Department Web Site off and running
Diane's Students take to the Web
--by Mike Palley
By now, I am sure everybody is aware that the department currently houses the School of Business worldwide web server. In this short essay, I'd like to introduce you to the various components of our web page.
Last Spring, assisted by my able Graduate Assistant Mr. Gedaliah Friedenberg, we developed the 'CIS Web Page'. Our page describes the various components of our programs-- BBA, MBA, and MS in CIS. Furthermore, it includes a directory of full-time faculty, with office phone numbers and email addresses. The CIS page also includes faculty home pages. The most elaborate home pages
developed thus far belong to Dianne Jordan, Jennifer Thomas (assisted by her GA Mr. Louis London), and Lucy Garnett. I urge you to visit their (or my) homepage to get an idea of what can be included. In my own
case, I include an abstract for a paper that I published on Healthcare Information Systems. That abstract was subsequently indexed on the Internet, and the paper receives several "hits" weekly. If you haven't
already developed your own homepage, please consider what information you'd like to include. We can assist you with the rest.
Later in the Spring, Deans Lirtzman and Dannenbring came to view our CIS Web Page. Having attended an AACSB conference on the topic, they were well aware of the power of the worldwide web as an advertising medium for the School of Business. They were motivated to roll out a School webpage in short order. We accomodated them with what has been described as "currently the most comprehensive web page in the CUNY system".
The School Web Page is listed under Yahoo's directory of Business Schools. Our alphabetization puts us at the top of a list of over 250 schools. In a 15-day period in November, we charted over 436 visits to the School page, and 186 visits to the important "admissions information" page. In an extremely short period, this has become one of the principal advertising media that the School has.
Finally, the newest component of our Web site is "CISnet". CISnet offers the CIS area an electronic bulletin board -- updated monthly. It includes a faculty interview of the month (currently Michael Bosley). It also has advisement information, and links to the faculty directory. The most significant component is that it offers "slots" for all CIS courses. Minimally, faculty can place their syllabus online - we encourage this for the Fall. Furthermore, faculty can include announcements to their students, assignment information, and hypertext links to related websites. CIS 9000 has a page that references sites relevant to the Harvard B-School case studies that we run in the course. Both Dianne and Jennifer have been actively using the Web in their courses. This last component has very important potential in our program. I recommend that you speak to one of us about how you can integrate the Web into your courses.
Prof. Diane Jordan
embarked on a bold, new experiment with two of her classes this
semester, Networks and Telecommunications (CIS 9350) and Information
Systems for Managers (CIS 9000). The students in her Telecom class
planned, designed and constructed personal Web pages and also
worked in groups to develop an extensive outline tutorial for
neophyte internauts, called "Getting Started on the World
Wide Web."
The MBA students formed into groups to create their own companies as preparation for the Web exercise, They had to research industries of the companies they formed, and to develop a strategic concept for using the Web for electronic commerce. Prof. Jordan provided instructional links on hypertext markup language (HTML) for both classes so students could develop rudimentary skills in coding HTML. The MBA students developed amazingly realistic Web pages for these organizations. So realistic are the pages that a Warning label had to be constructed to remind viewers that these companies do not actually exist!!
From the beginning of the semester (miraculously), almost 120 students in both of her classes made extensive use of the very limited facilities (5 workstations with 1 scanner) at the Multimedia lab (Room 433, 26th St.). They were patiently guided through many aspects of design, coding, and preparation tasks by Prof. Jordan's Graduate Assistant, Louis London. Louis donated many hours of time to showing students how to scan photographs, manipulate images with photo enhancement software, to access appropriate links, and other time-consuming aspects of Web development. Prof. Jordan coordinated the entire effort, including fine-tuning all pages for consistency with the overall theme, and uploading all files to her own Internet provider, Long Island Information, Inc. (liii.com). When stabilized, these projects will be moved over to the CIS Department server. If the location changes, a new address will be available at the old location.
The Telecom project, Getting Started with the World Wide Web, is a public service by Prof. Jordan, Mr. London, and the students to the entire Baruch College community.
Click here if you want to visit these project sites now.
Happy surfing!!
On November 10, 1995, Bea Helft coordinated (along with Bill McCutchen of the Department of Management) the Third Annual Business Ethics Workshop, sponsored by the Baruch College School of Business. This theme for this year's workshop was "Integrating Ethical Decision-Making into Business Courses: Examples From Within."
Bea was also instrumental in the development of the District Technology
Plan for the Port Washington School District. This four-year plan
was developed by the Citizens' Advisory Committee on Technology
and Computers, of which Bea is a member, and was approved by the
School Board on November 21, 1995.
Among the core features of the plan are network hardware and software, and recommendations with regard to staffing, teacher training and curriculum development for the entire district - primarily the elementary schools.
Click here to access this web site.
[Personals] [STAFFWORKS] [Adjunct's Corner]
This page conceived, designed and maintained by Louis L. London ©, December, 1995