Computer Systems in Business has the goal of educating students in all aspects of information systems. To achieve this goal, the text emphasizes subject matter organization and an interactive approach to generating student interest. This is a text not just to be passively read but to be interacted with through case studies, question boxes, tutorials with accompanying software, and other features. Students are encouraged to think for themselves and to learn by participating.
The text views computer systems as multilevel entities encompassing hardware, software, systems, procedures, human elements, and organizational/societal impacts. The beginning student in information systems needs to gain knowledge of each of these levels through a balanced approach, in which no level is receiving too little or too much emphasis. This text is carefully organized to achieve such a balance.
The motivation for writing this text came from several years of experience in designing and teaching a required introductory course, Computer Systems for Management, at the University of California, Riverside. This course stimulates students to think for themselves and to participate through such activities as case study discussions, software exercises, practice questions, short term papers, and field trips. In studying computers, it is not enough to memorize facts about, say, the CPU or accounting information systems. The student needs not only to learn facts but also to work with them—answering, evaluating, comparing. Information should not just flow from instructor and text to student, but in other directions as well—from student to student, and from student to instructor. ...