INF1505/101/3/2015

Tutorial letter 101/3/2015

Introduction to Business Information

Systems
INF1505

Semesters 1 & 2

School of Computing

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
This Tutorial Letter is the only hard copy study material that you will receive for
this module. It is also available on the main site for this module under Official
Study Material. Please activate your myLife email address and ensure you have
regular access to the myUNISA module site INF1505-15-S1 (for semester 1)
and INF1505-15-S2 (for semester 2) as well as your tutor site.
 CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 To get started ............................................................................................................................ 3
1.2 Tutorial Offerings at UNISA........................................................................................................... 4
2 OVERVIEW OF THIS MODULE: INF1505.................................................................................... 5
2.1 Purpose ........................................................................................................................................ 5
2.2 Outcomes .....................................................................................................................................5
3 LECTURER AND CONTACT DETAILS ....................................................................................... 5
3.1 Lecturer ........................................................................................................................................ 5
3.2 Department ................................................................................................................................... 6
3.3 University ...................................................................................................................................... 6
4 MODULE-RELATED RESOURCES ............................................................................................. 6
4.1 Joining myUNISA .......................................................................................................................... 6
4.2 Other resources Osprey Website ............................................................................................... 7
5 HOW TO STUDY THIS MODULE ONLINE .................................................................................. 7
5.1 The two online spaces on myUNISA ............................................................................................. 7
5.2 The myUnisa tools you will use ..................................................................................................... 8
6 ASSESSMENT ............................................................................................................................. 9
6.1 Assessment plan .......................................................................................................................... 9
6.2 Semester Mark and Final Examination / Portfolio .......................................................................... 9
7 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................ 10

Please note / important note: INF1505 is a semester module. You need AT LEAST eight
hours per week for this module.

To gain admission to the examination you have to submit Assignment 1 in time. The due
date is 13th March if you are registered for the first semester and 21st August if you are
registered for the second semester.

Die studiemateriaal vir INF1505 is slegs in Engels beskikbaar. U is welkom om u dosente te

nader indien u enige probleme met die inhoud en/of terme sou ondervind.

Please note that the assignments for 2015 as well as all tutorial matter such as general
information, solutions to assignments and examination information will be available online on
myUNISA. Students will NOT receive hard copies of the assignments and tutorial matter.

2
 INF1505/101

1 INTRODUCTION
Dear Student
It is a pleasure to welcome you as a student. We hope that you find your studies stimulating,
meaningful and enriching. You will be well on your way to success if you start studying early in
the semester so that you have enough time to submit your assignments, complete the online
activities and prepare for the examination. Since INF1505 is an online module, you need to use
myUNISA to study and complete the learning activities and assignments for this module.

We wish you a productive and stimulating period of study!

THE LECTURERS
INF1505

1.1 To get started

Since the study material for this module is online, you need visit the myUNISA website at
https://my.unisa.ac.za to access your tutorial material and read information pertaining to the
module. Once you login with your student number and password, you will see INF1505-15-S1
(the main site) (Figure 1) in the row of modules in the orange blocks across the top of the
webpage.

Figure 1: INF1505-15-S1 Main Site

Remember to also check in the more tab if you cannot find it in the orange blocks.

To commence your studies, follow these instructions:

1. Go to Learning Units (Figure 2) by clicking on the tab in the left hand panel of the screen.
Start reading about the module (Unit 0: Introduction to the module) and complete the
learning experiences in the "Orientation to the Module Ice Breaker 1 and Ice Breaker 2"
section. This includes some learning experiences to give you practice using myUNISA and
studying online. We call these "Ice breakers because they do not count for any marks in
the course -- they are just for practice. Note that each Ice breaker is done in a different
answering tool, i.e. Discussions and Blogs.

3
 Figure 2: Learning Units and Ice Breaker Activities

2. Thereafter work through the rest of the learning units. These learning units contain
information such as the module purpose and outcomes, module-related resources,
student-support services for the module, the study plan, assessment plan and examination
information. The learning units will also contain your activities and assignments.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ASSIGNMENT 01 IS COMPULSORY FOR EXAMINATION

ADMISSION.

1.2 Tutorial Offerings at UNISA

Please be informed that, with effect from 2013, UNISA offers online tutorials (e-tutoring) to
students registered for modules at NQF level 5 and 6, this means qualifying first year and
second year modules.

Once you have been registered for a qualifying module, you will be allocated to a group of
students with whom you will be interacting during the tuition period as well as an e-tutor who will
be your tutorial facilitator. Thereafter you will receive a SMS informing you about your group, the
name of your e-tutor and instructions on how to log onto myUNISA in order to receive further
information on the e-tutoring process.

Online tutorials are conducted by qualified e-tutors who are appointed by UNISA and are
offered at no cost to the students. All you need to be able to participate in e-tutoring is a
computer with Internet connection with access to the myUNISA website.

E-tutoring takes place on myUNISA where you are expected to connect with other students in
your allocated group. It is the role of the e-tutor to guide you through your study material during
this interaction process. For your to get the most out of online tutoring, you need to participate in
the online discussions that the e-tutor will be facilitating. Because the e-tutors are only assigned
to you after registration, we cannot give you the contact information here.

4
 INF1505/101

When you are assigned to your group site with an e-tutor, each e-tutor will provide you with their
contact information so that you can contact him or her. Note that most of your contact with the
e-tutor or Primary Lecturer will occur via email. In addition, there is a tool called Questions and
Answers in your tutor site and this allows you to ask questions from the myUNISA website.

If you live close to a UNISA regional Centre or a Telecentre contracted with UNISA, please feel
free to visit any of these to access the Internet. There are modules which students have been
found to repeatedly fail, these modules are allocated face-to-face tutors and tutorials for these
modules take place at the UNISA regional centres. These tutorials are also offered free of
charge, however, it is important for you to register at your nearest UNISA Regional Centre to
secure attendance of these classes.

2 OVERVIEW OF THIS MODULE: INF1505

2.1 Purpose
This module covers the latest information technologies, practices and trends. The text uses
real-world examples and case studies, providing skills and knowledge that are easily
transferable to the business world. Students can apply Information Technology (IT) concepts in
their lives, identify different classes of business information systems, and understand systems
development and information systems in business and the wider society. This module provides
fundamental introductory knowledge, skills and values which will support further studies and
applications in the sector of Information Technology, Computer Sciences and Commerce.

The module is delivered via myUNISA, peer group interaction and e-tutoring. Your lecturers will
interact with you on myUNISA and via email.

2.2 Outcomes

For this module, there are several outcomes that we hope you will be able to accomplish by the
end of the course:

Specific outcome 1: Learners can apply foundations of information systems in

organizations.
Specific outcome 2: Learners can analyze information technology components.
Specific outcome 3: Learners can obtain an overview of business information systems.
Specific outcome 4: Learners can analyse the system development life cycle (SDLC), a
model for developing a system or project.
Specific outcome 5: Learners can describe emerging trends, privacy, legal, security,
health and ethical issues in information systems.

3 LECTURER AND CONTACT DETAILS

3.1 Lecturer
If you experience problems with this module or have any other enquiry about it, please feel free
to contact the lecturers. The names and telephone numbers of your primary lecturers for this
module can be obtained from the home page on the main module site INF1505-15-S1 (if you
are registered for the first semester) and INF1505-15-S2 (if you are registered for the second
semester).

5
All queries that are not of a purely administrative nature but are about the contents of this
module should be directed to us at the module e-mail address on myUNISA.
First semester registration students use the e-mail address: INF1505-15-
S1@unisa.ac.za.
Second semester registration students use the e-mail address: INF1505-15-
S2@unisa.ac.za.

When you contact the lecturer, please include your student number.

3.2 Department
The School of Computing can be contacted as follows:
Telephone: +27 11 670 9200
E-mail: computing@unisa.ac.za
Physical address:
Floors 3 & 4
GJ Gerwel building (block C)
Unisa Science Campus
Corner of Christiaan de Wet Road & Pioneer Avenue
Florida, Roodepoort, Johannesburg

3.3 University
To contact the University, you should follow the instructions in the myStudies @ Unisa
brochure. Remember to have your student number available when you contact the University.

4 MODULE-RELATED RESOURCES
4.1 Joining myUNISA
The myUNISA learning management system is UNISA's online campus that will help you to
communicate with your lecturers, e-tutors, fellow students and with the administrative
departments of UNISA through the computer and the Internet.

To activate both your myLife e-mail account and login for myUNISA, follow the steps outlined
below:

Step 1: Visit the myUNISA website at https://my.unisa.ac.za.

Step 2: Click on the Claim Unisa login link on the top left menu.
Step 3: A new page will load, prompting you to enter your student number. Add your
student number and click Continue.
Step 4: Enter your surname, your full name, your date of birth and, finally, your South
African ID number for South African citizens, or your passport number for foreign students,
on the page that loads and then click Continue. Remember to enter either an ID number
or a passport number, not both.
Step 5: Read through the page that loads and check all the boxes to acknowledge that
youve read all of the information provided. Then click the Acknowledge button to redirect
to the final page in the process.

6
 INF1505/101

Step 6: The final page will display your myLife e-mail address and your initial UNISA
password which is for both the myLife and myUNISA systems. Your initial UNISA
password will also be sent to the cellphone number displayed on the page for safekeeping.

Remember, the password provided is your initial myUNISA password. You can change it at any
time on myUNISA. Please note: If you are a re-registering student, you will not need to follow
this process if your myLife and myUNISA passwords are still active.

4.2 Other resources Osprey Website

All tutorial matter, i.e. solutions to assignments, examination tutorial letter, etc., will be uploaded
to the myUNISA website under the Additional Resources link. It can however, happen that the
myUNISA website is unavailable for upgrading or there may be some technical issues which
may impede you from accessing the website. Because we want you to be successful in this
module, we also provide you with the tutorial matter as a backup on our School of Computing
website, http://osprey.unisa.ac.za. Please click on the SoC registered student link on the left-
hand side, select INF1505 from the Resources on the right and click on the Submit button.
Under Staff Availability, you will see a link to download the password-protected tutorial material.
You will be informed of the password by means of an announcement on myUNISA or by means
of a SMS.

5 HOW TO STUDY THIS MODULE ONLINE

Studying this module online means:
All your study materials and learning activities are online, on myUNISA. In other words,
there are no printed study materials from UNISA no tutorial letters (except for this one)
and no study guide.
All of your assignments must be submitted online via myUNISA. It means that you do all
your activities and submit all your assignments via myUNISA. Students can still use the
mark-reading sheets to submit multiple-choice assignments but we strongly advise you to
submit your assignments via myUNISA to avoid cumbersome postal delays.
All of the communication between yourself and the university also happens online Online
communication occurs by email, announcements, in discussions and through questions
and answers. You can use all of these communication modes on myUNISA. Please also
view important information on the module home page. You can also contact your lecturers
telephonically. Telephone numbers can be obtained from the module home page.

5.1 The two online spaces on myUNISA

You need to visit the module site on myUNISA i.e. INF1505-15-S1 (if you are registered for the
first semester) and INF1505-15-S2 (if you are registered for the second semester) as well as
your tutor site which is the same as the main site but with a number at the end, e.g. INF1505-
15-S1-1E. The tutor site is the classroom in which you operate and you have an e-tutor as your
teacher who is your first line of communication and assistance for this module.

You will therefore have two online spaces for this module in your row of modules in the orange
blocks across the top of the webpage (Figure 3):

7
 Figure 3: The two online spaces on myUNISA

Your main site: INF1505-15-S1 (for semester 1) and INF1505-15-S2 (for semester 2).
This is where you will receive information from your primary lecturer, through
announcements. This is also the place where you will find the study materials for the
module (under the Learning Units link), information about your assignments and activities
and it is where you must submit your formal Assignments to the university.
Your group site: INF1505-2015-S2-?T (? for number). As students register for the
module, you will be placed into groups with an e-tutor assigned for each group. Your group
site will look almost the same as the main site, but it will have a group number at the end
e.g INF1505-15-S1-10T. The group site is where you will interact with the small group of
students and your e-tutor. It is important that you log into your group site on myUnisa to
check for the following:
Check for new Announcements. You can also set up your myLife email so that you
receive the announcement emails on your cell phone.
Do the Discussion forum activities.
Do other online activities. For some of the unit activities, you need to post
something on the blog or take a quiz or complete self-assessment exercises.
Complete the Ice Breaker activities.

5.2 The myUnisa tools you will use

In this module, there are different types of myUnisa tools you will use:
Discussions (Ice Breaker 1): This tool is the place for online discussion forums, where
you share your ideas and insights with the other students in your small groups.
Blogs (Ice Breaker 2): This tool is the place for reflecting on what you learn.
Assignments: The assignments tool is for the submission of multiple-choice assignments.
You can also ask questions with the Questions and Answers tool.
Learning Units: To access information regarding the module including the assignments.
Additional resources: To access tutorial material such as the solutions to assignments.
Official Study Material: To download a copy of this tutorial letter.
Announcement: To view all module-related announcements such as errata to
assignments, etc.
Prescribed books: To obtain details on the prescribed book for this module.
FAQs: To access frequently asked questions for this module.
Syllabus: To view the syllabus for this module.

Please note that some of these tools will only be accessible on the main site, some on the tutor
site and some on both sites so please access both sites frequently.

8
 INF1505/101

6 ASSESSMENT
6.1 Assessment plan
There are two formal multiple-choice assignments that you must submit for this module.
Information regarding the assessment plan can be found under Unit 5 (Figure 4) of the Learning
units on myUNISA.

Figure 4: Assessment Plan (Unit 5) under Learning Units on myUNISA

The actual assignments as pdf files can be found under unit 9 of the learning units on myUNISA
(Unit 9).

Figure 5: Assignments (Unit 9) under Learning Units on myUNISA

6.2 Semester Mark and Final Examination / Portfolio

An integrated assessment system is going to be used for this module. This means that your
final mark is based not only on your examination mark, but also on your performance during the
semester.

Your final mark will be calculated as follows:

Semester mark (out of 100) x 20% + Examination mark (out of 100) x 80%
In order to pass this module a final mark of 50% is required.

Your semester mark is based on your assignment marks. Weights are allocated to every
assignment. Assignment 01 and 02 contribute 50% each towards your semester mark. If an
assignment is not submitted or submitted late (for whatever reason), zero marks is awarded for
such an assignment.

9
Below is a detailed example on how the assessment system works assuming that Assignment
01 and 02 are submitted.
(M = marks achieved; T = total number of questions)

Assignment Marks Achieved % (M/T X 100) X % Semester mark

(M/T) Weight
1 28/50 56% x 0.5 28%
2 20/50 40% x 0.5 20%
48%
7 CONCLUSION
In spite of the care taken to ensure that assignment and solutions are comprehensible and free
from errors and omissions, discrepancies may occur. Should you come across such matters, or
matters which are not clearly expressed, kindly let us know to enable us to make the necessary
corrections.

We hope that you will enjoy this module. Best wishes for your studies. We trust that you will
have a productive and stimulating period of study.

UNISA 2015

10