AIS 7410

IS Seminar - Spring 2001

 

Syllabus
Other Syllabi
Other

 

Class Time: 9:00 - 12:00 M. in BUC 450

Office: KDGB 404
Office Hours: By appointment Phone: 581-7673
E-mail: actme@business.utah.edu Home: 943-8355
Web: http://

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

1. To survey research in information systems, including both MIS and AIS.
2. To further your ability to think critically and creatively about information systems research.
3. To develop your ability to identify, evaluate, and explain research ideas about information systems, both orally and in writing.
4. To identify researchable issues within the area of information systems.

GRADING: Your course grade will be a function of your performance in the following areas:

 

Class participation (including primary article responsibility) 50%
Topic Analyses 50%

Class Participation: Each class period will be devoted to the discussion of a set of readings and presentation of topic analyses. Each student will be responsible for reading each article and being prepared to contribute to the overall discussion. In addition, each enrolled student will be assigned primary responsibility for one article per class.

Primary Article: You should be prepared to give a 10-15 minute overview of your article and to lead the discussion about the article. Use the following questions to help you prepare:

  1. What is the purpose? Did the article achieve this purpose? Why or why not.
  2. What is the relevance of this article? How is it related to other research in this area? What was the major contribution(s) of this article?
  3. What were the theoretical underpinnings? Were these appropriate? Were they used appropriately?
  4. What is the research methodology? Was it effective? Are there other ways to address this research question?
  5. What did this research leave undone? What other related research would be possible or interesting?

Note: Keep in mind that all members of the class have read the articles assigned. Therefore, spend less time on reviewing what the paper was about and more time considering the impact of the article. If possible, think of specific questions that you would like the class to discuss related to your article. Also, you should provide a copy of your presentation to the other members of the class. One helpful way to prepare the summary is to indicate facts about the article in regular print and to use italics to identify the areas of the presentation that represent your ideas about the article. (This might prove helpful as you study for your comprehensive examinations.)

Class participation: You are responsible for reading all articles and being prepared to discuss them. This does not mean that you come with all the answers, but it does mean that you come with well thought out questions or issues to discuss. You should also think about the articles as a group before you come to class. What can be said about them as a whole?

Topic Analysis: Each student will prepare, present, and submit 2 topic analyses. A topic analysis is a simplified research proposal. The purpose of the topic analysis is to help you tie together the research in a given area, to help you identify potential research proposals, and to help you evaluate their potential as possible dissertation or research papers. To make this as beneficial as possible, you will be allowed to pick the areas for each topic analysis based on the areas covered in class sessions. The topic analysis will be presented to the class at the meeting following that topic area (or closely thereafter). Please let me know as soon as you have selected your topic area. The topic analysis should be from 2 to 4 pages and consist of the following:

  1. Clear statement of the research problem or question
  2. Importance of the research
  3. Brief explanation of how this ties to significant prior research
  4. Theoretical foundation
  5. Possible research approach or methodology
  6. Potential outcomes and importance of each (contribution)

The topic analysis should not contain hypotheses since you will not have the question developed to the point where hypotheses can be generated.

The topic analysis will be distributed to all class members at least two days before the scheduled class meeting. This will allow everyone to look it over before the class discussion. (since we meet on Monday - you can email this to the group). Prior to distributing this to your classmates, you should discuss the topic analysis with me. If it is helpful, I will give you feedback and you may well need to rewrite a portion of the analysis. It is much more beneficial if you have clarified your thinking somewhat before presenting it to the entire class.

All work submitted should be typed on a word processor. You should run the spell checker and grammar checker. Just remember to be professional in everything that you submit.

Topics to be covered during the quarter:

Day Week Topic Other
Jan. 7 1 Background and Introduction  
Jan. 14 2 Measuring Systems Effectiveness  
Jan. 21 3 Media Richness and E Learning  
Jan. 28 4 Organizational Issues Johnny
March 4 5 Technology Adoption Brad
    From a Company Wide Perspective  
March 11 6 Value of IT  
March 18 7 Value of IT  
March 25 8 Organizational Issues  
April 1 9 Database - Accounting  
April 8 10 Database, Data Mining Paul
    From An Individual Perspective  
April 15 11 Support for Decision Making - Presentation Issues  
April 22 12 Support for Decision Making - Other Issues  
April 29 13 Ethical Issues  
May 6 14 Finals Weel - Final topic Analyses  



Other Possible Topics: Once again, this seminar should be the most productive for you. I decided against having you pick a day and be in charge of papers because it may be too soon in your program for that to be productive. However, if you have a strong interest, I am happy to work with you on choosing the papers for any of the topics above or for any others that might be of interest. The syllabus can be changed if we decide that another topic will be more valuable for you. Also, if we have other outside presenters we may adjust the schedule to be the most productive.

Group Decision Support/Impact of Technology on Collaboration

Systems Development

Knowledge Management