CIS500 Information Systems for DecisionMaking

American College of Commerce and Technology

Revised: April 2, 2016
COURSE SYLLABUS
I. GENERAL INFORMATION
Course Number, Title, and Section:

CIS 500 MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

Credit:

4.5 QUARTER HOUR CREDITS

Quarter & Year:

Instructor/s:

SUMMER QUARTER, JULY 5 SEP 15, 2016

Instructor Email Address:

Prof. Dammlash Gebre

Dammlash.gebre@acct.edu

Instructor Contact Number:

301-938-3098ell

ACCT Phone:

703-942-6200 Academic Office

Last day to drop without academic penalty: July 19 2016

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course examines the information requirement of an organization. It
emphasizes the difference in the kinds of information needed at the operational,
administrative, strategic, and organizational levels. It discusses planning and
implementing a comprehensive information system and methods to measure its
effectiveness.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Required Resources
Turban, E., &Volonino, L. (2011) Information technology for management (8th ed.).
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Supplemental Resources
Committee on National Security Systems.(n.d.).Issuances. Retrieved from
http://www.cnss.gov/issuances.html
Hu, W.-C., &Zuo, Y. (2010).Handheld computing for mobile commerce: applications,
concepts and technologies. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.

Magal, S. R., & Word, J. (2011).Integrated business processes with ERP systems.
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Mulholland, A., Pyke, J., &Fingar, P. (2010).Enterprise cloud computing: a strategy
guide for business and technology leaders. Tampa, Florida: Meghan-Kiffer Press.

Page 1 of 13

CIS500 Information Systems for DecisionMaking

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Explain how the components of an information technology system interrelate
in an organizational context.
2. Compare and contrast the strategic and operational use of data management
systems.
3. Summarize the complexities of information technology and practices.
4. Describe the role of the information technology professional.
5. Compare and contrast operational and enterprise systems.
6. Describe the use of network management, Web, wireless, and mobility
technologies.
7. Outline the strategic implications of information assurance and security in an
information technology environment.
8. Outline the challenges and strategies of e-Business and e-Commerce
technology.
9. Explain how information technology systems influence organizational
strategies.
10.Describe and identify the uses of business process management and systems
development.
11.Evaluate the ethical concerns that information technologies raise in a global
context.
12.Develop an information technology strategic plan to address and solve a
proposed business problem.
13.Use technology and information resources to research issues in information
systems and technology.
14.Write clearly and concisely about topics related to information systems for
decision making using proper writing mechanics and technical style
conventions.

Page 2 of 13

CIS500 Information Systems for DecisionMaking

WEEKLY COURSE SCHEDULE
The standard requirement for a 4.5 credit hour course is for students to spend 13.5
hours in weekly work. This includes preparation, activities, and evaluation
regardless of delivery mode.
We
ek
1

Preparation, Activities, and Evaluation

Preparation

Reading(s)
o Chapter 1: Information Systems in the 2010s

e-Activity
o Businesses have used barcodes to store product and
price information on product tags readable via
specialized scanners. Quick Response (QR) tags are the
latest technology for storing and publishing product
information readable using smartphones. There are no
specialized scanners required to read QR codes. Visit the
Website, located at http://www.qrstuff.com/, to generate
a QR code. Follow these instructions and be prepared to
discuss:
Under the Data Type column (column 1), click on
the Email Address radio button.
Under the Content column (column 2), type your
email address in the textbox.
Notice the generated QR code in the QR code
Preview window.
Download the image to your local machine.

Repeat the exercise and generate the QR code for

your telephone number.

Activities
Discussions
Evaluation

Poin
ts

None

Preparation

Page 3 of 13

Reading(s)
o Chapter 2: IT Infrastructure and Support Systems

e-Activity
o Research the Internet for an article that describes how
an industry of your choice is using Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) technology. Examine the uses,
advantages, and disadvantages of RFID technology. Be
prepared to discuss.

10

CIS500 Information Systems for DecisionMaking

Activities

10

Discussions
Evaluation

75

Assignment 1: Predictive Policing

Preparation

Reading(s)
o Chapter 3: Data, Text and Document Management
o Chapter 4: Network Management and Mobility

e-Activity
o Visit the AT&T Website, located at http://bit.ly/A0sbhC,
and Verizons Website, located at http://bit.ly/Xb0WU.
Examine the wireless broadband networks provided by
each vendor. Be prepared to discuss.
Activities
Discussions
Evaluation

Case Study 1: The Big Data Challenges

10
100

Preparation

Reading(s)
o Chapter 5: IT Security, Crime, Compliance, and
Continuity

e-Activity
o Visit the Committee on National Security Systems
(CNNS) Website, located at
http://www.cnss.gov/policies.html. Study the policies and
directives and be prepared to discuss.
Activities
Discussions
Evaluation

10
75

Assignment 2: 4G Wireless Networks

Preparation

Reading(s)
o e-Business and e-Commerce

e-Activity
o Read the CNSS report: Progress Against 2008 Priorities,
located at http://www.cnss.gov/cnss_report.html. Be
prepared to discuss.
Activities
Discussions
Evaluation

Page 4 of 13

10

CIS500 Information Systems for DecisionMaking

Midterm Exam: Chapters 1 through 5

100

Preparation

Reading(s)
o Chapter 7: Mobile Computing and Commerce
o Chapter 8: Web 2.0 and Social Media
Activities
Discussions
Evaluation

10

None

Preparation

Reading(s)
o Chapter 9: Operational Planning and Control Systems
o Chapter 10: Enterprise Information Systems

e-Activity
o Visit the following Websites and briefly examine the
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) offerings.
Commercial systems include SAP, located at
http://www.sap.com/solutions/businesssuite/erp/index.epx, Oracle PeopleSoft, located at
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/pe
oplesoft-enterprise/index.html, and Seibel, located
at http://www.erp.com/section-layout/3general/6834-siebel-erp.html.
Open source ERP systems include Openbravo,
located at http://www.openbravo.com/, OpenERP,
located at http://www.openerp.com/, and xTuple,
located at http://www.xtuple.com/. Be prepared to
discuss.
Activities
Discussions
Evaluation

Assignment 3: Mobile Computing and Social Networking

Preparation

Page 5 of 13

Reading(s)
o Chapter 11: Business Intelligence and Decision Support
o Chapter 12: IT Strategic Planning

e-Activity
o Visit the Salesforce.com Website, located at
http://www.salesforce.com/, and examine the Customer
Relationships Management (CRM) service offerings. Be
prepared to discuss.

10
75

CIS500 Information Systems for DecisionMaking

Activities
Discussions
Evaluation

10

Case Study 2: Cloud Computing

100

Preparation

Reading(s)
o Chapter 13: Business Process Management and Systems
Development
Activities
Discussions
Evaluation

10

10
75

Assignment 4: Data Mining

Preparation

Reading(s)
o Chapter 14: Global Ecology, Ethics, and Social
Responsibility
Activities

10

Discussions
Evaluation

11

200

Term Paper: Mobile Computing and Social Networks

Preparation
Reading(s): None
Activities
Discussions
Evaluation

100

Final Exam: Chapters 6 through 14

GRADING SCALE GRADUATE

Total
Points

% of
Grade

Assignment 1: Predictive Policing

75

7.5%

Assignment 2: 4G Wireless Networks

75

7.5%

Assignment 3: Mobile Computing and Social Networking

75

7.5%

Assignment 4: Data Mining

75

7.5%

Case Study 1: The Big Data Challenges

100

10%

Case Study 2: Cloud Computing

100

10%

Term Paper: Mobile Computing and Social Networks

200

20%

Assignment

Page 6 of 13

CIS500 Information Systems for DecisionMaking

Midterm Exam (Chapters 1-5)

100

10%

Final Exam (Chapters 6-14)

100

10%

Tests are open book with a 2-hour time limit and may contain multiple choice, true /
false, and essay questions.
Participation (20 discussions worth 5 points apiece)
Totals

Points

Percentage

Grade

900 1,000

90% 100%

800 899

80% 89%

700 799

70% 79%

Below 700

Below 70%

100

10%

1,000

100%

Writing Assignments
The objective of the School of Information Systems writing assignments is to
promote attitudes and skills that will improve a students ability to communicate in
writing, develop research skills and documentation techniques, and encourage
critical analysis of data and conclusions specific to the course learning outcomes in
the information systems and technology domain.

Page 7 of 13

Assignment 1: Predictive Policing

Due Week 2 and worth 75 points
The following resources may be helpful in completing this assignment:

Goode, E. (2011, August 15). Sending the police before theres a crime.
Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/us/16police.html

Pearsall, B. (2010, May). Predictive policing: The future of law

enforcement? National Institute of Justice Journal, 266. Retrieved from
http://www.nij.gov/nij/journals/266/predictive.htm

Predictive Policing Symposium (2010). Retrieved from

http://www.nij.gov/nij/topics/law-enforcement/strategies/predictivepolicing/symposium/welcome.htm

Shurkin, J. N. (2011, September 13). Santa Cruz cops experiment with

predictive policing. Retrieved from
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/santa-cruz-copsexperiment-with-predictive-policing.php

Willis, J. J., Mastrofski, S. D., &Weisburd, D. (2003). Compstat in practice: An

in-depth analysis of three cities. Police Foundation. Retrieved from
http://www.policefoundation.org/pdf/compstatinpractice.pdf

In 1994, the New York City Police Department adopted a law enforcement crime
fighting strategy known as COMPSTAT (COMPuterSTATistics). COMPSTAT uses
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map the locations of where crimes occur,
identify hotspots, and map problem areas. COMPSTAT has amassed a wealth of
historical crime data. Mathematicians have designed and developed algorithms that
run against the historical data to predict future crimes for police departments. This
is known as predictive policing. Predictive policing has led to a drop in burglaries,
automobile thefts, and other crimes in some cities.
Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:
1. Compare and contrast the application of information technology (IT) to
optimize police departments performance to reduce crime versus random
patrols of the streets.
2. Describe how COMPSTAT, as an information system (IS), implements the four
(4) basic IS functions:
a. Input
b. Processing
c. Output
d. Feedback
3. Determine how information systems have allowed police departments that
implement tools such as COMPSTAT to respond to crime faster.
4. Apply the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis (SWOT
analysis) on behalf of police departments that intend to implement predictive
policing.

Page 8 of 13

5. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia
and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources. You may use the
resources above or others of your choosing.
Case Study 1: The Big Data Challenges
Due Week 3 and worth 100 points
Big Data is a term used to describe the voluminous amount of structured and semistructured data generated by companies. The term is used when referring to
petabytes (PB), exabytes (EB), and zettabytes (ZB) of data. Companies face
challenges when it comes to capturing, storing, searching, and analyzing Big Data.
The Volvo Car Corporation faced this problem because of the massive amount of
data it was streaming from its vehicles.
Study the Volvo Car Corporation case study titled, Converting data into business
value at Volvo, located in the online course shell.
Write a two to four (2-4) page paper in which you:
1. Judge how Volvo Car Corporation integrated the cloud infrastructure into its
networks.
2. Explain how Volvo Car Corporation transforms data into knowledge.
3. Identify the real-time information systems implemented and evaluate the
impact of these implementations.
4. Argue how the Big Data strategy gives Volvo Car Corporation a competitive
advantage.
5. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia
and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.
Assignment 2: 4G Wireless Networks
Due Week 4 and worth 75 points
The following resources may be helpful when completing this assignment.

3GPP Specification Detail. (n.d.). General format. Retrieved from

http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/specs/html-info/23002.htm

WiMax Forum. (2012). General format. Retrieved from

http://www.wimaxforum.org/

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) developed the 3GPP LongTerm Evolution (LTE) standard for wireless communications technology. It is
regarded as an evolution of the Global System for Mobile Communication
(GSM), the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS), and other
standards. It is also known as the 4G LTE. The competition among the carriers to
support 4G LTE networks has been very fierce as evidenced by TV commercials
targeting smartphone users. Many smartphones run on 3G networks.

Page 9 of 13

Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:

1 Compare and contrast 3G wireless networks to 4G networks in terms of:
a. Services and applications
b. Network architecture
c. Data throughput
d. User perceptions
6. Distinguish between the 4G LTE, 4G WiMax, and 4G WiBro networks based on:
a. Upload and download speeds
b. User perceptions
c. Backward compatibility
d. Service availability
7. Identify why the competition between the 4G LTE carriers has been so fierce
and describe the benefits of this competition to the subscribers.
8. In January 2012, Verizon stated that 4G LTE is available in 190 cities covering
200 million American subscribers. According to AT&Ts Website, they had
plans for covering 20 million Americans in 15 markets by end of 2011.
Conclude why Verizon is able to cover more markets than AT&T.
Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and
similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources. You may use the resources
above
Assignment 4: Data Mining
Due Week 9 and worth 75 points
The development of complex algorithms that can mine mounds of data that have
been collected from people and digital devices have led to the adoption of data
mining by most businesses as a means of understanding their customers better
than before. Data mining takes place in retailing and sales, banking, education,
manufacturing and production, health care, insurance, broadcasting, marketing,
customer services, and a number of other areas. The analytical information
gathered by data-mining applications has given some businesses a competitive
advantage, an ability to make informed decisions, and better ways to predict the
behavior of customers.
Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:
1. Determine the benefits of data mining to the businesses when employing:
a. Predictive analytics to understand the behavior of customers
b. Associations discovery in products sold to customers
c. Web mining to discover business intelligence from Web customers
d. Clustering to find related customer information
2. Assess the reliability of the data mining algorithms. Decide if they can be
trusted and predict the errors they are likely to produce.

Page 10 of 13

3. Analyze privacy concerns raised by the collection of personal data for mining
purposes.
a. Choose and describe three (3) concerns raised by consumers.
b. Decide if each of these concerns is valid and explain your decision for
each.
c. Describe how each concern is being allayed.
4. Provide at least three (3) examples where businesses have used predictive
analysis to gain a competitive advantage and evaluate the effectiveness of
each businesss strategy.
5. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia
and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.
Assignment 3: Mobile Computing and Social Networking
Due Week 7 and worth 75 points
Mobile computing has dramatically changed how information is accessed and
shared. Wireless networking has been an enabler of mobile computing. One
profession that mobile computing has had a big impact on is health care
management. Patients are now able to monitor their vital signs such as blood
pressure, glucose levels, etc. without having to periodically visit a doctors office or
hospital. There are devices such as the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor that works
with an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad to record, track, and graph a patients blood
pressure. There are other devices that can measure blood glucose levels, oxygen
levels, heart rate, etc. and use an iPhone to send the results to a clinical server.
Doctors and caregivers are then able to access the data on the clinical server.
According to the American College of Gastroenterology, social networking sites like
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are used as powerful platforms to deliver and
receive health care information. Patients and caregivers are increasingly going
online to connect and share experiences with others with similar medical issues or
concerns Patients are able to take advantage of social networks to do more than
just share pictures and tweets.
Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:
1. Compare and contrast monitoring of patient vital signs using mobile
computing technology to in-patient visits to the doctors office or hospital.
2. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of using mobile computing
technology to monitor patients.
3. Assess the security concerns with regard to the transmission of personal
medical information over wireless networks.
4. Assess the use of social networking for group support for patients with similar
medical concerns.
5. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia
and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

Page 11 of 13

Case Study 2: Cloud Computing

Due Week 8 and worth 100 points
Cloud computing is defined by Cearly and Phifer in their case study titled Case
Studies in Cloud Computing as a style of computing in which scalable and elastic
IT-related capabilities are provided as a service to customers using Internet
technologies. Cloud computing services had been provided by major vendors such
as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and others for business
computing until recently when Apple Corporation announced iCloud for consumers.
Therefore, cloud computing is now available for businesses as well as consumers.
Read the case study titled, Ericsson, located at
http://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/ericsson/ , about Ericsson cloud
computing.
Write a two to four (2-4) page paper in which you:
1. Assess how Ericsson benefitted from Amazon Web Services (AWS) in terms of
cost reduction, automated software updates, remote access, and on-demand
availability.
2. Evaluate the scalability, dependability, manageability, and adaptability of
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage
Services (Amazon S3), and RightScale.
3. Examine the security concerns for cloud-based services and make
suggestions to cope with these concerns.
4. Assess possible scalability, reliability, and cost issues associated with cloud
computing, and make suggestions to overcome each of these issues.
5. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia
and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.
Weekly Course Schedule
The purpose of the course schedule is to give you, at a glance, the required
preparation, activities, and evaluation components of your course. For more
information about your course, whether on-ground or online, access your online
course shell.
The expectations for a 4.5 credit hour course are for students to spend 13.5 hours in
weekly work. This time estimate includes preparation, activities, and evaluation
regardless of the delivery mode.
Instructional Materials
In order to be fully prepared, obtain a copy of the required textbooks and other
instructional materials prior to the first day of class. When available, University

Page 12 of 13

provides a link to the first three (3) chapters of your textbook(s) in eBook format.
Check your online course shell for availability.
Review the online course shell or check with your professor to determine whether
Internet-based assignments and activities are used in this course.
Discussions
To earn full credit in an online threaded discussion, students must have one original
post and a minimum of one other post per discussion thread.
Please note: Material in the online class will be made available on the previous
Thursday. As it is always possible that students could lose their work due to
unforeseen circumstances, it is a best practice to routinely save a working draft in a
separate file before posting in the course discussion area.
Professors hold discussions during class time for on-ground students. Check with
your professor if any additional discussion participation is required in the online
course shell outside of class hours.
Tests
Tests (quizzes, midterm and final exams, essay exams, lab tests, etc.) are available
for student access and completion through the online course shell. Check the online
course shell to determine how you are expected to take the tests.

Online students are to complete the test by Monday 9:00 a.m. Details
regarding due dates are posted in the Blackboard Calendar tool.

On-ground students are to complete the tests after the material is covered
and before the next class session.

Assignments
A standardized performance grading rubric is a tool your professor will use to
evaluate your written assignments. Review the rubric before submitting
assignments that have grading rubrics associated with them to ensure you have
met the performance criteria stated on the rubric.
Grades are based on individual effort. There is no group grading; however, working
in groups in the online or on-ground classroom is acceptable.
Assignments for online students are always submitted through the online course
shell. On-ground professors will inform students on how to submit assignments,
whether in paper format or through the online course shell.

Page 13 of 13