1. Course Introduction MIS 3501 Jeremy Shafer Department of MIS
Fox School of Business
Temple University

2. Agenda Our agenda for today: A little self reflection Course overview
A brief syllabus review
Closing remarks
Exercise

3. A little self reflection
Let’s start with this:
In 2012, a 61-year old teacher named Maria C. Waltherr-Willard sued her former school district for failing to accommodate her disability. Her disability was pedophobia – the fear of children.
Why do you suppose I would choose to lead with this story? How is it odd? How is it relevant to you?
How would you respond to a doctor who said - ”I'm not really very good with medicine ... or… I'm afraid of sick people?”
Now, consider the MIS student who says “I’m afraid of programming … or … I’m afraid of technology.” Would a prospective employer or manager be impressed with such a person?

4. Coding is everywhere

5. More objections “I have never coded before” WHY?!? WHY NOT?!?
“Coding is supposed to be easy, but I just don’t get it.”
Too many tutorials start out with a misleading “programming is easy” tone. And, when learning proves to be difficult, new learners get discouraged. The truth is that learning to program is hard, but it is also worthwhile.

6. Course Overview
MySQL
2 Weeks
HTML & CSS
2 Weeks
PHP
3 Weeks
PDO
2 weeks
To do:
Organize your code with MVC (1 week)
Work with forms (1 week)
Use cookies and sessions (1 week)
** This is all in the syllabus. You should really read the syllabus.

7. The class syllabus
In the syllabus you will find useful and important information about things like:
Course Objectives
Textbook and Materials
Evaluation and Grading
Exams (exams are “hands-on” evaluations of technical skill)
Quizzes (these are “hands-on” too)
Participation
Extra Credit (there isn’t any)
Curved Grading (there is one curve, applied at the end of the course.)
Technical Challenges
The MIS Professional Acheivment Point requirement (MIS majors need 200 points!)
The expected schedule for the class

8. Quizzes and Exams
All students must use the lab workstations to complete their quizzes and exams. One screen per student is allowed for exams and quizzes.
It is to your advantage to sit in your “normal” seat on exam/quiz day. Your PC will boot faster.
Any attempt to deliberately interfere with the technology used in this class (e.g. the class server), or to electronically impersonate a student other than yourself, or to knowingly share your credentials with another student for the purpose of sharing your work, will also be treated as a case of academic dishonesty. The penalties for such offenses will be severe.

9. Closing remarks Another tip regarding the exams
A copy/paste strategy will kill you.
What I expect from you
A little bit of coding each day.
Steady consistent effort.
Ask questions in class. Don’t just nod yes.
Curiosity ... If go beyond the minimum requirements you will learn!
All of the above will contribute to your individual proficiency and over-all technical literacy, which is the goal of the course.

10. Ready?
"There are two kinds of people in the world, those who think they can and those who think they can't. And both are right." Henry Ford