INFO 204-18
Information Professions
Spring 2021 Syllabus

Dr. Ruphina Ozoh
E-mail
Office: Virtual
Phone: 678-860-4730
Office Hours: Available via email. Telephone appointments scheduled as needed.

Canvas Information: Courses will be available beginning January 27th at 6 am PT unless you are taking an intensive or a one-unit or two-unit class that starts on a different day. In that case, the class will open on the first day that the class meets.

You will be enrolled in the Canvas site automatically.

Course Description

As they respond to the information needs of clients and communities, information organizations face complex and exciting challenges. This course will help prepare students to take on these challenges by providing them with an understanding of the organizations and environments in which information professionals work, traditional and emerging professional roles, and core management and leadership theories. This knowledge will help students understand the similarities and differences amongst information organizations, explore different specializations and career paths, apply professional values to ethical decision-making, and to develop core management and leadership skills. This course prepares students to be active participants in their professional communities and networks and to become collaborative professionals ready to take on management and leadership roles.

Note: iSchool requires that students earn a B in this course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation.  You must repeat the class the following semester. If -on the second attempt- you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.

Course Requirements

Complete INFO 203 Online Learning: Tools and Strategies for Success. This is a mandatory 1 unit course that introduces students to the various e-learning tools used in the iSchool program, including Collaborate.  For more information, see: INFO 203 Online Learning.

Writing Requirement
If the instructor finds that a student's writing is unacceptable, the instructor will require the student to sign up for online writing tutoring. The student will ask the tutor to confirm with the instructor that he or she is attending sessions.

Weekly Schedule and Activities

Schedule subject to change with fair notice

Class Structure

INFO 204 will be conducted in an asynchronous manner.  There will be no live sessions organized by the instructor. 

Discussion Forum

This class will consist of lectures and discussions, comparable to the ones held in a traditional classroom. This means that lecture notes and discussion topics will be provided most weeks. The weekly reading assignments will consist of textbook sections and scholarly journal articles. Additional relevant materials such as short YouTube videos and prerecorded guest speaker sessions will be provided for some units. While the videos and prerecorded guest speaker sessions added will make the class experience more exciting and fun, they were selected for their educative and informative values. Additional reading materials and videos may be added in the course room.

 Participation in the discussion forum is mandatory as it is a platform designed for all to exchange information gained from the textbook, scholarly articles, videos, and prerecorded guest speaker sessions as well as personal experiences and observations.

Students will be required to provide substantive comments to each discussion topic with a minimum of 200 words by the deadline noted.  In addition, students will be required to respond to at least two students for each discussion session.  While a specific length is not required when commenting on the posts made by other students, such comments must go beyond the "great post" or "I agree with that" type of messages.

Comments made by students to each discussion topic will stimulate a classroom discussion and give students the opportunity to interact and learn from the instructor and one another.

Discussion participation will be evaluated based on the quality of the work submitted as related to the topic, instead of the number of posts generated at the end of the course. Supports CLOs: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.

Assignments:
There will be a total of three assignments for this course:

Assignment 1: Management Challenges

Students will produce a well-written essay on the topic "Challenges Facing Library Management in the 21st Century."  You are required to synthesize the information gathered from the textbook(s), journal articles and your personal experiences when completing this work. 

This paper should be 8-10 pages (double line spacing) long. Do not submit more than 10 pages. Supports CLOs: 2,4,5,6,8.

Assignment 2: Group Project-Organizational Analysis

Students will be divided into small groups to develop a three to five-year strategic plan for an information organization of their choice.  Each group will operate as the strategic planning committee of the selected information organization.  The assignment consists of four Parts:

1.  Each team will create Group Ground Rules for working together

2. Each team will conduct an environmental scan and SWOT analysis

(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) of their chosen information

organization. Teams will then use this information to draft vision, mission, and value

statements for the organization

3. Based on the second part of the project, the group will articulate strategic directions for the information organization

4. Lessons Learned/Peer review of individual contributions on the team

All scholarly materials consulted should be noted on the bibliography of Part 3-Strategic Plan only. The length of this project will be indicated on CANVAS. Supports CLOs: 2,3,4,5,6,7,9

Assignment 3: Professional Synthesis of Management Topics

In a culminating synthesis, students will reflect and respond to some of the major themes of INFO 204.  Any topic as noted on the attached course calendar selected should be addressed with an information center management in mind.  Students will be required to synthesize the information gathered from textbooks and journal articles when completing this work. Also, information gleaned from the videos, prerecorded guest speaker sessions as well as personal experiences and observations should be considered while producing this work.  Students will utilize an alternate format (e.g.. website, wiki, podcast, video, Powerpoint, Prezi, etc.) to produce and present their culminating assignment. This assignment will be graded based on the depth, quality, organization and clarity of the submissions. Supports CLOs:  2,5,6,8.

Requirements for Assignments:

• Double Line Spacing
• 12 Point Font
• APA Format

NOTE: Professional behavior is required when conducting any assignments at libraries either physically or virtually.

More details will be provided for each assignment in the Course Room.

All discussion posts and assignments should be submitted by 11:59 pm PACIFIC STANDARD TIME.

This is a graduate program and students are expected to be responsible with regards to deadlines. However, if there is an extenuating circumstance that would prevent a student from meeting a specific deadline noted, the instructor should be contacted so that the student can be accommodated. 

LATE SUBMISSIONS

• Discussions: Discussion posts should be made within the assigned period only.  All submissions made after the deadline will not count.
• Assignments: One point will be deducted each day an assignment is submitted late.  Assignments submitted after 7 days will not be accepted. 

Grading

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Course Workload Expectations

Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, clinical practica. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus.

Instructional time may include but is not limited to:
Working on posted modules or lessons prepared by the instructor; discussion forum interactions with the instructor and/or other students; making presentations and getting feedback from the instructor; attending office hours or other synchronous sessions with the instructor.

Student time outside of class:
In any seven-day period, a student is expected to be academically engaged through submitting an academic assignment; taking an exam or an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; building websites, blogs, databases, social media presentations; attending a study group;contributing to an academic online discussion; writing papers; reading articles; conducting research; engaging in small group work.

Course Prerequisites

INFO 204 has no prequisite requirements.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Describe the similarities and differences between various information organizations and professional roles from historical, current, and future perspectives.
2. Recognize the roles and activities of managers in information organizations.
3. Explain strategic planning processes and skills.
4. Identify and choose appropriate assessment tools for evaluating organizational effectiveness.
5. Synthesize (including reviewing, using and properly citing) the professional and research management and leadership literature.
6. Demonstrate leadership abilities through collaborative teamwork.
7. Analyze and assess their own and others leadership abilities through self-reflection and peer review.
8. Apply management theories and principles, professional values, and ethical frameworks to organizational issues and decision-making using scenarios and case studies.
9. Create and deliver high quality reports, presentations and organizational documents that communicate to internal and external stakeholders organizational values, missions, and priorities.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

INFO 204 supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

• Hirsh, S. (Ed.) (2018). Information services today: An introduction (2nd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. Available as free eBook through King Library

Recommended Textbooks:

• American Psychological Association (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association. Available through Amazon: 1433832178.

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Grading Scale

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

• C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
• B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work or undergraduate (for BS-ISDA);
  For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA, Informatics, BS-ISDA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation. You must repeat the class if you wish to stay in the program. If - on the second attempt - you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  
• A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Graduate Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA). Undergraduates must maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

University Policies

Per University Policy S16-9, university-wide policy information relevant to all courses, such as academic integrity, accommodations, etc. will be available on Office of Graduate and Undergraduate Programs' Syllabus Information web page at: https://www.sjsu.edu/curriculum/courses/syllabus-info.php. Make sure to visit this page, review and be familiar with these university policies and resources.

In order to request an accommodation in a class please contact the Accessible Education Center and register via the MyAEC portal.

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