MGTC11 Jan - Apr 2012 
Management Information Systems
A 3rd year undergraduate course at 
University of Toronto at Scarborough 

updated 2012 March 15

 course textbook Jan 2011, 2012
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0070985332/information_center_view0/
course text website
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Assignment 1 (2012)      10% A.I. Artificial Intelligence
see
The PowerPoint for Chpt 4 re: A.I.  witiger.com/powerpoints/MIS/Haag-4th-Ed-Chpt-4.ppt
Prof. John McCarthy's webpage at the Computer Science Department, Stanford University  stanford.edu/jmc/whatisai/whatisai.html
humansfuture.org page on A.I. http://www.humansfuture.org/artificial_intelligence_tutorial.php.htm

The Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence Students’ Association at U of T  http://cogsci.ca
University of Toronto undergraduates involved or interested in the study of the mind.
All students enrolled in the Cognitive Science/Artifical Intelligence programs are members of the association but anyone in the UofT community is welcome to join and participate


Working in groups of 3, 4 or 5 people, you will
1. Research basic information about one of the categories of A.I.

(if you pick Intelligent agents, just pick one sub-category)

NOTE: it is acceptable for more than one group to work on a topic - but it is not acceptable to copy information from another group

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2. Describe what are the uses of applying this in the context of M.I.S.
-  you DO NOT have to get into great technical detail in the computer sense, keep it related to Management Info Systems with an emphasis on the "Management" aspect
 

3. What are the names of some common applications, such as software (branded or generic) and how does this solve problems

4. What are the limitations or problems with this particular A.I. function your team is investigating
- for example is there any new technology being launched or applications
 

5. Produce something which allows you to share the info you compiled, with your classmates
- a YouTube video, or a PowerPoint
- the video can be a narration created simply by having one or more group members discuss what you uncovered, how you found some sources of information, and conclude with "what was useful or interesting"


Assignment 2 (2012)     10% m-commerce (for discussion for the class in 2012)
- based on the material discussed at
 m-commerceintro.htm

in groups of 3, 4 or 5 people, using the same people you worked with for Assignment 1, or you may form a new group

Intro - in March 2012 it is clear from many sources of information that the volume of web content is growing very fast, and the access point is increasingly hand-held devices (m-commerce) such as iPhones and Blackberries. Although these devices have thousands of applications and millions of websites with which they can interact, the major utility (in Q1 2012) is interacting with social media - primarily Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, as well as texting.

These technological situations present a major challenge for medium and large enterprises (companies, government agencies and associations and organizations) in how they manage their M.I.S. functions and capabilities.

Your task in this assignment is to look at how a medium or large sized enterprise handles mobile access to its M.I.S. functions, services and capabilities
- for example


 

The enterprise you pick could be

So... what you will do is This assignment is both easy and difficult - it is easy because you are talking about using technology in a way which younger people are very familiar - it is difficult because you have to do some research to think of some real life situations how this technology is being used - the subject is so new, very little is discussed in textbooks. Most of the discussions will be in news stories or in things such as the annual speech or report of the CEO to the shareholders (usually that is where they outline how they are doing with new problems and future plans)

The form of the project will be a written report with appropriate mention of sources and references.
Make sure you clearly identify who is in the group with proper spelling of names and explain who did what.
This report will be handed in at the beginning of the last class

on
 http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~registrar/calendars/calendar12/Sessional-Dates.html#2012_Winter_Session
it says the last class is Monday April 9th which means the last class in MGTC11 would be Thu April 5th and Fri April 6th
therefore the last day to hand in this assignment will be Thu April 5th for Thu section and Fri April 6th for Friday section
 


Assignment 2  (2011)    Outsourcing (this assignment was for the class in 2011)
see witiger.com/ecommerce/ThirdPartyRisksOutsourcing.htm and pages 181 - 188 in Chpt 6 of the text
Week 7-8
- can be done in groups (maximum 3 to a group), or singularly

Hand in hard copy at the beginning of class March 4th

Using a "real life example" of an outsourcing situation, it can be overseas, or within Canada, comment on how the circumstances of the outsourced situation are effected by the influencing environments, such as

Describe the company
Describe the product (or service)
Describe what was outsourced - usually this is a call center or some "service oriented" business
- example, Sunlife call center in Ireland, Bell's call centers in Philippines and India
Discuss how the environments influenced the situation
- include list of sources and websites accessed

It is expected that the hardest part of doing this assignment is finding a good company. Reading the newspaper on a regular basis should allow you to know some companies that have outsourcing situations because there will be stories about that in the main Canadian newspapers and magazines.
In doing this assignment it is expected that it might be hard to find a perfect company for which you could find out information on all 6 environments - therefore if you can only do 5 or 4, that is OK. You can also make "inferences" about situations if you cannot find specific evidence to explain a reason. Remember, "you live in a competitive environment". Take time to pick a good company.


Assignment 3 (2011)     Security issues - Chapter 8 (this assignment was for the class in 2011)

Done either in a small group, or individually
- as explained in class March 11th (when very few people came)

Your task for the final assignment is write/research some material that could be added to one of the units discussed in Chpt 8
- according to the examples of how you see other students contributions on the website units

Look at the units
                                                                     o Privacy Issues
                                                                     o Privacy Violations
                                                                     (also a part of ID Theft issues)
                                                                     o email filtering
                                                                     o Bill C-6
                                                                     o Bill 88
                                                                     .
                                                                     o Types of IT Threats/Attacks
                                                                     o Internal Risks/Threats
                                                                     o Encryption
                                                                     o Viruses
                                                                     o Scams
                                                                     o DNS Attacks
                                                                     o Spyware
                                                                     o Firewalls
                                                                     o Patches
                                                                     o Social Engineering
pick something in one of the units that needs updating, or something you know more detail about, or something you say in the news
- and write about it such that you'd have some useful info to add to the unit
- you can make it a text submission, (just writing words) or you could make a YouTube video
- send it to me by email by Friday the 25th



Assignment 1 A (2011)      5%  Gaining a Competitive  Advantage with IT
Week 3
Done in Groups
Discussion in class and then Group Comments on Gaining a Competitive  Advantage with IT
- and creating a video
- some groups may post the video direct to YouTube, if you don't know how to do this, send the video to me (WTGR)


Assignment 1 B  (2011)   5%          (10% in Prof. McConkey's Class)  Questions from the Text
Week 4
- can be done in groups, or singularly

Answer the questions accompanying the chapter case
"IS ERP THE ANSWER" on pp 56-57 pf Ch2.

Q1: Worth 6 marks (no additional research required to answer this question)
Q2: Worth 6 marks (some additional research required to answer this question)
Q3: Worth 5 marks (some additional research required to answer this question)
Q4: Worth 4 marks (no additional research required to answer this question)
Q5: Worth 4 marks (no additional research required to answer this question)
When I say that no additional research is required, I mean that a complete answer can be derived from the case, the text and our lectures.
Additional research would refer to doing some form of online or other search to find further detail to throughly answer the question.

Students in McConkey's Class will do all 5 questions
Students in Richardson's Class will do Q 1 or Q2, Q3 and Q4 or Q5 (because your class also had a 5 percent assignment earlier)

It seems apparent that in order to answer some of the questions, students will not
only have to refer to the text, but also look elsewhere for some of the details.
That's fine .... groups will need to use the text and search outside sources
for a complete answer.
- more details coming
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