Please note: The VUE Grundlagen der Wirtschaftsinformatik and VUE Foundations of Information Systems are bilingual courses. This means that in all cases (whether the language of instruction is German or English), the exact same topics are covered, and the exact same grading criteria are used. Please note that in the case of courses taught in English, the lecturers may not be fluent in German. Other than that, everything is the same, and you are welcome to register for either one of these courses.

The VUE Foundations of Information Systems provides a comprehensive introduction to the discipline of information systems in the context of economics and business. The overall goal is to create an awareness of and interest in the content and challenges of the field of information systems. This is achieved by providing theory-based lectures i.e. ‘Vorlesung’ (VO) and by reinforcing the theoretical knowledge in an applied manner during exercise sessions i.e. ‘Übungen’ (UE). Students in this course will progressively apply their knowledge using technical tools and systems.
To achieve this goal, students are taught fundamental digital skills from three core competency areas of information systems:

Competence Field 1: Digital Transformation

Chapter 1 - Introduction to the Discipline of Information Systems
-Digital transformation, digitalization, challenges in the context of business and society
-Information systems and applications (ERP systems)
-Subject of the discipline of information systems

Chapter 2 - Data, Data Management and Data Modeling (Exercise Session 1)
-Data (data, information, knowledge), challenges of data processing
-Database Management Systems (DBMS), the concept of a database (relational database), Structured Query Language (SQL)
-Data modeling (Entity Relationship Model)

Chapter 3 - Business Processes, Business Process Management & Modeling (Exercise Session 2)
-Business processes and process-oriented information systems
-BPM life cycle and modeling of processes using Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN)

Competence Field 2: Information Management, Design & Ethics

Chapter 4 - Management of Information Systems
-IS management und IT strategy, Business/IT alignment & examples of IT strategies
-Information management & control, IT governance, frameworks & standardizations (COBIT, ITIL, etc.)

Chapter 5 - Design of Information Systems & Requirements Engineering (Exercise Session 3)
-Life cycle of information systems, process models of system development, requirements engineering
-Unified Modeling Language (UML)

Chapter 6 – Ethics in Information Systems
-Problem areas such as: Fake news, censorship, inclusive design, bias, and discrimination
-Approaches to solutions: ACM Code of Ethics, IEEE 7000, GDPR

Competence Field 3: Data & Knowledge Engineering

Chapter 7 – Internet
-Computer networks & addressing, client/server model, packet switching, communication protocols (TCP/IP reference model)
-Internet & WWW, history of the internet and WWW, applications and key concepts (HTTP, HTML, browser), internet applications (information search, cloud computing)

Chapter 8 - Business Intelligence & Analytics (Exercise Session 4)
-Data sources, open data, structured and unstructured data
-Business Intelligence architecture
-Data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data mining, tools (R, Python)

Chapter 9 – Information Security & Cryptographic Applications
-Security goals
-Cryptography

After completing this VUE, you will have ...

• A fundamental understanding of the discipline of information systems: You understand what it means to think of digitalization in different You understand what constitutes an information system and can use examples to describe current applications of information systems.
• A fundamental understanding of managing and modeling data and processes: You can independently create data models (e.g. an entity-relationship model) and business process models (BPMN) and can motivate the challenges of data processing (keywords: DBMS, database and SQL).
• An understanding for management and design of information systems: You understand the complexity of the interplay between IS management, IT strategy and IT governance and can name and explain common frameworks and standardizations (e.g. COBIT or ITIL). In addition, you understand the basic principles of software engineering and can model a use case using the Unified Modeling Language (UML).
• Awareness for ethical considerations within information systems: You know about the current problem areas (fake news, discrimination, inclusion & bias) that information systems and data sets entail. You are familiar with possible solutions for promoting a sustainable value system for the design of information systems (e.g. IEEE 7000).
• A fundamental understanding of the internet and the World Wide Web: You understand the basic concepts on which the Internet is built (e.g. networks, client/server model or communication protocols) and you can explain internet applications using examples (“search for information” or “cloud computing”).
• A basic understanding for the topic of Data Science: You can differentiate between types of data (internal, external, open, structured/unstructured, etc.) and you have a basic understanding of the complex architecture of business intelligence systems and how they can help to create a basis for decision-making from large volumes of data (topic of data science). You will also be able to differentiate between the concepts behind artificial intelligence, machine learning and data mining.
• A basic overview of relevant aspects in IT-Security and cryptographic applications: You will be able to explain information security topics (data, communication and identity security) and you will be familiar with how cryptographic applications (e.g. digital signatures) are used in practice.

Lectures i.e. ‘Vorlesung’ (VO): No attendance required as asynchronous self-study mode is provided. It is, however, expected of the students that they will watch the required lectures prior to attending the respective exercise sessions.

Exercise Sessions i.e. ‘Übungen’ (UE): In accordance with the examination regulation reduced attendance is intended for a VUE. Students are expected to attend at least 80% of the exercise sessions (that is 4 out of 5 sessions). This means that missing one class is tolerated without having to notify the lecturer. However, if a student is unable to attend more than one class, the student must email the lecturer prior to the start of the class with a legitimate reason for their absence.

The VUE Foundations of Information Systems is a lecture-exercise (VUE), which is held in blended learning mode. This means that there is an online phase (self-study) and an attendance phase (lecture hall).

The remote phase comprises the lecture i.e. ‘Vorlesung’ (VO) of the VUE. An online video lecture series including a slide script is made available for self-study. Following on from this, quizzes are used to check the content of the VO units.
The in-class phase comprises 5 exercise sessions, which take place on campus and are attended with your own computer (bring-your-own device policy). Selected topics from the video lecture series are taken up and deepened by means of application-oriented practical examples. This means working on the computer with web-based software, for example to create data or process models, define use cases or implement small data science projects.

To successfully complete this course, you will be graded based on your performance in the following components of the course:

• Quizzes (20%) are linked to the lecture content i.e. ‘Vorlesung’ (VO). These are MC questions to be worked on immediately after the videos (VO).
• Assignment (40%) constitutes an individual work of the contents learned in the exercise sessions.
• Final written exam with open questions (40%) that takes place centrally with all VUEs in parallel during the exam week (Großprüfungswoche).

Points achievable:

• Quizzes: 20 points.
• Assignment: 40 points.
• Final exam: 40 points.

Grading Scheme:

Excellent: 88.5 - 100 points
Good: 75.5 - 88 points
Satisfactory: 62.5 - 75 points
Sufficient: 50 - 62 points
Not sufficient: < 50 points

Prerequisites for attending this course:

• valid registration via LPIS
• Attendance at the first lecture: To reserve your place, you have to attend the first lecture and sign the attendance list.
• If you are not able to participate in the first lecture you have to inform the course instructor before the first lecture starts.
  IMPORTANT: If you do not inform your lecturer, you will lose your place in the course!

Waiting List:
The allocation of places during the registration period is based on the “first come, first served” principle.

After the end of the registration period, the available course places will be increased and allocated to people on the waiting list who do not yet have a valid registration for this curriculum item in this semester (i.e. ‘Tauschanfragen’ are not considered). This allocation is not based on the order on the waiting list, but on urgency and study progress.

Enforcement is the responsibility of the Vice-Rectorate for Academic Affairs and Students (Vizerektorat für Lehre und Studierende) and is therefore beyond the control of the course instructor.

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