Temple MIS

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New Business Analytics Minor in Collaboration with Statistics

Business Analytics MinorThe Management Information Systems department is pleased to announce a new Business Analytics Minor in collaboration with the Fox School’s Department of Statistics. The coursework exposes students to hands-on, cutting edge tools and techniques in predictive modeling, forecasting, association mining, cluster analysis, decision trees, unstructured “big” data, sentiment analysis, and experimental design. Students will develop skills in these areas and learn to apply them, enhancing their knowledge and marketability. The Business Analytics Minor is appropriate for all business majors who want to be at the forefront of using data effectively in their discipline.

Learn more…

MIS Community v3.0

FOX MIS Connect InnovateThe third major revision of the MIS Community site has been finalized and deployed. The theme of this version is an intense focus on realizing the ‘community’ people-centric vision:

  • The home page layout is logically organized around News (on the left), In-depth content (middle), and Community (the sidebar on the right). This design metaphor is applied everywhere. For example, the BBA in MIS program page includes content on the left and (relevant) community on the right. If you are a top student, you might see yourself on there!
  • Every single page on the main site has been updated and is now focused on the community vision. Related to that, the new totals widget (top right of the home page) shows the full breadth of our community and all the items are clickable – click the “activity today…” to see what is going on today!
  • The new E-portfolio wire showcases the professional interests and accomplishments of students. If a student adds a skill, job interest, updates their job status, changes their major, or submits their e-portfolio. You will see it first on the e-portfolio wire!
  • The site has been re-architected from the ground up to increase performance. You have likely seen performance improvements in the last few weeks. They include (a) a mobile responsive theme that will adjust to different devices, screen sizes, and connection speeds (try the site on your mobile device), (b) custom developed plugins by the MIS department that add community relevant features, (c) feed aggregation that allows us to continue integrating multiple sources of content through RSS but without the performance hit. This was a massive behind the scene effort and critical toward allowing us scale the site and concept.
  • Social integration, so that you can leave comments on the site or push pages to the main social platforms (e.g., Facebook). The department also has related sites on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Flickr.
  • We will be rolling out more updates in the next few weeks as well as new student e-portfolio themes. We are also starting to help other academic units at Temple catch the community wave, but the MIS community site was the first and will remain the gold standard! Stay tuned.

The MIS community site is a unique learning, collaboration, and social platform; there is no other like it. And now it is better and even closer to the community vision.

Youngjin Yoo receives $635,000 grant from Knight Foundation to expand Urban Apps and Maps

Youngjin YooProfessor Youngjin Yoo is the principal investigator on a grant from the Knight Foundation to expand Urban Apps and Maps Studio. Over the next three summers, 300 high school and college-age students will take part in a six-week program at Temple’s Urban Apps and Maps Studios, learning the basics of digital design and business skills. About a dozen will then become year-round community fellows working with the university and developers to create apps that solve the challenges of urban communities. 

By integrating design, technology and entrepreneurship together with world class research at Temple in the area of humanity, social science, engineering, computer science and business, we are trying to build next generation urban leaders who can build their own solutions for the challenges that their communities are facing in our cities.

Urban Apps and Maps Studios is a university-wide program initiated last year through a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.

For more information, click here.

MIS Minor

A minor in MIS provides undergraduate students the ability to identify, select, use, and apply information technology (IT) to their major field of study. The minor provides the skills and terminology needed to become a knowledgable user of IT in the business world and interact successfully with technology professionals in an organization.

Rossetti

I chose MIS as minor because we live in such a data-driven world, and in the accounting profession it is so important to know how obtain, analyze, and present data to deliver value to clients. A minor in MIS helped me differentiate myself and helped me improve my communication skills.
Louis Rosetti, Accounting major, MIS minor

WHO SHOULD MINOR IN MIS?

Business students will benefit from a minor in MIS. The minor in MIS will position you for jobs in business application areas, consulting positions, technical liaisons, and selling and acquisition of business software.

NikipielovA minor in MIS has complemented my actuarial skills with the knowledge of beneficial technologies and applications like Tableau, RStudio, and SQL. Being familiar with these tools helped me stand out during interviews.
Oleksandr Nikipielov, Actuarial Science major, MIS minor

WHAT IS IN IT FOR ME?

  • Understand the key information technologies used by organizations.
  • Learn how to specify technology solutions and engage with IT professionals.
  • Understand the importance of business processes
  • Identify how specific IT solutions are designed and implemented to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
  • Apply data analytics to collect, store, analyze, and disseminate organizational information.

MurphyThe MIS community is incredibly supportive. Whether you’re a major or minor in this program you will receive the same encouragement. I knew I wanted to become an MIS minor when introduced to cloud computing through Salesforce. This topic ignited a world of opportunities through a new passion!
Cassandra Murphy, Marketing major, MIS minor

CURRICULUM

More information, including course numbers, full course descriptions, and prerequisites, is available through the Temple Bulletin.

Required

  • Digital Systems (prerequisite to start minor)
  • Data and Analytics (also required for majors)
  • Digital Design and Innovation

Electives (select one)

  • Data Science (also fulfills GenEd Science and Technology (GS) requirement)
  • Cloud Architecture
  • Scripting for Data Science/Analytics
  • Defending Against Cyber Crime
  • Electronic Commerce Site Design
  • Strategic Management of Information Technology
  • Information Systems Innovation
  • Internet-Enabled Supply Chains
  • Social Media Innovation
  • Special Topics in MIS
  • Co-Operative Experience in MIS

Note: Some electives may have special pre-requisites, check the pre-requisites before registering.

HOW TO SIGN UP FOR THE MINOR

To take courses for the MIS minor, you must first declare your intent to minor in MIS. Non-Fox students do not need to take the Business Minor to pursue an MIS Minor.

Please refer to the MIS Minor in the Undergraduate Bulletin for more information.

Fox hosts 2nd annual MIS Academic Leadership Conference (MALC 2012)

MALC 2012The Fox School’s Department of Management Information Systems hosted the second annual Management Information Systems (MIS) Academic Leadership Conference (MALC 2012) from Nov. 1-3 at Alter Hall.

Academic leaders of MIS departments across the world were invited to network and learn from others facing similar responsibilities and challenges. The format was small and highly interactive, with 70 professionals with leadership responsibility for MIS at their respective college or university in attendance. Attendees represented 53 universities, including some of the top schools in the nation.

The conference featured a keynote presentation by Joseph C. Spagnoletti, senior vice president and chief information officer at Campbell Soup Company, as well as a keynote deans’ panel led by Fox School of Business Dean M. Moshe Porat.

Temple Provost Hai-Lung Dai introduced Porat by saying:

the business school under the leadership of Dean Porat is recognized as a powerhouse of Temple University, and our MIS program is a gem of the Fox School.

University President Richard M. Englert praised the accomplishments of Fox MIS faculty and students and called MIS:

“one of the most dynamic academic disciplines,” adding that it “is an essential and powerful tool in business development and economic growth.”

The deans’ panel was titled “The Digitalization of Business Schools” and included Leonard Jessup, dean of the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Business, and Peter A. Todd, dean of the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University in Quebec. Opportunities and threats posed by the digitalization of business schools were debated, and discussion focused heavily on online learning. “I think it’s inevitable we will have to provide all of these things online,” Porat said, stressing that online classes cannot lose quality. The panelists shared varying views. Jessup noted the importance of online classes at Arizona while Todd shared that McGill does not see much of a need for them yet. “I think it depends on the culture of the institution and the strength of the brand,” Porat added.

In the general sessions, conference presenters represented schools from Boston College to Aalto University in Finland. Each shared insight as to what their schools are doing on topics such as information systems advisory councils and best practices for MIS graduate programs. Associate professor and founding chair of Fox’s MIS Department, Munir Mandviwalla, served on the conference committee and presented at the session titled, “Where will MIS go in 2015? 2020?” Another MIS faculty member, Professor Paul A. Pavlou, chaired the session. Assistant Professor Richard Flanagan presented in the “Recruiting Strategies” session. Flanagan is the director of Fox’s new Master of Science in IT Auditing and Cyber-Security program in the MIS Department. Assistant Professor Mart Doyle and Fox IT Advisory Board Chair Bruce Fadem also moderated sessions.

The MIS Academic Leadership Conference is the only conference specifically designed for individuals responsible for leading MIS in higher education to network and learn. The conference was co-sponsored by Temple, the University of Arizona, University of Minnesota, Indiana University and University of Texas at Dallas.

For more information click on: http://ibit.temple.edu/malc2012/

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IT Career Fair promotes Fox School students’ e-portfolios

IT Career Fair

What better place for a career fair to go high-tech than one for IT-centric students?

Temple’s Fox School of Business hosted its first IT Career Fair on Wednesday and, in another first, business students with majors and minors related to information systems carried business cards with QR codes for recruiters, who were equipped with iPads to scan the codes and access students’ e-portfolios.

Also known as electronic resumes, e-portfolios allow students to manage their online identities and showcase experiences and sample work in a more dynamic format than a LinkedIn profile.

“We do a lot of career fairs and sometimes it’s tough to keep track of who you met, and this helps put a face to a resume,” said Paul Zaengle, vice president of U.S. Resource Management for global management and technology consultancy LiquidHub, one of nearly 20 recruiters at the event. “It’s my first time using e-portfolios at any career fair. It’s easy to use, and the iPad integrates some cool technology into the career fair.”

The e-portfolio initiative, overseen by the Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT), includes custom design elements and a search engine for employers to find students by relevant criteria. There are 1,023 e-portfolios in active use.

Read more…

IT Auditing and Cyber-Security program aligns with international association ISACA

FOX ITACS

The Master of Science in Information Technology Auditing and Cyber-Security (ITACS) at the Fox School of Business is aligned with the curriculum set forth by ISACA, the international governing organization for IT assurance that designs and awards the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) certification.

Officially aligning with the organization responsible for the CISA designation is important, ITACS Director Richard Flanagan said. One great benefit is that graduates of Temple’s ITACS program are required only two years of work experience before they can earn their CISA designation from ISACA, instead of the usual five years.

“It’s a big deal,” Flanagan said. “Information systems have become increasingly important to businesses, and firms sometimes spend more on information systems staff than any other department. What students are learning at Fox is what ISACA thinks they should be learning.”

The ITACS program began in January 2012. For 10 months, students from around the world learn to assess, manage and control IT risks while preparing for the CISA exam.

The strengths of the ITACS program and its faculty benefit undergraduate students, too. It was with the help of Flanagan that Kazuhiko Koyanagi, a management information systems and accounting double major, won a $2,500 Fall 2011 tuition scholarship from the Philadelphia chapter of ISACA for his essay, “Secure Mobile Device Management in This Information-Driven Era.” Koyanagi was recognized for the accomplishment in June 2012.

In addition, the ITACS program is now recognized by the U.S. government as a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) degree, which means that international students are granted 17 additional months of Optional Practical Training, which allows them to work at U.S. firms without needing a special visa.

“Our international students can now work for almost two and a half years for an American company before needing sponsorship,” Flanagan said.

Gamification of MIS3538: Social Media Innovation

Temple University Social Media Innovation

Gamification in Higher Education

Is it possible to use gamification to motivate students above and beyond grades?

These students in my class certainly think so:

“The Quest was an amazing experience. Being able to score myself really helped me stay competitive with my site and made me do things now as opposed to later because I feared losing my rank.”

“I thought this was a great idea on Professor Johnson’s end, mainly because it was a friendly competitive challenge, and really engaged everyone to take part in it. Personally, I struggled in the beginning to keep up with other students, but since I had quite a few posts I was able to get myself on the leaderboard most of the time. There was definitely a peak in the middle of the semester where I really focused on posts and activities. Even though I never made it to the top, I was happy I made it to the leaderboards. Overall I thought that it was a great idea, and I have also noted the experience with other teachers to maybe incorporate it with other classes.”

Achievement badge for 7 blog posts

“The Quest helped to motivate projects outside of the classroom. Quest points absolutely made me do projects in a timely matter so that I did not look like a slacker in front of the class. I thought it was a great idea to announce winners this let students know if they were slacking. Originally when the Quest started I was not ranked my goal starting out in the class was to make the leader board. By the end I was ranked [in top third]. The Quest without a doubt motivated me more to do more projects.”

“Participating in the Quest, what I learned was that you have to be dedicated and be active for your blog to be successful. In order to be on the Quest leader board, you had to be active and keep up with the activities given. During the first couple weeks I was on the leader board. However, after slowing down my activity on my blog, I was no longer on the leader board and was not on it since. The professor said that although being on the leader board does not equal an A for the course, people who are on the leader board generally do better in the class. I can see how this would hold true because being constantly active is one part of what makes a good blog. I believe that not being on the leader board directly correlated with the amount of effort that I put into the activities at that time. If I had kept with the activities as they were given and stayed on the leader board, then I could have had a better blog overall. “

“The Quest” leaderboard is a great idea for operating a class. Even though there’s no grading benefit to participating, it served as a great checklist for logging which social media activities each user completed. … Additionally, human beings are born with a competitive nature, so even though there’s no tangible reward for participating in “The Quest”, students still have a desire to compete to be the best among their peers. … Going over the leaderboard at the end of class in front of everyone also helps motivate students to participate. People love attention so this is a great opportunity to get noticed in front of a large audience. “

(All quotes from end of semester reports by students in Spring, 2012 section of MIS3538: Social Media Innovation.)

Social Media Innovation Quest

I recently completed my third semester teaching Temple University’s Fox School of Business MIS3538: Social Media Innovation course with the Social Media Innovation Quest as a gamification element.

I developed The Quest in order to encourage self-paced learning through a series of required and self-selected activities that got progressively more difficult. Through a combination of the WordPress Achievements plug-in and Google Forms, students:

  • Earn points and badges,
  • View their standing on a leader board, and
  • Receive weekly recognition for “leveling-up”.

As the student feedback attests, well designed gamification can work in a college class room. In the rest of this blog post I’ll lay out the major elements of The Quest along with why I think they work.

Introducing the Quest

The Quest starts at the beginning of the semester, with points accruing to students with activities beginning on the first day of class. In the course syllabus, it is introduced as follows:

To help motivate students to maximize learning opportunities in this course, we also run a Social Media Innovation Quest (hereafter, The Quest). This is a “scoring” system that awards Quest Points (QPs), badges, and levels for class-related achievements. Students who gain sufficient QPs will be promoted to higher Quest levels and will rise to the top of the leaderboard!

Quest points, badges, levels, and the leaderboard are for fun!

Lots of Quest Points, numerous badges, a high level, and the top spot on the leaderboard are no guarantee of a high course grade. Nonetheless, past experience shows that the number of QPs earned and strong course performance usually goes hand-in-hand. Therefore, during the semester your QPs do provide one assessment, albeit imperfect, of your course performance to date.

The class instructor solely determines your grade based on completed work, assignment requirements, and grading criteria. Pay attention to the formal assignment requirements as posted on the Course Instructor Blog and expectations stated on the blog and in the course.

The building block for the quest is Quest Points. There are primarily earned by completing activities that are also reflected in a student’s participation grade (20% of final grade) or the major individual assignment grade (40% of final grade).

The Mechanics

The Achievements plug-in automatically keeps track of how many posts and comments students make on the Course Participation Hub blog (all 45 students had authoring privileges at the blog). I set it up so that students earn points (and badges) for their first three posts and for pre-set levels of comments (e.g., 1st, 5th, 10th, 20th, and on up to 100th). To keep things interesting, the comment levels are not entirely predictable and some of the achievements are even hidden until earned.

There are many ways that students can earn points (and badges). Every couple of weeks during the semester I release more activities. Once a student completed an activity, they enter it at the Activity Submission Form. I review submitted activities multiple times a week and either (a) grant the achievement or (b) provide feedback on what still needs to be done.

(If I had an unlimited budget for enhancing my “courseware,” I would create a system to release new activities individually based on which activities had already been completed. Also, I would have some way to have all achievements machine-graded in order to provide immediate feedback. If anyone wants to fund such an effort, please contact me!)

Leaderboards and Leveling-Up

screen-capture Social mediaOn the course website there is a leaderboard showing the very top performing students (Top 10 out of 45). Compared to a typical course where the highest performing students have little motivation to achieve beyond an “A” level, the Top 10 leaderboard provides constant reinforcement to highly motivated students to go well beyond the course requirements.

The leaderboard promoted at the end of every (weekly) class meeting serves a different purpose. It does not show point totals, instead it shows a much larger number of students grouped by level. The cut-off for making this leaderboard tracked the pace for “meeting course expectations” (roughly a B grade).

Also, instead of implicitly rewarding only the top performers, everyone who made significant efforts that week is recognizing for “leveling-up” to a new performance band. This provides motivation not just for the very top performing students, but important feedback for everyone in the course.

Why does it work?

I’ll leave the final word to my students:
level brilliant badge

I find this system very useful because it served as a strong motivator for me to stay not only on top of the material, but also to be on the leader board. As a student who consistently appeared on the leader board through the whole semester, I must acknowledge that the level of satisfaction I gained each time I moved a level up, strongly influenced my course performance and the amount of effort I put into completion of all activities.

I would say that The Quest is important because of the way it ties everything together and incentivizes getting your work done. On top of that, it motivates some students to go above and beyond, which enriches the class experience for the rest of us. Over the course of the semester, the participation hub got better and better with comments and people replying to comments. Even though it was for a grade, you can’t just make up stuff in the comments – you have to put some thought into what you’re saying (I may have put too much thought into mine, but I felt good after I gave my opinions on things which I felt were well explained).

The Quest Leader board was the best aspect of the social media class. Having a friendly competitive atmosphere that motivated all of us to learn as much as we could about social media was awesome. There were some activities within the leadership board that I wish we received a tutorial on first but I guess the best way to learn something new is to actually try it out and fail a couple of times.

MIS3538: Social Media Innovation is an upper-level elective offered by the Management Information Systems Department in the Fox School of Business.

 

New MS in IT auditing and cyber-security launched in January 2012

MS ITACSThe new MS in ITACS started in January 2012 with the first batch of students who will prepare for careers in controlling the risks of IT including auditing and cyber-security. The program is based on ISACA, a global association of information systems professionals, so that students are trained to complete the Certified Information System Auditor (CISA) exam at the end of their studies. 

Spring 2012 classes include enterprise architecture, IT audit process, and goverance as well as coaching on business skills. Students who complete this short 12 month program can apply for rapidly expanding career options at accounting firms, multinational corporations, consultancies and government agencies. 

The ITACS program, is one of the first in the country to address the pressing needs of industry for IT auditing and cyber-security personnel.   The IT auditing field is a growing industry and this program will prepare students with the foundation and skills to become successful IT auditors.
Tom Yucis, Lead Architecture Specialist, Dow Chemicals, founding member, Fox ITACS advisory council

As part of designing the program, Rich Flanagan, Assistant Professor, and Director, IT auditing and cyber-security programs, has formed an advisory council of leading IT audit practitioners who will guide and mentor the ITACS program and include:

  • Michael G. Griffith, Pfizer, Inc.
  • Bruce Murphy, Deloitte & Touche LLP
  • Tom Yucis, Dow Chemicals
  • Robert E. Davis, Consultant and book author
  • Michael Romeu-Lugo, Teleflex, Inc.
  • Frank T. Mancuso, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP 
  • Stan Szwalbenest, JP Morgan Chase
  • Thu Nguyen, Verizon

Personally, I believe that a candidate who goes through this program and ultimately becomes CISA certified will be rounded and will increase his/her chances landing a job within their field of studies. In addition, the credential will give them an advantage over other candidates during the hiring process.
Thu Nguyen, Internal Audit Manager, Verizon, founding member, Fox ITACS advisory council

For more information, visit the ITACS site at: http://sbm.temple.edu/ms/ms-itacs.html or contact Rich Flanagan at Richard.Flanagan@Temple.edu or 1 215.204.3077.

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