Course info

This course consists of two units:

(1) Management Information Systems which comprise an introduction to the foundations, technology, and applications of Management Information Systems (MIS). The course emphasizes 'Systems Thinking;' i.e., the conceptualization of Information Systems as structured configurations of elements behaving collectively to serve the information needs of an organization.

Upon completion of this unit you should be able to:

1. Conceptualize information systems as Systems of Information; i.e., be able to apply basic concepts of Systems Theory and Information to real-world management information systems.
2. Conceptualize information systems as complexes of hardware and software technologies and represent these complexes in system theoretical terms.
3. Provide a brief overview of programming languages, their categories, and current trends.
4. Understand the relationships, both historical and current, between the use of information systems and business productivity.
5. Provide an overview of information successes and failures and some of their causes.
6. Convert between various number counting systems (decimal, binary, octal, hexadecimal, etc.) and perform simple arithmetic operations in these systems.
7. Understand the basic architecture of the World Wide Web and some of its governing protocols.
8. Provide an overview of protocols, standards,      and standard-setting agencies and organizations in IS.
9. Explain the relational data model and some of its integrity constraints.
10. Explain the principles and role of Open Source Software and its major players and representatives.
11. Be able to provide overviews and comments on a variety of special information systems topics such as Business Intelligence, Geographic Information Systems, operating systems, etc.
12. Be able to explain the practice and relevance of Information Systems Auditing and Governance.

 

(2) Database base management and spreadsheet provide students with hands-on experience and skills with a spreadsheet. Students will learn the various functions and commands of the spreadsheet as well as how to plan, create, and program spreadsheets for common business applications. It is appropriate for accounting and business majors, programmers, and spreadsheet application developers.

 

After completion of this unit, the student will be able to:

1. Construct, modify, and print a professionally designed and formatted spreadsheet.
2. Create and manipulate various types of charts and enhance charts with drawing tools.
3. Create and use basic formulas and functions.
4. Create and use complex and advanced formulas and functions from each category of functions provided by Excel.
5. Create macros, customize toolbars, and create command buttons tied to macros (VBA code).
6. Create program code using Visual Basic for Applications and the VBA editor.
7. Utilize XML for data exchange
8. Using named ranges, create a database and perform the following: sort, filter, advance filter, and extract.
9. Analyze lists and databases using database functions
10. Create Pivot tables; use Solver, Scenario, and Goal Seek for data analysis.
11. Using Excel and OLE, share data with other applications.
12. Using various Excel tools, perform what-if analysis and projections on business data.
13. Create 3D worksheets, 3D workbooks, and 3D formulas.
14. Validate and control data entry.
15. Perform trend analysis.
16. Perform Web Queries.