Publishing in Information Systems Journals (Panel)

Interested in publishing your research? Editors from the Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE), Journal of Computer Information Systems (JCIS), Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS), Journal of Information Technology Case Studies and Applications (JITCAR), Journal of Organizational and End User Computing (JOEUC), and Journal of Global Information Technology Management (JGITM) will be hosting a panel on publishing. In this session, you will hear directly from, and ask questions of, editors of these journals as to what they\u27re looking for, how to avoid a rejection or endless R&R\u27s. In addition, each editor will cover the review process and other opportunities to become involved. Attendees are encouraged to ask questions and explore publishing opportunities

Cognitive Logical Reasoning Skill and the Relationship to Spreadsheet Data Quality

Electronic spreadsheets have made a major contribution to financial analysis and problem solving. Spreadsheets were the first software packages produced for serious business use, and their introduction marked a new era of end-user orientation of computers (Chan 1987). Spreadsheets are used extensively today in accounting and business applications. Although many decisions are based on the analysis of a spreadsheet model, it has been documented that there are often data quality problems, i.e. underlying formulas and resulting numbers are frequently wrong. A growing body of evidence indicates that these errors in spreadsheets are a pervasive problem

Physical security models, philosophies, and context

This paper presents physical security of a computer facility within the context of a corporate environment. The context is established from several different perspectives. It first presents physical security philosophies and illustrates the philosophies via the Onion and Garlic Models. It defines a process for identifying and describing transition strategies between security levels. Once the models are defined, a Macro View of physical security is presented. This view discusses physical security goals and critical factors such as budget, monitoring and redundancy. With this context established, the Micro View is presented. Its focus is on information technology (IT) facilities that protect centralized or clustered IT resources. A variety of environmental threats, threat agents, and precautions are identified. Questions to help assess the security of off-site storage of backup media are provided. Procedures for establishing the transition strategy to the IT facility, authentication, access control logs, suggestions for handling emergency conditions, and other considerations are enumerated

Spreadsheet Accuracy Theory

Electronic spreadsheets have made a major contribution to financial analysis and problem solving processes. Decisions made using these tools often involve substantive consequences for the organizations. However, academic literature reveals that experienced professionals and students make many errors when developing spreadsheets. Practitioners recognize the importance of accuracy and have published many techniques they use for improving the accuracy of their spreadsheets. Systematic evaluation of this literature provides a basis for understanding practitioners’ perceptions of how and why errors occur in spreadsheets and is also valuable source from which to identify a theory of spreadsheet accuracy and capture the knowledge of experienced spreadsheet developers. The analysis of this literature suggests three categories of issues spreadsheet developers must address to create more accurate spreadsheets including: planning and design; formula complexity; and testing/debugging. Spreadsheet accuracy theory explains and predicts how changes in development processes can be expected to impact spreadsheet accuracy

Interdisciplinary Student Teams Projects: A Case Study

In today’s organizations team work has become an integral part of the day-to-day routine. For this reason, University professors are including group projects in many courses. In such group assessments, we advocate the use of interdisciplinary teams, where possible. As a case study, we report an interdisciplinary group technical project with members from a Master of Business Administration course and a Master of Science in Accounting course. We also describe the refinements made to the course in order to enhance the collaboration between students from two classes

Panel Session Proposal: Publishing in the Journal of Information Systems Education

This Panel Session will discuss various aspects regarding opportunities for submitting and possibly getting papers published in the Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE), the leading academic journal in IS education. In addition, other ways to assist JISE will be addressed and discussed

Integrating Student Groupwork Ratings into Student Course Grades

This article reviews the rationale for groupwork projects, particularly as they apply to business-related courses. It describes some of the pedagogical issues that faculty must address and highlights inherent weaknesses, particularly in the assessment of student effort, that often occur when groupwork is required in a course. The problem of evaluating individual student’s contributions to their group is particularly troublesome given that all students do not always contribute equally to a group’s success. Faculty members normally have little to no data or observations to assist them in valuing one student’s contribution over another student’s contribution to the group’s ultimate success. The evaluation problem can be solved by gathering and using student input regarding the contributions of their peers. This, too, can be problematic if not done in a manner that requires each student to distinguish amongst the different levels of contribution provided by each of their fellow group members. A conceptual solution for solving the ‘group member contribution’ problem and a detailed methodology for implementing the solution is offered for this problem. The solution uses peer evaluations solicited from all group members as a component of each individual student’s groupwork grade. Using a web-based form, student peer assessments are gathered anonymously and are easily integrated into the faculty member’s electronic gradebook

Online IS Education for the 21st Century

Online teaching and learning have become increasingly common in higher educational institutions. These higher educational institutions realize the growing importance of online learning in information systems/information technology (IS/IT) education and are now offering online IS/IT courses and programs to students. However, designing, developing, teaching, and assessing an online IS/IT course effectively is often a challenge. Many IS/IT instructors are new to online teaching and need orientation and training for their own readiness in designing, developing, teaching, and assessing IS/IT courses in the online environment. It is recognized that effective faculty are key to student success in online courses and to the success of online programs (Meyer and Jones, 2012). Therefore, it is imperative that administrators and instructors of IS/IT courses and programs learn more of the best practices of online teaching for high student success. This support to instructors and administrators is the purpose of the Special Issue of the Journal of Information Systems Education