MIS 34036 Fall 2009 Walshesky

Course Description

This course covers fundamental concepts of IS infrastructure and infrastructure application development. Organizations need IS infrastructure that can serve them well through the business growth and change process. Topics include the organizing principles of adaptive infrastructure; IS infrastructure planning, IS infrastructure technologies, including hardware, storage, operating systems, databases, networks, software; the resources needed to develop and integrate applications, using, for example, the Microsoft ASP.NET development platform, with web and windows forms, events, server controls, database connections, web services, configurations, application deployment, and security provisions.

Key Components of the Course

• Understand the fundamental concepts of IS infrastructure and IS infrastructure planning.  This includes communications (routers/switches), security (firewalls), and how mainframes and client server infrastructures coexist.
• Understand the components and interrelationships of IS infrastructure technologies.
• Understand the role of enterprise architectures in the development of infrastructure applications.
• Understand the significance of standards and development tools to the IS infrastructure.
   

Learning Outcomes

• Students will learn to identify and describe the role and importance of  IS infrastructure in organizations, and the relationship between IS infrastructure and business applications.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to do independent research on specific infrastructure technologies.
• Students will learn to develop and manage IS infrastructure by demonstrating their understanding of the current IS infrastructure technologies, the processes involved in infrastructure planning, and alternative strategies used to manage IS infrastructure.  

Prerequisites

MIS 24060 – Systems Analysis I
MIS 24070- Principles of Systems Development

* Note* Students attending the course who do not have the proper prerequisites risk being deregistered from the course.

Evaluation and Grading

o   The final grade will be composed of the following criteria

§  Class Participation – 30%

·         Includes attendance and participation in classroom discussion

·         Completion of weekly Topic Summaries

·         Create and turn in ideas for exam questions

·         Completion of weekly brain teasers

§  3 Exams – 2 during the term, each worth 15% and one Final Exam worth 20%

§  Presentations – 20%

Letter Grades will be assigned  according to the following scales:
A = 90-100; B = 80-89; C = 70-79; D = 60-69; F = Below 60

Important Dates

9/30 – Take Home Exam I (due before 11:59PM 10/7)
10/28 – Take Home Exam 2 (due before 11:59PM 11/4)
11/8 – Final Day for Course Withdrawl
11/11 – Veteran’s Day – No Class
12/9 – Presentations and Final Exam (due before 11:59PM 12/16)

The date of our visit to the Allstate Great Lakes Datacenter will be announced when it is confirmed.

Exams

There will be two exams and a final exam as part of this course. As stated above, each of the two exams taken during the semester will be worth 15% of the grade, and the final will be worth 20%. The exams will be assigned at the class period noted above and will be due no later than 11:59PM on the following Wednesday.

The exams are designed to insure that you are keeping up with the course objectives and that you are comfortable with the topics discussed each week. Interaction and Participation, however, are the most important elements of this class. As such, each student will have the opportunity to submit 3 – 4 questions before each test (due on or before the Wednesday prior to each scheduled exam). I will take the best of these questions and use them to create the exams. Questions can be multiple choice, True/False or SHORT essay. More specific information will be provided as the semester unfolds.

Class Structure/Policies

o   No laptops during class time – keep them closed. You can check email/facebook/twitter, etc… during breaks

o   Fill in the first couple of rows of the class room – this class is about DISCUSSION and INTERACTION – it is hoped that you will learn as much from each other as you do from myself and our speakers

o   Class is from 6:15 – 8:55 every Wednesday

§  While we may finish early occasionally, we will likely be making full use of the time allotted for the class

o   It is the student’s responsibility to attend class – if you cannot make it to a class you need to let me know as soon as possible

o   The class will proceed as follows:

§  6:15 ~ 7:05 – Collect Topic Assignments, Talk about the brain teaser from previous week, Begin discussion of current topic

§  7:05 – 7:15 – Break

§  7:15 ~ 8:05 – Guest Speaker or Continue with current discussion

§  8:05 – 8:15 – Break

§  8:15 ~ 8:55 – Questions, Current Discussion wrap-up and summary, introduce next week’s topic

Presentations

We will be breaking up into to 4 – 5 small groups this semester and preparing short (less than 30 minute) presentations about a topic to be assigned in class. Topics will be presented at the 9/9 class and groups will be formed at that time.

The Topic Assignments

o   Each week, the topic that will be discussed the following week will be introduced

o   You will be asked to go out and find an article related to the topic for the following week and prepare a one page OPINION of that article

o   Read the article, think about what is being communicated in that article – how it is relates to business, home users, gaming, YOUR PRESENTATIONS

o   Write up a document that describes your thoughts on what that means in the context of what is listed in the previous bullet

o   Turn these in and be prepared to discuss for the next class

Students with Disabilities

University policy 3342-3-01.3 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access to course content. If you have a documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments. Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through Student Accessibility Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit www.kent.edu/sas <http://www.registrars.kent.edu/disability/>  for more information on registration procedures).

Enrollment and Official Registration

Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes.  You are advised to review your official class schedule (using Student Tools on FlashLine) during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section.  Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have until Sunday, September 6, 2009 to correct the error.  If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.

Ethics and Academic Honesty

You will be encouraged to work together throughout the semester, specifically on the presentations. But all work should be your own unique work or the work of your team.

Academic honesty: Cheating means to misrepresent the source, nature, or other conditions of your academic work (e.g., tests, papers, projects, assignments) so as to get undeserved credit.   In addition, it is considered to be cheating when one cooperates with someone else in any such misrepresentation.  The use of the intellectual property of others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic offense.  It is the University's policy that cheating or plagiarism result in receiving a failing grade for the work or course.  Repeat offenses result in dismissal from the University.