BUS581

Accounting Information Systems BUS581-01	Spring 2018 Online
Dr. Chih-Yang Tsai Office: VH 302 Phone: (845) 257-2934 Email: tsaic@newpaltz.edu	Office Hours: Monday & Thursday 9:15 - 10:55 AM Monday: 12:15 - 1:00 PM Other time by appointment

Course Description

Study of conceptual foundations of accounting information systems (AIS), and the relationship of AIS to business processes and internal controls. The use of software packages for processing accounting information.

Student Learning Objectives

Analyze and diagram major business cycles and relate them to the data processing cycle (Analysis*)
Explain the legal and ethical implications of Accounting Information Systems (Comprehension*)
Apply information obtained from Accounting Information Systems to support decision making (Application & Evaluation*)
Develop an integrated enterprise risk management framework for an organization (Synthesis*) and evaluate its efficacy (Evaluation*).

* Bloom's Classification of Cognitive Domain Skills: 1) Knowledge, 2) Comprehension, 3) Application, 4) Analysis, 5) Synthesis, 6) Evaluation.

Program Goal(s) Supported

MBA Goal	1. Globalization	2. nalytical	3 (a). Written Communication	3 (b). Oral Communication	4. Ethics	5. Leadership
Major		V
Minor			V

Prerequisites

Familiarity with Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting and Statistics basics is necessary for the course.
Proficiency in Spreadsheet software such as MS Excel.
Curiocity and research skill to explore new territory of knowledge
Knowledge in databases and/or internal control (audit) would help although not neccessary

Required Text & Other Materials

The ISBN number of the customized textboook is ISBN-13: 978-1-269-78171-8 (ISBN-10: 1-269-78171-5). It contains selected chapters from Accounting Information Systems, Marshall B. Romney and Paul J. Steinbar [referred to as R&S hereater], 13^th edition, Pearson, 2015, ISBN-13: 978-0133428537 ISBN-10: 0133428532The ISBN number for this customized textbook is ISBN 10:0558195970 or ISBN 13: 9780558195977
Blackboard Server: All announcements, assignment, and handout will be posted on the blackboard server.

General information regarding the course including a brief bio of myself, the courseoutline, and rubrics for various types of assignments are posted under "Syllabus"
Course Materials are posted under "Content". There is a folder for each week.
Assignments are posted under "Assignments": Again, there is a folder for each week. You will find instructions under those folders. Please review the rubric before you answer the questions to make sure your answers are on the right track.

Library resources: Electronic journals and database search engine (visit http://library.newpaltz.edu)

Grading Policy

Major assessments (45%):

There are three major assessments. Two of them are individual assignments, equivalent to the midterm and final examinations, and the last one is a team assignment.
(1) Midterm Assessment (15%): This assessment focuses mostly on the description of business processes. Due date: March 5, 2018 (Problems will be released a week before)
(2) Final Assessment (20%): Students choose a topic relevant to the course to work on a term paper. Students are encouraged to discuss with the instructor on the choice of a topic and the structure/content of the paper. Due date: April 23, 2018.
(3) Team Assignment (10%): This assignment is to organize team members' final assessment papers into a team report. Each team submits a three-page executive summary and a 15-minute audio/video presentation, using MS Powerpoint or any appropriate tools. Due date: May 7, 2018

Weekly assessments (55%):
There are three types of weekly assignments listed below. Please read the rubric files on Blackboard to see how your assignments will be evaluated. Assignments are posted at least three weeks prior to their due dates on Blackboard. So, there are no excuses for not completing any assignment in time.

Problem Solving (15%) : These problems are chosen from the end-of-chapter problem set from the textbook. They tend to be more quantitative or technical. The assessment is based on the effort (completely addressing the issues raised in the questions) rather than the accuracy of your answers.
Critical Thinking assignments (15%): This type of assignments address questions requiring students to analyze a scenario, explore potential courses of action, appy the knowledge learned in the class, and propose a solution.
Discussion Board (15%): Discussion Board questions are designed either as a preview of an upcoming topic or a review/reflection of a previous assignment.
Peer Evaluation (10%): Students read and rate their peers' submissions on a scale of 1 to 5. Each student will be randomly assigned a few submissions for rating. Evaluation will be based on the quality of your assessment of other people's work. For example, you should at least give three different levels (out of five) of grade instead of one grade for everyone, showing you are able to distinghish among different levels of performance. A brief comment providing constructive feedback is also helpful.

Other policies:

Grade distribution: I generally don't give a lot of A's and A-'s. For A's, you need to demonstrate both excellent quality of work and effort/commitment to the course, and A-'s for those who committed their effort with good quality of work.
Grades are non-negotiable. Your grades are based purely on your performance on the items listed above. The instructor will not change your grade except for curves given to all students and errors in grading tests or recording scores.
Policy for makeup examination: Makeup examinations are allowed only for legitimate reasons and the instructor needs to be notified beforehand unless there is a proven emergency situation.
Claims of recording errors: Results of tests, assignments, and quizes are posted regularly. Claims of recording errors should be made within one week of their release times. Please keep all returned tests, assignments, and quizes until you are shure they are correctly recorded.

Conversion Table:
Conversion between numerical scores and letter grades.
    95.00% and above : A
      90.00%-94.99% : A-
      86.67%-89.99% : B+
      83.33%-86.66% : B
      80.00%-83.32% : B-
      76.67%-79.99% : C+
      73.33%-76.66% : C
      70%-72.32% : C-
      66.67%-69.99% : D+
      60%-66.96% : D

Dates to keep in mind

First class: January 22, 2018; Last class: May 7, 2018
Last date to withdraw from this class: April 2, 2018
* I will treat this course as if we meet on every Monday evening. Thus, each "Week" mentioned in this course syllabus starts from a Monday and ends on the following Sunday.

Expectations

Treat this class as you would for your job: prepare by reading the text and doing assigned homework. Arrive promptly and remain in the classroom for the duration of the class period. Please do not exit and reenter the room during class time, except in an emergency situation; turn off your cell phone during class. Be proactive: if you are having a problem with the material being covered, seek help right away. [Office Hours: see the top of the page]

Policies (applicable rules will be relaxed for students with documented health or personal problems)

Textbooks: Not having textbooks or delay of purchasing the textbooks may significantly damange the chance of successful completion of the course. It is student's responsiblity to obtain the textbooks in the first week of the semester. The publisher offers a 14-day grace period.

Make-up exams: A student who is unable to take an examination at the scheduled time for a legitimate reason must contact the professor prior to the examination to make an alternative arrangement for completing it. If there is an unexpected emergency situation, the student should contact the professor as soon as possible and provide documentation to justify the situation.

Absences and tardiness: Students who are absent from class should check WileyPlus and Blackboard to study the course contents and work on homework assignments. Absence beyond two class meetings or repeated tardiness will cost a student's attendance points. Late arrival may be considered as absence.

Assignments submitted after the deadline: Late submissions will suffer a hefty penalty (70% reduction).

Cheating and plagiarism: students are expected to maintain the highest standards of honesty in their college work. Cheating, forgery, and plagiarism are serious offenses, and students that engage in any form of academic dishonesty will be subject to disciplinary action. The School of Business Ethics Statement and Policy Regarding Unethical or Dishonest Behavior are appended, and can be viewed online at: http://www.newpaltz.edu/schoolofbusiness/adminacad_integrity.html and http://www.newpaltz.edu/schoolofbusiness/adminacad_behavior.html.

Tentative Schedule

* Chapter numbers refer to those appeared in the customized textbook of Romney & Steinbart. If you have the original textbook, check the chapter title to identify the corresponding chapters in your textbook.

Week 1: Introduction and Overview: (No textbook chapter for Week 1, read my Powerpoint notes.)
Week 2: Chapter 1 - Systems Documentation Techniques [Business Processes]
Week 3: Contnue on Chapter 1 - Systems Documentation Techniques [Business Processes]
Week 4: Chapter 2 - Relational Databases [Information Systems]
Week 5: Fraud: Chapter 3 - Computer Fraud & Chapter 4 - Computer Fraud and Abuse Techniques [Fraud]
Week 6: Chapter 5 - Control and Accounting Information Systems [Control frameworks]
Week 7: Chapter 6 - Controls for Information Security
Week 8: Chapter 7 - Confidentiality and Privacy Control (shorter chapter) & Chapter 8 - Processing Integrity and Availability Control
Week 9: Chapter 9 - Auditing Computer-based information systems
Week 10: Chapter 10 - The Revenue Cycle: Sales to Cash Collections & Chapter 11 - Expenditure Cycle: Purchasing to Cash Disbursements
Week 11: Chapter 12 - Database Design Using the REA Data Model
Week 12: Chapter 13 - Implementing an REA Model in a Relational Database & Chapter 14 - Special Topics in REA Modeling
Weeks 13 & 14: Patch up & Conclusion

SUNY New Paltz School of Business : Ethics Statement

School of Business students are expected to maintain the highest standards of honesty in their college work. Cheating, forgery, and plagiarism are serious offenses, and students that engage in any form of academic dishonesty will be subject to disciplinary action. While we prefer to adhere to a code of honor in the School of Business, due to national trends in cheating, forgery, and plagiarism, we are instituting this policy within the school. Any student found cheating, committing forgery, or plagiarizing may suffer serious consequences ranging from failing a specific piece of work to failing the course. In some cases, a student may be expelled from the School of Business and the college.

Your business education includes learning ethics and values. We trust that you have the basic foundation upon which we can build. You will be judged by your character as well as by your knowledge and skills since the business world increasingly demands ethical behavior of its employees. Honesty remains an admirable quality.

Cheating is defined as giving or obtaining information by improper means in meeting any academic requirements or in other aspects of your professional conducts. The use for academic credit of the same work in more than one course without knowledge or consent of the instructor(s) is a form of cheating and is a serious violation of academic integrity.

Forgery is defined as the alteration of forms, documents, or records, or the signing of such forms or documents by someone other than the proper designee.

Plagiarism is the representation, intentional or unintentional, of another’s words or ideas as one's own. When using another person's words in a paper, students must place them within quotation marks or clearly set them off in the text with appropriate citation. When students use another’s ideas, they must clearly identify the source of the ideas. Plagiarism is a violation of the rights of the plagiarized author and of the implied assurance by the students that when they submit academic work it is their own work product. If students have any issues with respect to the definition of plagiarism, it is their responsibility to clarify the matter by conferring with the instructor.

Cases requiring disciplinary and/or grade appeal action will be adjudicated in accordance with Procedures for Resolving Academic Integrity Cases, a copy of which is available in the office of the Vice President for Students Affairs, the office of the Provost for Academic Affairs, and in the academic Deans' offices.

We, the members of the SUNY New Paltz School of Business community, are committed to practicing the highest standards of ethical behavior and demonstrating integrity in all we do. We practice these standards and expect them to be demonstrated by others not only in our business dealings, but in all our relationships. Ours is a culture of integrity. For us, ethical behavior means adhering to certain standards in both public and private.

School of Business : Policy Regarding Unethical or Dishonest Behavior

The school maintains a system (including software and web-based resources), by which students are well informed, educated and required to acknowledge by electronic signatures, the ethics, honesty and integrity standards of the School of Business, and the consequences of violating those standards.

Instructors who identify any violators should report the incident to the Dean’s office for disciplinary action. The following procedure is followed by the dean’s office for handling such incidents.

Penalties:
The involved students may request an appeal through Academic Appeal Committee (undergraduate) or Graduate Council (graduate students).

First time offenders receive a failing grade for the course, which can only be changed based on a favorable outcome of the appeals process, if applicable. The dean’s office keeps a list of first time offenders. The offenders are also required to recertify their understanding of our ethics, honesty and integrity standards.

A second time undergraduate offender will be referred for possible dismissal to the Office of Student Affairs. A second time graduate student offender will be dismissed from the Master's degree program in which he or she is matriculated, subject to review by the Graduate Council.

Note: Once a student completes the training program, he/she shall be treated equally regardless of their previous educational experience and cultural norms. Instructors are encouraged to remind students of our ethics, honesty and integrity standards at the beginning of each course.

Accounting Information Systems BUS581-01