Participation
The assignments, cases and readings have been carefully chosen to bring the real world into class discussion while also illustrating fundamental concepts. Your participation in the online and class discussions is critical. Evaluation is based on you consistently demonstrating your engagement with the material. Assessment is based on what you contribute. The frequency and quality of your contributions are equally important.
Each week you will need to participate in various ways:
- Weekly Reading Questions:
Each week on Friday, you will find a post that includes several discussion questions and the case or activity assignment. You will be expected to answer one or all of the discussion questions on the week’s readings by Wednesday @11:59 PM. You may also comment on your peer’s posts instead of addressing a question directly. A paragraph or two of thoughtful analysis is expected for your initial answer to the question. I also expect that you will contribute at least five answers/comments each week to the general discussion.
- Weekly Case Analysis:
Most of your weekly assignments will be case analyses. Instructions for each week’s assignment will be included in the Weekly post. Typically, we will post several questions about the case or instructions for an assignment. You must come to class prepared to discuss all of these questions in detail.
There is no one particular style for a good case study analysis. But, there are some common elements to excellent contributions:
- Be clear about the questions and your position on them. Take a position.
- Instead of general observations, draw details from the case study itself. Analyses, observations, and suggestions should be tied directly to those key facts and issues. You can also draw on the other readings in the course to inform and support your arguments.
- After analyzing the details of the case study, think about how its specific issues have broader application. In other words, use your analysis to provide some advice to managerial decision-makers that can be applied to other situations beyond this case.
- Provide a balanced perspective. For example, when making a recommendation explain the pros and cons, providing both the rationale (the why) as well as its feasibility (the how).
Quizzes
There will be a quiz at the end of each Section of the course for a total of three (3) quizzes.
Each quiz will be based on the material covered for that section. Together these quizzes are weighted 18% of your final grade. Check the schedule for the dates.
All quizzes will consist of multiple-choice, fill in the blank and short answer questions. Some questions may relate to a short, fictitious but real-world like case. We will publish the case narrative separate from the quiz. This allows you to read the case prior to taking the exam that has a fixed time to complete.
You’ll have one day within which you can take each quiz on-line. However, once you start you’ll have a fixed time (e.g. 40 minutes) to complete the quiz.
In general, the quizzes will not be cumulative but focused on the course materials since the beginning of last quiz. However, some concepts highlighted in class as a ‘Core Principle’ or ‘This may be on the Final’ may appear on any of the quiz.
A missed quiz can only be made up in the case of documented and verifiable extreme emergency situations.
Final Exam
The final exam consists of questions designed to simulate the CISA certification test. You will have approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete the test. Once you begin you must complete the exam in the allotted time. The final exam will be available in Canvas at the end of the week.
The final exam accounts for 34% of your grade.
No make-up is possible for the final exam.