Welcome you to ITM 352 and your first class as an MIS major! This class is quite different than most other classes you have taken at UH. Getting started is a bit involved and can be a bit confusing and frustrating. Don’t let this put you off! You will quickly adjust and on your way to great success as with many students have previously. Here are some things to note in advance.
This class has a restricted enrollment to Shidler College students. Every semester, I receive emails from students who are not Shidler students or have not yet been admitted to Shidler and are requesting an override. This is not generally a problem but depending on your situation you may have to wait or take the class as a directed study course.
If you want to take this class, but are not registered, you need to come to the first day of class and be prepared to start work. I am confident I will be able to offer some overrides at that time, but I cannot guarantee that I can give any overrides prior to the first day of class. In general, if you do not come to the first day of class, you will probably not be able to receive an override. I do not maintain a waiting list. I do not allow “sit-ins” or audits, because the classroom environment requires everyone to be fully prepared and committed to the class.
The MIS major is, obviously, computer intensive. You will be installing many tools, and spending lots of time staring at your screen. Furthermore, you will be doing a great deal of programming in the classroom. For all of these reasons, the MIS major strongly suggests the following computer technology:
You are unlikely to be successful in this course if you instead use:
A netbook, because the screen size is too small to support the complexity of problem solving required in this class. While you can make do with a smaller screen you will find it very troublesome for development activity where you will be working in multiple windows.
Note that it is possible to buy a new laptop appropriate this class for well under $1,000. This is an investment not only in this class, but in your future as an MIS professional. With respect to operating systems, OS X or Linux is substantially preferred over Windows, but the latter is workable.
To enroll in this class, you must have taken and passed ICS 101 (or equivalent). You cannot take ITM352 if you’ve taken and failed ICS 101. You cannot take ITM 352 and ITM 353 concurrently. I enforce this prerequisite firmly out of compassion for you: if you do not have at least ICS 101 under your belt before starting this class, or if you try to take ITM 353 concurrently with ITM 352 the odds of you have an unsuccessful experience are quite high. This means you’ll drop the class at some point. You are expected to have fairly good computer skills and be able to install software and maintain your own system. However you will be provided ample help and you should expect difficulties and problems. How you address these us what MIS is really about! I frequently hear students telling other students that to succeed in ITM 352 you must already have some programming skill or perhaps already have taken a programming course. This is NOT true! This course assumes you have never done any programming. But of course if you have some programming experience it will be an advantage and make the class seem easier.
A final preparation is to review the other pages in this site, and check back occasionally to see if anything has changed. Do not count on Laulima to notify you of changes and deadlines.