attend class).  Homework will be assigned in class and I will also post info you may need on the publicly accessible drive O:\Business\mlewis.  There will be approximately eight homework assignments that are total worth approximately one letter grade, so each missed homework has a large effect on your final grade.  This semester we will be focusing on the use of relational database development using Microsoft's Access database.  Class participation basically means attending class, asking relevant questions and showing interest.  Sleeping in class, showing up late to class, leaving in the middle of class, disturbing other students (or the teacher) by talking, reading the paper, surfing the web, or other disrespectful activities will have a large negative effect on your class participation score.

Unexcused absences from tests result in a 0% for that test!   Excused absences must be arranged prior to missing the exam, in other words, coordinate with me on your absence prior to the exam or else it will be an unexcused absence.  Any excused absence will be made up via the comprehensive final.    

Course Schedule

We will attempt to closely meet the goals of the following schedule.  I have built in some extra time to cover topics of interest that are not covered in the textbook.  These include applications using spreadsheets, databases and design of web sites.

Management 418:  Management of Information Systems

Course Schedule Spring 2008