Pre- or Co-requisites

INFM 600 (Information Environments), INFM 603 (Information Technology and Organizational Context), and INFM 605 (Users and Use Context) or permission of the advisor

Catalog Description

Issues, problems, and processes in the strategic management of information and the management of information programs in institutional settings.

Extended Description

INFM 720, Seminar in Strategic Information Management, provides an opportunity for in-depth analysis and discussion of selected topics or themes. The course focuses on a particular theme within strategic information management each time it is offered, and gets at the theme in three ways: (1) reading about the them and discussion of the literature; (2) each student selects a particular issue from the theme with the professor=s approval and discusses the issue in class as they are doing research and beginning writing a paper (see no. 3, below); and (3) the student carries out research during the semester and at the end produces a research paper.

Statement of Goals

1. To provide in-depth exploration and analysis of selected, timely themes in strategic information management
2. To provide students with an opportunity to develop, sharpen, and refine their organizational and oral presentation skills
3. To support analysis, discussion, and the application of diverse insights and viewpoints to the theme, through class discussion
4. To provide an opportunity for students to research, write, revise, and in the end produce a quality research paper of approximately the length and quality that would be acceptable for a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal.

Topics to be Covered

The topic to be covered will be selected in advance of each class, using these criteria: (A) important and significant for the field of strategic information management; (B) timely in the sense that it is under active consideration and discussion in the field, in professional journals and conferences, and in reports, e.g., government reports; (C) having sufficient scholarly literature to provide reading materials for context and background and to help shape the initial class discussions.

Teaching/Instructional Methods

1. The professor will lecture during the first two meetings of the course to provide an introduction, demonstrate the importance of the topic, identify issues, and establish an agenda and set the stage for the rest of the course.
2. The next two or three meetings will be devoted to discussion of assigned readings with a view toward identifying the key issues, determining the degree to which the literature indicates definitive approaches vs. approaches still under development, identifying relevant theory, identifying alternatives to approaching the issue, ascertaining model practices, and identifying questions that are unanswered and are, therefore, particularly good candidates for research papers.
3. The third part of the course will consist of students discussing the topics they have chosen for research, including: significance of the topic, summary of what the literature says about it, issues and controversies in the area, and researchable questions. The objectives of this part of the course are to provide students with an opportunity to organize their thoughts, try out ideas, get feedback from their colleagues in class through discussion, sharpen their research methods and, toward the end of this part of the course, to try out hypotheses and conclusions and get additional feedback and critiques
4. The fourth method will be the writing of the research paper, critiquing or a draft by the professor, and then rewriting to achieve a final, polished end product. The objective is to write a paper that would be good enough to be considered for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, thought students will not be expected to actually submit for publication unless they were interested in doing so.

Student Requirements /Methods of Evaluation

Requirements are outlined above: reading/discussion; presentations in class; and research/writing

For reading/discussion, students will be evaluated on how well they understand the reading through discussion and questions by the professor and their contributions to the discussion. Depending on class size and interest, students might also be selected to answer particular questions about the readings

For the presentations in class, students will be evaluated on how well they prepare, organization, conciseness, focus on the topic at hand, tailoring their presentation to be appropriate to the topic, skill in using Power Point and other presentation technology, and ability to present and speak clearly.

For the paper, students will be evaluated on originality of the topic, scope of the research particularly in primary sources, ability to develop a clear point of view or thesis and sustain it in the paper, clarity of writing, systematic writing, proofreading and the absence of grammatical and other mistakes, appropriate footnotes, and appropriate form of footnotes and bibliography.

Readings

Will vary by topic.