Dakota State University is migrating to  Microsoft Office 2007, which has the capability of converting 2003 Microsoft Office documents. Homework will be done using Microsoft software such as Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint. At a minimum, you will need access to a Microsoft Office product for the programs and compatibility with the course work. 

If you elect to not participate in the migration to Office 2007 at this time and use Office 2003 for now, you should run this update so that your old Office programs can properly read the files of the people who do choose to upgrade to Office 2007.

http://homepages.dsu.edu/boldtj/filez/FileFormatConverters.exe 

You are encouraged to update to Office 2007.  You can do that by purchasing a copy of it from DSU at a minimal charge.  Please contact me if you wish to purchase a copy.  DSU has a licensing agreement with Microsoft to provide students the copy.

Below is an URL, which you might find helpful in answering your computing questions. The link provides links to answer general DSU computing questions and many other “tech” and policy questions.

http://support.dsu.edu/

Computer Skills Used:
WebCT is the course management software used on the DSU campus.  The entire class will be taught within WebCT.  We will use the email, discussion board, assignments, gradebook, and other functions.

As stated above, we will use Microsoft Office products; for the most part, Word.  Excel,  PowerPoint, or Access could be used minimally.

Instructional Methodologies:
Independent reading assignments are required from the AHIMA Journal and other related HIM publications. 

The instructor reserves the right to make adjustments in this course to better meet the needs of students or the intent of the course.

Students are expected to participate in and complete every class. Assignments and/or projects are due at the time designated. Assignments will not be accepted late unless there is a valid reason, determined by the instructor.  Unless advance arrangements have been made, there will be no make-up tests.  There will be no grade penalties for pre-approved make-up tests.  Any missed tests will constitute a zero for that test.

Discussion boards will be utilized for the purpose of having a class discussion at the Web site. Students will attend "class" at their leisure from home, school, or work on a weekly basis. Class participation will be based on comments made to the class discussion board pertaining to the topic assigned.  All students must participate in the discussion, at a minimum, when required to do so since comments constitute part of the assignment grade.

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Professionalism:

Your university experience is developed in order to prepare you for the professional world that you will be embarking upon once completing the required course work. In order to assist with this preparation, your class work will be treated as work assignments delegated to you in a professional setting. The instructor will be treated as though she is your boss/supervisor/team leader at work and appropriate behavior is expected.

Academic Honesty Policy:  Ethical conduct is a requirement.  Cheating, plagiarism, or other forms of academic dishonesty including the acquisition without permission of tests or other academic material belonging to a member of the University faculty or staff, or the providing of one’s own work in hard copy or on disk to another student for the purpose of copying any portion is not allowed.

Disciplinary action as deemed appropriate by the instructor will result as a consequence to unethical conduct regarding completion of this course.  All the students are required to work independently in this class.  Any forms of cheating will result in a grade of 'F'.  The following is a link to the University policy concerning academic honesty:  http://www.departments.dsu.edu/hr/newsite/policies/040500.htm

 I will follow the recommendations stated in DSU's academic dishonesty policy.

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ADA Statement:

If you have a documented disability and/or anticipate needing accommodations (e.g., non-standard note taking, test modifications) in this course, please contact me. Also, please contact Dakota State University’s ADA coordinator, Keith Bundy in the Student Development Office located in the Trojan Center Underground or at 256-5121, as soon as possible. The DSU website containing additional information, along with the form to request accommodations is http://www.departments.dsu.edu/disability_services/. You will need to provide documentation of your disability. The ADA coordinator must confirm the need for accommodations before officially authorizing them.  

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Learning Objectives:

In this class, it is essential that you gain factual knowledge, develop skills in expressing oneself orally or in writing, and acquire an interest in learning more by asking questions and seeking answers.  It is also important  that you learn fundamental principles, generalizations, or theories and learn how to find and use resources for answering questions or solving problems.

At the end of this course the students will have been exposed to the latest in healthcare trends relating to health information management (HIM) as published in the Journal of AHIMA.  Topics addressed:

1. Most current technological products
2. Most current HIM practice standards
3. Most current HIM and health care legislation
4. Electronic health record issues:  management, implementation, standards, products, changing roles in HIM etc.
5. ICD-10 implementation
6. Project management
7. Any other topics as deemed appropriate by the instructor

After successfully completing HIM 443 Current Trends in Health Care Delivery, the student will have awareness of the latest health care trends and professional practices of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).  Depending on the latest published information, there could be all, or at a minimum, some of the Domains, Subdomains, Tasks, or Knowledge Clusters related specifically to the course.

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Course Outline:

Posted Weekly on Friday:

• reading assignments
• quizzes
• discussion board

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Evaluation Procedures:

Assignments and projects will be given throughout the course. Additionally, a feature paper and weekly article reviews are to be completed by each student.  All assignments must be completed and submitted electronically through WebCT.

The feature paper (6-9 pages, double-spaced and using a size 12 font), is to be based on the "feature" articles from a publication of one of the 2007 Journals of  AHIMA. Describe the concept of the feature topic, analyze it from multiple perspectives and provide your views of its impact on the health information management profession and how you as a health information management professional would best approach/work with the issue (i.e., systems to implement, etc.).  Pull all of the articles into one report, do not report on each of the articles individually.  You need to include, at a minimum, at least one other source from a reputable reference found on the AHIMA resource page of the Karl Mundt Library web site.   Due: December 14th, the final exam date.. The heading of this feature paper should include you name, title, and publication date of journal used.

Weekly, (A week is defined as ending at 10:00 pm CST each Thursday, with the new week beginning the following Friday.) each student must submit an article review from a peer-reviewed Internet source.  The source must not be older than 2006.  There are peer-reviewed sources on the HIM resource page at the Karl E. Mundt Library on the Dakota State Campus.  You can also find the list by going to the library home page, find the subject guide link and you will find a wealth of HIM information.  You must include the link to your article.  Often times, I will specify the topic of the review, related to the weekly reading assignment.

Each review should be at least one page long, but no longer than two pages double-spaced, using a size 12 font. Include the following items in your heading and body of the article reviews:

• Your name
• Title of article
• Date of publication/article
• Source (You may use each  publication one time only.  Example:  If you use the AHIMA Journal, you may not use it again.)
• URL of the Internet location of the article
• Summary of article
• Reaction as a Health Information Management professional (agree, disagree, don't understand, good idea, bad idea, interesting concept, etc. and why)
• Reaction as health care consumer (agree, disagree, don't understand, good idea, bad idea, interesting concept, etc. and why)
• Link to the article

You will post a summary of your article review to the weekly discussion board.  I recommend that you  write your article review summary in Word and cut and paste it on to the weekly discussion board.  Refer to the course schedule to see the AHIMA Journals we will be using in this class and do not use an issue of the AHIMA Journal that we are using in this class.  You will also read your classmates' article review summary on the discussion board and select one to respond to.  Each summary can only be responded to one time.  There are currently eight students enrolled in the class, so there will be eight summaries posted and eight comments. 

The article review will be submitted on the assignment page, I will make a 'form' to paste your article review on.  This is done for grading purposes.

Please Note:  You will lose points if you do not follow the above instructions explicitly.

*Grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure is part of creating a quality review paper and will be considered when grading your paper.

*Plagiarize - To steal and use (the ideas or writings of another) as ones' own.  Please be sure to cite correctly in your article reviews and feature paper, giving credit to the author of the writing you are summarizing.  You can see information regarding correct citing on the library home page, use the link above.

Evaluation components include:

• Weekly Quizzes (13 planned) - 50%

• Feature paper - 15%

• Weekly article reviews - 20%

• Assignments and discussion boards - 15%

The weighted evaluation components will be combined to receive one final grade. The following fixed-percentage scale is used to determine final grades:

 The mid-term grade will be reflective of all evaluation components scheduled for completion up to and through mid-term week.

Should a student's cumulative grade calculation fall near or on the borderline of two letter grades, the instructor will give consideration to that student's discussion board participation, effort, and attitude in determining the final grade assignment for the course.

Students are reminded that they must earn at least a "C" in this course to fulfill HIA graduation requirements. If a student receives less than a "C" as a final grade, he/she may not complete HIM 485 or write the national certification exam.

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Course Policies:

Academic Honesty Policy:  Ethical conduct is a requirement.  Cheating, plagiarism, or other forms of academic dishonesty including the acquisition without permission of tests or other academic material belonging to a member of the University faculty or staff, or the providing of one’s own work in hard copy or on disk to another student for the purpose of copying any portion is not allowed.

E-mail:  Students are required to use their Pluto email accounts in order to receive messages from the university, which includes messages regarding the HIM Program.  No other accounts like hotmail, yahoo, etc. will be used. 

Reminder!  When sending email to you instructors, please remember to use professional language.  Such things as symbols, all lower/upper case, no punctuation, etc. are not acceptable standards for communicating in a professional manner.

Freedom in Learning Statement:  Students are responsible for learning the content of any course of study in which they are enrolled. Under Board of Regents and University policy, student academic performance shall be evaluated solely on an academic basis and students should be free to take reasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course of study.  It has always been the policy of Dakota State University to allow students to appeal the decisions of faculty, administrative, and staff members and the decisions of institutional committees.  Students who believe that an academic evaluation is unrelated to academic standards but is related instead to judgment of their personal opinion or conduct should contact the dean of the college which offers the class to initiate a review of the evaluation.

Early Alert:  We have an early alert system at DSU.  If you do not attend class, have a disruptive class behavior, or are not performing well, your instructor will 'alert' student services.  The staff in student services will contact you to advise you on methodologies that will improve your classroom status.

Minimum Course Bibliography:

Any current health-care related journal deemed appropriate by the instructor that presents the most current health care trends and practices in the health information profession.

Prentice Hall Reference Guide

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Tentative Course Schedule (Please Note:  Refer to the Course Schedule from the 'Course Schedule' link on the course home page for current updates and assignments.)

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