Dr. Laura L. Hall
Office # 259 College of Business
Office Hours
Tuesday & Thursday
8:00 a.m. - 9:20 a.m.
10:30 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.
747-7743
lhall@utep.edu
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The syllabus is your guide to the course. You may either scroll through the following information or click on any one of the highlighted links provided below in order to access the information of your choice.
In order to optimize your experience in this course, some basic hardware and software specifications are recommended. Below you will find the minimum specifications required to access course material.
Familiarity with the web site will ease the use of the elements and features that have been built in for you. You will see this menu on every page of the course. The syllabus is the guide to the course. The Course Menu is where you will find the course content. Presentations and Group Projects will give you the instructions for those course requirements.
The course is designed for students enrolled in CIS 3340 and earns 3 University credit hours.
The most important objective of this course is to turn you into knowledgeable, and highly marketable leaders in your community. As college graduates you will not only assume positions of leadership in your organizations, you will also be important role-models and authority figures in your communities. To be successful, it is important for you to prepare for all the dimensions your careers will offer. The skills that you need to develop are well-documented. Regardless of the subject matter, you are expected to be good writers, good decision makers, and to have excellent communication skills. The course has been designed to focus on these skills in conjunction with the course material. The course consists of six modules. Each module examines the impact of today's information systems on organizations, education, government, culture, society, and the future. This course will look at technology at a macro level. Each module contains the reading material and activities for that module. You will also find a "thought for the day" and a sound clip of various classical music pieces within each module. These are included to remind you to constantly broaden your horizons, not only academically and intellectually, but also philosophically and aesthetically.
Many exciting features are available for use. The course has been designed for you to learn to use advanced technologies as well as to learn about them. The Virtual Conference. The Virtual Conference allows us to communicate at any time with each other or members of your group. The conferences take place in real time...in other words everyone who participates must be logged on at the same time. This is also known as synchronous communication. You will use this feature extensively in your group projects. Board Room. The Board Room is a threaded discussion which allows you to communicate electronically at any hour of the day or night. You can read posted messages or notices as well as post your own replys or topics. The Board Room is an "asynchronous" environment. You will also use this feature for your group projects and activities. "Window on the World" series. The "Window on the World" series brings expert academicians and professionals, right into our "classroom". You will directly connect with experts in a way that would not be possible within a traditional classroom environment. At various scheduled meetings we will log on with academics and practitioners who will participate in online discussions. This is an unparalleled opportunity that is now possible due to the impact of technology. Scheduled conferences include Dr. Timothy Kayworth, an expert in leadership and technology from Baylor University. The Tech Chronicles. The Tech Chronicles is an electronic publication of your best essays. If you receive an "A" grade on your essay it will be published on the Web site for all to read. Previous winning essays are posted as examples for you to follow as well as for your reading enjoyment.
This course has been carefully designed to develop a specific set of skills. Listed below are the specific skill areas as well as the objectives which are designed to target these skills.
The following table presents the course requirements, the skills that you are expected to acquire, and the weight given to each assignment.
Essays. Essays are intended to develop both technical and creative writing skills. The topic of each essay will be the module topics. Of the six modules, you will choose three to write about for your three essay assignments. Specific essay instructions are provided in the EXAM module. Multimedia Presentation. Each student will choose one of the module topics to prepare a full multimedia presentation. Each presentation will be electronically transferred to the instructor and class members. Each class member will evaluate and discuss the presentation. Specific and detailed presentation instructions are provided in the presentation module. Group Projects. Groups will consist of five team members. The projects will be executed electronically between group members. Both synchronous and asynchronous technologies will be used to accomplish the group task. Specific instructions are provided in the Group Project module. Activities. Each module contains various activities to be performed by the student. These include conducting surveys, analyzing web-sites, implementing case studies, and exploration expeditions.
All course material is provided within each module. Each module contains a set of links which have been carefully chosen and designed to be "knowledge criss-crossed". Knowledge criss-crossing is an instructional technique which insures that information is presented in multidimensional formats. For example, in the first module, you will read an academic article on the adoption of information technology. You will also find a web-site to an actual organization who has implemented the technology referred to in the article. This site also includes a variety of media formats including video and sound files. In this way, no matter what your optimal learning style, no matter what your individual preferences are, you will find material designed to optimize your learning experience. Each of these modules are highly interactive and designed based on the theories of active learning techniques.
The University of Texas at El Paso prides itself on its standards of academic excellence. In all matters of intellectual pursuit, UTEP faculty and students must strive to achieve excellence based on the quality of work produced by the individual. Students are expected to uphold the highest standards of academic integrity. Any form of scholastic dishonesty is an affront to the pursuit of knowledge and jeopardizes the quality of the degree awarded to all graduates of UTEP. It is imperative, therefore, that the members of this academic community understand the regulations pertaining to academic integrity and that all faculty insist on adherence to these standards. Any student who commits an act of scholastic dishonesty is subject to discipline. Scholastic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts. Proven violations of the detailed regulations, as printed in the Handbook of Operating Procedures (HOP), and available in the Office of the Dean of Students, and the homepage of The Dean of Students (DOS) at www.utep.edu, may result in sanctions ranging from disciplinary probation, to failing grade on the work in question, to a failing grade in the course, or to suspension or dismissal, among others. The following scale will be used for grading purposes:
The course calendar provides the schedule for the course as well as important due dates. The course has been tightly scheduled in order for you to efficiently manage your schoolwork with your other responsibilities. Assignments ARE NOT accepted after the due dates. If you know you have a conflict with a prior commitment you must plan to submit your assignments at an earlier date rather than later. Punctuality and preparedness are two very important skills for a management career.
FALL, 1999
Ughhh! It's awful to talk about yourself and one of the things I find hardest to do! I'm a fairly new Professor...I received my Ph.D. in Information Systems in April of 1997 from Florida State University. I have about 11 years of college under my belt, not all at one time though! I spent four years on my BS, two years on my MBA, and five LONG years on my Ph.D. Boy was it worth it though! Now I get to do this! I am a single mother of three beautiful daughters, ages 13, 12 and 8. There has just NOT been enough distance yet from me BEING a student for me not to appreciate the frustrations and obstacles of being a student, working, and raising a family and so this course is designed to be the way that I wish I could have obtained my education. My teaching philosophy is very much centered on the idea of "active learning". Basically that means that I like to DO things as opposed to reading about them. It was a real challenge to come up with electronic versions of many of the things that we do in the actual classroom. You will see what I mean! Much of the recipe for success involves discipline. Discipline in your studies, discipline in your life, and discipline in your demeanor. This course requires tremendous self-discipline. To succeed in this course you must stay on schedule and plan carefully for the work that must be done. The more time you spend exploring the topics the better education you will have. It is also an opportunity for you to SHOW OFF your skills, capabilities, and experiences in an arena of your peers. Okay...I hope you like it!
Office hours will be held electronically on Sunday
evening from 8:00 to 8:30 p.m. Meet in the Virtual Conference area. I will be logged on at
that time in order to answer any questions or for general discussion about the material or
activities.
The course began development in the Fall of 1997 and was offered for the first time in the Spring of 1998 as CIS 3340 - The Impact of Information Technology. The course began as little more than an on-line syllabus and a plan to follow a different topic every week. During subsequent semesters more features were added to the web site. In the Summer of 1998 the class was used as a prototype for the development of the first state-wide MBA-On-Line Program. The grant for development of the course was awarded in the Fall of 1998. The group projects for the Class of the Fall of 1998 was to take the material from the original course material and develop it into course modules. The projects were continued in the Spring of 1999. These students took the structures and further developed the modules, obtained copyright permissions, designed graphics, and researched sites. These modules were then developed into the course material that you will see here. The course was offered on a test basis in the Summer of 1999 and was tested for design and functionality.
Click on the Course Menu in the left frame to begin the course!
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To develop a systems view
of the role of technology in various 
