Aims

The module aims to provide students with an understanding of information systems and its relevance for modern-day economies and societies. More specifically, it explains how a comprehensive view of traditional information systems (IS) and the opportunities given by contemporary Internet-based innovations is central for understanding the anatomy of digital business and how it has,and will continue enabling radical changes in the economic contexts, business models, corporate strategies, organisational designs and ultimately in the management of innovations in firms and entire industrial sectors.
We divided the module into two parts. The first part equips students to understand the fundamental principles of IS as well as relevant business applications, and from there to apply them in innovative ways in order to create sustainable competitive advantages and beat competitors. The second part of the module is about major topics which certainly could enable or block the materialisation of the e-strategies, and managers have to be knowledgeable of them in order to take decisions and appropriate courses of action, for example technology, the IS life cycle, organisational aspects, the implementation process and international systems.
Taking advantage of this generic module and its bridging character in the conversion MSc programme, there are also sessions related to employability and the different career paths of the digital business world. Students must become critical thinkers about the digital business career paths in connection to themselves.

Outline Of Syllabus

IS concepts and its role in modern business
Business applications
Business Intelligence
IS and competitive strategy
Information and communication technologies
IS life cycle
IS and organizations
IS implementation
International systems
Employability

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The teaching methods will be based on a mix of presentations, the demonstration of business applications, videos, mini case studies, group work and open discussions and debates in the lectures. A substantial input is expected in the form of guided background reading, private study as well as in the preparation for the assessments. The background reading, private study and participative lectures will be the methods to introduce theoretical concepts, which will be complemented with employability aspects in a number of specific sessions. The demonstration of the business applications and videos will be used to get a more practical understanding of business processes, strategies and real information systems. The case studies are more focused to the discussion of soft aspects which affect information systems such as organisational, implementation and social issues. A substantial component of the module is based on the search for and analysis of real a company, market, product and supplier information, as well as of the impact of information systems in society and e-business related career paths.
There will also be a series of employability sessions. They will be based on selected reading material and videos, which students will read/watch before the sessions and then will be used to answer and discuss critical career-specific questions in the sessions.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The 3000-word assignment is integrative and addresses the whole regular module. It is about IS-strategy alignment, business processes, enterprise systems and a plethora of factors that are related to all the topics learnt during the module, e.g. technology, organisations, the IS life cycle, development approaches, projects and so on. It requires the research of substantial empirical material related to real firms, information systems initiatives, the external and internal environments of companies and the diverse aspects that influenced the outcome of the systems in a business perspective. The assignment is challenging in the sense that, to begin, the students have to search for empirical information to decide about the company and information system initiative that they will write their case. Then, the students have to build the case study, based on both theory and IS-related concepts as well as case-specific information. The case study is descriptive, explanative and critical, and very close to what the students would do in their future job as consultants, in terms of both knowledge and skills.
The 1000-word reflection is aided by an analytical process that the students should follow to analyse themselves, career options, take decisions about a career path they would like to pursue, and devise a transition plan to fill the knowledge and skill gaps to be ready to get that job, succeed and climb quickly the career ladder. The reflection is critical since it considers the strengths and weaknesses of the students and of the different career paths of the digital business world.

Formative assessment

Through the whole module, the students undertake problem-solving exercises based on a set of questions and mini case studies, videos or software demonstrations. There are discussions between peers in groups and then the whole class, all facilitated by the teacher. The discussions are related to the topic of the lectures but with a deliberate formative focus on driving and facilitating the study for the summative assessments.
There are 4 1-hour formative sessions specifically about the 3000-word assessment. The first is about the challenging task of searching for information for their own cases and ultimately deciding what case to undertake in the assignment (company and systems). This is very formative since it is the first time the students have a similar assignment. Another one at the middle of the course about the structural content of the assignment, which is based on exemplar past assignments and the planning the students have made regarding their own work. There are two more sessions in the last part of the module. These sessions are largely structured on the most important feedback that the module leader has compiled from years delivering the course and marking, as well as personal questions of the students who have already progressed the study, data collection and development of their assignments.
Regarding the 1000-word assignment, during the employability sessions students will practice how to do the analysis of career paths. Based on directed reading material and videos, we will discuss and understand in the sessions the stages of progression of numerous career paths, their daily activities, the knowledge and skills necessary for the role and the pros and cons of the paths. There will also be a dedicated clinic for this assessment in which students will bring their work in progress and establish discussions based on that. All this will be formative since the students will have to do a similar analysis for their personal reflections.
Finally, students should bring the progress of their 2 assignments and questions for a last assessments-focused session at the very end of the module.