Modules/Module3/Mod3Case.html
Module 3 – Case
Collaboration Technologies and IT Infrastructure
Assignment Overview
Working in teams separated by time zones is always a challenge. For this Case you will be assigned to a team of 5 other students. This will provide an opportunity for you to use a collaboration group tool or tools as you research an issue of IT Infrastructure to support your collaborative learning and to share your findings with other members of your team. Have your professor pre-approve this topic for the team. Post a discussion of the team processes and the team’s conclusions on the IT infrastructure topic selected to your individual case area. Be sure to include references to support your discussion. It is very important that you provide a detailed analysis of the team interaction and your opinion of the team results.
Review these lectures to prepare for this assignment:
Module 3, Lecture 1: Business IT Networks and Components:
Module 3, Lecture 2: U.S. Customs’ Network Crash:
Case 3 Review Quiz: This quiz will not count toward your grade but allows you to assess your knowledge.
Case Assignment
Collaborative Work
Go to the team area under discussions and you will see the members of your team, or your professor will give you the names of your team members. (If you in a remote location many time zones away or have some other difficulty, then you can, with the approval of your professor, opt to do the project on your own. Then when you discuss group processes, you can reflect on groups in which you have worked in the past.)
Each team should decide on the collaboration tool to use. For meetups you can use your favorite tool like Skype. I love Zoom (https://www.zoom.us/) for video conferencing. If you use your trident.edu email address, you can get a free Zoom account good for sessions of as many people as you want for up to 45 minutes. Once you establish an account, the team leader can send the Zoom link to the team members for your face-to-face meetings where you can also share screens. For sharing documents, I think that Google Docs is the best. Here is a video on how to share Google documents with others (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFE1iCPafTA). Of course, you need a Gmail account, which is free, in order to access Google Docs. This will allow the members of the team to work on the same document at the same time as you prepare your Case.
Did Google Docs and your Video Conferencing (or whatever tools the team decided to use) add value to the process of researching your IT Infrastructure project and preparing your Case? Post to your individual case area a discussion of the team processes and the team’s conclusions on IT infrastructure to support collaboration. Be sure to include references to support your discussion. It is very important that you provide a detailed analysis of the team interaction and your opinion of the team results. (If you were unable to participate in a team, then reflect on teams you have worked with in the past. If they were not virtual teams, then speculate how the Group Technology would have changed your team experience.)
Assignment Expectations
This Case is to cover team processes and the IT infrastructure to support team processes. For the IT infrastructure, refer to Module 3, Lecture 1: Business IT Networks and Components (above). The IT infrastructure consists of components identified as hardware, software, communication systems, data resources, and people. These components apply to information systems, and in Module 3, you will be analyzing collaboration systems. You case will present findings on the IT infrastructure to support team processes discussing hardware, software, communication systems, data resources, and people for the selected tool or application, and providing a comparison across the various group collaboration tools.
Each member of the team will post the report to your individual drop box – be sure to have the names of all team members on the cover sheet.
