Objectives

Introduce yourself to your classmates and instructor. Learn how to use Moodle's basic features. Complete the pre-course assignments. Get course software.

Readings and Lecture Support

No readings for the "Introduction."  Just browse the chapters to get an orientation to what Operations Management is about and the topics that we will be covering

Lecture PowerPoints

For my "Course Introduction" video.

PowerPoints, 3 per page (PDF)
PowerPoints, 6 per page (PDF)
PowerPoints, 1 per page (PDF)

For my "Who is Rick Jerz?" video.

PowerPoints, 3 per page (PDF)
PowerPoints, 6 per page (PDF)
PowerPoints, 1 per page (PDF)

Here are the PowerPoints for my "Moodle Introduction" video.

PowerPoints, 3 per page (PDF)
PowerPoints, 6 per page (PDF)
PowerPoints, 1 per page (PDF)

Pre-Course Assignment

This pre-course assignment is designed to get you prepared to have success in the course by making sure all of your necessary resources are working for you. You should do the following tasks before the first week of class (consider printing this webpage and then "check off" the assignments that you have completed.)

1) Review the syllabus. If you have any questions, make a post in the forum "Intro: Any Questions, Comments, or Observations."

2) Verify that you can log into ICON and into Moodle. For Moodle, click on the appropriate "Operations Management" course link for this course. If this is your first time accessing Moodle, create an account following the 7 steps, when you get an email from Moodle, click on its link and enter the "enrollment" key that I emailed to you in my "Welcome" email. Let me know if you encounter any problems. Here is a short video showing you how to set up your Moodle account.

Button to play video "Accessing Moodle" Accessing Moodle (1 minute.) Button to download transcript SRT file m03_access.
This video provides information about how to access Moodle.

3) Play video 'Course Introduction' View this Course Introduction (22 minutes) Button to download transcript SRT file "Course Introduction)
This video provides an overview to what we will be doing this semester.

4) View the following support videos:

Button to play video "Who is Dr. Jerz" Who is Dr. Jerz (12 minutes.) Button to download transcript SRT file Who_Is_Dr_Jerz.
This video provides information about your instructor.

Button to play video titled "Videos, Videos, and Videos" Videos, Videos, Videos (11 minutes.) Button to download transcript SRT file Videos-Videos-Videos.
This video provides information about a variety of ways to play videos.

Button to play video "Overview of Moodle" Overview of Moodle (27 minutes.) Button to download transcript SRT file Moodle_Overview.srt.
This video provides an overview of the Moodle LMS system.

5) In Moodle, click on the "Introduce Yourself" forum and provide your classmates with some interesting information about yourself.

6) In Moodle, click on the "Upload Photo" assignment link. Upload a photo (or document). This gives you a chance to make sure that you know how to upload files into Moodle.

7) In Moodle, click on the Student Information Survey, complete it, making sure to "submit" it.

8) If you have a smartphone or other multimedia player, you might want to see if you can download some videos and move them to your mobile device. Usually, I prefer playing videos from behind my computer. 

9) Browse the textbook to get a sense of what we will be covering.

About a week before the course starts, I will let you know (via an email) that the first week's materials are now available. You will be able to begin this first week's assignments before the course officially starts.

10) In this course, we will be using two Microsoft products, Project and Visio, that are not included in the normal MS Office suite. As a student, you can get these products for free from the Microsoft Azure website. These two products are on Tippie lab computers, but most likely not on your own computer. Also, these products are not on the UIowa Virtual Desktop.

Students can now sign-up for an Azure account at https://azureforeducation.microsoft.com/ using your HawkID.

Go to Azure and download and install the latest versions of MS Visio and MS Project. Remember to record the license numbers (some products will require these.)

If you are a Macintosh owner, neither Project or Visio can be installed in Mac OS because they are Windows software. Instead, consider installing a PC-emulator product on your Mac. Macintosh owners can download Windows 10 from Azure, usually needed as you install PC-virtualization software on your Mac. Visit ITS (or search the Internet) for help. Remember that "officially" since this course is within the Business Analytics Department of the College of Business its policy states that students should have a PC. I own and use a Mac, and have had no problem running PC-vituralization software (I use VMWare), Visio and Project work just fine on my Mac.

Consider exploring the Azure website for other Microsoft software that is free to you as a student. This is a great benefit of being a UIowa student.

11) Most students in this course will have a copy of MS Office on your own computer. However, I recommend that you learn how to access the UIowa Virtual Desktop, just in case you ever find that you need access to MS Office when you might not have your own computer. ITS provides this web page, Using the Virtual Desktop Service on Windows or Mac OS, for help. Some students find that visiting ITS for help is needed to get this software to work. In this course, we will not be using any specialized software from the Virtual Desktop. Additionally, neither MS Project or MS Visio are available on the Virtual Desktop.

When you are finally into the Virtual Desktop, try starting Microsoft Excel, create a file, save it, close Excel, open Excel, and then re-open your document just to make sure that you can complete a full circle.

12) Let me know if you have any questions or encounter any problems.