THE WALLACE E. CARROLL SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
MD 240: Management Information Systems
Fall 2000

GRADING:
The percentage breakdown of your final grade will be as follows:

10% Class Participation
15% Case Analysis Outlines
10% Group Technology Analysis Project
25% Group Consulting Project Presentation and Write-Up
20% Quizzes
20% Final Exam
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100%

CLASS PARTICIPATION:
Much of the value of a business education comes from the cognitive processes that are developed through communication and cooperation experiences. Thus, much of the learning from this course will result from a thoughtful exchange of ideas during class. Those of you who are geniuses and have led debate club have gifts that you are obligated to share with your peers. The rest of us, typically, have fears about thinking out loud or standing out in front of our peers. For these persons, it is imperative to get used to talking the language of IS and reasoning about IS on our feet, so that we can (i) figure out whether the geniuses are for real and not just feeding us a line, and (ii) develop an authoritative managerial communication style. It is important that everyone makes their best effort to contribute.

While I hate to dangle carrots in front of students to get them to do what they as adults should do anyway, I understand that many students just will not contribute if dis/incentives are not threatened/offered. Still, I will try to make this grading simple. Students will be scored on a 0-1 point scale three times throughout the semeter. No contributions to the class or being absent without excuse will lead to a score of 0 for that period. Note that a score of 1 will be worth approximately 3% of your grade.

Of course, this does not mean I expect every student to contribute in every class. Note that it is the quality of comments that counts the most. Of course, without any quantity, it is hard for me to judge quality! (Actually, it makes it easier to judge... you get a 0.) Interim class participation scores will be posted periodically to the class page on the World Wide Web.

Case Analysis Outlines:
Over the course of the semester, we will have five case study discussions. For these discussions to work well, it is essential that all students come fully prepared.

To help you structure your preparation, I will provide a list of discussion questions for each case study. You will be asked to turn in a typed, one-page outline for a total of three case studies. For each of these you will do your analysis individually.

In this outline you will concisely present your thoughts on each of the discussion questions. For the individual write-ups, our outline MUST fit on one page, with full 1 inch margins, using a font no smaller than 12 pt Times Roman. Bullet points or other devices to get your thoughts across quickly are recommended.

Your overall case grade will be the average of your three case write-ups. Grades will be assigned on a 10 point scale, as follows:

10 pts: Outstanding analysis
9 pts: Excellent analysis
8 pts: Very good analysis
7 pts: Good analysis
6 pts: So-so analysis
5 pts: and lower: Poor analysis

Technology Analysis Project:
Your group consulting project team will perform this exercise. This project is intended to be a fun, unstructured exercise oriented toward brainstorming and exploration. It hopefully also will help your team get to know each other and start working together prior to the Group Consulting Project. You will essentially surf the web to discover a type of Information Technology that appears to have some use. The key here is dreaming about how a technology might be applicable to a set of business problems.

The deliverable of this project will be a one-page write-up of several technologies found for the problem of interest, and URLs for where those technologies can be found. The write-up should be stored as a text (i.e. ASCII) file or HTML, and emailed to me. These files will be posted on the class web site, and will provide your classmates with a repository of descriptions of some interesting (and possibly obscure) technologies. Brief presentations will be made by each group during the sessions on information technology. Grades will be assigned on a 10 point scale, as follows:

10 pts: Outstanding effort
9 pts: Excellent effort
8 pts: Very good effort
7 pts: Good effort
6 pts: So-so effort
5 pts: and lower: Poor effort

Group Consulting Project:
You will be asked to form groups of approximately 5 students each. Your group will pick a client who has a problem that you believe could be solved using IT. This must be a real organization with a real problem.

Grading will be based on five elements: quality and thoroughness of your analysis and solution (40%), quality of write-up (20%), quality of presentation (20%), apparent original research effort involved, e.g., how much time you spent interviewing your client, researching technologies that might relate to your project, etc. (20%).

Quizzes:
There will be a total of eight multiple choice quizzes based on the readings. Quizzes will be taken during class time, but won't be discussed in class. Grade results, disputes, and question content discussions will be handled completely on the class page on the World Wide Web or via email. This way, the administrative aspects of the quizzes will be handled outside of class, leaving class time for other topics. A zero will be given on any quiz missed and there will be no make-ups. The three lowest quiz grades will be dropped for each student. However, the quiz drop provision is intended to assist those students who for circumstances beyond their control must miss a quiz (illness, plant visit, etc.). While quizzes on which a student performs poorly may also be dropped, it is not recommended that a student plan on using the drop provision for that purpose.

Final Examination:
The final examination, to be held during exam week, will provide an opportunity for you to integrate the concepts, cases, and discussions of the semester. The format will be short, medium and long answer.

Disability Accommodation:
If any student has need for a specific accommodation, please discuss this with me early in the semester.

Plagiarism, etc.:
All students are expected to do their own work, unless instructed to work in groups. If any such instruction is unclear, please ask me to clarify. One way to prevent any such problems is by talking with me. Thus, if you are having trouble keeping up with the material or because of uncontrollable situations have missed some classes or quizzes, please talk to me about it.

Any academic offense, such as plagiarism or cheating, will be handled according to protocol in the Boston College student handbook.