Instructor:	George Wyner
Email:	wynerge@bc.edu
Twitter:	@geowyn
Voice:	617-871-0427
Office:	Fulton 254D (@Fulton254D) and Zoom
Office Hours:	See geowyn.com/021hours for current office hours schedule (including TAs). Please send email or go to https://geowyn.youcanbook.me to schedule individual appointments.  All office hours and meetings will be on Zoom.
Teaching Assistants:	See geowyn.com/021contacts for a list of teaching assistants and their contact information.

Note:  You can also download a pdf version of this syllabus.

Note: Tableau's data visualization software is provided through the Tableau for Teaching program.

About This Semester

The current semester will be conducted under extraordinary circumstances. Boston College is highly committed to your safety and continued learning. To ensure this, we ask you to be flexible and follow all University safety protocols during class, including wearing masks at all times and following social distancing requirements. Although class attendance remains as valuable and important as ever, you should only attend class in-person if you feel healthy and well that day; otherwise, you should attend remotely. Specifically, this class will be conducted fully in-person with all students able to attend class in the classroom each day during our regularly scheduled class time. Please be diligent in monitoring class communication via email and Canvas, and be ready to shift learning methods and channels if it becomes necessary.

Overview

This is an introductory course on information technology (IT) and its use in modern organizations. During the past few decades, IT has transformed companies—their business processes, decision-making structures, corporate strategies, and interactions with customers and suppliers. Scan the business news on any day and you will be reading not only about businesses whose success is due to a technology-infused product line or business strategy, but also about businesses struggling with IT issues, whether security breaches or disruptive challenges from new technology upstarts.  As a result, managers and entrepreneurs face significant IT related challenges in their work including:  how to justify large IT investments, how to manage risks, how to choose the appropriate technology, and how to integrate the technology with existing processes and systems.  These challenges have increased in recent months as organizations marshal IT resources to respond to a global pandemic by deploying systems for remote work and online learning, as well as systems to support the rapid development and deployment of tests, vaccines, and medical supplies.  Understanding how to make full use of technology has thus become even more urgent.

To address these challenges, this course will focus on two central questions:

1. How do organizations use information technology to improve their business processes and create competitive advantage?
2. How do managers employ information technology to solve problems and make critical business decisions?

We will tackle these questions by:

• learning about key business and technology concepts,
• developing a set of frameworks for applying these concepts to the analysis of business situations,
• applying these frameworks to the analysis of actual companies who are using technology to transform their businesses,
• learning to use spreadsheet software (Microsoft Excel) to analyze complex business problems, and
• getting hands on with key technology skills, including programming, working with databases, web application design, and data visualization.

Learning Objectives

The Carroll School of Management believes its graduates should be equipped to handle the changing needs of the business community as well as the world community in which we live. To fulfill the Carroll School mission and promote successful outcomes for all its graduates, this course places emphasis on the following Carroll School learning goals: ensuring that upon graduation students will be team players; critical thinkers; and knowledgeable in both general business concepts and specific disciplines.  More specifically, by the end of this course you should be able to:

• Understand and discuss various management concepts and issues related to information systems and technologies.
• Assess the current role of information systems (IS) in an organization, identify areas for the strategic use of IS, and understand where technology makes firms and markets vulnerable to disruption. You will have a recall-level awareness of several successful and failed attempts to use IS for competitive advantage so that in meetings you will be able to back up any assertions with concrete examples.
• Use Excel to solve challenging business problems. You will learn how to write formulas, use functions to summarize data, handle conditions, and calculate important financial functions.  You will also learn how to create charts, link multiple data sets using lookup functions, and analyze data using pivot tables.
• Use charts and tables to communicate business information effectively. Excel is not just a tool for solving problems, it is used to communicate your analysis to colleagues and clients.  In addition to learning how to crunch numbers you will learn to display your analysis in an effective manner.
• Demonstrate a basic knowledge of key technology skills including writing a simple program, querying a database, developing a simple web application, and using visualization software.

Course Website

The course website is hosted here on Canvas.  This site includes an updated version of the course schedule along with detailed directions on how to complete and submit all course assignments.

Gradescope

I will be using Gradescope (gradescope.com) for some of the grading and assignment feedback.  While exercises will be submitted via Canvas, most other assignments will be submitted through Gradescope (not Canvas), and grades and comments on these will be returned through Gradescope. As soon as grades are posted, you will be notified immediately so that you can log in and see your feedback. Grades will always be posted to Canvas as well, so you can check your course grade on Canvas at any time.  I will be providing instructions on how to access Gradescope and how to submit assignments and access your feedback.

Recording Classes

This class will be recorded by the instructor to assist students enrolled in the class who miss any sessions due to an excused absence, such as illness. In addition, the recordings can be a resource for all students who would like to review the material covered in class. All recordings will be stored within the Canvas site and will only be available for viewing by members of this course. Students may not record/stream video or audio, or take photos in the classroom, or share portions of any recorded video or audio of the class with anyone outside the class except with the written permission of the instructor and such other permissions as may be required by law or University policies. 

To access lectures, go to the Panopto Recordings link on the left-hand navigation menu.  Note that the recording runs for 50 minutes from the start of class.  If class ends early, the recording will still be running.  If you have any concerns about lectures being recorded in general or for any particular session, please let me know.  I can always edit or delete any part of any recording session.

Use of Zoom

This is an in person class, but we will hold a small number of class meetings entirely on Zoom.  These classes are ones in which you will be working in small groups and will need to see each other’s screens.  This is hard to do while preserving social distancing so Zoom becomes a very useful way to do this.  These Zoom-only classes will be announced well in advance so you can plan for them.  On Zoom-only days you are welcome to attend class from wherever is most convenient.  The classroom will be available to those wanting to set up in the usual location, but be sure to bring a good set of headphones, since those sessions will usually involve some group work and headphones will help you avoid being distracted by other classmates who might also be using the classroom for this purpose.

Please note that when we are on Zoom, I ask that you have your video turned on.  I find this creates more engagement for everyone.  I understand that there might be circumstances in which this is going to be impractical or distracting and you are welcome to keep the video off in those circumstances, but I ask you to alert me to this (ideally in advance).

Attending class by Zoom: I am still determining when Zoom will be available to students who cannot attend in person.  All lectures will be recorded on Panopto and that may turn out to be the best way for people to stay current.  If it looks like we will need Zoom as an option for remote attendance, I will announce that, but generally you should not assume that Zoom will always be an option.  If you have concerns about this, either now, or later in the semester, please reach out.  I am committed to making the full classroom experience available to all students taking this course and will use Zoom when we need it to accomplish that goal!

Textbooks

There are two required books for class.

For the Excel material, we will be using:  Mastering Excel 2016: A Problem-Solving Approach (2^nd Edition) by James Gips.  Pearson, 2017.  ISBN 978-1323759400.  This book covers the basics of the Excel interface, but, even more importantly, provides guidance for conceptual mastery of what Excel is really, and how it can be used at an advanced level, as well as some very challenging problems to strengthen your skills.  The book covers an earlier version of Excel but the differences are minor and will be addressed as needed in class and with other resources.

For the information systems strategy and technology topics, we will be using Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology by John Gallaugher, v. 8.0, December 2019, Flat World Knowledge.

Both books are available at the bookstore.  The Gallaugher book is an ebook but the bookstore sells access codes.  (The Gallaugher textbook can also be purchased by following the link above.)

Both textbooks are also on reserve at the O’Neill Library.

A Note for Students in the Montserrat Coalition:

If you are a student in the Montserrat Coalition, contact them and share the information above regarding what you need to purchase. Feel free to have someone from Montserrat Coalition reach out to coordinate with me, if needed.  If you have any difficulty obtaining the textbooks, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Online Readings

In addition to the textbooks, I will be assigning several online readings (links will be posted on Canvas).

Software & Web Applications

Part of our agenda in this course is to develop a hands-on understanding of a range of information technologies.  First-hand experience with technology will add depth to our discussion of the strategic import of these technologies for business and will help to support our goal of obtaining a working knowledge of key technical concepts.  While the primary hands-on experience in the course will be using Excel, we will also from time to time explore other technologies including relevant web applications and software already loaded on your PC or Mac.  I will let you know in advance if you should bring your laptop to class, but I highly recommend doing so on any day that Excel is on the agenda.

Excel

You will need access to Microsoft Excel in order to complete most of the exercises and all of the problem sets.  You can install Excel on your laptop or use computers in O’Neill Library.  To install Excel, you need to install Microsoft Office (Excel is a part of Office).  Office is available to all BC students at no cost.  Office 365 is recommended for both Mac and Windows, but you can use any recent version of Excel (at least Excel 2013 for Windows and Excel 2011 for the Mac). Details about how to install or upgrade Excel can be found here: Getting Excel On Your Computer.

Poll Everywhere

We will be using Poll Everywhere to add to the interactivity of the classroom.  I will post questions in class and you will be able to respond by text message, web browser, or by using the free mobile app. Answers are not used for grading but will help me (and you) to assess your understanding of course topics and also to get some input for class discussions.  I will explain how to get set up on Poll Everywhere in class.

Other Technologies

We will be working with a number of other technologies including:

• The Python programming language
• SQL (the language of relational databases)
• Tableau (software for visualizing data)
• Bubble, a “low code” app development environment
• Tools for “automating your digital workflow” (a concept that I will explain). You will choose between IFTTT and the Apple Shortcuts app for iPhone (no worries if you are not an iPhone user… IFTTT is a great tool and fully supports other phones as well as Windows and Mac).

Details on how to install and work with these apps will be provided later in the semester.

Grading

General notes about course grading:

An A in this course is 95% or higher.  An A grade will be reserved for those students who deliver exceptionalwork across all assignments.  Numeric cut offs for course grades are as follows:

Grade	Range
A	95% to 100%
A-	90% to < 95%
B+	87% to < 90%
B	83% to < 87%
B-	80% to < 83%
C+	77% to < 80%
C	73% to < 77%
C-	70% to < 73%
D+	67% to < 70%
D	63% to < 67%
D-	60% to < 63%
F	0% to < 60%

In general, students in this course can expect a grading distribution as follows: 

• 25-35% of students can expect to receive A’s for excellent work
• 50-70% of students can expect to receive B’s for good or very good work
• 5-15% of students can expect to receive C’s or less for adequate or below work

The average grade for the course would typically be around a B+. Note that while I offer this range as a guide for what to expect, the actual distribution for this course and your own grade will depend upon how well you actually perform in this course!

The course grade will be based on the following items, each of which will be explained below:

Exercises & Workshops	10%
Excel Challenges	5%
Problem Sets	15%
Quizzes	10%
Midterm	15%
Tech Skills Portfolio	10%
Participation	5%
Short Paper	5%
Final Exam	25%
Total	100%

 

Exercises & Workshops.  For some classes, you will be asked to complete a brief exercise before class.  This will usually involve demonstrating an initial grasp of some Excel technique.  I am asking you to learn about and practice these Excel techniques before we discuss them in class.  I will assign one or more short videos to watch as well as pages in the textbook to help you learn the technique.  These exercises are intended to take no more than 30 minutes to complete.  In addition to these before-class exercises there will be an in-class workshop that will challenge you to apply your Excel skills in a small group in real time. Details will be provided on Canvas. 

Resubmitting Exercises: You will have an opportunity to resubmit each exercise once for regrading.  The highest grade you receive will be your grade for that exercise. Note that each exercise has a due date and an available until date.  The due date is generally 9am on the day of class. Assignments are graded on a 5 point scale, with late assignments receiving a maximum of 4.5 points. After you receive feedback on your first submission you can resubmit the assignment once for an improved grade.  No resubmits are accepted after the “available until” date. Finally, note that if your original submission was late, your highest possible score on a resubmit is 4.5 out of 5 points.

Late Passes for Exercises: Given the large number of exercises and the penalty for late submissions, I want to give you some flexibility.  Life happens and you might need a break from a deadline or two.  Accordingly, you have three “late passes” you can use on the exercises. To cash in one of your late passes, there is a form to fill out.  See Late Passes for Exercises for details.  Be sure to keep track of your late passes since you only have three. Note that if you are out with an illness or for a religious observance or any other “extenuating circumstance,” please let me know as in that situation I will grant an extension without use of a late pass.

Excel Challenges. Additional problems will be assigned to help you bridge the gap between the relatively straightforward Excel exercises and the quite challenging problem sets.  While you will not be able to resubmit these challenge problems, we will be providing extensive help in doing them during office hours.  You are encouraged to get help working through these problems but you should make sure you understand how to do them on your own so that you are ready for the harder problems on the problem sets and exams.

Problem Sets.  Problem sets test your Excel skills, including your ability to use Excel to solve complex problems.  There will be four problem sets assigned during the course.  Each problem set will include several challenging problems and will take a significant amount of time (a minimum of several hours and possibly longer).   Unlike exercises, there is no option to resubmit a problem set for additional credit.  It is important that you do these assignments on your own.  If you have a question about a problem set, you should contact the instructor or a TA for guidance.  I strongly advise you to start every problem set within a day or two of receiving it, so that you will be able to find out where you have questions and get them answered in class or in office hours. You should not leave these to the last minute.  Late assignments are not accepted unless I agree you have a very compelling reason.   

Quizzes.  There will be three quizzes during the course. These will be short (20 minute) assessments of your understanding of course concepts.  The first quiz will focus on Excel skills and will help you prepare for the midterm.  The other two quizzes will focus primarily on technology and strategy concepts.  These latter two quizzes will consist of short answer questions. Information about the precise format and content of each quiz will be provided in advance on Canvas. In previous years these quizzes were all done using paper and pencil (even the Excel quiz!) but I anticipate they will be fully online this time and will be open notes, open book, and open Internet.  Note, however, that absolutely no collaboration is allowed on the quizzes.  I will be posting details on how quizzes will work later in the semester.

Midterm.  The midterm will be an in-class assessment of your Excel learning.  It will be similar in format to the first quiz and will also be online.  However, the midterm will be a full 50 minutes and will therefore include more and larger problems.  Details about the midterm will be provided later in the course. 

Tech Skills Portfolio.  A series of tech skills workshops will take place during the semester.  Each workshop will cover a key technology skill.  You will be free to work together in groups and will be asked to submit an assignment to demonstrate your basic competency in each skill. In order to receive credit on each assignment you must achieve “B level” work, in which case you will receive full credit.  You will have one opportunity to resubmit each assignment in order to get credit.  Please take into account the feedback from your first submission and consider getting feedback on your revised assignment before you resubmit it.

Participation. Your class participation grade reflects your contribution to class discussion.  I am happy to give you feedback about your participation at any point in the semester and to talk about strategies for increasing your class participation.  In addition to in-class participation, contributions to discussions on Canvas (optional) will also be counted towards your participation grade and there will be an opportunity to earn class contribution by suggesting exam questions (details to be provided during the semester). 

Short Paper.  A one-page paper will be assigned in the second half of the course.  This paper will give you an opportunity to reflect on the information systems concepts we are studying and their implications for business strategy.  Details for this assignment will be provided on Canvas later in the course.

Final Exam.  The purpose of the final exam is to provide one final assessment of your learning of course topics.  The final is a comprehensive test both of your Excel skills and of your working knowledge of managerial concepts, strategic frameworks, technologies, and the issues and examples highlighted in the readings and covered in class.  The final will take place at the time scheduled by the University: May 14 at 4pm. The final will be an online exam.  Details will be announced later in this semester. 

Note: this course uses a common final exam time for all sections of Digital Technologies, so this is not the exam time you will see for other courses meeting at our class time.  For this reason, it is possible you will have a conflict with another scheduled exam, in which case alternative arrangements can be made, but please alert me as soon as possible to any conflicts.

Extra Credit

There will not be any extra credit assignments possible during the course. Therefore, be sure to keep up with the exercises, problem sets, and other assignments.  Get feedback on your performance on the early exercises and quizzes in order to better prepare for later assignments and the final exam. 

Expectations

Expect the course to be challenging, fun, and valuable!

Please show up on time and be prepared to actively participate. Arriving late is a disruption. Expect that you will be called on to share your knowledge.

The Excel portions of the course depend heavily on your completing the assigned videos and exercises in advance of class.  The Excel material builds as we move through the semester and it is important that you keep up with the course as we go.  If you find yourself falling behind for whatever reason, please seek help from me and from the teaching assistants.  We are committed to helping every student learn this material and there will be resources for helping you to get and stay on track.  It is up to you, however, to seek out this assistance.

Use of Laptops and Other Devices

This course is focused on information technology and we will be using laptops in class on a regular basis, and this semester we will at times need to use laptops to access the class remotely via Zoom.  However, laptops can be a tremendous distraction in a classroom setting.  Our classroom discussions will be intellectually challenging, and it goes without saying that the Internet offers many tempting escapes from this level of focus.  Therefore, classroom policy is that laptops are to be closed except when doing an in-class exercise, taking notes, or following along with an Excel example.  If you do not absolutely need your laptop I suggest you keep it closed.  Cell phones and tablets should be silenced and set aside except when needed (e.g. for Poll Everywhere).

Obviously, when participating via Zoom you need to be on your laptop, but it is especially important then to avoid digital distraction: put your video on and commit to engaging with energy.  If you need to be remote and find the Zoom format to be distracting or otherwise unproductive, consider viewing the Panopto recording of the class as an alternative. 

Given that research suggests that students learn more when they take notes by hand rather than using a computer, consider experimenting with written notes.

If you have an urgent need to use your device during class time, please be discrete about it and respect those around you.  If you need to briefly leave the class in order to attend to urgent business, that would be preferable to staying in class and distracting others.  I reserve the right to adjust the class participation grade in response to classroom use of devices that creates a distraction for me or other students.   If you have any questions or concerns about this policy, please raise them.

Academic integrity

The pursuit of knowledge can proceed only when scholars take responsibility and receive credit for their own work. Recognition of individual contributions to knowledge and of the intellectual property of others builds trust within the University and encourages the sharing of ideas that is essential to scholarship. Similarly, the educational process requires that individuals present their own ideas and insights for evaluation, critique, and eventual reformulation. Presentation of others’ work as one’s own is not only intellectual dishonesty, but it also undermines the educational process. All students are expected to understand the university’s policy about academic integrity; it can be found at: Undergraduate Academic Integrity Policy and Procedures. Any violations of this policy will result in the student receiving penalties as prescribed by the university.

Specific guidance for this course: In this course our learning process will be highly collaborative, but be sure that individual assignments represent your own work.  When collaboration is permitted on an assignment this will be clearly indicated; otherwise you should always assume that the assignment is individual in nature. If you are confused or stuck on an assignment, the best thing to do is to ask me or a teaching assistant for help.

Accommodations for Students

If you are a student with a documented disability seeking reasonable accommodations in this course, please contact Kathy Duggan, (617) 552-8093, dugganka@bc.edu, at the Connors Family Learning Center regarding learning disabilities and ADHD, or Rory Stein, (617) 552-3470, rory.stein@bc.edu, in the Disability Services Office regarding all other types of disabilities, including temporary disabilities. Advance notice and appropriate documentation are required for accommodations. University resources can be found at this link: Accommodations for Students.

Technology Support

You may call the BC Technology Help Center at (617) 552-HELP (4357), email help.center@bc.edu, live tech support chat, or visit the Technology Help website at www.bc.edu/help. Staff at the BC Help Center are always available to help you. You can get technology help regardless of where you buy your computer.

Take Care of Yourself!

If you are feeling stressed, having challenges managing your time, sleep, or making choices around alcohol and food, the Office of Health Promotion (OHP) offers Individual and Group Health Coaching appointments with a trained Health Coach. Please reach out by going to the Health Promotion website or walk over to Gasson 025 and talk with a staff member.

In addition, if you are having difficulty with the course or find yourself falling behind, please reach out.  If you can’t make office hours, we will find another time to meet.  I will help you to make a plan to get back on track and we will work together to see that your experience in the course is a positive one.

Resources

In addition to the course website and course materials, there are some other resources which you may find useful during the semester.  A compendium of such information is posted here: Useful Resources.