Analysis of Quiz results and more

The results of the quiz showed that being on the curve might create problems for those who are not preparing well... and opportunities for those who wants to improve the grades. If all students will be equally unprepared – then the average will be low and all will be OK. But when some do really good job in studying – they leap forward taking the curve higher and leaving others below.

This course has three components: knowledge and good understanding of the concepts (quizzes test this part); orientation in the latest situation in the current area of study, allowing you to go deeper into the aspects most interesting and relevant for you (and this is online research posts); and skills/experience in actually working with the instruments and aspects of IT use and design (these are the labs).

I am writing this post because it is still not too late for those falling behind in points to use a better approach to the tasks and get good grades at the end:

1. Never leave technical tasks for the last day (even if you are sure that you can do it) since things might happen, something might turn out more difficult, etc.
2. Prepare for quizzes better by re-reading the chapter and focusing on all new concepts, their definitions and explanations of how they work. Reading the chapter once cannot help you much.
3. Do better Web research with more individual input properly using the Web material to support the point that you are making (there has to be a point and original research work like summarizing, drawing conclusions from examples, presenting new angles of view and aspects of the topic, etc.) and not just a few clips with a couple of modified own words... At the end, even if you are getting max points for the forums, I will be assessing the overall quality of your work and effort in trying to do the best. This might create quite a difference in your grades.
4. Never leave tasks not done (in all required posts and lab results), even if they are incomplete (to avoid zeros).

Video lecture on database task

In order to access the video lecture click here

You can start doing it while watching. Stop the video when necessary, do the step, and continue.

Video on Zoho Spreadsheet

This video might be helpful for those who still cannot do the embedding and public link right.
Video lecture

Zoho as SaaS

As a part of the educational experience closely related to the week’s topics, you will get to work with spreadsheets (one of the most popular part of any office suits) and social network systems. The main trend now is in moving everything to the Web, which provides much higher connectivity and sensitivity for the components and processes of organizational systems. This is why our Web Development concentration program (same idea as Business Essentials, just fully online) might be a valuable option for a competitive graduate.
Zoho is, so far, the best online office suite offering Software as a Service (you might want to research the keyword SaaS). We will start with spreadsheet tools that not only allow to do what all spreadsheet software (s/w) allows, but also has extended options for sharing, collaboration, and publishing. Best of all, you need only a browser for work with it. Later we will use some other pieces of their suite.

Commentary on Course Organization

I want to say a few words about the online organization of this class and its goals (you might use some of this info in your Experiential Learning Report to be written at the end of the semester). The experiential learning in this class is based on the learning and working in online environments (versus face-to-face). One of your tasks at the end of this semester will be in showing your understanding of this experience, what you’ve learned from it, what practical skills and orientation you obtained, as well as how it served your better understanding of the subject of the course.

The learning goal of placing students in such environment for this particular course is based on the fact that information systems (as the subject of the course) normally include heavy use of computers in communications, orientation, learning and decision making. In the IS major this introductory course is further enhanced with all those chapters that are in the book - as separate courses. From this point of view, being exposed to computer-mediated activities on your own (without the teacher standing behind your back) is important for the understanding of benefits, difficulties, and problems that have to be addressed during IS use and development. In this course you actively use an original IS, which includes Moodle, Internet, and your local systems, augmented by you, as producers/developers and consumers at the same time (so-called prosumers), with additional system components (like Blogger, Zoho, and others that we will use later), with shared files, user-created content, Q&A knowledge base, learning accounts in these systems, spreadsheets, databases and various means of sharing and publishing information across the set of networks (local and the Internet) – the topic of the next week.
Also, as you’ve noticed, the labs as well as exploration of the material require sufficient feedbacks on the work done, that just cannot be offered in an hour and a half of face-to-face lectures. You probably noticed that in this course you have almost uninterrupted flow of feedbacks from me and other students (those who ask for help or require some guidance from my point of view – get it whenever necessary). This is impossible in face-to-face formats. I am actually spending much more time on this course than coming twice a week to school. My local network shows the course situation on several screens (along with my ongoing research in artificial intelligence). Your course connectivity is close to modern corporate "always on" status too. this allows for dynamic adjustments, additional explanations, and corrections (impossible in traditional environements). Such flexibility is becoming more and more important in the real world settings when change management is continuous and dynamic with similar continuous and dynamic availability of employees to accept changes, corrections and additional info for adjustments in individual work. And here understanding and experience of IT beyond traditional monthly reports is indispensable.

For organized students the possibility of time management and deciding when and how much time to spend at each particular learning episode is important especially combined with saving time on doing this without commuting efforts. Of course, such benefits are not for all. There are students that feel better in the class and cannot work/learn on their own. This is why the course format is announced in advance and only those who feel that online format is better for their situation are expected in these classes.

Help from other posts

In Zoho assignments look at the first student posts and my comments showing how it all has to be done.

Outbrain

This is how it looks