New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
Computer and Information Science Department (CIS)
CIS677:
Information System Principles, Spring 2001
Professors: Michael
Bieber, and Michael
F. Smith
Quick Links: [677 Home] [Schedule: Weds/DL] [WebBoard] [To Know] [Links] [Homeworks] [Final Grading Guidelines]
In order to give you time to work on the final exam there will be no on-campus classes or assignments on 4/25, and the distance class has this week off.
The questions on the exam will test your ability to do synthesis - i.e., to apply the concepts from one week's class to the materials of other weeks' classes. When answering questions:
If you believe you have a good understanding of the course's materials (considering that many of you have no research background and have no prior IS experience), then you should have no reason to worry.
The final will be take place over a 3 week period:
|
Class members obtain IDs for anonymity |
Wednesday 4/18 |
|
Class members post questions |
Wednesday 4/18 - Saturday 4/21 |
|
Professors approve and assign questions |
Sunday 4/22 |
|
Class members answer questions assigned |
by Wednesday 4/25 |
|
Class members double check their own answers |
by Wednesday 4/25 |
|
Class members grade questions |
Thursday 4/26 - Sunday 4/29 |
|
Ph.D. students do intermediate evaluation (or starting as answers are posted) |
Monday 4/30 - Sunday 5/6 |
|
Professors post final grades |
Tuesday 5/8 |
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Class members may contest final grades |
by Wednesday 5/9 |
|
Contested grades resolved |
by Wednesday 5/9 |
In the on-campus classes, Professors Smith will give out IDs for each of your two questions and answers. You will use these IDs so the process can remain anonymous.
Note that the question IDs are entirely independent from the answer IDs. You will be allowed to answer any two questions you choose, as explained in the "Reserving Questions" section below. Thus, your answer IDs do *not* restrict you to the questions with the same ID number, and are entirely unrelated to these questions.
Professor Bieber will email these IDs to each distance section student by Wednesday morning. If you did not receive a set of IDs by Wednesday afternoon, please email Prof. Bieber mailto:bieber@njit.edu.
By Saturday 4/21 you should post two insightful questions that require some synthesis of the class materials.
Each of your two questions should address a different aspect of the course materials. Do not write, for example, two DSS or two electronic commerce or two ethical questions. (The answers you anticipate for your two questions can overlap to a limited degree, but write questions where you expect the answers will primarily cover different materials.)
Also, please make sure your question is different from the other ones posted already.
*** You only have to post two questions; you do not have to answer any questions or post any other answers or anything else at this point***
Synthesis means analyzing a particular topic by comparing and contrasting it with, and thinking about it from the viewpoint of, the class materials from across the semester. These materials include the articles, models, frameworks and other concepts we've covered. (Of course only certain materials will be relevant for any given topic.)
Good exam questions range from being rather broad to quite specific. We have posted several prior final questions on WebBoard.
Do not make up questions which require knowledge beyond the course materials, such as asking about detailed systems development strategies (CIS673), or evaluation (CIS675), unless we explicitly covered your question's topics in the class readings. All class members should be able to relate to your questions. You can give a scenario from a company or society and ask people to evaluate it, as long as that scenario is understandable to everyone in the class. (But a question should not address, for example, a particular situation at work without giving enough information for any class member to analyze the situation adequately.)
We will assign you two question IDs. Post each question separately under a different one of these two IDs, as follows.
Post each question in the Final conference as a reply to the head entry for that question ID number. Use plain text - do not use attachments.
Post your question anonymously!
As an example, use the following topic (subject) assuming we assigned you question ID Q325:
If you make a mistake in the topic or by not making it anonymous, use WebBoard's "edit" command to fix it.
By Sunday 4/22, the professors will look over each question to ensure it is of sufficient quality, and post a list of who will answer each question. The list will be using your answer id in the following format
|
Your Answer ID |
Which Question You will Answer |
|
A527 |
Q325 |
Because you will be assigned two answer IDs, you will have two entries in this table, one for each of the two questions you will answer.
You must answer the two questions assigned to you by Wednesday 4/25. Post your replies on-line using the format below.
You should carefully study the grading criteria posted on the class Web site before answering.
Length restriction: Your answer should not exceed 1,250 words (including tables but not including figures or a your bibliography section). Microsoft Word has a word count tool, as do other word processing packages.
Bibliography: Be sure to include a bibliography section in your answer. Every time you reference any class materials, put a citation marker such as [1] and then put the full bibliographic citation including page number in the bibliography, such as:
You can find full bibliographic references at the bottom of the class schedule. Again, these do not count towards your word length restriction.
Synthesis: You may find it helpful to look over the list of class materials posted on the course Web Site and on the index page for lecture materials. Also, feel free to look over the "Article Critique" conferences on WebBoard. Several examples of synthesis are given for each article.
Few Attachments: Please do *not* use attachments unless you need to post a figure as part of your answer. Use plain text or HTML instead.
Do not plagiarize! See the notes at the start of this document.
Post your answer as a reply to the question you are answering. Post your reply anonymously!
As an example, use the following topic assuming the question ID of the question you reserved were Q325 and your answer ID, with which you reserved it were A527:
If you make a mistake in the topic or by not making it anonymous, use WebBoard's "edit" command to fix it.
Double check your answer *after you post it*. Make sure that WebBoard posted it exactly what you expected. You may not change your answer after 4/25 for any reason.
You must grade the answers to the questions you posted by Sunday 4/29. As part of grading your question, you must provide a full written explanation (justification) of your grading. Write at least 2 full sentences explanation for each of the 8 grading categories, and give each category a grade.
Follow the grading criteria posted on the class Web site.
Post your grade as a reply to the answer you are grading. Post your reply anonymously!
As an example, use the following topic assuming your question ID were Q325 and the person who answered it used answer ID A527:
If you make a mistake in the topic or by not making it anonymous, use WebBoard's "edit" command to fix it.
Each of the Ph.D. students and potential Ph.D. students in the class will be responsible for an intermediate pass evaluating the answers and grade justifications. We shall assign each "Intermediate evaluator" a set of questions to review.
The intermediate evaluator will assign a second grade for each answer. That grade may be the same, higher or lower than the original grade.
They will then post an evaluation following the same format as the original grader. If they basically agree with the original grader for any category, they can just say so. Otherwise, they should post a full 2-sentence justification for that category's grade.
Post the intermediate grading comment as a reply to the grade you are evaluating. Post your reply anonymously!
As an example, use the following topic for question ID Q325 and answer ID A527:
If you make a mistake in the topic or by not making it anonymous, use WebBoard's "edit" command to fix it.
Your professor will then evaluate the questions, answers, grades, grade justifications and intermediate evaluation, and assign a final grade for each question using the topic: "Q325 - A527 - final." All final exam grades for each class member will be posted on the course Web site. The final exam grade will be the average of your two question grades.
If you disagree with a final question grade from your professor, then you can dispute it as follows:
Do *not* dispute your grade until your professor has posted the final question grade.
Post your disput entry as a reply to the final question grade you are contesting. Post your reply anonymously!
As an example, use the following topic assuming the question ID of the question you answered were Q325 and your answer ID, with which you reserved it were A527:
If you make a mistake in the topic or by not making it anonymous, use WebBoard's "edit" command to fix it.
You will be graded on the following: