Syllabus
22:198:504:51                                                                                     Mondays 8:30-11:30 (Newark)
Fall 1998 (Newark & New Brunswick)                                               Mondays 1:20-4:30 (New Brunswick)

Office Hours:
*before and after class
* by appointment
*electronic office hours will be scheduled

                                                                       MIKLOS VASARHELYI
                                                                         315A Ackerson Hall
                                                                                973-353 5002
                                                                 miklosv@andromeda.rutgers.edu
                                                                   (please use e-mail for communications)
 

Scope and Objectives:
This course is designed to provide a common core of technological knowledge for MBA students.
It is aimed to makestudents familiar with modern technology and able to understand key concepts
at an aggregate level.

The learning objectives are:

*to acquire a basic familiarity with information technology, including telecommunications and the Internet,
* to understand the dynamics of the information technology industry,
* to understand the basics of database technology, and to become acquainted with the diversity of uses of information
   technology in marketing.
  The unit taught next semester will survey management information systems.

Course Administration

Student grades for the fall and the spring will be based on four components:

20% (1) participation in class and electronic discussion,
30% (2) written homework assignments and project
50% (3) exam

All assignments must be prepared using a word processor.  They will not be accepted late.
They may be submitted prior to class by e-mail.
 

Books

The following books are required for the course; they are available at both the Rutgers Bookstore and
New Jersey Books:

• Kogan, Alexander, Fred Sudit, and Miklos A. Vasarhelyi (1997).  The Internet Guide for Accountants:
a living book.  First Edition.  Prentice-Hall. 1997 (KSV)

The following book may be helpful for supplementary readings

• Marshall B. Romney, Paul Steinbart, &  Barry E. Cushing (1996)  Accounting Information Systems,
Seventh Edition.  Addison-Wesley.  (Romney, Steinbart & Cushing)
 

OTHER REQUIRED READINGS

        The articles and chapters for each class should be read in advance; individual students may be asked
questions on these articles during the lecture. It is the responsibility of each student to be prepared by reading
the assigned items and to search for related literature in professional publications and over the Web. We will
be creating a resource database over the Web to support the course. Student chosen reading should be at least
15% of the total preparation.
 

Schedule: any of the classes or part of the classes
may be held electronically

1. Wednesday,  September 2, 1997   The Technology and the Industry

This lecture will cover computer history and basic aspects of the technology.

The first part of the lecture will cover the scenario of computing from its inception, through
the current world to some prospectives of future computing.

The second part of the lecture will cover the basic architecture of PCs, Networks, and the Internet.
Slides from this lecture will be posted on the Internet after the lecture.

Homework Assignment:

*Send Professor Vasarhelyi an e-mail message with your name and a description of your previous experience
with computers and information systems.  Let him know if you have had special experiences the class might
profit from hearing about. Discuss you views and predictions of the effect of technology on the business enterprise.
 

2. Wednesday,  September 9

Surfing the Internet: uniform resource locators (URL), information browsing (World Wide Web), Web browsers and servers, automated search, technologies that enable electronic commerce.
                             * (KSV) CH. 2 – Surfing the Web
                             * (KSV) CH. 4  – Basic Internet Services
                             * (KSV) CH. 5  – Personal Publishing on the Internet

Homework Assignments:
      *Create a simple homepage for yourself. You may use any tool that you want. This homework
        should be e-mailed to Prof. Vasarhelyi as an attachment or delivered ina floppy disk. The
        assignment also entails a short description on how you investigated homepages, what tools
        you used to build it, and how could you post your homepage commercially.
 

3. Monday,  September 16      Electronic Commerce

  Creating Value Over the Internet: definition and the future, the emergence of electronic commerce
  as a legitimate forum  for business, industries and the impact of electronic commerce, security and
  electronic commerce, person to business, business to business electronic commerce, the current status
  of e-commerce, platforms for e-commerce, e-commerce in banking, brokerage, and retail sales.

*(KSV) CH. 8 – Electronic Commerce
* (KSV) CH. 7  – Security over the Internet
* (KSV) CH. 5  – Some Legal aspects of the Internet
* Electronic Commerce.  The Economist.  May 10, 1997.  14 pp.

Homework Assignment:
   * Define an objective for a trip over the Internet (e.g. a potential trip to the Bahamas, the purchase
   of a car, finding articles on cultivating pearls).  Log every page that you visited until you reach your
   objective (or fail to do so) and state the conclusions of your search over the Internet. Your trip log
   should have the URLs you visited so others can follow your itinerary.
  *Write a one/two page critical evaluation of the above exercise with observations about the nature
  of the medium, features that you would like to see over the internet and ideas of products that may
   eventually emerge.
 
 

4 Monday,  September 16      Database Management Systems , definition and history,
different types of databases, potential applications, relationship with web efforts,
technical issues.

   *Find references over the Internet that will compare existing PC-based databases, discuss
     problems with distributed databases, and discuss other issues with databases
  * Lecture notes will be posted

Team Assignment (due at the beginning of class in Week 5)

    Using any PC-based relational database, design and implement a small application that
illustrates relational database principles and reports.  Then prepare a written report on your database.
The report should have a cover sheet that states the percent participation of each student in the group
and is signed by all group members.  The team’s grade for theproject will be based largely on:

(1) the intrinsic interest of the application (Would anyone want to read the reports the database generates?)

(2) the degree to which the applicationexploits relational database principles (Is there any need for more
than one table?), and (3) the quality of the written report.