Syllabus - Spring, 2007

Course Syllabus

Instructor: Dr. David T. Damery, Assoc. Professor

Building Materials and Wood Technology,

Dept. of Natural Resources Conservation

Office: Holdsworth 120
Office Hours: By Appointment
Tel. 413-545-1770,
E-mail: ddamery@forwild.umass.edu
Class Meets: Tues, Thurs. 4:00-5:15pm, H302

TEXT, MATERIALS & OTHER REQUIREMENTS: On-line readings are provided to accompany lectures and class assignments. Handouts will be distributed in lecture as needed. Students must have a university computer account in order to use university computer facilities and access the required internet and e-mail utilities.

Students should also bring with them to class a "Thumb drive" or similar USB attached storage device to save their in-class work.

Suggested Readings:

Module 1 – Estimating and Bidding -

Module 2 - Energy Star Program - in general and Home performance analysis in particular.

Module 3 – E-Commerce, Marketing and Sales Information Technologies - "Full fledged Business Apps Make PDAs Indispensable", E-commerce in the Forest & Wood Products Industry

COURSE DESCRIPTION : Builds decision-making and problem solving skills in energy efficient housing, estimating and bidding, and marketing in the building materials industry. Computer and internet based technologies are applied to prior theory.

PREREQUISITES : BMATWT 211, BMATWT 314, BMATWT 352, and mastery of basic computer skills or permission of instructor.

CREDITS : Three

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Hone building materials related computing and telecommunications skills with theory and practice with a variety of hardware and software tools.
Extend knowledge of PC and internet based business applications in the building materials industry.
Introduce technology based problem solving techniques to complement theory based building materials curriculum in Energy Efficient Housing, Blueprint Reading and Estimating, and Marketing.
Students are taught to seek technology-based solutions where appropriate, and to use innovative approaches to management decision-making problems in the building materials industry.

COURSE SCHEDULE:

SPECIAL NEEDS : All reasonable efforts will be made to meet the individual needs of the student. If you have a learning disability or need special accommodation please make an appointment with the instructor to discuss your needs. All discussions will be strictly confidential.

ATTENDANCE POLICY : Lectures, class work, and exams will be given during the scheduled class times. Class attendance is extremely important in providing the student with the best chances for meeting the course objectives. No make-up work will be scheduled without prior arrangement with the instructor.

TERM PROJECT: Students will be required to research, plan, design, implement, post and present a B2B website. The website will contain content rich pages relevant to a chosen customer segment and website objectives. Appropriate links and contact information will also be provided. Presentations are scheduled for the last month of the course.

GRADING AND EVALUATION : Students are expected to have read any required material prior to each class lecture. Application software will be introduced and demonstrated in a lecture setting, along with problem situation analysis. Students will then use PC's in a computing laboratory individually, and in groups to gain experience in the use of the software/hardware and then to solve a particular problem situation. Students are required to develop a business-to-business marketing web-site as a term project.

Grades will be determined as follows:

Grade Element

Quantity & Weight

Total Weight

Exams

3 @ 10%

30%

Module Assignments

3 @ 10%

30%

Term Project

1 @ 20%

20%

Homework, Attendance and Participation

1 @ 20%

20%

TOTAL

100%

Letter grades will be assigned as follows:

Grade Ranges
Grade	Range
A	GE 93
A-	90 - 92+
B+	87 - 89+
B	83 - 86+
B-	80 - 82+
C+	77 - 79+
C	73 - 76+
C-	70 - 72+
D+	67 - 69+
D	60 - 66+
F	LT 60

ACADEMIC HONESTY

The University Academic Honesty policy applies in this class, as it should in all your University undertakings. This policy explicitly prohibits any form of plagiarism, cheating, fabrication of information, and assisting others in dishonest acts. The learning environment and all class participants suffer from dishonest acts and will not be tolerated.

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Produced and maintained by David T. Damery
Building Materials and Wood Technology
Department of Natural Resources Conservation
College of Natural Resources and the Environment
University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Many of the materials created for this course are the intellectual property of the instructor. This includes, but is not limited to, the syllabus, lectures and course notes. Except to the extent not protected by copyright law, any use, distribution or sale of such materials requires the permission of the instructor. Please be aware that it is a violation of university policy to reproduce, for distribution or sale, class lectures or class notes, unless the faculty member has explicitly waived copyright. Copyright 2006, David T. Damery