[AISWorld] Help in designing first-year IS core course

[Gabriele Piccoli]

I teach the freshmen level intro to IS course. These are 18 years old
students in their first year at the University. The course is required for
all business college majors.



The course has traditionally covered the MS Office suite. I believe that
teaching advanced practical skills in the context of MS Word, and more
importantly Excel, is critical. But I also believe the course can be much
more.


Specifically, I think the course can teach “foundations of IT” and
“foundations of IS” while providing the practical skills in advanced Excel
and Word that will serve the students well during their college career –
and beyond.



For the “foundations of IS” section I will use a carefully selected subset
of topics from my textbook “IS for Managers: Text and Cases” and I feel
confident in how to tailor it for freshmen.



For the “foundations of IT” section I’d love your input in making sure I
zero in on the key concepts I should cover.  What is missing from the list
below? What would do you think is irrelevant or not appropriate for the
audience in the list below? I also would love to hear your experience in
teaching these topics, what works what does not, at what level you pitch a
given topic, etc.



As it is customary please share your insights directly with me, I will
compile a summary and share with the community. Thanks -Gabe



Foundations of IT

- Hardware

--- The von Neumann architecture

--- Bits, Bytes, digital representation

--- The instructions processing cycles

- Software

--- Classes of software (OS, applications, etc.)

--- The anatomy of a software application (DM layer, logic layer, UI)

--- Programming languages

--- Algorithm and algorithm design

--- Architectures (e.g., client server, cloud)

- Networking

--- Physical layer, transmission layer, application layer
--- Protocols and Packet switching

- Practicing safe computing

--- Malware types

--- Cybersecurity and different types of attacks (e.g. Phishing, DDOS)

--- Digital permanence