Electronic Records Foundations
INFM 206

Dr. Frank Cervone
E-mail
Other contact information: You can contact me fastest through the e-mail link above. If you send a message through Canvas, please realize there is an inherent delay in Canvas message delivery, so your message may not be immediately scheduled for delivery after you actually send the message.

Office location: Chicago, Online

Office hours: By appointment, send me an e-mail to schedule a one-on-one discussion. General online sessions may be scheduled throughout the semester on Zoom if there is sufficient interest.  Consult the course site in Canvas for more information.

Principles and methods of managing records and information as operational, legal and historical evidence in electronic environments. Examines the ways in which new information technologies challenge organizations' capacities to define, identify, control, manage, and preserve electronic records and information.

Expectations

Students are expected to participate fully in all class activities. It is expected that students will be open-minded and participate fully in discussions in class and debate in a mature and respectful manner. Use of derogatory, condescending, or offensive language including profanity is prohibited. Disagreement is healthy and perfectly acceptable. Expressing disagreement should always include an explanation of your reasoning and, whenever possible, evidence to support your position. In accordance with San José State University's Policies, the Student Code of Conduct, and applicable state and federal laws, discrimination based on gender, gender identity, gender expression, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or disability is prohibited in any form.

Course Workload

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.

SLOs and PLOs

This course supports Informatics SLO 3: Demonstrate proficiency in using current big data and electronic records technologies to solve analytical problems; including developing policies, standards, and practices in particular specialized contexts and interpreting and communicating analysis and visualization results appropriately and accurately.

SLO 3 supports the following Informatics Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs):

• PLO 2 Evaluate, manage, and develop electronic records programs and applications in a specific organizational setting.
• PLO 3 Demonstrate strong understanding of security and ethics issues related to informatics, user interface, and inter-professional application of informatics in specific fields by designing and implementing appropriate information assurance and ethics and privacy solutions.
• PLO 6 Conduct informatics analysis and visualization applied to different real-world fields, such as health science and sports.

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

1. Summarize health information/records management principles, terms and concepts.
2. Describe health information/records management nomenclatures, classification systems, and coding standards.
3. Evaluate the selection, implementation and operation of health information/records management systems and applications.
4. Explain the legal and ethical concepts and principles that direct the management of personal health information.
5. Judge and justify the collection, access, analysis and secondary statistical use of quality health data to provide information to management/care teams, government bodies, researchers, and information technology product developers.

Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

• Sebastian-Coleman, L. (2018). Navigating the labyrinth: An executive guide to data management. Technics Publications. Available through Amazon: 1634623754

• Seiner, R. S. (2014). Non-invasive data governance: The path of least resistance and greatest success. Technics Publications. Available through Amazon: 1935504851.

Recommended Textbooks:

• Franks, P. (2018). Records and information management (2nd ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman. Available as free eBook through King Library

Specific details related to the assignments will be provided in the course website.

Briefs
Most weeks you will draft a brief on an issue related to that week’s topics. Participation is demonstrated through prompt and thoughtful contribution to the discussions. Both your individual contributions to the discussion topics and your responses to your colleagues’ postings are important.

Your briefs should be succinct and demonstrate a sound understanding of the key issues, express and illustrate your opinions in a clear and coherent manner and communicate both these aspects effectively. Begin with an introduction to the topic and contain relevant examples to help illustrate points.

As part of the graduate education experience is to help you learn how to present information from an evidence-based perspective, it is a basic expectation that responses will include evidence and references to support your statements.

Culminating Project
The course culminating project will be to develop a strategy for managing electronic records (with consideration of legal and ethical issues) within a specific environment. More details on the requirements for the project may be found on the course Canvas site.

Quizzes
In most weeks, after completing the required reading and listening to the week’s lecture and supplemental material, you will take a quiz related to the topics discussed.

Policies on assignment submissions and grading

1. This class follows the standard iSchool Grading Scale
2. Assignments are due by midnight Pacific Time on the date listed in the course site.
3. Course grades are determined by the accumulation of possible points as outlined in the assignment summary section below.
4. Briefing assignments will not be accepted after the final posting due date. Late briefs submitted after the initial posting deadline will receive a 10% point reduction for each day they are late up to the end of the module week.
5. All course activities must be completed by the last day of the class.
6. The only exemption for late work is a medical issue or death in the family. However, all arrangements for late submission must be made at least one day before the due date.

Assignment Summary

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).

Per University Policy S16-9 (PDF), relevant university policy concerning all courses, such as student responsibilities, academic integrity, accommodations, dropping and adding, consent for recording of class, etc. and available student services (e.g. learning assistance, counseling, and other resources) are listed on the Syllabus Information web page. Make sure to visit this page to review and be aware of these university policies and resources.

This schedule and related dates/readings/assignments are tentative and subject to change with fair notice. Any changes will be announced in due time in class and on the course’s website in the Canvas Learning Management System. The students are obliged to consult the most updated and detailed version of the reading material and syllabus, which will be posted on the course's website.

The course begins on a Monday and runs from Monday through Sunday for each of the eight weeks of the term.

Due dates for the initial brief in each module are due no later than the fifth day of each module (the first date in the table below). Follow-up posts, as well as the quizzes, are due two days later, on day seven of the module (the second date).

The following abbreviations are used for the readings:

• LSC for Sebastian-Coleman, L. (2018)

• RSS for Seiner, R. S. (2014)

• RIM for Franks, P. (2018)