CSIS116 Survey of Information Technology · Fall 2005 · Dr. Eric Breimer

Syllabus (Fall 2005)

Title CSIS-116: Survey of Information Technology
Instructor Dr. Eric Breimer
ebreimer@siena.edu
786-5084
RB 311
Office Hours
Monday 10:15-11:20 AM 3:30-4:30 PM
Wednesday   3:30-4:30 PM
Friday 10:15-11:20 AM 3:30-4:30 PM
Textbook Fluency with Information Technology
by Lawrence Snyder
Prerequisites

(CSIS-112 and CSIS-114) or CSIS-350

Overview & Goals

This course is the capstone course for the minor in Information Systems. Student will work on projects in lab where they will utilize the knowledge and skills that they developed in previous courses. The main goal is to give student experience planning and designing information systems for business. In lecture, we will cover a potpourri of topics designed to give students an understanding of new technologies and their role in shaping business. This semester, the course will focus on E-commerce and the Internet. Specifically, we will investigate the use of the Internet to build business opportunities and achieve competitive advantages.

Topics
  • E-commerce fundamentals
  • Web-based and graphical user interfaces
  • Searching and information retrieval
  • Internet: history, infrastructure, and protocols
  • World Wide Web: web servers, urls, domain, html
  • Information representation and organization
  • Basic HTML and PHP programming
  • Review of database fundamentals
Grading

Weighting

  • 30% Project
  • 15% Final Exam
  • 20% Exams and Quizzes
  • 20% Lab Assignments and Homework
  • 15% Lecture and Lab Participation

 

Cut-offs

A

> 93 cumulative final average

A- >90
B+ >87
B >83
B- >80
C+ >77
C >73
Project Student will work on a semester long project. The final product will be a working website, documentation, and a presentation that will be worth 30% of your cumulative final average.
Final Exam There will be a cumulative final exam worth 15% of your final average.
Exams & Quizzes Typically, exams will be announced at least a week in advance and will be worth 5-10% of your final average. Check the calendar. Quizzes may be un-announced and will be worth 3-5% of your final average. There will be a combination of 3 to 4 exams and quizzes given during the semester. Together they will be work 20% of your cumulative final average.
Lab Assignments & Homework There will be 5 to 7 lab assignments and homework that must be completed outside of lab time. Together these assignments will be worth 20% of your final grade. Each assignment will have a specific due date. Late, assignments will not be accepted.
Labs There will be 11 lab periods during the semester. Some labs will have a designated activity that must be completed during lab time. Some activities may require work outside of lab and will be designated as homework. Some labs periods will be used so that groups can work collaboratively on their project. To get credit for these labs, you must work productively for the entire 2 hour lab period.
Attendance
Policy

The instructor reserves the right to penalize students up to 15% for excessive lateness, sleeping, disruptions, or lack of participation during lecture or lab. Lab attendance is required. To get credit for lab, you must either complete the designated activity/assignment or (when designated) spend the entire 2 hour lab period working on your group project.

Penalties for missing lab:

  • If you miss one lab period you will receive a 2% penalty on your final average.
  • If you miss two lab periods you will receive a 7% penalty on your final average. Thus, there is no way to receive an A in the course.
  • If you miss three lab periods you will receive a 13% penalty on your final average. Thus, a B is the highest grade you can earn.

College Attendance Policy
http://www.siena.edu/academics/policies/studentpolicies/collegeattendancepolicy.php

Academic
Honesty

  • Cheating on the a quiz, a homework, or an exam will result in an automatic grade of zero.
  • In addition, you will receive a letter grade reduction on your final grade for the semester.
  • If you are caught cheating a second time, you will automatically fail the course and a formal letter describing your misconduct will be send to the academic affairs office.

Academic integrity is a severe problem on homework assignments. When working on individual homeworks, it is often necessary to get help in order to interpret questions. Students often cross the line and receive too much help. You can discuss the course material, the problems, and general ideas for how to approach a problem, but your solution should be your own work and you should guard it from plagiarism. You should never compose your answers with the help of other students or tutors. Unless a homework assignment is designated as collaborative, all submitted work should be work of the individual. Excessive similarity in answers will be consider plagiarism.

Academic Integrity at Siena College
http://www.siena.edu/academics/policies/academicintegrity/

Makeup Policy & Excuses
  • If a serious emergency or medical issue arises, special arrangements can be made at the discretion of the instructor. However, the instructor will only consider serious, documented emergencies and issues.
  • For illness or medical emergencies, you WILL have to show documentation (a doctor's note or equivalent) that verifies your excuse.
  • For family emergencies, it is required that you contact academic affairs or the counseling center to inform them of the problem and the time you will miss. If your emergency is serious, academic affairs or the counseling center will contact all your instructors to make sure you are allowed to make up missed work.
  • If your excuse is not documented or if it is not serious enough to contact academic affairs then you will get a zero on all missed work.