Business, Legal and Ethical Issues is the first of the core subjects undertaken by Computer Professional Education Program (CPeP) students in their ongoing professional development. The Program consists of four subjects in total, three core and one elective.
Professionalism is a risk management strategy. In this subject the emphasis is on applying professionalism in the business context.
When preparing this subject, as with all the subjects in the CPe Program, we have assumed that you and your fellow students are over-achievers; self-motivated, disciplined, and determined to succeed. You have extensive prior knowledge and experience relevant to your study; you are open-minded about sharing your work and educational experiences; and you accept critical thinking as part of the learning process. Further, you are comfortable with, and competent in, written communications; and you recognise that effective learning can occur outside a traditional classroom. Most importantly, you want to control how, when, and where you learn.
Critical to your success in this subject is a regular and disciplined study routine. Only through consistency will you keep up-to-date. Every week there will be specific tasks to complete and, if you fall behind, it will be difficult to catch up.
Also important is that you correspond; at least twice every week; with your fellow students and tutor. Your correspondence must be intelligent and investigative. You will answer questions posed by your tutors, and then debate your answers with your classmates.
Note: Students must have access to a company or organisation as a case study for completing weekly work throughout the term. It will be the student's responsibility to identify a company that they can utilise for this purpose. It is acceptable to keep the company identity anonymous.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this subject, students should be able to:
- Appreciate the role and responsibility of ICT professionals in the workplace
- Explore the impact of corporate culture, values and behaviours on their work and business outcomes;
- Evaluate and resolve ethical issues in the workplace;
- Understand the need to clearly articulate organisational values so that they can manage themselves and take responsibility for their own performance;
- Explain how governance differs from management;
- Develop a risk management plan for some part of the business including the impact on social, business and ecological environments; and
- Ensure compliance with all legal/regulatory requirements.
Areas of Study:
Module 1- Values, Ethics and Professionalism (weeks 1 – 3)
- What is a professional?
- The client/professional relationship
- Corporate culture and personal values
- Frameworks to resolve ethical issues in the workplace
Outputs:
- Produce a personal ethics Matrix which will be used in assignment 1
- Nominate the ethical framework to be used with the case studies in assignment 1
Module 2 - Risk Management Frameworks (weeks 4 – 6)
- Risk management fundamentals
- Risk management principles and concepts - Summarises the philosophies of risk management. Defines risk and explains how risk management can contribute to the management and performance of the business.
- Categories of risk - Describes the categories of risk which can be used in a risk management plan.
- The risk management process - Focuses on the ISO Risk Management Standard (ISO 31000) which soon superceded the Australian and New Zealand Standard for Risk Management (AS/NZS 4360)
- Applying risk management - A guide to risk management in the business.
- Sustaining a risk management approach - Explains risk management as a journey to better business practice.
- Risk management tools and activities
- IT Risk Management
Outputs:
- Risk Register including treatments to be used in assignment 1
- Assignment 1 Submission
Module 3 - IT Governance (weeks 7 – 9)
- Why and how good governance leads to better business decisions, more effective use of technology and better return on IT investment;
- How governance differs from management;
- IT Governance Regulatory Frameworks
- IT Governance's role in ISO/IEC38500:2006 IT GOVERNANCE standard:
- Principle 1: Responsibility
- Principle 2: Strategy
- Principle 3: Acquisition
- Principle 4: Performance
- Principle 5: Conformance
- Principle 6: Human Behaviour
Outputs:
- Decision Rights matrix
- An argument for convincing management to employ an IT Governance strategy
Module 4 - Compliance Risks in Business (weeks 10 – 12)
- Risk management issues, challenges and compliance with respect to social, business and ecological environments
- Intellectual property, software protection, open source
- Privacy and confidential information
- IT in the workplace - policies and practices
- Purchasing and acquisition
- Compliance
Final Week - 13 - Professional Standards and Putting It All Together
Assignment 2 Submission: A Risk Management and IT Governance Strategy for your organisation.
To complete the subject you will need to spend 8-10 hours each week reading, communicating with colleagues and tutors, and preparing assignments.
REVIEW / EVALUATION METHODS
Assessment:
- Participate fully and reflectively in Weekly Activities in the discussion forums. (20%).
- Assignment 1 - Assess the various risks inherent in a number scenarios with particular reference to the AS/NZ 4360 standard and ethical frameworks discussed in the first 5 weeks. (30%)
- Assignment 2 – Risk Analysis and IT Governance Strategy for your organisation (50%).
To pass the subject overall, you must pass in all areas of assessment.
You will be engaging in distance education through online learning methods. Online learning is the main delivery method, moderated and supported by a tutor, mentor, student discussion forums and weekly feedback through ACSEducation. Students are grouped into cohorts of about 20. The students are also supported by the Registrar with email, phone, and fax contact.
SPECIALIST FEATURES OR EQUIPMENT
The subject is offered via the web at www.education.acs.org.au utilising the Moodle learning management system. All learning materials plus discussion forums are available through this site. There is no special requirements other than access to the Internet each week, preferably on a broadband connection, but dialup will still allow adequate access albeit more slowly.
There is no prescribed text for this course, though an extensive list of online reading materials will provided.
|
