| Coordinator: Brian Dobing | Office: M-4053 | Phone: (403) 329-2492 | Email: brian.dobing@uleth.ca |
Class Time: Thurs 1:00 - 3:50 PM (see schedule for some exceptions) from Sept. 16 - Dec. 9 |
Location: M-1077 | ||
Page last updated:
November 27, 2010
Course Objectives:
Information Systems researchers create new knowledge in the field and critically assess other researchers’ work in order to help present and future practitioners understand and apply these ideas. To become an academic researcher in any field, you first need to become familiar with the existing research literature which is largely found in research journals. You will be asked to read articles from some of the top journals (e.g., Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, and Journal of the Association for Information Systems) but also a range of other journals that may focus on particular aspects of Information Systems (e.g., Journal of Database Management and International Journal of Electronic Commerce). These articles will be chosen to represent a range of topics (as shown in the schedule below) but also a range of research methods (e.g., experiments, web surveys, case studies, meta-analysis, etc.). At the conclusion of the course, you will prepare a literature review in a topic of interest to you.
Class Format:
Each class will focus on two key papers in the field. They may not always be the most current or “best” papers, which can sometimes only be understood and appreciated after extensive reading of previous research. Sometimes, additional papers may be included to provide background knowledge or some historical context. All participants will read all the papers prior to each class and be prepared to discuss them.
Each of the key papers will be assigned to a student one week before they are to be discussed (i.e., in the preceding class). The student will then prepare a written analysis which is to be submitted 24 hours prior to the start of the next seminar. That student will have 20 minutes for an oral presentation of the paper. The Guidelines for MSc – Mgt Students for Critical Reading (by Robbin Derry) outlines how to approach this task. This is an informal presentation – PowerPoint slides are not expected. The two papers will not always be of equal difficulty so the instructors will try to ensure that the overall workload is kept as even as possible over the full term.
Following the presentation, the presenter will lead the discussion which will begin with comments and questions from other students. Students are expected to attend all classes.
Two classes near the end of the term are reserved for topics chosen by the students. Each student will choose two topics and two papers within each topic that are of interest to them, are distinctly different from papers already presented and from each other, and are understandable on their own without extensive technical knowledge or reading prior literature. Ideally (and this may not always be possible) one of the two papers should come from a top ranked journal. The second paper might come from a lower level source but with ideas you could use in your thesis.
Students will be graded primarily on their written analysis and presentation, but also on their participation when others are presenting. The grading will be more heavily weighted towards the latter classes, particularly those where students choose the topics. The marks for these classes (Nov. 24 and Dec. 2) will also reflect earlier presentation of topics and papers. The marks for each class are shown below.
Literature Review:
Each student will submit a literature review paper on a topic of their own choice, worth 50% of the grade. While there are different definitions, the “literature review” expected in this class will begin with a research question rather than a broad topic such as those in the schedule below. The analysis of previous research must provide an integrated picture – a sequence of paragraphs on different papers is not a literature review. The literature review should also propose a possible future research study that would help answer the question posed at the beginning.
Different areas and topics may require slightly different approaches. For example, a literature review on how small businesses could use Twitter would find few direct references to Twitter in the academic literature so you would need to look more at related topics. On the other hand, studying how clients should be involved in creating new systems has one of the largest and longest literatures in the field, so you would need to focus on a critical subset of papers. Other fields can also be a rich source of ideas and theories.
There are many sources of ideas for literature review formats on the Internet. You may find some useful ideas in some of these sources (and others):
http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~saul/wiki/pmwiki.php/Chapter1/HowToWriteALiteratureReview
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review
http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/litreview.php
http://www.smu.ca/administration/library/litrev.html
http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/assistance/writing_services/components/documents/lit_review.pdf
There is also one well-known IS article by Jane Webster and Richard Watson, “Analyzing the Past to Prepare for the Future: Writing a Literature Review,” MIS Quarterly, June 2002. While this article is intended for those intending to publish literature reviews in a top journal, many of the points made will also apply to student reviews.
Students will provide the topic for their literature review and Nov. 25 papers for the October 14 class (24 hours in advance). We expect these topic areas to be the same. The topics and papers will be finalized by October 28.
Grading:
Grades will be based on class participation, written assignments and the literature review as shown below:
| Classes | Each | Total |
| Sept. 16 | 0% |
0% |
| Sept. 23 to Oct. 14, Oct. 28 | 2% |
10% |
| Oct 21, Nov. 4-18, Dec. 9 | 4% |
20% |
| Nov. 25, Dec. 2 | 10% |
20% |
| Literature Review Project | 50% |
50% |
| Total | 100% |
The standard Faculty of Management grading curve will apply to this course.
| A+ | 95-100 |
| A | 90-94 |
| A- | 86-89 |
| B+ | 82-85 |
| B | 78-81 |
| B- | 74-77 |
| C+ | 70-73 |
| C | 66-69 |
| C- | 62-65 |
| D+ | 58-61 |
| D | 50-57 |
| F | <50 |
Academic Integrity:
It is critical to the reputation of the Faculty of Management, and of our degrees, that everyone associated with our faculty behave with the highest academic integrity. As a Faculty that helps create business and government leaders, we have a special obligation to ensure that our ethical standards are beyond reproach. Any dishonesty in our academic transactions violates this trust. The University of Lethbridge Calendar addresses the issue of academic dishonesty under the heading “Student Discipline Policy. Of particular concern in this course, but not the only violations, are:
The instructors reserve the right to use turnitin or other services to identify copied material. Citing a source is not sufficient to preclude plagiarism. Copied material must be identified as such with proper citations and quotation marks. Extensive citations properly quoted are not plagiarism, but they aren't an original contribution either which is what you need to get a good grade.
Course Schedule:
Due to copyright regulations, we cannot provide links to downloads of these papers. All can be found in electronic versions through the University of Lethbridge library. These are tentative topics and papers. Changes may be made during the term so we do not recommend printing all of the articles at the start of term. The final selection of papers and assignment of students to the papers will be made at the preceding class (one week ahead). Other deadlines and changes to the normal format are indicated in red text.
TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE |
||
Dates |
Topic |
Professor/ |
Sep 16 No grade |
Foundations of Information Systems
|
Dobing |
Sep 23 |
User Involvement and Success
|
Dobing |
Sep 30 |
Global/Cross Cultural Issues
|
Hunter |
Oct 7
|
E-Commerce
|
Dobing |
Oct 13 M1070 2% |
Mobile Commerce, Social Networking/Commerce
|
Zahir |
Oct 21 |
IT Strategy
|
Hunter |
Oct 27 |
Health Care Informatics
|
Kelley |
Nov 4 |
System Analysis and Design
|
Dobing |
Nov 10 (Wed) 4% M1070 |
Customer Relationship Mgt, Business Intelligence
|
Zahir |
Nov 18 |
Adoption/Diffusion of Information Technology
|
Kelley |
Nov 25 |
Student Topics - Mobile Computing (Alex) and Information Transparency (Livia)
|
|
Dec 2 |
Student Topics - E-Learning (Alex) and Blogs (Livia)
|
|
Dec 8 |
Conducting Information Systems Research
|
Dobing |
Noon |
Literature Review Project Due |
|
