The lectures introduce students the concepts in information systems and services management. The
information services topics are about how information systems are created, implemented, and used in the
organizational and management context, with an emphasis on the perspectives of IT professionals. The
information systems concepts are introductions to computer science, information systems, and information
technology, with chosen topics focus on the context specified in this course and how to apply and integrate
the elements to construct information systems as a way to provide information services.
Examples of the information systems topics covered in the lectures include:
- Unix-like file system
- Unix-like systems commands
- Shell scripting vs programming
- Variables
- Environment variables & aliases
- Functions
- Conditional statements
- User input
- Iterations: for loops and while loops
- Databases and SQL
- Bash arrays and shell variables
- String processing
- Regular expression
Lab Activities
The laboratory activities ( labs ) are used to systematically practice the basic concepts and skills
used in this course. The instructor will provide explanation and demonstration when necessary, and the
students would work collaboratively to solve the problems.
Examples of the topics covered in the labs include:
- Operating Systems 1: Students will practice a variety of operating system command line
functions and learn to navigate the file systems.
- Operating Systems 2: Students will practice operating systems commands and shell scripts to use
and manipulate files.
- Operating Systems 3: Students you will practice operating systems commands and shell scripts to
use and manipulate your computer environment.
- Databases in Information Systems 1: Students will begin using database commands from the
command line to create a database that they will use for the remainder of the course. User
management and data manipulation commands will also be used.
- Databases in Information Systems 2: Students will insert a large dataset into the database they
created and use database commands from the command line and in shell scripts to access database
information. For quality assurance, information from both the database and the original text
data files will be compared to check for information consistency.
- Data Management and Quality Assurance 1: Students will use shell scripts, operating system
commands, and a variety of applications to manage databases and to ensure data quality.
- Data Management and Quality Assurance 2: Students will learn how to replicate, backup, recover,
and verify databases. Students will also learn now to use scripts to guard against failures
while updating running information systems.
- Data Management and Quality Assurance 3: Students will practice how to set up the environment,
create a wrapped design script for pulling required information from the database iteratively.
Students will also learn how to turn the query script output into well-built reports using
scripts.
