IFSM 302 Syllabus Supplement, Summer 2009, DE Session 1, UMUC Europe Distance Education


Grading Information:

I prefer to give each student an 'A' in each of my courses. The grade, however, must be earned as I can only reflect the performance I observe. I do understand that students have many other responsibilities, but your own learning is your responsibility. Moreover, I also expect you to assist the learning of others in this class. I will work with every student within reason to help her or him complete this course successfully.

It will come as no surprise that for a variety of reasons a number of students each term choose not to earn an "A".

Students concerned with slow progress should seek help before getting into grade trouble. Contact me, your instructor, early. "Incompletes" will not be given unless thoroughly justified and backed up by a contract negotiated with the instructor allowing for completion within four weeks.


Other Information:

The mid-term in this DE course is on-line, open to all sources EXCEPT PEOPLE on the weekend of 12-13 July 2009 at the end of Week 4. The final exam is proctored but computer-based (for most of you) so your responses can be emailed to me. Final Exam week is Week 8, 3 - 9 Aug. 2009, NOT Week 10. We will continue with our course work on-line after the final exam until course completion on 23 Aug. 2009. Please complete your assignments on time as outlined in this supplement and my separate Work Schedule handout so you do not get behind.

We will work through the issues raised your assigned books as well as handouts that I will provide you. Each week I post separate background and tasking messages in the Course Content area. In the background message, I have an introduction to the week's work; in the tasking message I confirm your study assignments, discussion topics and key due dates during the week. I also create a weekly conference with questions that I will normally assign you (from time to time, you will self-select questions according to your interests and knowledge). You will post your response in that class conference area as a response to the assigned topic. I also set up a private study group for each student so we may exchange messages within our classroom in privacy.

Go to Wikipedia and read over the introductory page on productivity which you will find there. Such a 'simple' concept, right? I am not trying to scare you off, but from the start we must understand that workplace productivity is a very complex phenomenon. We are not in this short course going to get to the root of any productivity problem in your workplace. We will be able to give you some tools with which to better understand your workplace as a system and to analyze the entire system.

Another word on Wikipedia is needed as I know some of your instructors will have warned you against referencing it. Wiki's use the 'wisdom of crowds' strategy and philosophy to attack issues. Throw an idea out into a 'bull ring' with enough observers and see who is interested in addressing it, how much is known and unknown about the issue. Over time, the distilled knowledge of a large group of people will perform a function similar to 'peer review' for academic journals. Only in the Wiki case, the concepts and discussion will truly be reviewed by many, many peers. Open source software works; wiki's work especially for an overall understanding of a concept. For anything other than an appreciation of a topic, I recommend you consult the sources for the pages displayed or a more 'traditional' resource that has probably had many fewer reviewers with less far ranging skills and knowledge sets than the interested commentators who review the Wiki's. So please do make use of Wikipedia in our course. After all, a major aspect of the course is team working.

I teach a separate course on managing teams in organizations for UMUC (BMGT 484) and your Team Handbook (TTH) reviews many of the concepts we cover in that course. Peter Scholtes, Brian Joiner and their team are acknowledged experts in the field, yet I will still supplement their ideas with other references. People add complexity to any situation particularly in an organizational setting. For me, that is what has always made management really interesting. Please remember to download TTH worksheets from the TTH web site.

But the parallel, more technical thread of this course is represented by your Memory Jogger II (MJ2) pocket guide. Perhaps you thought that you might be able to sweet talk your workers into improving their productivity. (Perhaps you have tried it before.) The tools in MJ2 provide a useful cross-section of those you will need to help you analyze, understand and control (within limits) your productivity improvement efforts. The tools represent in part a need to 'force' you to monitor and measure what happens in a worksite, to understand it as best you can PRIOR to blessing the workers with 'the benefit of your years of experience.' However, do not expect to develop a deep understanding of the concepts summarized in MJ2 without much more exploration in other sources. I will provide some of those sources. You will need to seek out others.

The web site supporting MJ2 has limited free resources as it principally serves to market GOAL/QPC products, services and courses. More useful for this course will be the link provided from The Team Handbook web site to Oriel, Inc not just for white paper and article summaries, but also for the insights into other areas of process improvement not yet mentioned - heh, heh - yes, Dorothy, there is much more here just as in the Land of Oz.

Other Teamworking sources that should be useful are:
  •    Making the Team by Dr. Leigh Thompson's of the Kellogg Team and Group (KTAG) Research Center at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University (web site, http://www.leighthompson.com/) .
  •    Tools for Teams by Leigh Thompson, et al. edited by Craig Swenson. I will make an ebook of this work available in our classroom.
  •    Building Team Power and Mining Group Gold by Thomas Kayser, a senior executive practitioner of teamworking
  •    Team Management Systems Online, http://www.tms.com.au/tms10.html, offers more helpful articles, cases and links. (TMS is a consultancy and as such offers their services commercially. Many insights are nonetheless shared with us freely via their web site.)
If anything, my personal library of process improvement works is even larger than my team working one. Some recent additions include the following eBooks:
  •    Rapid Skill Builder: Process Improvement, 2e. by Jon C. Warner for the Worldwide Center for Organizational Development provides a non-technical and people oriented approach to this issue.
  •    Guaranteeing Performance Improvement by Richard F. Gerson is another recent people oriented improvement book that has a good 'man management' message.
  •    The Innovator's Toolkit: 50+ Techniques for Predictable and Sustainable Organic Growth by David Silverstein, Philip Samuel and Neil DeCarlo is a more wide ranging exploration of techniques for developing your organization as well as your professional skills.
  •    Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement by Richard Schonberger provides numerous glimpses of process improvement efforts at global companies.
    As the title suggests, the improvements are less focused on team working, more focused on the type of techniques in MJ2's Ideas and Numbers lists. Yes, you will learn what Lean Six Sigma means. I will make excerpts of this book - among many others - available in our classroom from time to time. BTW, I purchased the eBook version from eChapterOne with a military discount and immediate access. If you are not familiar with eBooks, you may want to explore using Adobe Digital Editions (free). When purchasing eBooks if you intend to use the .pdf version, you must carefully ensure you select Adobe Reader from the competing eBook formats and that you have Adobe Digital Editions already installed on the target computer as the download is handled by that program as a part of Digital Rights Management.
There is much more but we will get to that in due course.

Weekly Conferences: This class has multiple threads. I will provide a workflow schedule in the Course Admin Conference to help you organize the course requirements on a weekly basis.

In this DE class, your "week" normally begins on Monday or Tuesday and ends about seven days later depending on a number of factors. So please, check the syllabus in advance to make sure you know when to check for your assignments and when they are due. My intent is to allow for you both to contribute and to comment on the contributions of your classmates. All times are keyed to Maryland time - USA Eastern time zone.

Your weekly participation will normally take place in the class conference area and only when directed in the study group area. Specific assignments are submitted in your assignment folder; if you are late turning in an assignment, you may find the assignment folder locked. If so, put your assignment in your private study group. I will pick it up there and you will still have a record of turning it in.

I will provide a list of topics for our weekly discussions and either assign a topic to each of you or allow you to select a topic for exploration, presentation and discussion. (first come, first served, no duplicates until all topics allocated) I want you to explore the UMUC databases and other valid and reliable sources as you develop a response to the questions raised. I also want you to document your response and share your sources with us. Typically a quality response with full documentation will qualify for an "A" grade. This thread will comprise 2/3 of your course participation grade.

You are also required to review and comment meaningfully on the responses of at least two of your classmates that are posted in our weekly class conferences (and the article conference). A significant comment adds to, changes or challenges the facts and opinions presented by your classmates. You are expected to support your views with knowledge gained not just from your personal and professional experiences but also from your research during this course. Two such comments in each weekly class conference are typically a minimum for an "A" grade. This thread will comprise 1/3 of your course participation grade.

A separate but important part of your weekly participation is finding and sharing with your classmates an article or web site related to the topics being discussed for the week (alternatively, the prior or upcoming weeks' topics). Each of us have different interests and I want us to use those differences to help all of us explore the topics in new and different ways. Your comments on article postings are also required. I incorporate my review of your article postings and comments into your participation grade. We have three article conferences staged throughout the course with each conference weighted double a single weekly conference for grading purposes.

Your project and case analysis assignments, two other threads in this class, are discussed in detail later in this supplement. Finally we have two tests (one take home, open book and the other proctored, closed book) also discussed below.

My feedback to you including your grade on submissions to your assignment folder during the term will be placed in your private study group except for comments that I need to share with the entire class such as questions or elaborations on weekly conference postings and small group reports.

While we get organized in the first 'week' of class, I have a special set of assignments I want you to complete:

** Week One DE Assignments **:

http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~prichard/dist_ed/wk1_assign.html

You are responsible for keeping copies of all your work including graded exams and assignments and should be able to produce the same, if needed.

Again, do not fall behind. Work ahead if possible. Do some work on this course every day or two. Set aside time to do this. If confused, in doubt, or in need of a clarification on any aspect of the course, contact me first.

Two "Must's":

  •    Attribution:
    •    Give credit in your work to those whose ideas and words you use - and use them well. No one is expected to know everything. Indeed, we need to avoid "re-inventing the wheel". So look around and build on the ideas and words of others. Just take care to give them full credit.
    •    Use footnotes or endnotes where needed and construct a proper "Works Cited" or "Bibliography" page to accompany your work.
    •    Plagiarized papers, reports, projects, or exams will receive a grade of 0 (zero) whether copied in whole or in part. This includes "accidental" plagiarism. See the UMUC European Division Catalog policy on academic integrity.
    •    This includes prior works presented or published by you for other purposes or in prior or other classes.

  •    Good grammar, punctuation, usage and style:
    •    Effective writing is critical to the intellectual life of university students and graduates within the workplace. Effective managers are usually effective communicators. Your work in this course must demonstrate your ability to master and effectively communicate course content.
    •    We must be able to share our ideas with others properly. That means we need to pay constant attention to the way in which we present those ideas. Written and oral work which contains significant errors in English or presentation typically impairs the quality of the message you are trying to communicate.
    •    Use your eyes and brain to check your work -- a mechanical computer can hurt as well as help. Proofread and check your work PRIOR to submission.
    •    Poor English or presentation will reduce my evaluation of your work by one or more letter grades regardless of the brilliance of the ideas therein.

Additional Guidelines for Assignments:

Effective writing

  •    Meets the needs of the reader;
  •    Covers the subject in a clear, concise, complete, accurate and timely manner;
  •    Uses expected conventions of format and organization;
  •    Demonstrates use of credible reasoning and evidence;
  •    Satisfies standards of style and grammatical correctness; and
  •    Requires 100% compliance with UMUC's zero-tolerance policy regarding plagiarism.

Use diagrams, charts, and other graphics to enrich your presentations.

Word Processor: If your response will be more than 150-200 words, create a document in Microsoft Word®. For the present, this word processing package is still the 'industry standard.' Hence, it will serve you well to learn more about using it to fulfill a formal, written requirement. If you do not have access to Microsoft Word, use "Save As" in your usual word processor and select the MS Word document option.

  •    Use Page Setup in the Printer to configure it.
  •    Set page size to A-4.
  •    Use 1" margins top, bottom, left and right sides.
  •    Use Times New Roman, size 12.
  •    Use double spacing.
  •    Use appropriate headings and subheadings. Headings and subheadings should be placed at the left margin.
  •    The first word of each new paragraph should be indented 1" from the left margin of the paragraph.
  •    Create a template with these settings and use it as the basis of your written assignments in this course.
  •    Use a header on each page (except the title page) for your name, course ID and date.
  •    Number each page (except the title page) in the bottom right corner using a footer.

I reserve the right to make minor changes in assignments and schedules. Changes will only be made if there are unforeseeable circumstances. I will not make major changes without first consulting with the class.

Supplemental Information: See my web site for further guidance on

Course Project:

Productivity Improvement Project:

In addition to following the project guidance in the syllabus, you should select for your project some program, task, organization, etc. that presents you with a reasonable opportunity to learn process improvement skills while assisting the target activity in actually improving its operations. As noted you need to stay as close to the Information Systems Management area as possible (exceptions can be made as required). In the long run you will want to focus on a key process in an organization (this is not typically where you start your learning process). Enclosed with this supplement is a key process model that will help to focus your explorations. I have additionally included a process improvement skill building template from the same source also cited earlier (Warner, Jon C., Rapid Skill Builder: Process Improvement, 2e. Worldwide Center for Organizational Development, 2006).

This is a phased project with a series of deadlines during the course set out in the course schedule. It is also a technical writing project where repetition of key information in different parts of the report is to be expected. While applying good writing principles is essential, other than applying APA organization and documentation methods, I need you to emphasize the substantive aspects of the project rather than the procedural. Process Improvement reports have to gain support quickly from various constituencies (any number of them hostile for a variety of reasons) so skillful, rapid communication is a key.

Consequently there is no effective length guide for your efforts. Longer reports require an executive summary; typical reports are segmented with discussions that concern specific special interests, offices, sub-processes, etc. You must present the results of the application of each process improvement tool and where needed, a discussion of your methodology along with sample evidence so that the reviewer can be confident in your application of the tool.

Your will provide your target activity with a copy of your report at the completion of the project. You will also need to arrange a meeting with your primary contact in the activity and his or her supervisor so that you can address any questions they may have. This is more than a courtesy or cursory meeting. Part of your skill building effort is to become a 'process improvement evangelist.' In addition, as stated in the syllabus, we need the results of even this learning process for you to be of positive benefit to the activity that has cooperated with you throughout the term. (Please provide me with a copy of any PowerPoint briefing you use in this meeting.)

Case Analysis:

The timing of your Final Exam gives us an excellent opportunity to add a further practical element to the course so you can use the insights and tools you will have developed during this course. So in Weeks 9 and 10, you will examine two real world cases. I have not selected them yet, but most probably you will be critiquing the efforts of a process improvement team as well as applying your own process improvement skills. I will want you to play 'observer' of any process improvement effort AND independently apply a variety of pertinent process improvement tools that might help you gain insight into the original problem(s) the case presents.

Additional Guidelines:

1. WRITING QUALITY

Grammar, Verb Tenses, Pronoun Use, Spelling, Punctuation, and Writing Competency. Remember:

  •    Spell-check, then proof read your work. Better yet, have a friend or colleague read it before submitting it. Read it out loud to yourself.
  •    "There" is not "Their", "your" is not "you're", "its" is not "it's", "too" is not "to" or "two", "site" is not "cite", and "who' should be used after an individual, not "that". For example, "the person WHO made the speech" not "the person THAT made the speech."
  •    In a professional paper one does not use contractions (doesn't, don't, etc.) and one does not use the personal "you" or "your". Use the impersonal as I have in the previous sentence. It is more professional than saying, "Also in a professional paper you don't use contractions."
A minimum of one letter grade will be deducted for significant problems related to organization, grammar, verb tenses, pronoun use, spelling, punctuation, and writing competency and other requirements including following directions. This is in addition to any penalty for late submission.

2. REFERENCES

Use the APA format for your references.

You will also need to correctly reference your sources within the body of your paper. Here is an example referencing a source within the text of a paper:

Mossman (2001) described the research design more clearly, " When developing a marketing proposal, one should always ......... "

" Marketing research is a requirement before any new product is introduced to the market. " (Gomez and Breegle, 1999)

3. COVER (TITLE) PAGE

Use a cover page for each submission. Double spaced, centered horizontally & vertically on the page, put the following in the order shown (replace the brackets and bracketed instructions with your report's specific information):

  •    [ Your Name ]
  •    IFSM 302
  •    [ Title of Case or Report ]
  •    Summer 2009 DE Session 1
  •    UMUC Europe Distance Education
  •    [ date ]
  •    Instructor: Phil Richardson
Nothing else needs to be added to the cover page.

4. PROTECTING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

The University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism from Internet resources. I may be using this service in this class by either requiring students to submit their papers electronically to Turnitin.com or by submitting questionable text on behalf of a student. If you or I submit part or all of your paper, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database throughout the term of the University's contract with Turnitin.com. If you object to this temporary storage of your paper, you must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. Please Note: If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I may utilize other services to check your work for plagiarism.


Schedule:

Notes:
  •    'Texts':    TTH = The Team Handbook;    MJ2 = Memory Jogger II.
  •    Individual Assignments: Individual students prepare and post their responses to the assignments not later than (NLT) noon of the day prior to the last day of the assignment period (typically noon on Sunday); and
  •    All students then comment on the contributions of their classmates NLT the end of the assignment period (typically midnight, Monday).
  •    See also the Class Work Schedule, an Excel spreadsheet outlining course requirements and timings which you can modify to suit your individual needs.

Intro. to Course

Week 1, 15 - 19 June 2009
* Introduction
Preview Texts:
   TTH: Preface, Table of Contents, Introduction;
   MJ2: 'How to Use', Table of Contents, Introduction.
Assignments:
  1.    Complete WT orientation and explore the WT Help facility.

  2.    ** Week One DE Assignments **:
    1. Review the Class Work Schedule which lays out the course activities in checklist fashion.
    2. Visit the following web site and complete the activities requested: http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~prichard/dist_ed/wk1_assign.html.

  3.    Confirm that you will be available to take the on-line Midterm Exam during the scheduled weekend. (You will require Internet access to research responses for this exam.)

  4.    Confirm that your testing activity for your proctored Final Exam will be available during final exam week (see schedule below).

  5.    Confirm that you will be available to take the proctored Final Exam during the scheduled exam week at the designated testing activity (unless you specify differently, this is the place you indicated when you registered for this course). Any changes to this location or time must be approved by me, your instructor.

Part 1: Processes & Teams I

Week 2, 20 - 29 June 2009
* Using Teams
* Team Roles & Responsibilities
* Doing Work in Teams
* Building an Improvement Plan
* Process Improvement Techniques for Working with Ideas
Study Texts & Handouts:
   TTH: Ch. 1-3 & 5;
   MJ2: 'Working with Ideas' (14 Techniques, see p. vi).
   Handouts as designated.
Assignments: See the Weekly Tasking Message in the Course Content Area.

Course Project & Improvement Strategy due 29 June.

Week 3, 30 June - 6 July 2009
* Team Tools for Solving Problems
* Learning to Work Together
* Creating Storyboards
* Team Building Activities
* Process Improvement Techniques for Working with Teams
Study Texts & Handouts:
   TTH: Ch. 4 & 6 & App. B & C;
   MJ2: 'Working with Teams' (5 Techniques, see p. vii).
   Handouts as designated.
Assignments: See the Weekly Tasking Message in the Course Content Area.

Week 4, 7 - 10 July 2009
* Exploring Process Improvement Techniques
Study Handouts:
   As designated.
Review Texts & Handouts:
   TTH: Ch. 1-6 & App. B & C;
   MJ2: Working with Ideas & Teams (19 Techniques).
   Handouts from prior weeks.
Assignments: See the Weekly Tasking Message in the Course Content Area.

Research Design for Course Project due 10 July.


Take-Home Midterm Exam Weekend

Take-Home Midterm Exam, 11 - 12 July 2009
Open Book, Open Notes, covering text, e-handouts, homework, and class discussion through Week 4. Your exam will be posted on WebTycho in the study group area by 0000 hours Maryland time (U.S. Eastern Daylight Time), 11 July 2009, and is to be returned to your Assignment area of WT by 2400 hours Maryland time, 12 July 2009.
Assignments: Review text, e-handouts and class discussion through Week 4.
Complete and turn-in mid-term by deadline.


Part 2: Processes & Teams II

Week 5, 13 - 20 July 2009
* Exploring Process Improvement Techniques
Study Texts & Handouts:
   TTH: Ch. 7;
   MJ2: 'Working with Numbers' (8 Techniques, see p. vii).
   Handouts as designated.
Assignments: See the Weekly Tasking Message in the Course Content Area.

Week 6, 21 - 27 July 2009
* Exploring Process Improvement Techniques
Study Handouts:
   As designated.
Assignments: See the Weekly Tasking Message in the Course Content Area.

Week 7, 28 July - 2 Aug. 2009
* Exploring Process Improvement Techniques
Study Handouts:
   As designated.
Assignments: See the Weekly Tasking Message in the Course Content Area.

Review text, e-handouts, class discussion, and notes.
Check with your testing center to confirm the arrival of your proctored exam and schedule your final exam testing session.


Final Exam Week

Week 8, 3 - 9 Aug. 2009
Proctored Final Exam
Closed Book, Closed Notes, three hours long covering all course material and discussions to date. You must arrange your schedule to take this proctored exam when the testing center is available. Please do so in advance. For most students, this exam will be given on a computer terminal using a pre-designed MS Word template and file. You will enter your responses directly (nominally via a keyboard) into the MS Word file which will be emailed to me for grading. Some students will take a paper based copy of the same exam which will be sent to me electronically.
Review text, e-handouts, class discussion, and notes.


Part 3: Practical Applications

Week 9, 10 - 17 Aug. 2009
* Process Improvement Realities
Study Handouts:
   As designated.
Assignments: See the Weekly Tasking Message in the Course Content Area.

Case 1 due on 17 Aug.

Week 10, 18 - 23 Aug. 2009
* Process Improvement Feedback
Study Handouts:
   As designated.
Assignments: See the Weekly Tasking Message in the Course Content Area.

Case 2 due on 23 Aug.
Course Project Final Report due on 23 Aug.
Phil Richardson, phil.richardson@faculty.ed.umuc.edu, Revised 17 June 2009