Please note that the specifics of this Course Syllabus are subject to change. Instructors will notify students of any changes and students will be responsible for abiding by them. Even if you print this syllabus, please check the online version often.

Description

IST 564: Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management (3 credits) - This course examines the fundamental elements of crisis, disaster, risk and emergency management within a security context with an emphasis on cybersecurity.

Emphasis is placed on the use of analytic methods and information technologies to prepare for, protect against, respond to, and recover from the effects of naturally-occurring (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, diseases) and man-made hazards (e.g., industrial accidents, terrorist attacks). Topical coverage includes the concepts, issues, and problems of crisis, disaster and risk management; determination of disaster and crisis information requirements; methods of vulnerability and risk assessment, risk perception and acceptance, risk communication, and risk treatment to include insurance, avoidance and mitigation; hazard analysis and modeling; organization/business impact analysis; technologies for emergency management and homeland security; the development of crisis and contingency plans and systems such as the national response plan and the national incident management systems; and implementation of maintaining and exercising plans.

Prerequisites

• None

Objectives

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Develop a conceptual understanding of risk management and its analytical models.
• Analyze the threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences that contribute to crisis, risk, and disaster management in the post 9/11 era.
• Recognize the unique constraints and pressures that influence crisis and disaster management.
• Be able to develop and implement an emergency response plan including recognizing the challenges to emergency planning.
• Understand some of the practical issues of emergency response including broader policy and social issues and public-private collaboration.

Instructor

• TBD

Materials

• Bracken, P., Bremmer, I., & Gordon, D. (2008). Managing Strategic Surprise: Lessons from Risk Management and Risk Assessment. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521709606.
  • An online version of this text is available at no cost as a Penn State Library E-Book and can be accessed through Library Resources in the course navigation. Some E-Books will only be available online, while others will be available to download in full or in part. You may choose to use the E-Book as an alternative to purchasing a physical copy of the text. For questions or issues, you can contact the University Libraries Reserve Help.

Assignments & Grading

All required readings are expected to be read and all required homework/lesson assignments will be graded.

There are a variety of assessments in this course. These include written assignments (6) related to specific lessons which are typically about one page, although there are 2 case studies that ask for 2-3 pages which have additional grade weight. For these, it is anticipated that they will be well written using proper grammar and spelling and use citations as appropriate. You do not need to cite lecture material. These will be assessed on:

• Did you answer the question?
• Did you provide relevant evidence supporting and/or contrary to the question's point?
• Is the response clear, concise, and free of errors?

Class participation is essential to success in this course. In the introduction to the course, you are asked to introduce yourself. Please tell your colleagues a bit about your job (e.g., I am an emergency manager in California or full-time student working on a masters in homeland security), why you took this course, and your goals for the program. Additionally, there are five discussion forums.

For the individual discussion forum, you will be asked to provide your thoughts on a specific issue or question and provide a critique of another learners comments (critique means disagree by providing evidence or agree but add something additional to the conversation). "I agree with your post" or "I disagree with your post" are not critiques.

In group discussions, you will be asked to discuss a topic among your group. A group discussion forum has been set up for your convenience. When you use the forum, it facilitates our ability to assessment participation. Notwithstanding, group discussions may take place outside of your group discussion forum.  However, if you choose not to use the forum, you must provide documentation on how your group communicated and whether participation in the assignment was equitable. If there is no evidence of quality participation, you will receive a "0" for the assignment. Second, a group member is responsible for posting a summary of your discussion. Following is a summary of the group assignment process:

• Questions raised in the topic will be discussed in the group.
• Each group member is expected to post their thoughts on the questions and respond to other group member's thoughts (i.e., posts), similar to the full class individual posts.
• For each group assignment, the group should select a group leader (this is a different person for each assignment).
• The group leader is responsible for posting a summary of the group's discussion in the group discussion in each topic requiring a group assignment.
• Summaries should reflect the conclusions reached by the group.

Again you will be evaluated on your participation in the group discussion and the group will receive a grade for its group summary. If you did not participate in the group discussion, you will receive a "0" on the group summary.  NOTE: If you are experiencing problems with participation among your group, you should inform the instructor and/or teaching assistant as soon as a problem arises.  

There are several other assessments in the course:

• Group Pulse
  
  • The main purpose is to provide input that is combined with other information to determine participation grades at the end of the semester.  More importantly, it is an opportunity to identify and hopefully correct potential problems in a group before it becomes a crisis.  
• Multi-Phase Term Project

Course Grading Scale

The following are minimum cutoffs for each grade:

• 93.00% = A
• 90.00% = A-
• 87.00% = B+
• 83.00% = B
• 80.00% = B-
• 77.00% = C+
• 70.00% = C
• 60.00% = D
• less than 60.00% = F

Course Policies and Expectations

• Logging into Canvas - Students are expected to log in regularly to check for course updates, announcements, emails, discussions, etc.
• Emailing through Canvas - Students are expected to use Canvas for all course email communication.
• Attending virtual meetings - Students are expected to use the specified virtual meeting tool(s) for collaboration, meetings, presentations, etc., as needed.