Open Educational Resources and Information Technology and Information Systems

This Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook provides comprehensive coverage of the fundamental aspects of leveraging information technology for gaining a competitive edge in business. It begins by delving into the foundational components of computer hardware, software, and networks, with the objective of equipping aspiring leaders with a solid understanding of technology and its relevance in the business world. The book then swiftly progresses to the integration of these elements into contemporary information systems, examining the advantages that businesses can derive from systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), social media platforms, and others. Additionally, the text encompasses project management principles and methodologies for the successful implementation of information systems, encompassing both traditional and agile approaches.

This is an essential textbook that explores the intricate relationship between technology and global societies. It gives students and professionals a deep understanding of how cultural contexts shape and are shaped by computing practices, from algorithm design to user interface development. This book equips readers with the knowledge and skills to create inclusive, ethical, and culturally sensitive technological solutions for our diverse world.

The creator of this resource is well known for his videos in the IT and Networking domains. They are well done and clearly address the certification test that they are focused on. Even if you don’t use the entire set, this is an excellent resource. This set is made up of 95 Videos, with a total running time: 25 hours, 38 minutes.

Foundations of Information Systems aligns to the topics and objectives of most introductory information systems courses in computer science and information technology, as well as in other subject areas such as health and business information systems. The offering helps students understand foundational concepts including hardware, software, database management systems, and data networks. The instruction is based on the ACM/IEEE/AIS curriculum standards for information systems (IS2020) that allow institutions to use the content for the purposes of accreditation for ABET, AACSB, and ACBSP. The material focuses on developing and applying knowledge regarding the collection, processing, storage, distribution, and value of information. Students will also learn about the various interactions between information systems professionals and others in organizations, so that they understand how to collaborate with management, colleagues, customers, and suppliers.

Workplace Software and Skills is designed to flexibly support a range of courses covering computer literacy, Microsoft Office, and Google Suite applications. The textbook covers both hard and soft skills that are applicable to a broad range of academic majors and careers. Chapters combine studio learning and guided practice with scaffolded activities designed to reinforce a student’s ability to perform higher-order tasks independently. Workplace Software and Skills leverages complementary product features in spreadsheet, word processing, presentation, and similar applications. Modules are designed for maximum flexibility by including both Microsoft Office Suite and Google Suite applications, in order to best reflect the skills needed for today’s workforce. Authentic activities and real-world contexts develop a cumulative and thorough understanding, which reinforces the importance of cross-platform proficiency. Highly visible features also note Apple/Mac functions as needed.

Information Systems for Business and Beyond (Bourgeois) – LibreTexts (CC BY)
This book is written as an introductory text, meant for those with little or no experience with computers or information systems. While sometimes the descriptions can get a bit technical, every effort has been made to convey the information essential to understanding a topic while not getting overly focused in detailed terminology. The web site contains a 2019 version of this book, that was updated in 2020 to meet accessibility standards. The web site also contains links to ancillary resources including Quizlet flashcards, and PowerPoint slides.

This asynchronous 6-week Canvas course by Angela Thomas covers the examination of information systems and their role in business. There is a focus on information systems, database management systems, networking, e-commerce, ethics and security, computer systems hardware and software components.

This is part of MIT’s OpenCourseWare website. It includes a course syllabus, reading list, lecture videos, Powerpoint slides and code, in-class questions and video questions as well as assignments – all available for download. The course is intended for students with little or no programming experience. It aims to provide students with an understanding of the role computation can play in solving problems and to help students, regardless of their major, feel justifiably confident of their ability to write small programs that allow them to accomplish useful goals. The class uses the Python 3.5 programming language.

A Byte of Python – LibreTexts (CC BY-SA)
This book serves as a guide or tutorial to the Python programming language. It is mainly targeted at newbies. It is useful for experienced programmers as well. The aim is that if all you know about computers is how to save text files, then you can learn Python from this book. If you have previous programming experience, then you can also learn Python from this book.

Think Python is an introduction to Python programming for beginners. It starts with basic concepts of programming and is carefully designed to define all terms when they are first used and to develop each new concept in a logical progression. Larger pieces, like recursion and object-oriented programming, are divided into a sequence of smaller steps and introduced over the course of several chapters.

Python for Everybody – LibreTexts (CC BY)
An excellent book on introductory computer programming topics. The book’s website has a great deal of additional information and resources. The book itself has great vocabulary words, it has exercises, and includes the use of Jupyter Notebooks, where you can edit and run code right in the LMS environment. The material has been translated into several different languages, see the book’s website for a complete list.

This is a project based course to introduce students to a Linux/Unix type environment. This course will cover system navigation, file manipulation, text processing utilities and shell scripting. This course will primarily be done using a CLI, with a focus on Bash.
Learning Objectives:
– Organize and manage files within the system
– Comfortable using basic commands from the command line
– Edit files using editors such as VI and/or Emacs
– Usefully combine tools and features such as filters, pipes, appends and redirection Know how to do some basic shell scripting, and successfully read, write and debug basic bash scripts
– Know how to use resources online and off to find additional information about the commands and system

The development of systems and network concepts for students begins with this highly interactive inquiry into cell phone networks. Cell phones serve as a handy knowledge base on which to develop understanding. Each cell phone represents a node, and each phone’s address book represents an edge, or the calling relationships between cell phones. Students conceptualize the entire cell phone network by drawing a graphic that depicts each cell phone in the class as a circle (node) connected by directional lines (edges) to their classmate’s cell phones in their address book. Students are queried on shortest calling pathway for calling and calling pathways when selected phones are knocked out using school and classroom scenarios.

The book has gone through numerous revisions and continues to be updated. It does have some ancillary material available on the website. There is a series being written, starting with this book, and now includes a book covering 5G technologies.

“ND” indicates that this resource may not be modified. Printing is also prohibited.) This book has had several revisions. While this newer version is much better than the pre-revision 2.0 material, be aware of the limits of its license.

GitHub Source Repository
“Computer Networking : Principles, Protocols and Practice” is an open-source ebook that explains the main principles of Computer Networking and the key protocols that are used on the Internet. The Ebook is intended to be used for an upper-level undergraduate networking course. The first part describes the theoretical foundations of this domain as well and the main algorithms and protocols. The second part contains a detailed explanation of the main Internet protocols including HTTP, DNS, TCP, UDP, IPv6, BGP, RIP, OSPF, Ethernet and WiFi. The last part contains exercises and practical labs to allow the students to test their knowledge (The Computer Networking: Principles, Protocols and Practice textbook is one of the winners of the first Open Textbook challenge organised by the Saylor foundation in the US). This resource covers the 1rst as well as the 2nd edition of the Ebook.

This course, and ancillary materials (which are not yet part of the LibreTexts material) follows the CompTIA Linux+ curriculum and prepares students for that certification.

Structured to align with the CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 certification objectives, the textbook serves as both an academic resource and a certification study guide. Its modular design allows for flexible integration into various course structures, making it suitable for semester-long curricula or targeted training programs.    

Digital evidence features in just about every part of our personal and business lives. Legal and business decisions hinge on having timely data about what people have actually done. This free course, Digital forensics, is an introduction to computer forensics and investigation, and provides a taster in understanding how to conduct investigations to correctly gather, analyse and present digital evidence to both business and legal audiences. It also outlines the tools to locate and analyse digital evidence on a variety of devices, how to keep up to date with changing technologies, and laws and regulations in digital forensics.

This book describes the simplified architecture of an IoT network from the core functional perspective and then presents step-by-step procedures to establish a connection between the IoT device and platform. It practically shows how to connect a cellular IoT module to the Microsoft Azure IoT Hub using the LTE-M technology.

Digital technologies old and new are not objects that can be packed inside a box. They are a seamless, indivisible combination of people, organizations, policies, economies, histories, cultures, knowledge, and material things that are continuously shaped and reshaped. Every one of us innovates-in-use our everyday technologies, we just do not always know it. Not only are we shaped by the networked information tools in our midst, but we shape them and thereby shape others. For us to advance individual agency across diverse community knowledge and cultural wealth within the fabric of communities, we need to nurture our cognitive, socio-emotional, information, and progressive community engagement skills along with, and sometimes in advance of, our technical skills which then serve as just-in-time in-fill learning. This is the call placed by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – to rapidly shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society.

The phrase “Internet of Things” (IoT) alludes to the billions of physical devices connected to the Internet in order to exchange raw data and analyze the information. This book introduces the IoT use cases and technologies. It uses practical examples to demonstrate the effect of IoT and its potential to change our world, and it discusses the existing wired and wireless communication technologies that have enabled IoT. The book also includes multiple choice and review questions to support student learning and reflection.

This open access book introduces cloud computing and related technologies from the concept, technology, and architecture of cloud computing, combined with typical application cases of cloud; provides students with a more complete knowledge framework in the field of cloud computing; and lays the foundation for future research, development, and further study in cloud computing, big data, and other related fields.

This is version 4.0 of their widely referenced guidance document, which is also used to prepare for the Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK). It reflects industry best practices as of that year.

This book covers the basics of MySQL. It includes two sample databases that you can load into your local MySQL instance and try the examples for yourself. In a future edition, the following items will be added. – Information on SQL database design – An explanation of the three types of table relationships and when each should be used – Screencasts that will walk you thought the SQL concepts that are discussed.