The seventh edition of Management Information Systems for the Information Age provides you the ultimate in flexibility to tailor content to the exact needs of your MIS or IT course. The nine chapters and thirteen Extended Learning Modules may be presented in logical sequence, or you may choose your own mix of technical topics and business/managerial topics.

The nine chapters form the core of material covering business and managerial topics, from strategic and competitive technology opportunities to the organization and management of information using databases and data warehouses. If you covered only the chapters and none of the modules, the focus of your course would be MIS from a business and managerial point of view.

The thirteen Extended Learning Modules provide a technical glimpse into the world of IT, covering topics ranging from building a Web site, to computer crimes and digital forensics, to how to use Microsoft Access. If you chose only the modules and none of the chapters, the focus of your course would be on the technical and hands-on aspects of IT.

At the beginning of each chapter (and in the Instructor’s Manual for each chapter), we include our recommendations concerning which modules to cover immediately after covering a given chapter. For example, Module H on computer crime and digital forensics follows logically after Chapter 8 on protecting people and information. But you can cover Chapter 8 and omit Module H—that’s completely up to you. On the other hand, you can omit Chapter 8 and cover Module H—you have flexibility to do what suits your needs and the needs of your students.

You can easily select a course format that represents your own desired blend of topics. While you might not choose to cover the technologies of networks, for example, you might require your students to build a small database application. In that case, you would omit Module E (Network Basics) and spend more time on Module C (Designing Databases and Entity-Relationship Diagramming) and Module J (Implementing a Database with Microsoft Access).

On the facing page, we’ve provided a table of the chapters and the modules. As you put your course together and choose the chapters and/or modules you want to cover, we would offer the following:

• Cover any or all of the chapters as suits your purposes.
• Cover any or all of the modules as suits your purposes.
• If you choose a chapter, you do not have to cover its corresponding module.
• If you choose a module, you do not have to cover its corresponding chapter.
• You may cover the modules in any order you wish.

Please note that your students will find Modules F, G, I, K, L, and M on the CD that accompanies the textbook. Also, to better serve a large and diverse market, we have provided two versions of Module D (Decision Analysis with Spreadsheet Software) and two of Module J (Implementing a Database with Microsoft Access). In the book, these two modules cover Office 2007 Excel and Access. However, if you’re using a previous iteration of Microsoft Office, you can teach Excel and Access using the versions of Modules D and J found on the CD, as they teach Excel and Access using Office 2003.