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Course Overview

Information Technology (IT) has radically changed the internal operations of organizations and the market places in which they compete. The toolkit of skills of the business professional must include an understanding of the fundamentals of IT and its impacts on the other functional areas of business – strategic management, finance, accounting, marketing, and operations. This course is intended to provide this base set of skills and understandings. Although it will have technology elements, the focus will be on business applications of IT. 

Course Objectives

By the end of this course you should be able to:

• Become an effective user of IT as a business professional (heavily based on self-learning tools)
• Understand key factors effecting organizational ability to use IT effectively
• Critically discuss the basic economic concepts that govern IT-based products and services

The Virtual Classroom

In this class we will be making extensive use of the “Blackboard” web enhanced learning platform.  You are required to log into Blackboard every day (except weekends, vacations, and holidays) – just like you use your email.  The “Blackboard” page for the class is available from:

http://sternclasses.nyu.edu

You need to use your STERN user name and password. You should check your Blackboard account as soon as possible as it is central to this class.   If you have any technical difficulties regarding Blackboard, get help from Stern's education technology specialist, Yale Yankelev, (212) 998-0996. The Blackboard student manual and other useful information can be found by going to Student Tools function and selecting Student Manual.  

The class “Blackboard” web site is a repository for class materials – copies of assignments, a current schedule and reading list, and class handouts will all be available from it.  Copies of class lecture notes will also be made available.  The class “Blackboard” site is also where you go to complete on-line surveys and (possibly) quizzes, submit homework, post questions on the assignment, and check your grades.

You should also check your STERN EMAIL or forward it to the account you check regularly.  All students (including non-Stern) students have Stern accounts set up for them.  Please make sure that your password is changed from the default password to a password of your choosing or you will have problems with the web page assignment down the road.  To do so, go to:

http://w3.stern.nyu.edu/simon/ 

Instructions on how to forward your Stern email to some other account can be found at http://www.stern.nyu.edu/it/guides/simon.html. I will use your Stern email for any class-related mailings. See http://www.stern.nyu.edu/it/facilities/index.html for more information about the Stern Labs.  Finally, Stern information technology helpdesk, http://www.stern.nyu.edu/it/helpdesk/index.html, is also available for any questions regarding your computing needs. If you need help with your accounts or have other technical difficulties, go to UC-49 Help Desk in KMEC or call (212) 998-0180.

Required Textbooks & Software Tutorials: (available as a BunDLE)

1.       Management Information Systems for the Information Age with CD-ROM, 4th Edition, by Stephen  Haag, Maeve Cummings and Donald  McCubbrey. (Haag)

2.       Information Rules, Chs 2, 5, and 7, by Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian (InfoRules).

3.        “How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy” by Michael Porter

4.       SimNet XPert Tutorial for Office XP

Do not buy each of these individually. A substantially discounted package containing all of these required materials is available from the NYU bookstore.            

Course Requirements and Grading

Your final grade for the course will be determined based on your relative performance in the following:

 

Homework: The homework assignments are to be done individually or in designated groups before the due date and time. Any homework assignments submitted in late will lose 50% of the grade. No assignment will be accepted more than 48 hours past the deadline.  The homework assignment and projects will be typically due at midnight the day before the class (either Sunday or Tuesday).  All writing assignments should adhere to the following guidelines:

·         Double-spaced, size 11 font or larger

·         Use subheadings (sections) to enhance clarity

·         Ensure that the use of course concepts is explicit and appropriate

·         Be concise, use correct spelling and grammar

·         Follow assignment-specific guidelines

For the purposes of team projects, you will need to find teammate(s).  You can use classmates’ homepages on Blackboard (Assignment #1) and in-class interactions to find teammates to work with. If you cannot find teammate(s) for your project before due date, we will match you with someone.

Mid-terms and Final.  The mid-terms are scheduled in class. The final will be during exam week. Exams are closed book. No electronic devices (calculators, PDAs, etc.) are permitted during the exam. Tentative schedule is written at the end of this syllabus. Obviously, you will have to appear in person at exams and bring along an ID (e.g., NYU-ID, valid drivers license). The tests will be based on Learning Objectives from each session and on homework.

Quizzes. There may be pass/fail quizzes given throughout the semester in class or on Blackboard. Further information will be provided to you, if the quiz is given.

In-Class Participation and Attendance.  This course, like many other courses at Stern, uses learning methods that requires active involvement (e.g., discussions and exercises). Not only is this the best way to learn, but it also develops your communication abilities as future managers and leaders. Regular attendance and participation are very important for this course. Lateness, off-topic conversations, or cell-phones will detract from your grade. Active participation requires good preparation -- thoughtful reading of the assigned material and completion of assignments, quizzes, and projects before class is essential. If you are late, you will miss some of the important exam preparation exercises.

I would like to encourage active participation in any way I can. In order to create a personal atmosphere in learning, I am asking you to please display name cards and take approximately the same seat, at least in the first few weeks of the class. I am also a strong believer that we learn from our mistakes, so do not be afraid to speak up! Because we will do many hands on exercises, I will be calling on people to share their work and thinking. This way, everybody would get a fair chance to participate and not just the people who are brave enough to raise their hand (although, I appreciate these hands tremendously). 

If you are concerned that a difficulty with English or some other situation will interfere with your ability to participate, please discuss this with me during the first week of the course. I will keep track of your participation throughout the semester, and will be glad to provide you with feedback at any time. I recognize that expressing viewpoints in a group is difficult for some people, but it is an important skill for you to develop here at Stern.  I will do what I can to make this as anxiety-free as possible. If you feel that contributing on-line is easier for you than contributing in-class, please let me know. Only regular and insightful on-line contributions will be rewarded with the participation grade (e.g., asking a HW question does not count).

Discussion Boards. In addition to in-class participation, you should also regularly participate in the discussion board on Blackboard, where we will discuss topics from the news as well as from the class material. The participation should be substantive – read what others have said, reply to their remarks, but do not repeat their points. You can also ask questions of each other. This will help you learn and prepare for exams. The participation in this forum counts as a partial substitute for your in-class participation. If you are active in class, your contributions would not be formally assessed – although they are encouraged. If you are not active in class, but you have made regular and substantive contributions online, you will get partial participation grade for them. Discussion board will also be used to ask me or TFs questions about assignments and exams as well as to facilitate group formation. All administrative questions should also be posted there rather than sent to us in email (e.g., “Do we have a quiz this Monday?”). Additional discussion board for posting feedback to me and TAs about how the course is going would be set up. You can post feedback anonymously.

Feedback Survey: To assess your learning and get feedback on my teaching, I will ask you to fill out a 3-minute feedback form on-line (Blackboard) probably every few weeks. The feedback form is anonymous in as far as you answers are concerned. It is extremely valuable to reflect on what you have or have not learned, and it is extremely valuable to me to learn what I can do better next time around.  Do not fill out feedback forms for session you have not attended. To reciprocate you can always ask me to give you feedback on your performance throughout the semester. Also, you can always post an anonymous feedback comment on the discussion board.

Academic Honor Code. Consistent with Stern’s honor code, your exams and quizzes should be done individually. On individual assignments you can only discuss the assignment with me or TFs. On team assignments, you can only discuss them with your teammate(s), me or TFs. All external sources such as web pages, periodicals, books, etc. should be properly cited in your work. Any attempt to represent the work of others as your own will be considered plagiarism and will be referred to the Stern Discipline Committee. Penalties determined by this committee range from academic probation to expulsion.  It is in your best interest to submit nothing or partial assignment, than to copy it from others.

Grading Issues: If you believe that the grade you received was unjustified, to appeal the grade you must write a one page explanation as to the reason for your appeal and hand it along with your graded assignment back to your section’s TF. The TF will completely re-grade the assignment, which may increase or lower your grade (if the TF caught more mistakes second time around). Please think twice before appealing a grade. If you decide to appeal the grade with me, consider that I am a harsher grader than TFs.  We publish the grading guide for the students so that they can learn from their mistakes and judge the fairness of the grade. 

Individual Consultation. I encourage you to meet with me or TFs at any point in the course to discuss your progress or problems with the material or assignments. I would prefer if you could come during the office hours, but if you cannot, please see me after class, or send me an e-mail, and we can schedule a time to meet. Please talk with me if you have questions or problems. I am here to help.

Teaching Format

Learning Objectives. The class session will be primarily driven by hands-on group exercises, discussions, and demonstrations. Each session will begin with a set of Learning Objectives that you can use to help determine if you have mastered the content of the session. The lecture may not cover all the learning objectives. The idea is to use the lecture for discussion and hands-on learning and to have you learn more about the topics on your own.  As an incentive for using the learning objectives, any material covered in the learning objectives will be considered fair game for the exams. 

Schedule and Reading List

Reading: Readings should be completed after the class and before the following class unless I indicate that you need to read something BEFORE the class. Links for the on-line readings are available from the on-line syllabus on the Course “Blackboard” Home Page. The lectures would draw heavily on the readings.

CD-ROM Tutorials. Take careful note of when the CD-ROM tutorials are to be completed.  Be sure to start the tutorials in sufficient time to allow completion by the required date.  The CD-ROM tutorials are self-paced so if you are unfamiliar with Excel or Access recognize that the tutorial will take considerable time to work through. From prior classes, we heard that tutorials can take up to 15 hours to complete each. There will be no test specifically on the tutorials, but you will need to complete them to do the assignments.

This schedule is subject to change – the web version should always be considered the most up-to-date.