Teaching and Learning Strategy

ISYS104 is taught via lectures, workshops (tutorials and practicals) in the laboratory. The feedback that you receive plays also a crucial role in your learning.

Lectures are used to introduce new material, give examples of the use of programming methods and techniques and put them in a wider context.

Workshop classes are small group classes which give you the opportunity to interact with your peers and with a tutor who has a sound knowledge of the subject. This also gives you a chance to practice your technical skills.

You have many opportunities to seek for and to receive feedback. During lectures, you are encouraged to ask the lecturer questions to clarify anything you might not be sure of. Each week, you will be given problems to solve in the tutorials and you will have to present solutions to the tutor. The comments and the solutions provided will help you to understand the material in the unit, prepare you for the work in assignments as well as for the final exam. It is important that you keep up with these problems every week. Assignments have been especially designed to deliver continuous feedback on your work.

Each week you should:

• Attend lectures, take notes, ask questions
• Attend your workshop class and seek feedback from your tutor on your work
• Read assigned reading material, add to your notes and prepare questions for your lecturer or tutor
• Start working on any assignments immediately after they have been released.

Lecture notes are made available each week but these notes are intended as an outline of the lecture only and are not a substitute for your own notes or reading additional material.

Classes

Each week you should attend two hours of lectures, and a one hour workshop class. 

Note that workshop classes commence in week 1.

Please note that you are required to submit a certain number of tutorials and assignments. Failure to do so may result in you failing the unit (see the precise Standard and Grading section).

Textbook

The textbook for ISYS104 used this semester is:

Experiencing MIS 3ed by Kroenke

(ISBN: 9781442561779)

Technology used and required

iLecture/echo

Digital recordings of lectures are available.

ISYS104 makes use of the following software:

• Microsoft Windows 8

• Microsoft Office 2010/13

• Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox

Website

The web page for this unit can be found at: http://ilearn.mq.edu.au.

Discussion Boards

The discussion board for this unit can be accessed through http://ilearn.mq.edu.au.

Assignment Submission

Details for each assignment will be available via iLearn.

You are encouraged to:

• set your personal deadline earlier than the actual one;
• keep backups of all your important files;
• ensure that no-one else picks up your printouts.

Late work for the tutorials, quizzes and assignment will not be accepted. If you cannot submit on time because of illness or other circumstances, please contact the lecturer as soon as possible so that appropriate measures (such as arriving at an indicative mark from other work in the same category) can be taken.

Staff-Student Liaison Committee

There are Liaison meetings run regularly in the semester. You are entitled to have your concerns raised, discussed and resolved in these meetings. There will be a few student reps assigned to help you. Failing to communicate with the student rep, and you still have any issues to be addressed then you should consult the unit convenor.

Student Support Services

Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can be accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au.

Assumed knowledge

Basic computer use skills.

Monday classes will only be held for 3 weeks (week3, 6, and 9), Friday classes will be run every week (week 1 to 13) except for Good Friday.

Lecture material has been changed in this offering of the unit and there is a new mid year exam as an assessment task. We incorporated more revision questions in mixed classes.

Unlike many units, ISYS104 covers a wide range of areas, but at limited depth. Therefore it is not appropriate to identify core knowledge and assess the students' mastery of that at increasing levels of complexity. Instead, the assessment of learning outcomes is based in large part on the amount of knowledge the student gains across the range of the unit, as assessed by performance in the assignments, quizzes, pratical exam and final examination.

GRADING

Your final grade will depend on your performance in each part of the assessment of the unit. In particular, to obtain a grade of Pass (P) or higher in this unit you will be expected of satisfied the following:

• obtain a satisfactory performance for at least 50% of the tutorial exercises that are required to be submitted.
• obtain a mark of at least 40% overall for the assignments.
• obtain a mark of at least 40% in the practical examination.
• obtain a mark of at least 45% in the mid-semester exam.
• obtain a mark of at least 45% in the final exam.
• obtain an overall mark of at least 50% (calculated according to the weightings given above).

Obtaining a higher grade than a Pass (P) in this unit will require a student to obtain (in addition to the above):

• the required total number of marks (Credit - 65, Distinction - 75, High Distinction - 85).
• The following minimal results in both the practical and final exam for grades higher than a pass:
  • 60% in the mid-term exam
  • 60% in the final exam

Policies

Macquarie is developing a number of policies in the area of learning and teaching. Approved policies and associated guidelines and procedures can be found at Policy Central. There you will find the University's policy and associated procedures on:

• Assessment
• Special Consideration
• Plagiarism
• Grade Appeal

Assessment

The procedure implementing the new assessment policy can be found here.

Disruption of Studies

Disruption of Studies is intended for a student who is prevented by serious and unavoidable disruption from completing any unit requirements in accordance with their ability. In this case, you should follow the procedure implementing the policy available here.

If a Supplementary Examination is granted as a result of the Special Consideration process the examination will be scheduled after the conclusion of the official examination period. For details of the Special Consideration policy specific to the Department of Computing, see the Department's policy page.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism involves using the work of another person and presenting it as one's own. The Department, in line with University policy, treats all cases seriously. In particular, the Department, and the University, keeps a record of all plagiarism cases. This record is referred to so that an appropriate penalty can be applied to each case. More details are available here.

Grade Appeal

In case of problems arising from the final unit grade provided by academic staff members, the first step is to request a review of your grade. The Department recommends that you submit a request in writing to the convenor of the unit in order to arrange a review session. If this review does not resolve the problem, a formal Grade Appeal can be lodged via www.ask.mq.edu.au