Rabb School of Continuing Studies, Division of Graduate Professional Studies

Overview

In 1992, the Rabb School of Continuing Studies was named in honor of Norman S. and Eleanor E. Rabb in recognition of more than four decades of support for Brandeis.

With four divisions — Graduate Professional Studies, the Summer School, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Brandeis, and Brandeis Precollege Programs — the Rabb School seeks to serve lifelong learners by supporting the university in its mission of providing open inquiry and outstanding teaching in a world of challenging social and technological transformation.

In 1997, the Division of Continuing Studies, now the Division of Graduate Professional Studies, was established in the Rabb School specifically to extend the opportunity for excellent, applied professional education at the graduate level to a more diverse, part-time, working-adult population. All degree programs in the division are professionally oriented, applied in nature (combining requisite theory with the practical application of learned material), and taught by expert adjunct faculty who are practitioners of their subject matter in their professional lives.

Programs in applied, professional fields are offered in the Division of Graduate Professional Studies of the Rabb School and are overseen by the Rabb School Council, made up of faculty representing the other schools in the university and chaired by a full-time faculty member.

New programs, as well as substantive changes to the curriculum, are reviewed for approval by the Rabb School Council and as necessary by both the Council of the Graduate Professional Schools and the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Currently, the Division of Graduate Professional Studies in the Rabb School offers master's degree programs requiring 10 three-credit courses, and a graduate certificate requiring 5 three-credit courses, in applied fields:

GPS offers an opportunity for students to earn two master's degrees, sequentially, transferring up to two courses, if appropriate, from the first master's program to the second. If a graduate certificate and master's degree are sought sequentially (as opposed to two master's degrees), the student may transfer up to one course from the first program to the second.

Given the Rabb School’s commitment to making graduate, credit-bearing and professionally oriented academic resources at Brandeis available to as many qualified part-time students as possible, the division offers all programs completely online.

In addition, GPS collaborates with corporate partners in offering credit-bearing courses to special student groups at corporate sites or welcoming corporate-sponsored students in its courses. There are no programs offered through sites other than the Brandeis campus.

Admission

How to Apply

Admission policies and procedures for graduate programs in the Division of Graduate Professional Studies are described in detail in both the GPS website and the Student Handbook located on the Web site. Standards of admission to all programs are clear, consistent and simple. Applicants to graduate programs in the Rabb School generally hold bachelor’s degrees from regionally accredited U.S. institutions or equivalent.

All formal applications for admission are evaluated by a faculty/staff committee. Applications and admission decisions are made on a rolling basis, with entry points at the beginning of each of the four standard 10-week sessions (July, October, January and April).

Academic Regulations

Academic Standing

Prior to filing a formal application, students may take up to two graduate courses, thereby determining whether a commitment to both the chosen field and program is appropriate for them. It is standing policy that a course graded below B – may not be applied toward a degree, regardless of when it is taken. Students are allowed a maximum of 12 courses to complete a 10-course master's degree, and a maximum of 7 courses to complete a 5-course graduate certificate.

Given the part-time nature of all the programs, and recognizing that working people frequently encounter unanticipated life experiences, students may take up to five years to complete a 10-course program. (Most students complete their master's degrees in less than three.) Students may take up to three years to complete a 5-course graduate certificate.

Requirements for the Degrees

Detailed information about the requirements for the programs offered by the Division of Graduate Professional Studies, can be found in a later section of this Bulletin or on the website at www.brandeis.edu/gps. Please refer to these pages for the requirements and expected learning outcomes for specific degrees.

Auditing Courses

All regularly enrolled, full-time graduate students at Brandeis are eligible to audit by the Division of Graduate Professional Studies courses without a fee. Part-time degree students and non-degree special students may audit a Graduate Professional Studies course but will be charged the same rate as a course taken for credit. No courses may be audited without the permission of the instructor and the student's program chair. Auditors may not take examinations or expect evaluation from the instructor. No credit is given for an audited course. Graduate Professional Studies students are eligible to audit courses of IBS, GSAS and Heller, abiding by their policies.

Course Drops

A student may drop a course after the start of the second course week and up until the close of the sixth week of the term. A “W” will be noted on the student’s transcript to reflect the withdrawal from the course. (Refer to the full refund policy noted in the Student Handbook.)

A student may drop the same required course no more than twice, and a student may drop no more than six courses during the course of completing their program requirements. After the fourth drop, the student will be placed on academic warning.

Incompletes

Incompletes are granted in exceptional cases, arranged between the student and the instructor and documented, including specific closure date, in the division’s office. Unaddressed incompletes become failures after the established deadline. (Refer to the full incomplete policy noted in the Student Handbook.)

Transfer of Credit

Rabb School degree candidates are not permitted to cross-register either in other graduate programs on campus or in programs elsewhere. Up to two courses not previously counted for any degree program may be considered for transfer into a Rabb School degree. This assessment is made as part of the admissions process.

International Students

Applicants whose first language is not English or who have not graduated with a bachelor’s degree from an English-speaking institution in Australia, Belize, the British Caribbean and British West Indies, Canada (except Quebec), Great Britain, Guyana, Ireland, Liberia, New Zealand, or South Africa must take and submit scores for the TOEFL, IELTS or PTE. Test scores should be no more than five years old.

Fees and Expenses

The following tuition and fees are in effect for the 2018–2019 academic year. These figures are subject to annual revision by the Brandeis University Board of Trustees.

Payment of tuition occurs per course registration and must be completed in full in order for the registration to be official and for students to attend the first online course module. Except under rare, prearranged circumstances, students not paid in full are not permitted to enter courses.

  • Tuition per three-credit course: $3,535
Other Fees
  • Course materials fee (dependent on course needs): $25-100
  • Application fee for admission to a degree program: $75
  • Application to graduate fee: $100

Refunds

Students who wish to cancel their registration and receive a tuition refund must state their intention to withdraw by withdrawing from their course. Tuition will be refunded according to the following schedule:

  • Withdrawal before the first day of the term, 100 percent refund
  • Withdrawal in the first course week (between the first and seventh day of the term), 75 percent refund
  • Withdrawal in the second course week (on or after the eighth day of the term), no refund

The Division of Graduate Professional Studies complies with all applicable refund policies of the state where an online learning student resides. The Division of Graduate Professional Studies will calculate any applicable refunds in accordance with such state regulations as listed below. For those states that are not listed here.

In compliance with federal law, special refund arrangements apply to students receiving federal financial aid under Title IV (i.e. Federal Direct Stafford and PLUS Loans). Special refund arrangements also apply to Department of Defense Tuition Assistance funds. Contact the Office of Student Financial Services for additional information.

Financial Aid

The Division of Graduate Professional Studies offers no scholarships, grants, or assistantships.

Federal Loans

Only the Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan is available to Graduate Professional Studies students. Applicants must file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to qualify for this loan. Graduate students may borrow up to a maximum of $20,500 a year, not to exceed the cost of attendance, with an aggregate maximum of $138,500, with no more than $65,500 in subsidized loan funds. For the academic year 18-19, the interest rate on the Stafford Loan was a fixed rate of 6.595 percent and the origination fee will be 1.066 percent.

Repayment of a Stafford Loan begins six months after the borrower ceases to be enrolled at least half-time. The standard repayment period is 10 years, during which time interest is charged. (Please go to www.studentloans.gov for information about alternate repayment plans.) Students are required to pay the interest during the in-school period, or have it capitalized and added to the loan balance, for the unsubsidized loan.

The terms for the above loan programs are subject to federal legislation, regulations and other guidance, and may change. Students wishing to apply for loans should contact the Office of Student Financial Services for application materials. The Graduate PLUS Loan is a federal loan that allows graduate students to borrow up to their total cost of education less any financial aid received. The student must pass an independent credit review. For the 18-19 academic year, the PLUS Loan was a fixed interest rate of 7.595 percent and an origination fee of 4.264 percent. Go to www.studentloans.gov to apply for this loan.

Borrowers of the Federal Direct Stafford Loan, and the Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan must complete the required promissory notes and entrance counseling online at the beginning of their entering semester upon receipt of correspondence from the Office of Student Financial Services. Anticipated credits on a student's account will be cancelled if all required steps are not completed.

Additional Satisfactory Academic Progress Requirement for Students Receiving Financial Aid

Federal regulations require that a student receiving federal assistance make satisfactory academic progress in accordance with standards set by the university. The Division of Graduate Professional Studies is responsible for monitoring academic progress within its graduate programs. To receive federal funding, a student must successfully complete two courses (B- or higher) in each semester in which he or she receives federal loans. If he or she fails to successfully complete two courses in a semester in which he or she receives federal loans, he or she will be allowed to receive federal loans for the next semester but will be placed on probation. If he or she fails to successfully complete two courses during the probationary semester, he or she will lose eligibility for federal loans from this point forward. A student may submit an appeal if there are extenuating circumstances that prevented him or her from successfully completing coursework for two subsequent semesters.

Students enrolled in a graduate certificate are not eligible to receive federal loans.

Financial Regulations
Failure to discharge financial obligations includes, but is not limited to, an overdue balance with the university or the delinquency of a borrower in repaying a loan administered by the Office of Student Financial Services and the inability of that office to collect such a loan because the borrower has discharged the indebtedness through bankruptcy proceedings.

A student who defaults in the payment of indebtedness to the university shall be subject to suspension, dismissal and refusal of a transfer of credits or issuance of an official transcript. Brandeis University may refer delinquent accounts to a collection agency. Students are responsible for paying the collection agency fee, which may be based on a percentage at a maximum of 40 percent of any delinquent account, together with all costs and expenses, including reasonable attorney’s fees, necessary for the collection of any delinquent account. Delinquent accounts may be reported to one or more of the national credit bureaus.

Every student is required to complete a Financial Responsibility Agreement at least once each academic year. Any student who fails to complete this agreement prior to the start of classes will be denied the privileges of attending classes and using university facilities.

Requirements for the Degrees

Degree of Master of Software Engineering

The Master of Software Engineering prepares students to participate fully in integrated teams of software developers, software acquirers and software end users.

Students have the necessary software engineering skills and knowledge to ensure the delivery of reliable software to increasingly large, complex and international end-user markets.

Program of Study
The Master of Software Engineering consists of 10 courses, 30 credits. There are 6 required courses, and 4 elective courses.

Learning Outcomes
Graduates are able to:

  • Apply a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the cost-effective and secure development, operation, and maintenance of software systems to the satisfaction of their beneficiaries, while adopting software engineering best practices.
  • Build solutions using different technologies, architectures and life-cycle approaches in the context of different organizational structures, with demonstrated programming expertise.
  • Demonstrate a cross-section of skills necessary to collaborate throughout the phases of software development including requirements, design, implementation, testing, and release management.
  • Demonstrate specialized skills via advanced electives in a focused discipline such as web & mobile development, design, cloud computing, and databases.
  • Communicate effectively and think critically about a wide range of issues arising in the context of working constructively on software projects.

Degree of Master of Science in Technology Management

The Master of Science in Technology Management prepares students for knowledgeable leadership in the broadest scope of application of information technology.

By understanding information technology’s importance to an organization and its use in a global economy, students will acquire the skills and knowledge to direct the development and deployment of information systems of high quality (available online).

Program of Study
The degree of Master of Science in Technology Management requires six required courses and four electives, totaling 10 courses (30 credits).

Learning Outcomes
Graduates are able to:

  • Make operational and strategic decisions that align with measurable business objectives.
  • Assure the quality of information as well as its value to those who will ultimately use it for decision-making.
  • Develop objectives and strategy for technology management that align with the organizational objectives and strategy and identify, prioritize and select projects and investment opportunities to realize the strategy.
  • Lead change management and the planning, development and implementation of technology solutions through proactively building a partnership with all business and technology stakeholders.
  • Establish strong relationships with vendors and service providers in order to create value beyond what is achievable only through internal resources.
  • Think, write and speak cogently and persuasively about ongoing or anticipated work with colleagues, end-users and corporate leadership, and listen carefully to feedback.

Degree of Master of Science in Project and Program Management

The Master of Science in Project and Program Management provides current project managers and potential project managers with an integrated understanding of a broad scope of business functions at the upper-middle, team-leading level of corporate operations, combined with the technical skills and knowledge to analyze, organize and manage the expression of projects, on time and on budget.

Program of Study
The degree of Master of Science in Project and Program Management requires seven required courses and three electives, totaling 10 courses (30 credits).

Learning Outcomes
Graduates are able to:

  • Lead successful projects and manage the project lifecycle in all its phases in a way that assures the delivery of the negotiated scope and quality level, while meeting time and budget constraints.
  • Effectively communicate the project/program status, issues, expectations and risks, both verbally and in writing, to project and program stakeholders and team members.
  • Demonstrate and communicate how projects contribute to an organization’s ability to realize its strategic goals and business benefits.
  • Exercise leadership, management, and faciliation skills in the conduct of programs and projects of various size, scope and complexity that may be international in nature.
  • Effectively manage the roles, communications and expectations of project stakeholders throughout the lifecycle of the project.

Degree of Master of Science in Bioinformatics

The Master of Science in Bioinformatics brings together disciplines including biology, computer science, statistical data modeling and information technology.

Students must develop an understanding of and be able to contribute directly to the analysis of biological data, the design of databases for storage, retrieval and representation of biomolecular data and the development of novel computational tools.

Students’ work will support better understandings of biological systems, human disease and drug development, ultimately affecting the practice of modern medicine.

Program of Study
The degree of Master of Science in Bioinformatics requires six required courses and four electives, totaling 10 courses (30 credits).

Learning Outcomes
Graduates are able to:

  • Process, store, analyze and model large volumes of biological data from multiple sources.
  • Independently provide insights into complex biological systems through data synthesis and application of a wide range of computational biology approaches.
  • Effectively communicate and present bioinformatics analyses to multidisciplinary project teams.

Degree of Master of Science in Information Security Leadership

In the Master of Science in Information Security Leadership program, students gain a combination of technology and management expertise that will enable them to make educated technical decisions in order to support enterprise-wide security objectives. The program is unique in its emphasis on the policy, management and technology aspects of information security and risk management. The program aims to develop students’ abilities to influence an organization’s senior management team and develop business cases in support of effective security and risk management practices.

Program of Study
The degree of Master of Science in Information Security Leadership requires six required courses and four electives, totaling 10 courses (30 credits).

Learning Outcomes
Graduates are able to:

  • Lead teams to effectively manage risk to business objectives.
  • Assess risks to the security of critical information systems in an organization and communicate the business impact.
  • Understand the technical, organizational and human factors associated with these risks.
  • Evaluate information technology controls designed to protect against threats facing organizations.
  • Assess the impact of security policies on existing complex systems and organizational objectives while simultaneously considering compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, including global compliance.
  • Oversee the information assurance lifecycle of an organization, including planning, acquisition, development and evolution of secure infrastructures.

Degree of Master of Science in Health and Medical Informatics

Health and medical informatics is the application of principles of computer and information science to the effective organization, analysis, management, and use of information in health care. With evolving health care reform, the development, implementation, evaluation, and management of information technology solutions are critical, and core technologies and standards must be addressed.

The Health and Medical Informatics addresses the growing need for professionals who need to possess both analytical skills and business acumen with the goal of improving health care delivery systems through information technology.

Program of Study
The degree of Master of Science in Health and Medical Informatics requires that students complete six core courses and 4 electives, totaling 10 courses (30 credits).

Learning Outcomes
Graduates are able to:

  • Develop and implement information technology data solutions, for both clinical and administration, that healthcare outcomes and organizational performance.
  • Effectively interface between the data systems developers and the user community.
  • Design and implement security policies and procedures that ensure the privacy and security of all patient medical information.
  • Effectively manage institutional IT portfolio, vender selection & management, and strategic planning.
  • Ensure data/information adheres to current regulations and meets or exceeds best practice standards.
  • Demonstrate proficiency in the language of healthcare and in-depth knowledge of the U.S. Healthcare System with regards to health information.
  • Effectively utilize healthcare analytics for decision support, knowledge management, & reporting.

Degree of Master of Science in Strategic Analytics

Strategic Analytics are critical to the strategic management of any business or organization. The management, analysis, and use of the large sets of data that form the foundation of any business operation are what drive the strategic decisions that increase revenue and reduce costs for the organization.

The Strategic Analytics program offers a comprehensive study of these two components: the data itself and its business application, analyzed through a specific set of tools and techniques. Through the study of predictive, descriptive and prescriptive analytics, students will learn to identify patterns and trends within data to interpret and communicate the results in valuable and practical terms.

Program of Study
The degree of Master of Science in Strategic Analytics requires that students complete seven required courses and 3 electives, totaling 10 courses (30 credits).

Learning Outcomes
Graduates are able to:

  • Identify and assess the opportunities, needs and constraints for data governance, collection, measurement, tracking, analysis, reporting and overall management within a strategic organizational context.
  • Communicate the value of strategic analytics as it relates to an organization’s bottom line through both revenue increase and expense reduction.
  • Identify ways in which data can be analyzed, interpreted, reported and applied to solve or prevent existing or new business problems.
  • Bridge the gap between data and business by effectively communicating analysis results to drive strategic decisions and direction.
  • Lead analytics teams and projects and assess the value and effectiveness of their work.
  • Integrate leadership and communication skills with information technology, information management, and data science to maximize business intelligence and decision making.
  • Leverage technology to evaluate and apply analytic tools and techniques to manage large sets of data, distributed data, and cloud-based data.
  • Design innovative, cross-functional data analytics solutions for applied business strategies.

Master of Science in Instructional Design and Technology

Online instructional designers and technologists apply theory, research, creativity, and problem-solving skills to design and improve programs and courses through the use of emerging and dynamic technologies and platforms.

The Online Instructional Design and Technology program empowers students to develop the skills to assess, create, and manage web-based instructional materials, and to apply project management methodologies to the design, development, evaluation, and continuously improve of online learning courses and programs.

The program prepares students to apply technologies in order to develop online courseware products, using iterative and formative processes and evidence-based methodologies to design dynamic learning content and assessments. Students will be prepared to apply these skills within academic institutions and within training & development environments of the private and nonprofit sectors. Through the study of instructional design, technology, and online learning theories, students will gain the experience needed to solve instructional challenges, evaluate and use technology and multimedia tools, and ultimately create and deliver high-quality online programs and interactive courseware.

Program of Study
The degree of Master of Science in Instructional Design and Technology requires that students complete 6 required courses and 4 electives, totaling 10 courses (30 credits).

Learning Outcomes
Graduates are able to:

  • Apply evidence-based learning science, pedagogical principles, and design thinking to the design, development, facilitation, and assessment of online courses and programs.
  • Develop digital learning experiences using various models of instructional systems design.
  • Design interactive, adaptive, and accessible multimedia-based instructional content.
  • Evaluate and integrate instructional technologies, platforms, and collaborative tools for use in diverse instructional settings and applications.
  • Resolve instructional challenges through the application of outcomes-based and competency-based learning and assessment strategies.
  • Apply ethical and legal standards to the creation and use of digital learning content, and to the analysis of student performance data to inform instructional design.
  • Demonstrate effective communication strategies and stakeholder management skills in the leadership of instructional design projects and teams.

Degree of Master of Science in Digital Marketing and Design

The marketing industry has changed. Businesses once relied primarily on paid media attention, and to some extent on earned media attention. With the advent of digital marketing, businesses are coming to rely on a converged media marketing model, which includes owned media attention (leveraging a channel created and controlled by the business, e.g. blogs, twitter feed, etc). The success of an individual business depends on the ability of the digital marketing specialists to understand and exploit these new models.

The Master of Science in Digital Marketing and Design program blends principles of design, tactics, and analysis across digital marketing, with a practical and applied focus. This program will cover the design and development of interactive media for use in digital marketing, the tactics necessary to deploy digital marketing initiatives, and the analytical frameworks to assess what is working and what is not in order to grow and optimize digital marketing campaigns. Students will gain a solid foundation in current web, media, and interface design practices across multiple platforms. Armed with the skills that inform what is technically, possible, students will then explore techniques to envision, plan, manage, and analyze digital marketing campaigns. Candidates will exit the program with a rich toolkit suitable for bringing a sound digital marketing approach to a variety of industries and companies.

Program of Study
The degree of Master of Science in Digital Marketing and Design requires that students complete 7 required courses and 3 electives, totaling 10 courses (30 credits).

Learning Outcomes
Graduates are able to:

  • Build and actively manage digital marketing campaigns across social media, website and mobile platforms
  • Have a comprehensive working knowledge of digital and social media platforms
  • Write appropriate content for online and digital audiences
  • Develop thorough digital marketing campaigns that integrate multiple channels
  • Track results of digital advertising through analytics tools and use the data to inform future marketing decisions
  • Use advanced media tools to enhance digital strategies
  • Communicate the value of digital marketing as it relates to an organization’s overall marketing strategy

Degree of Master of Science in User-Centered Design

The Master of Science in User-Centered Design program prepares students to guide a human-centered perspective in such areas as User Interface Design, Human Computer Interaction, Human Factors, User Experience (UX) and related specializations. The program provides students with the opportunity to develop a portfolio of artifacts that demonstrate their knowledge and ability to apply innovative thinking and a human centered approach to design as well as the leadership skills needed to implement and advocate for design thinking to foster innovation.

Program of Study
The degree of Master of Science in User-Centered Design requires that students complete 6 required courses and 4 electives, totaling 10 courses (30 credits).

Learning Outcomes
Graduates are able to:

  • Identify and apply a user-centered design process to a given problem.
  • Conceive, articulate and implement a design.
  • Develop effective methods and criteria for system organization and evaluation of designs.
  • Identify and apply social and psychological principles to predict and explain user response.
  • Identify and apply social and psychological principles when conceiving and implementing designs.
  • Identify the human factors that may influence user response, and define appropriate solutions.
  • Implement design thinking to foster innovation.

Degree of Master of Science in Digital Innovation for FinTech

“FinTech” (Financial Technologies) is financial industry composed of businesses that use technology to provide financial services and make financial systems more efficient. The Master of Science in Digital Innovation for FinTech develops professionals by offering graduate level courses that cross multiple disciplines including finance, software, analytics, entrepreneurship, and user-centered design. Students develop skills to create innovative technology solutions in application areas such as online investing, crowdsourcing and mobile payments.

Program of Study
The degree of Master of Science in Digital Innovation for FinTech requires that students complete 7 required courses and 3 electives, totaling 10 courses (30 credits).

Learning Outcomes
Graduates are able to:

  • Develop financial solutions that use technology in innovative ways.
  • Explain all aspects of a financial technology solution clearly and concisely to stakeholders, including why a certain technology would be relevant to a financial organization, and demonstrate awareness of the effect it might have on business.
  • Use entrepreneurial, analytical and decision-making skills to solve problems encountered by businesses and investors.
  • Resolve ethical issues in the context of financial markets and institutions.
  • Learn and apply financial theories to solve a variety of problems encountered by businesses and investors.
  • Analyze the complexities of the global economy and their impact on financial decisions.

Master of Science in Robotic Software Engineering

In traditional definitions, a roboticist is as an individual who designs, constructs, develops computer systems and programs for the operation of robots, and experiments with the use of robots. Robotics is, therefore, a highly interdisciplinary field, requiring expertise in a number of disciplines including computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, human–computer interaction and interaction design. For the purposes of this program, a Roboticist is someone who designs and implements programmatic solutions and software systems that drive the underlying hardware platform.

This program will ensure students develop these skills, which are in high demand for prospective roboticists. The ideal student has good analytical, problem solving skills and an engineering mindset. This program will expose them to the core problems that have to be solved when developing smart robots: robots that perceive and react to the world around them. Students will be able to identify the challenging problems and design programmatic solutions that address those problems. The program takes a hands-on approach to learning and will involve software development in C++/Python utilizing some of the popular software stacks used in Robotics such as OpenCV, ROS, PCL and more. Graduates will be able to take published state-of- the-art research advances and, using their own creativity, craft solutions.

Program of Study
The degree of Master of Science in Robotic Engineering requires that students complete 8 core courses and 2 electives, totaling 10 courses (30 credits).

Learning Outcomes
Graduates of this program are equipped to:
  • Design and implement programmatic solutions to enable robots to function autonomously
  • Develop modern C++ software to build end-to- end robot software systems
  • Understand and use design and architectural patterns that are prevalent in Robotic software systems
  • Effectively use tools in ROS, Gazebo, and analytic dashboards to drive engineering of the robot software system
  • Understand and use the technology stack required to make an autonomous robot. This stack typically consists of sensing, perception (vision and speech), planning, manipulation, execution, and feedback control.
  • Acquire the skillset required to transition robotics research to practice, while incorporating elements of good software design

Graduate Certificate in Learning Analytics

The online Graduate Certificate in Learning Analytics draws from two existing Brandeis GPS master's degrees: Strategic Analytics and Online Instructional Design and Technology. Cross disciplinary in nature, the program arms students with the necessary tools for breaking down the influx of available education data. Students receive a strong foundation in the toolsets and theory around business intelligence, data analysis and instructional design management. By developing an understanding of the technologies used to evaluate and catalog student behavior and experience, students who complete the certificate are well-positioned to play a pivotal role in supporting student success.

Program of Study
The Graduate Certificate in Learning Analytics is a 15-credit, five-course program.

Learning Outcomes
Graduates are able to:

  • Apply analytic tools and techniques to collect and manage large sets of learning data.
  • Analyze different types of learning data and use the resulting insights to inform instructional approaches.
  • Apply the principles of business intelligence and strategic analytics to improve student retention and performance.
  • Evaluate the legal and ethical implications of using learner performance data to inform organizational decision making.

Courses of Instruction

Listed below are courses of instruction for the Rabb School of Continuing Studies, Division of Graduate Professional Studies. Online courses are presented in 10 discrete weekly modules.

Courses are available to all students qualified to take them. Course prerequisites are listed on the GPS website. When course prerequisites are not met, access to some courses may be provided following instructor or program chair approval.

Generally, a course is offered with the frequency indicated at the end of its description. The frequency may be designated as every semester, every year, every second year, every third year or every fourth year. The university reserves the right to make any changes in the offerings without prior notice.

RBIF 100 Bioinformatics Scripting and Python Programming
This course is a high-content introduction to scripting and programming with applications in bioinformatics. It is appropriate for students with little previous programming experience. The course covers the fundamentals of working with Linux systems, using bioinformatics tools, and manipulating biological data files. The focus will be on scripting with Bash and Python. The course will also touch on topics such as how to interact programmatically with SQL databases and RESTful web services, and how to work with distributed compute systems to perform large calculations.

RBIF 101 Structural Bioinformatics
In this intensive course students will investigate the interrelationships existing amongst protein sequence, structure, and function through the lens of a structural bioinformaticist.  Topics covered range from analysis of protein structure to domain classification, phylogeny, structural modeling, interaction site prediction, and structure-based drug design.  Throughout the course students will be exposed to software tools utilized by structural bioinformaticists in their daily work.

RBIF 102 Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Disease
This course covers concepts of classic genetics, from Mendelian inheritance to quantitative and complex traits, associations and population genetics. It addresses the anatomy and function of genomes from humans and model organisms. Using the Human Genome Projects as an example, sequencing and mapping technologies are covered. Basic sequence analysis methods are introduced, along with techniques to navigate genome browsers and other relevant databases.

RBIF 106 Drug Discovery and Development
There are high expectations for bioinformatics to contribute to drug discovery. This course explores issues faced during drug discovery and development. Topics include the drug discovery process, its major players and its origins; scientific foundations of drug discovery; target product profile; disease and drug target selection, sources of drug-like molecules; assays and screening; medicinal chemistry; pharmacology; toxicology; and clinical trials.

RBIF 108 Computational Systems Biology
Computational systems biology is a field that aims to provide an integrative, system-level understanding of biology through the modeling of experimental data. The course covers interacting systems by defining the basic structures of the biological network that allow a living cell to maintain homeostasis under different conditions and perturbations.

RBIF 109 Biological Sequence Analysis
This course provides a foundation in sequence analysis and associated algorithms. Topics include homology searching, multiple sequence alignment, transcription factor binding site discovery, phylogenetics, gene prediction, RNAi sequence analysis, Gibbs sampling, Markov chains, Hidden Markov models, Genetic algorithms, information theory, expectation maximization, maximum likelihood, Bayesian methods, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods.

RBIF 110 Cheminformatics
This course covers modeling at the molecular level, with a focus on topics relevant to protein-ligand binding and cheminformatics. The first half of the course will cover topics in basic macromolecular structure and thermodynamics relevant to prediction and analysis of macromolecular interactions, and includes crystallography, energetics of hydrogen-bonding and hydrophobic interactions, and structure-based docking. The second half of the course will introduce the basics of cheminformatics, covering chemical structures, chemical descriptors, and methods for clustering and similarity-searching for compounds.

RBIF 111 R for Biomedical Informatics
This course is an advanced mathematics and applied statistics course that will introduce students to data analysis methods and statistical testing. It provides a foundation for Biological Data Mining and Modeling (RBIF 112) and Design and Analysis of Microarray Experiments (RBIF114). The course covers R (a statistical programming language) to introduce students to descriptive and inferential statistics, basics of programming, common data structures and analysis techniques. The course covers methods important to data analysis such as t-tests, chi-squared analysis, Mann-Whitney tests, correlation and regression, ANOVA, LDA, PCA, tests of significance, and Fisher’s exact test.

RBIF 112 Mathematical Modeling for Bioinformatics
The development of new bioinformatics tools typically involves some form of data modeling, prediction or optimization. This course introduces various modeling and prediction techniques including linear and nonlinear regression, principal component analysis, support vector machines, self-organizing maps, neural networks, set enrichment, Bayesian networks, and model-based analysis.

RBIF 114 Molecular Profiling and Biomarker Discovery
Microarrays are routinely used in genomic studies to detect changes in mRNA expression levels. These experiments have fundamental statistical and data processing challenges associated with them. This course covers: the statistical aspects of experimental design, biological and technical replicates, preprocessing, quality assessment, parametric and non-parametric statistical tests, multiple-hypothesis testing, P-value correction and false discovery rates, visualization techniques (e.g. heatmaps, volcano plots), and biological significance (e.g. functional annotation, pathways, hypergeometric tests, gene set enrichment).

RBIF 115 Statistical Genetics
This course covers methods in statistical genetics used to detect disease or quantitative trait loci in experimental and human populations. Basic concepts in Genetics, Genomics and Genetic Epidemiology are reviewed, with an emphasis on the statistical and practical issues involved in genetic analysis. Both linkage and association approaches will be covered, with a focus on applications in the human genome wide association (GWAS) setting for both SNPs and CNVs. Approaches to extracting and enriching GWAS through genotype imputation, GSEA, meta-analysis and genetics of gene expression analysis will also be covered, along with topics relevant to pharmacogenetics and techniques to analyze next generation sequencing data in a population setting.

RBIF 120 Research Topics in Computational Biology
This course introduces the basic techniques of bioinformatics research and its grounding principles in the scientific method. A committee of instructors assists each student in the design and execution of an advanced research project in computational biology. General focus for independent student projects will be chosen by the faculty committee, usually focused on a systems biology question. Student projects must incorporate programming and database-focused integration and management of empirical data, and involve two or more of approaches in systems modeling, sequence analysis (genomics/proteomics), artificial intelligence/pattern detection, discrete mathematics and statistics, or phylogenetics.

RBIF 290 Special Topics in Bioinformatics
The field of Bioinformatics is continually evolving. New biologic research as well as legal, ethical, and regulatory habits and practices around the world are subject to rapid and potentially wide-reaching change. New technologies are continually introduced that may foster new research capabilities. This Bioinformatics Special Topics course facilitates the introduction of cutting-edge practices and technologies as they are introduced in the industry.

RBOT 210 Modern C++ and Robotics Frameworks
This course will provide an introduction to Modern C++ with emphasis on template metaprogramming, C++11 idioms, shared pointers, etc. This course will also introduce the ROS framework and all of its core components. It will provide a tour of common libraries such as Boost, and Eigen and their use in ROS-based software development.

RBOT 220 Design and Architectural Patterns for Robotics
The software that drives robots is typically distributed and asynchronous. Numerous frameworks exist, and this course will provide a practical introduction to these frameworks, discuss the underlying design and architectural patterns, and examine how to build complex software systems in a distributed environment.

RBOT 230 Robot Sensing and Perception
This course provides an introduction to Computer Vision and AI, with several topics relevant to robotics such as SLAM, 3D Geometry, 3D Reconstruction, Object recognition, speech recognition, classification, RANSAC, etc. Students will connect to and use real sensors (2D, 3D) using common open frameworks.

RBOT 240 Machine Learning
Data driven learning is key to modern autonomous systems. This course will focus on the theory and algorithms in Machine Learning. Regression, Neural networks, Deep learning, Classification, Random forests, Support vector machines, PCA, clustering, EM and more.

RBOT 250
Robot Manipulation, Planning and Control
This course focuses on the algorithmic and mathematical concepts when dealing with robot planning, manipulation and control. Topics covered include kinematics and dynamics, as well as path planning algorithms. Simulations will be performed to test the related algorithms.

RBOT 260 Use Cases for Robotics Systems
This is a case-based course focusing on the system-level view of full robot systems. Use cases include aerial robots, self-driving cars, medical robotics, home robots, agricultural robots, and other application areas, with integration of all robotics sub-systems and simulations.

RBOT 280 Capstone I
Students design and implement software for a robot for a real-world robotics problem (via simulation) using the tools learned from this course.

RBOT 281 Capstone II
Students design and implement software for a robot for a real-world robotics problem (via simulation) using the tools learned from this course.

RBOT 205 Mathematics and Algorithm Design for Robotics
This is a foundational course and a prerequisite for Machine Learning and Robot Manipulation for those who do not have recent experience using these mathematical skills. Common mathematical concepts required in robotics will be covered including high-level calculus, probability, Bayesian/Markov tools, fundamentals of graph theory, and linear algebra.

RBOT 215 Data Intensive Software Systems for Robotics
This course will focus on the tools of the trade required to deal with large quantities of data from sensors and unstructured data streams. Students will learn the common data science tools used in the robotics industry.

RBOT 225 Python for Robotics and AI
Python is growing to be the defacto language among the varied scientific communities. This course will introduce the language and provide a tour of some of the common libraries such as numpy, scipy, pandas, matplotlib, JUPYTER notebooks, in the context of robotics and AI applications. Students will also learn about interfacing C++ and Python.

RBOT 235 Robot-Human Collaboration
This course will focus on computational aspects of design and algorithms used when robots interact with a human to increase the collaboration and overall productivity of both.

RBOT 290 Special Topics in Robotics Software Engineering
The field of Robotic Software Engineering is exciting and dynamic. New methods and uses are constantly evolving. This Special Topics course facilitates the introduction of cutting-edge robotic software engineering practices as they are introduced in the industry along with topics not covered by the required and elective courses.

RCOM 102 Professional Communications
This course prepares professionals with communication skills necessary for success in their fields. The course addresses interpersonal, small group and public communication, and involves extensive practice writing and speaking on a variety of informative and persuasive topics.

RCOM 202 Communication for Effective Leadership
This course enables students to build on their critical thinking skills and apply oral and written communication strategies to solve organizational problems and drive organizational change. Students will develop, execute, and measure strategies applicable to a wide range of industries. Topics include negotiation and facilitation; crisis communications and public relations; virtual and global communications; and stakeholder management.

RDFT 101 The New Economy: Global Disruption and the Emergence of FinTech
This course introduces students to the inner workings and challenges facing our global economy, and considers the ways that technology impacts these issues. Students explore the financial crisis of 2008 and how it led to the emergence of the FinTech industry. Students analyze current events in the global economic environment with respect to causes, responses and what can be learned. Students identify and examine the major global economic challenges of the near future, and identify potential technology solutions.

RDFT 110 FinTech: The Evolution of Technology for Financial Services
This course addresses the evolution of the financial industry landscape, the challenges and opportunities this new era presents, and the drivers behind the change. Students analyze case studies of well-known FinTech companies and discuss/debate value propositions, competition, business models and technology. Students examine recent trends and explore areas that are ripe for disruption in the industry.

RDFT 120 Analysis for Professionals
Professionals in the FinTech sector must be versed in the domains and vocabularies of their business. This course will examine the various components of financial accounting and reporting, how this information is used, as well as what elements are reported and why. Students examine various accounting reports and financial statements to identify risks. Students identify technology pitfalls and solutions regarding financial reporting and interpretation.

RDFT 130 Launching FinTech Ventures
This course introduces students to the exciting world of FinTech innovation and FinTech startup financing options. Students explore the options of venture capital investments (crowdsourcing, self-funding, etc.) and develop the skills needed to pitch their products. They learn how to identify competitors and develop the skills necessary to make sound financial decisions. Students come to understand financing from the perspective of both the investor and the entrepreneur.

RDFT 150 Strategic Planning
This course focuses on developing and implementing business strategies for the technology industry. Students use case studies to assess the internal and external environments of both established and emerging firms; incorporating economic, technological, sociopolitical and legal trends to evaluate a firm’s opportunities and threats. Students debate firms’ strategic decisions in the context of a technologically innovative ecosystem, and analyze how those strategies represent or do not represent a fit between the external environment (e.g., industry, competition, etc.) and a firm’s internal capabilities/competitive advantage. Students learn how to develop competitive advantage and assess competitive positioning.

RDFT 160 Python Programming
This course involves programming and problem solving using Python. Topics include procedures and functions, iteration, recursion, arrays and vectors, strings, an operational model of procedure and function calls, algorithms, exceptions, object-oriented programming and GUIs (graphical user interfaces).

RDFT 190 Digital Innovation for FinTech Capstone Project
This capstone course provides students the opportunity to exhibit their cumulative knowledge, skills and creativity related to FinTech, allowing them to pitch their products to business leaders.

RDFT 290 Special Topics in Digital Innovation for FinTech
This course introduces current topics impacting the world of FinTech, such as the advent of “RegTech,” a small cohort of startups/companies that are focused on providing solutions to compliance and/or regulatory related issues might be discussed. The course may also include guest speakers from the FinTech world introducing new concepts and or trends. Specific topics vary by offering.

RDMD 102 Digital Marketing Strategy
The Digital Marketing Strategy course is set up as a strategic and practical guide to diagnosing marketing gaps and opportunities for any organization - from high-growth B2B technology and SaaS companies to budding consumer brands. The course is designed to teach the fundamentals of Marketing the Future -the new ways brands connect with their customers and make a ripple in their markets - marketing based on trust, authority (expertise + reputation), and consistency. Included in the foundational topics covered in this class are the three stages of marketing: Marketing of the Past, or the "Mad Men" era, Marketing of the Present (1980 to 2000), or the Infomercial era, and Marketing of the Future (2000+), or the "Agile/Always in beta" era, In addition, this course will look at the principles of paid, owned, and earned as converged digital marketing, and the role of expertise and authority for community recognition, engagement and following.

RDMD 110 Principles of Search Engine Marketing
This course provides an overview of marketing with search engines including paid search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO). Topics include ad creation, keyword expansion, landing page optimization, monitoring, bid management, and analysis. Students will explore the various types of web designs including fixed, fluid, adaptive and responsive.

RDMD 120 Writing for Digital Environments
This course provides detailed information about how to write copy and messaging for various digital formats. Special attention is given to differences in form factor, audience targeting, and SEO (search engine optimization) implications of various types of content. Content marketing tactics are explored in detail.

RDMD 130 Multichannel Marketing Campaigns
The Multichannel Marketing Campaigns course is set up as a strategic and practical guide to designing, conducting and measuring multichannel marketing initiatives – for B2B and B2C brands. The course is designed to teach the fundamentals of 21st Century Digital Marketing – based on creating on-going, seamless customer experiences across digital and traditional channels. Included in the foundational topics covered in this class are the three stages of marketing: The New Customer Journey, and Why the Marketing Campaign is dead, Developing customer journeys – the fundamentals, and Content, Channels and Measurement for Consumer Journeys. In addition, this course will look at the principles of paid, owned, and earned as converged digital marketing, and the role of diagnosing the channels for acquiring new customers.

RDMD 150 Digital Imaging, Video, and Media Production
This course will explore the various formats for visual media, as well as how visual media conveys messages. Students will critique media for effective marketing messages.

RDMD 160 Ethics in Digital Design and Marketing
This course presents ethical dilemmas in digital marketing and works through the implications of various actions, such as tricking search engines (typically called "black hat" techniques), posing as customers in social media, making false or exaggerated claims, and using questionable or sneaky channels (e.g. popups and plugins). In this course, we will explore several issues or concepts in depth, first introducing the facets and aspects of the topic, then utilizing that knowledge to develop our principles and values through dialogue and the examination of multiple perspectives.

RDMD 290 Special Topics in Digital Marketing & Design
The field of Digital Marketing is continually evolving. New technologies, methods and platforms are continually introduced and evolving that may foster new marketing capabilities. The Digital Marketing & Design Special Topics course facilitates the introduction of cutting-edge practices and technologies as they are introduced in the industry.

REDU 210 Shifting Mindsets to Shelter English and Content Instruction
A hybrid professional development course that extends learning from RETELL by deepening your understanding of the language you use every day in your teaching. You will practice and apply methods for planning, instruction, assessment, and reflection to identify some “best practices” for future SEI. Course completion earns participants 15 PDPs with an option to earn 30 additional PDPs and 1 graduate credit from Brandeis Graduate Professional Studies.

RHIN 110 Perspectives on Health/Medical Information Systems
This course serves as an introductory course in the Health and Medical Informatics curriculum. The focus is on Health and Medical Informatics as a discipline and includes the coverage of major healthcare policies and standards that affect the health information industry, patient care systems (computerized patient records, delivery and monitoring systems), and modeling concepts and applications. Students will explore the impact of Information Technology on healthcare and analyze real applications of Health Informatics. Other topics include: healthcare system reform/accountable care, mobile health devices, telehealth and HIEs. This course also provides the opportunity for students to explore their own interests in sub-specialties of Health Informatics through a research project that will be shared and reviewed by other students in the class at the end of the semester.

RHIN 115 Health Data and Electronic Health Records (EHRS)
This course is designed to provide current and aspiring health/medical IT professionals with an understanding of the challenges of collecting and maintaining electronic health data. The course focuses on issues specific to health data and the systems implemented to collect and store it. This includes an overview of various types of hospital systems; methods used to interface between systems; and operations issues typical of hospital systems. The course also includes a study of controlled medical vocabularies typically used to define various types of health data as well as a survey of existing and evolving government driven standards and regulations.

RHIN 120 Health/Medical Information Systems Security
This course addresses security, privacy, and compliance issues as they impact health information systems. The course explores and evaluates the moral and ethical concepts of information security. Students will explore security issues including restricted access and physical security of hardware/software along with the evaluation of information security tools. The course covers health data integrity, risks, and audit ability techniques along with regulatory compliance, confidentiality and privacy of patient data. The overall goal of the course is the evaluation and implementation of security in health information systems.

RHIN 125 Data Analysis and Decision Support for Health Informatics
This course is designed to familiarize students with the different types of healthcare data, assure the quality of the data and how to understand and communicate the information provided in support of effective decision making by the various stakeholders of the healthcare system. Study and discussion topics will include how to choose the correct information for different decisions and communicate its meaning to users. Students will evaluate statistical methods and tools. The difference between research databases and operational databases will be covered along with techniques to effectively communicate quantitative healthcare data using tables and graphs. Methods for choosing the right medium will be explored in depth.

RHIN 126 Advanced Healthcare Data Analytics
This course will provide an in depth and real-world understanding of modern day health care data analytics. Students will be able to understand the business goals and objectives as to why various types of health care organizations and emerging models of care are utilizing and dependent upon health care data analytics. Students will be able to understand the importance of the various types of electronic healthcare systems and integration models in order to ensure accurate and reliable data in providing effective and efficient health care data analytics. Through assignments, case studies and class exercises, students will be able to understand the tools and techniques used to evaluate key components of health care analytics including operations, financial, quality, utilization, care retention, policy and contract management. Furthermore, the understanding of payor claims data and various types of healthcare data standards will be an integral part in understanding the foundational elements in providing health care analytics. Finally, students will not only be able to analyze and interpret various categories of health care data analytics, they will also be shown the most effective ways to illustrate and present data to a number of different types of key stakeholders in various health care organizational settings.

RHIN 130 Healthcare Delivery in the U.S.
The healthcare delivery system in the U.S. is complex and in order to navigate it successfully students must have a fundamental understanding of the events and policies that have shaped the current environment in which they will be working. In addition to providing an overview of how the U.S. system has developed, this course will place a substantial focus on how healthcare data has developed over time and the ways in which it has informed the changes to the delivery system.

RHIN 150 Emerging Technologies in Health/Medical Informatics
In today’s dynamic healthcare information technology environment, emerging technologies represent a critical and exciting field of study. Advances in technologies across all aspects of healthcare promise to make dramatic impacts in terms of the efficiency and efficacy of care with major implications for clinical quality and cost. This course introduces students to a number of emerging classes of healthcare information technologies. In addition, the course considers the unique challenges that the healthcare industry presents in terms of planning, implementation, and adoption of new technologies. While the content of the class is dynamic and continually evolving, emerging technologies are broad enough to be split into static categories. The categories present emerging technologies that represent the major fields within Health and Medical Informatics, including: Health/Medical information systems (including hospital-based information systems, billing, scheduling, etc.), Clinical/decision support systems, including standardized language lexicon Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Health Information Exchange (HIE) technologies including integration issues and standards. E-health, telemedicine, connected health, location-based technologies, personalized medicine.Inter-disciplinary integrations: Bioinformatics (Biomedical informatics), etc.

RHIN 160 Legal Issues in Health and Medical Informatics
This course will offer students an opportunity to understand an historical perspective of Health Law, including how to assess liability in the workplace, the impact of information management and healthcare records, medical malpractice, risk management, current ethical and legal dilemmas in the practice of healthcare. This course focuses on some of the legal issues encountered in creating electronic interfaces between patients and the healthcare system in a variety of ways in which healthcare data is being utilized to support and enhance patient care, including documenting medical encounters, and serving as a benchmark of provider quality. Topics covered will include statutory and case law applicable to medical records and the developing regulatory infrastructure for such records. We will discuss the importance of use of electronic data in medical practice, institutional healthcare information systems, the inter-institutional record systems, and the risks, benefits and challenges, including how to manage risk of the employer and patient through the use of health information management medical records and how to determine personal risk and how to recognize potential litigious issues.

RHIN 170 Clinical Business Issues in Health Informatics
This course is an introduction to healthcare business systems and models with a particular emphasis on the value of IT to the organization. This includes departmental design and management, capital and operating budgets, the budget planning process, and infrastructure design and strategic planning. Other topics include evaluation of vendors, vendor selection, purchase agreements and contracts, writing an RFP, analyzing an RFP response, clinical administration systems, and the design and management of integrated delivery networks.

RHIN 180 Strategic Application of IT in Healthcare
The course will focus on the challenges facing the healthcare CIO/Director with respect to organizational structure, alignment with enterprise strategy, portfolio management, and regulatory compliance. In addition the course will look at how the application of IT can transform healthcare delivery in the current environment.

RHIN 185 Population Health Informatics
The US healthcare system is in the midst of a period of unprecedented change. Population health management (PHM) focuses on the improved management of groups of patients through the assessment of various levels of risk and the development of care management frameworks to improve outcomes and reduce expenses. This course will examine the impacts of PHM on health care IT systems including: engaging primary care physicians in the hospital workflow; data interoperability both inside and outside of the enterprise; patient engagement; analytics for risk assessment and operational efficiencies; EHR workflows for PHM; and tools for long term care management.

RHIN 190 Advanced HMI Systems Security and Risk Management
This course is designed to introduce the student to Risk Management in the enterprise with a focus on the specific needs and challenges of the healthcare industry. This includes an overview of how risk is identified and planned for in the healthcare organization, how risk is financed, the basic principles of insurance, and what metrics allow risk to be measure and monitored.

RHIN 200 Health/Medical Informatics Independent Study Project
The purpose of this course is to provide students an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of a core competency in the health and medical informatics field. Students will write an in-depth research paper that summarizes and reflects upon their work. Prior to registering for this course, students must have an agreement for supervision from an instructor and an approved statement of intent that includes an abstract of the project along with its objectives and preliminary milestones.

RHIN 290 Special Topics in Health and Medical Informatics
The field of Bioinformatics is continually evolving. New biologic research as well as legal, ethical, and regulatory habits and practices around the world are subject to rapid and potentially wide-reaching change. New technologies are continually introduced that may foster new research capabilities. This Bioinformatics Special Topics course facilitates the introduction of cutting-edge practices and technologies as they are introduced in the industry.

RIAS 101 Foundations of Information Security
Foundations of Information Security provides an understanding of the fundamental elements and technology “building blocks” of information assurance and computer security. The objective of the course is to provide coverage from the ground up on applied security concepts and technologies related to IT infrastructures, along with the attacks, threats and vulnerabilities currently faced by organizations. This course will expose students to fundamental security technologies and concepts in the areas of access control, cryptography, telecommunications and network security, application development security, and physical (environmental) security. This course provides the foundation for the remaining courses in the Information Security program.

RIAS 102 Information Security Management
Foundations of Information Security Management will expose students to higher-level security concepts, infrastructures, standards, protocols and best practices that are necessary for today's Information Security professional. Building on the knowledge of fundamental security technologies covered in Foundations of Information Security, students will develop an understanding of the fundamental tenets of information assurance solutions for businesses, government agencies and enterprises which require the establishment of a comprehensive security strategy and execution plan. This course will expose students to key concepts and principles in security operations; security architecture and design; information security governance and risk management; business continuity and disaster recovery planning; and topics in legal, regulations, investigations and compliance.

RIAS 110 Identity Management and Access Control
This course covers the concepts and practices of using user access control techniques and mechanisms to appropriately address security requirements such as confidentiality, integrity, authentication, authorization, and accountability. Concepts explored include common IT security challenges; the role of cryptography; access control principles, mechanisms, and techniques related to user identification and strategies for enabling stronger authentication using Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI), smartcards, and biometrics; enterprise identity management concepts; and industry standards for enabling identity provisioning, single sign-on, and federation.

RIAS 115 Information Technology Forensics and Investigations
This course covers both the principles and practice of digital forensics. It investigates the societal and legal impact of computer activity including computer crime, intellectual property, privacy issues, legal codes; risks, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures; forensic tools and techniques to uncover illegal or illicit activities left on disk and recovering files from intentionally damaged media; specific manifestations of cyber crime, including hacking, viruses, and other forms of malicious software; methods and standards for extraction, preservation, and deposition of legal evidence in a court of law. The course maps to the objectives of the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists (IACIS) certification to provide credible, standards-based information.

RIAS 120 Securing Applications, Web Services, and Software-As-A-Service (SAAS)
This course covers applied security concepts, technologies, techniques, patterns, best practices and checklists intended for securing Web based applications, XML Web services and SOA. The course illustrates the real-world security challenges in IT applications and drills down on strategies for identifying security threats and risks; adopting a security design methodology; implementing security architecture using patterns and best practices; and performing security testing and production deployment.

RIAS 125 Principles of Computer Incident Response and Investigation
This course presents methods to identify vulnerabilities and take appropriate countermeasures to prevent, mitigate, and manage information failure risks for an organization. The course provides a foundation in disaster recovery principles, addressing concepts such as incident response; disaster recovery planning; risk assessment; policies and procedures; roles and relationships of various members of an organization; implementation of the plan; testing and rehearsal of the plan; and actually recovering from a disaster to insure business continuity.

RIAS 140 Cloud Security
Cloud computing is ubiquitous. Understanding Cloud and adding value in the migration, implementation, auditing and management of Cloud solutions and service models is the frontier of today’s security leader. Increasingly our role is demanding advisory guidance and insight to groups such as Legal, Procurement, and Senior Executives. Being conversant in SaaS, PaaS, IaaS is no longer an option but is now a requirement, and integrating Cloud knowledge into a security program and security leadership will demand a multifaceted understanding of the technical, the managerial, and the business objectives. The focus of this course is to provide insight into: Cloud definitions and service models, Cloud risk assessment and auditing, Cloud security and controls, Data governance and management ,Cloud contract management and managed service provider management, and Legal and regulatory considerations. Our goal is a comprehensive view on Cloud that will enable the security leader to become fluent in assessing, negotiating, managing, controlling and reporting upon Cloud value and Cloud data protection in their organization.

RIAS 150 Principles of Risk Management in Information Security
Your focus will be to understand how to perform information security risk assessments and how to communicate your findings to executives and the Board. Awareness of the information security risks related to confidential information, intellectual property, and the consequences of disruptions to our business objectives is increasing. We are also seeing Board’s beginning to take notice and ask questions, expecting that they will be reported to by information security just as they would Risk, Audit, Compliance and others. This course will review practical information security risk assessment frameworks and methods for quantifying uncertainties related to business decisions about information security.

RIAS 155 Secure Mobile Applications and Data
This course appraises vulnerabilities and threat vectors associated with Mobile Computing Devices. Specific emphasis on mitigation techniques including security configurations as well as security software.
Topics will include the following: Mobile Computing Overview, Wireless Communications Infrastructure Vulnerabilities, Wireless Communications Infrastructure Vulnerabilities Mitigation Techniques, Mobile Platform Vulnerabilities, Mobile Platform Vulnerabilities Mitigation Techniques, Mobile App Vulnerabilities, Mobile App Vulnerabilities Mitigation Techniques, Mobile Device Vulnerabilities, Mobile Device Vulnerabilities Mitigation Techniques and Organizational Mobile Device Security Policy Requirements

RIAS 172 Network Security
Network security is a broad term that can refer to the security of devices that comprise the network infrastructure, the traffic sent over that infrastructure, the hosts (clients and servers) attached to the infrastructure, the applications that utilize the network, the user community and the policies that govern usage of that network.
In this course, we will use the first four layers of the OSI protocol stack (physical, link, network, and transport) to introduce many aspects of network security. In particular, we will consider how devices at each layer provide “defense in depth” by securing communications traffic as well as preventing unauthorized access. Our examination will be enhanced by using various security tools to observe network traffic that illustrates how security can be applied throughout today’s enterprise.

RIAS 175 Information Security and Compliance
This course covers key topics in Information Security, Privacy and Compliance. In an era of cheap computing in the cloud, unprecedented attacks from professional hackers and nation-state actors and stricter regulatory enforcement, balancing the needs of the enterprise while keeping its digital assets safe has become more challenging than ever. The course will cover the basic topics of information security from both Policy and Technical perspectives and will also address the soft skills needed to become an information security executive and build a security mindset. Course concepts will include cost vs. risk balancing and risk-based decision making, administrative and technical methods for security, privacy and compliance, Privacy regulations and IT compliance.

RIAS 180 Leading Security in Complex Organizations
A recent study published two interesting facts: 1. 85% of board members [surveyed] believe that IT and security executives need to improve the way they report to the board. 2. 59% of Board members [surveyed] say that one or more IT security executive will lose their job as a result of failing to provide useful, actionable information. This course prepares new student leaders to communicate effectively to senior leaders and Board members on matters such as; IT security metrics and requirements, security risk management and data privacy topics, IT policy and regulatory matters. Student leaders will develop and practice skills necessary to report and elicit budget and financial impact on plans and department, qualitatively and quantitatively characterize and report upon risk and security metrics, and develop written and oral presentation skills.

RIAS 290 Special Topics in Information Assurance and Security
The field of Information Assurance and Security is continually evolving. New standards are introduced, organizations adopt novel approaches and refine existing methodologies for protecting information. This Special Topics course facilitates the introduction of cutting-edge assurance and security practices as they are introduced in the industry along with topics not covered by the required and elective courses. Special Topics are offered periodically.

RIDT 101 Principles of Online Instructional Design
This course introduces students to the foundational instructional design methodologies and models commonly utilized in the design and development of online courses, training modules, or programs. Students explore the application of evidence-based learning science to online course development through instructional design systems such as ADDIE, outcomes-based backwards course design, and more contemporary models, such as SAM (Successive Approximation Model). Participants examine the roles and responsibilities of the instructional designer as they relate to the online learner, instructor, subject matter expert, and others. Students explore best practices related to synchronous and asynchronous delivery of online learning content. Throughout the course, students will apply macro and micro design principles and collaborate to design and create online lesson prototypes; write measurable learning outcomes and related assessments; select and curate appropriate learning resources; integrate task analyses; and design activities that foster online learning communities and promote collaborative learning in asynchronous environments.

RIDT 110 Foundations of Instructional Technology for E-Learning
This course introduces students to the technologies, systems, and toolsets commonly used to support the design, delivery, and assessment of synchronous and asynchronous online learning and training. Students explore the various types of platforms that support instructional design and online learning activities, including learning management systems (LMS), personal learning networks (PLN), open learning networks (OLN), content management systems, and others. Students will explore and evaluate a broad range of open and proprietary tools to support online instructional design, including communication and collaboration tools, assessment engines, electronic portfolios, rapid e-learning authoring tools, and others. Students will assess the capabilities of various instructional technologies to determine their efficacy in resolving online instructional challenges, and will investigate new and emerging tools.

RIDT 115 Digital Ethics & The Legal Landscape of Instructional Design
This course explores the evolving legal and ethical landscape in which instructional designers and technologists must practice. Students will examine legal issues arising from intellectual property, copyright law, including the fair use exception, the TEACH Act, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act; federal laws related to accessibility for learners with disabilities; and FERPA, a federal law that protects the privacy of education records. Students will apply laws to realistic scenarios that arise in the design setting, developing best practices to minimize the risk of liability. Students will also explore the ethical challenges that arise in practice, including the creation of instructional materials that support a diverse learner audience, implications of the “digital divide,” and conflicts of interest stemming from opportunities for personal gain outside of the employment relationship. Students will work to develop their own ethical code to guide their professional paths.

RIDT 120 Learning Management Systems for Course Development
This course will introduce students to Learning Management Systems (LMS) as the primary content authoring tool for online instructional design. Students will compare the feature sets of a number of LMS platforms, and evaluate best practices and workflows for authoring within such systems. Students will explore methods for course facilitation using LMS-driven tools, and examine how the LMS can support both synchronous and asynchronous approaches to online learning. Then, as course creators, students will work in teams and use an LMS to author and build their own online course content. Through hands-on practice, discussion, and critique, students will practice applying sound instructional design practices in tool selection; effective course design; and facilitation of a collaborative and constructive learning environment.

RIDT 130 Online Facilitation and Assessment Strategies
This course emphasizes the application of learning science and cognitive theories in adult education, training, and professional development to the online learning environment. Students will explore the pedagogical underpinnings of online instructional design and apply these best practices to course design and facilitation. Students will also examine the process of gathering and evaluating data applicable to various aspects of improving human performance for the purpose of making instructional decisions, and will explore training/learning needs assessments, and best practices for outcomes-based assessment of learning, comprehension, and transfer of knowledge, in the online classroom and/or workplace learning environment. The course will emphasize online instructional techniques key to fostering the development of healthy online learning communities. Students will gain the ability to apply the principles of instructional design and online learning assessment in educational and corporate settings.

RIDT 140 Managing Instructional Design Projects
This course provides students the opportunity to apply best practices in the management of complex online instructional design projects, including the initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure of instructional development projects, including practical techniques to develop and manage scope, budgets, schedules, quality, resources. The course will explore the application and integration of both traditional and agile project management practices to existing online instructional design and development methodologies. Students will analyze and demonstrate both the project management and business analysis responsibilities associated with the instructional development project life cycle.

RIDT 150 Instructional Design and Technology Practicum
This practicum course provides students the opportunity to exhibit their cumulative knowledge, skills, and creativity related to online instructional design and technology. Students will demonstrate their ability to integrate design, pedagogical and technological principles and skills by applying them to a real-world project. Students will serve in a consulting capacity, and work independently or in small groups with a subject matter expert or client on a real project. Alternately, students may create a solution for an existing case study on an e-learning project that requires assessment, design, development, project management, and evaluation. Through development of an actual online instructional design project/product, the practicum allows students to experience the application of the skills and knowledge they have acquired in the prerequisite courses, and will result in the development of a high-quality portfolio project.

RIDT 155 Business Requirements Analysis
Project managers frequently interface with business analysts and can be tasked to take on requirements management and business analysis tasks, therefore they will be more effective if they possess key skills such as requirements elicitation, requirements analysis & documentation, and solution validation. This course covers topics and techniques that are aimed to equip the project manager with core business and requirements analysis skills that can prove critical to project success.

RIDT 165 Competency-Based & Adaptive Instructional Design
Competency-based learning is a rapidly emerging trend in online learning for higher education and corporate training, as institutions transition away from the traditional time-based ‘contact hours’ to a system of learning assessment that focuses on individual mastery of skills or competencies. This course provides students with an opportunity to explore these new models from the online instructional design and technology perspective. Students will examine how adaptive learning techniques, technologies, and platforms can be utilized to support competency based learning, and how instructional materials and strategies can be modified and enhanced to deliver competency-based and adaptive learning courses in the online environment.

RIDT 170 Interactive Multimedia Courseware Design
This course provides students with the opportunity to explore and utilize a variety of creative E-Learning authoring tools to plan, design, develop, and deploy highly interactive courseware and multimedia learning resources. Students will apply instructional design best practices to the design and integration of both static learning materials, such as data-driven infographics, slide presentations, and icons; and dynamic content, such as video, audio podcasts, animations, interactive lessons, and simulations. Students will evaluate and compare the capabilities of a number of rapid E-learning authoring tools, and harness them to create high-quality online learning resources. The course will also emphasize the development of universally accessible multimedia.

RIDT 180 Learning Analytics
The collection and analysis of data has dramatically altered how decisions are made and resources are allocated in a variety of industries. In online instructional design and technology, learning analytics are emerging tools to improve how online students learn, and how employees are trained through data-informed course design and instructional practices. This course will provide students an opportunity to explore learning analytics and how they can be deployed in various contexts in the online instructional design and technology field. Students will explore the implications of learning analytics in their organizations, and evaluate how it relates to concepts such as educational data-mining and academic analytics. The toolsets and methodologies, ethics and privacy considerations, and the systemic impact of learning analytics on institutions and organizations will be explored. Students will evaluate the present state of data analytics for instructional design, and assess possible future directions of the field. Students will apply the concepts presented in the course to analyze, plan, and deploy small-scale learning analytics pilot projects.

RIDT 290 Special Topics: Emerging Innovations in Online Instructional Design
The field of Online Instructional Design & Technology is continually expanding and makes the news both national and globally as institutions of higher learning and corporate training operations alike are migrating their once traditional education programs into the online education space. This Online Instructional Design & Technology Special Topics course facilitates the introduction of cutting-edge instructional design practices—as they are introduced in the industry. This course provides students the opportunity to focus on the state of the art in online instructional design and distance education, including emerging theories, ideologies, and technology innovations. Students explore the changes to infrastructure and culture that must be considered to support and implement innovations in online learning. The course emphasizes creative applications of technology for staff and/or faculty development and training, learning content, academic and student/user support services, open source utilization and partnerships, peer learning, and self-directed learning paradigms. Students will critique and develop plans to creatively address gaps in the current capabilities of today’s instructional design and technology landscape.

RMGT 101 Perspectives on Information Technology
This course serves as an introductory course in the IT management curriculum. This course also serves as a strong foundation for the two-course sequence in strategic IT management: RMGT 102 and RMGT 103. This course covers the wide range of technologies in use in modern organizations. The course covers the major issues involved in selecting and deploying particular technologies based on the requirements of a particular project. The course provides a foundation for future study in strategic deployment of information technology in support of the business.

RMGT 102 Strategic Information Technology: Operational Strategy
This course examines strategic operational issues from the perspective of the CIO or IT Director, exploring how IT organizations can best be managed. The course explores best practices for deploying limited financial and human resources for optimal results.

RMGT 103 Strategic Information Technology: Organizational Strategy
This course covers strategic issues for the IT organization within the context of the larger organization and the relationship between the two. The course helps current and future IT Directors and CIOs effectively exploit information systems technologies within the context of a company's overall business needs.

RMGT 110 Leadership, Team-Building, and Decision Making
The course addresses the applicable organizational skills to function as a leader in an organizational setting, and places special emphasis on personal strategies for developing leadership skills. This course explores leadership as a process by which one person influences the attitudes and behaviors of others. It looks at leadership of large organizations and groups, including teams. Concepts covered include various leadership theories and models; leadership across cultures; leadership ethics and attributes; emotional intelligence; mentoring; team and relationship building; organizational change/development; and the role of the leader in establishing organizational culture and facilitating change.

RMGT 120 Legal and Ethical Practices in IT
This course focuses on the important legal, ethical, and societal issues associated with managing information technology resources, from multiple perspectives: technical, social, and philosophical. It examines the different ethical situations that arise in IT and provides practical techniques for addressing these issues. Concepts addressed include file sharing, infringement of intellectual property, security risks, Internet crime, identity theft, employee surveillance, privacy, and compliance.

RMGT 121 Organizational Behavior
This course explores the roles of individuals and teams within organizations and the skills and techniques required to manage successfully in the diversified organizations of the 21st century. Social networks and virtual teams are replacing committee meetings. Values and self-leadership are replacing command and control management. Diversity and globalization have become challenges as well as competitive opportunities for organizations. Co-workers aren’t down the hall; they’re at the other end of an Internet connection located somewhere else whether it is another city, state or country. Concepts covered include employee motivation and behavior, team cohesion and leadership; social networks as a source of power and organizational effectiveness; relevance of organizational behavior concepts and practices to organizations located in diverse national cultures. The course centers on three complementary perspectives, or "lenses", in an organization: the individual in the organization, and the foundations of individual behavior, including values, attitudes, job satisfaction, personality, emotions, and motivation; the groups and social processes, and the foundations of group behavior, including communication, group dynamics, team, management, decision making, power and conflicts; the organizational processes, and the concepts of organizational culture, principles of organizational structure, change management, learning and knowledge.

RMGT 125 Managing Technology Professionals
There are significant challenges to be found in managing today’s technology professionals including the rate at which the knowledge on which they draw changes, their goals and incentives, and the way in which project teams comprised mostly of technical professionals can “age.” This course focuses on issues that are of special interest to those managing technology professionals including analysts, developers, technical specialists, and infrastructure support personnel. We also discuss the importance of organizational structure, the ways it can affect performance, and the criteria upon which it should be chosen. Also included is an examination of organizational cultures, a contrast and comparison of various organizational structures, and managing stress in the constantly changing IT environment.

RMGT 160 Managing Change and Innovation
In a world increasingly dependent on the effective exploitation of technologies, driving a sustainable competitive strategy is dependent upon organizations fostering a climate of innovation and creativity. This course aims to provide students with competencies and analytic skills to investigate technological challenges within dynamic organizational contexts. Students will research, evaluate and apply appropriate change management processes and innovative solutions to achieve strategic objectives and competitive advantages.

RMGT 180 Crisis Response and Business Continuity Management
Crisis and contingency management are essential practice areas for technology leaders. Organizations have many moving parts and rely on many facets including people, processes, and technology to achieve their goals. Regardless of the perceived level of preparedness, a crisis or contingency event will affect the whole organization and that organization’s customers. How a technology leader approaches the planning, practice, and execution of crisis and contingency management may determine how quickly and completely an organization weathers such an event and can even set that organization ahead of its competition.

RMGT 290 Special Topics in Technology Management
The field of Technology Management is continually evolving. This Special Topics course facilitates the introduction of cutting-edge practices and technologies as they are introduced in the industry.

RPJM 101 Foundations of Project Management
This course covers the history, current practice, and future directions of project management. Principles and concepts of project management are presented and discussed within the context of the knowledge areas and process groups defined in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK ®). Concepts covered include process groups from initiation through closure; techniques for estimating and reporting; management of risk, quality, resources, and communications.

RPJM 103 Project Scheduling and Cost Management
Projects attempt to achieve maximum value for minimum cost, and they often compete with other projects and operations within the organization for resources and financing. This course covers recently developed methods and value based metrics that, properly applied, can significantly impact project and portfolio value and revenue. By quantifying each side of the classic Triple Constraint Triangle, the value returned by the project and its contribution to the organizational portfolio can be accurately assessed and optimized. The course focuses on the project as an investment, and addresses both the theoretical and practical skills necessary to successfully manage that investment. Techniques covered include Estimated Monetary Value of the project scope; critical path and precedence diagramming methods of scheduling; resource optimization; and decision-making processes that optimize both project performance and return on investment.

RPJM 110 Risk Management for Projects and Programs
This course covers risk management processes and techniques in depth, exploring the systematic and iterative approaches that encompass risk planning, identification, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, response planning, and monitoring & control. The course addresses risk management principles consistent with the PMBOK®. Techniques for building and applying a risk management toolkit are explored, as are methods to implement risk management programs within an organization.

RPJM 113 Negotiating and Conflict Resolution
Conflicts of interest are common in project and program management, business environments, and daily life. This course provides a framework to understand the basis of conflict, to select an appropriate conflict resolution strategy, and to employ tactics that optimize results for both individuals and organizations. Characteristics of negotiation explored include the two fundamental strategies of negotiation; frames of reference; value creation; value claiming; and the impact of both tangible and intangible factors on the negotiation process.
With globalization of project management and the implementation of virtual teams, the challenges to successfully resolve conflicts become increasingly complex. Approaches to conflict resolution differ among collocated and virtual teams, and cultural differences, interests, and values influence negotiation strategy and tactics. As each element of the conflict resolution process is explored, the course highlights special considerations for virtual team members. Extensive role play is incorporated in this course in order to demonstrate principles learned. To facilitate this activity, a webcam is required for this course.

RPJM 115 Challenges in Project Management
This course examines the various challenges that more often than not arise within the project lifecycle, threatening project success. The course also examines the reasons these challenges occur, when in the lifecycle they tend to happen, and solutions for anticipating, preventing, minimizing and/or mitigating them.

RPJM 117 Program Management: Theory and Practice
Programs connect a company's strategic plans to the projects necessary to implement them. Programs frequently span many years, include multiple product releases, involve numerous and diverse stakeholder groups, and necessitate the establishment of a program office. This course covers the history, current practice, and future directions of program management. Concepts covered include program versus project, product, and portfolio management; the program manager role; the program life cycle, its phases and process groups, consistent with the PMI Standard for Program Management; themes of program management including benefits management, stakeholder management, and program governance; key program management deliverables; program office models; portfolio management concepts; and program management implementation within an organization.

RPJM 118 Procurement and Contract Management
This course covers the procurement process in depth, including concepts, principles and ethics, pricing methods, awards, and all phases of contract administration from both the seller and buyer perspectives. It explores the development of bids and requests for proposals; the evaluation of responses; and the capabilities and use of various types of contracts and pricing mechanisms. It addresses outsourcing (including market investigation, key risks, requirements definition and evaluations using performance based service agreements) and the evaluation and use of contract information systems.

RPJM 119 The Human Side of Project Leadership
This course examines the people-related aspects of project management across several areas, including team and stakeholder management; the role of the project manager in relation to the different levels, positions and personalities among the team and stakeholders; and the vital aspect of communications in effective project management. Also covered is the importance of project leadership vs. management, as well as an in-depth examination of the many people-related issues that often arise during the project lifecycle.

RPJM 130 Demystifying Agile Project Management
Agile project management techniques are being applied within a growing number of companies of various sizes and industries, from the entrepreneurial to the conservative. This course covers characteristics and delivery frameworks for agile project management. The course also explores how agile methods differ from traditional project management, along with how to recognize projects that may be suitable for agile techniques. Additional topics include the values, roles, deliverables, and practices of Scrum; additional agile and iterative methods; scalability and enterprise-wide considerations.

RPJM 290 Special Topics in Project and Program Management
The field of project and program management continually evolves. Project management professional groups such as the Project Management Institute (PMI) introduce new and revised standards each year; organizations adopt novel approaches and refine existing methodologies; updated industry data and case studies on the effectiveness of project management practices become available. This Project Management Special Topics course facilitates the introduction of cutting-edge project management practices as they are introduced in the industry.

RSAN 101 Foundations of Data Science and Analytics
This course provides a foundation of the history and primary methods of analytics, including predictive, prescriptive, and descriptive. The course will also examine the various uses of analytics and how these methods identify and leverage competitive advantage in the era of ever-growing information requirements. This course will utilize case studies, trends, techniques, and best practices as it thoroughly examines the topic of analytics.

RSAN 110 Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Decision Making
Business Intelligence can be described as the process of transforming data into knowledge. This transformation involves the use of processes and applications to extrapolate meaning from a company’s data. This meaning usually ends up on dashboards, so that senior management can monitor assumptions and key performance metrics that are part of long-term planning cycles. As Business Intelligence processes mature, they begin to focus on using data to gain new insights. We call these processes Business Analytics, and this information is the key to Strategic Decision Making. This course provides students the opportunity to develop an in-depth understanding of the modern uses of business intelligence processes. Many companies now commonly use analytics to bridge the gap between existing business intelligence processes and current day needs. Students will be able to understand the business goals and objectives driving these needs. The course also explores the importance of various types of information systems and infrastructure as a framework for business decision-making.

RSAN 120 Statistics and Data Analysis
This course presents fundamental principles of statistics in the context of business-related data analysis and decision making, including methods of summarizing and analyzing data, statistical reasoning for learning from observations (experimental or sample), and techniques for dealing with uncertainties in drawing conclusions from collected data. Topics covered include applied probability, sampling, estimation, hypothesis testing, linear regression, analysis of variance, categorical data analysis, and nonparametric statistics.

RSAN 130 Strategic Analytics and Visualization for Big Data
This course will focus on the topic of big data and its management, including the tools and techniques designed to effectively analyze and visualize big data for strategic advantage. The course will cover definitions and concepts related to the areas of big data, strategic analytics, and data visualization; the overall problem of big data and the tools and techniques designed to manage it; and the ways in which strategic analytics and visualization can be utilized in different fields and industries to have a strategic impact on an organization’s competitive advantage in today’s business environment. The course will also address the future path of big data management, analytics and visualization, including career options and outlook.

RSAN 140 Marketing and Customer Analytics
This course will provide an introduction to advanced analytics and measurement in the areas of social networking and media, web and marketing analytics. The topics covered include the history, tracking, performance, optimization, metrics, analysis, visualization, decision making, reporting and best practices in each of those three areas. E-commerce will also be covered as it relates to web and marketing.

RSAN 150 Data Quality and Governance
This course will provide an overview of data governance, including building a governance infrastructure with organizational management, roles and responsibilities, stewardship, governance communications, regulatory compliance, privacy concerns, data security, and risk management. Data quality will be addressed as a continuous issue in data management, and the challenge it poses as the volumes of data increase and the uses for data expand. Data ethics is included as a critical topic in terms of privacy, data manipulation, data sharing and ownership, conflict of interest, and communications.

RSAN 160 Predictive Analytics
This course will focus on the fundamentals of predictive analytics as it relates to improving business performance. The course will cover predictive models, key modeling techniques, scoring, non-parametric regression and classification, principal components analysis and dimension reduction, time series, quality control methods, multiple predictor variables, and decision trees. The course will utilize best practices and case studies to illustrate how predictive analytics can facilitate educated decision-making to reduce costs, increase revenues, and provide competitive advantage across a variety of industries.

RSAN 175 Analytics Strategy and Management
Organizations are experiencing unprecedented change due to the new realities of the digital world. Data now drives decisions in organizations more than ever before. Organizations have more data than they have ever had before, and more ways to analyze it are presented every day. Yet strategic initiatives continue to fail as often as they have in the past. Clearly a new approach to this issue is necessary. This course will cover an integrated approach to strategic management decision making, incorporating a thorough and realistic treatment of its relevance and its challenges. The course also covers how to plan and adopt big data analytics solutions through comprehensive planning, strategy development, and analysis.

RSAN 177 Data Security, Privacy and Ethics
The security and privacy of data is of utmost concern to organizations and individuals. Data ethics is viewed as a critical topic in terms of privacy, data manipulation, data sharing and ownership, conflict of interest, and communications. This course covers the legal considerations, ethical considerations, data ownership and potential exposure considerations inherent in framing the discussion of data, its collection, and use. This course will utilize case studies, trends, techniques, regulations, and best practices as it examines the topics of data security and the ethical questions associated with dealing in data.

RSAN 190 Project Management for Analytics
This course covers principles and concepts of project management in concert with the needs of analytics projects. Traditional techniques are presented and discussed within the context of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and agile project management best practices are covered. Concepts covered include process groups from initiation through closure; techniques for estimating and reporting; and management of risk, quality, resources, and communications. The dynamic nature of analytics projects, which include data warehouse implementations and business intelligence solutions, are characterized by uncertain or changing requirements and high implementation risks.

RSAN 290 Special Topics in Strategic Analytics
The field of Strategic Analytics is continually expanding and makes the news both national and globally every day. This Strategic Analytics Special Topics course facilitates the introduction of cutting-edge data practices—particularly around big data--as they are introduced in the industry. This course will cover new standards and practices as they are introduced, novel approaches and refined existing methodologies, and updated industry data and case studies on the most recent developments and practices in the area of Strategic Analytics.

RSEG 102 Software Development in Java
This course explores advanced topics of Java programming language, including object- oriented programming concepts; exceptions; generic programming and annotations; collections; Java foundations classes (JFC); delegation event model; layout managers; swing components including panels, menus, toolbars, and text components; multi-threading; streams and input/output programming; networking; and Java database connectivity (JDBC).

RSEG 103 Software Development in C++
This course provides a solid foundation of C++ with focus on object-oriented concepts and programming techniques. Concepts covered include classes, objects, abstract data types, file processing, inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism, overloading, reuse, and templates.

RSEG 105 Expert Software Development in Java
This course examines Java technologies a software engineer can use to meet the challenges of software development for large-scale development projects. Large-scale systems typically support a complex system architecture, incorporate a significant amount of business logic, interoperate with a variety of back-end and partner systems, and access various data stores. This course will focus on the following major technologies that meet these challenges: Spring Framework and RESTful Web Services.

RSEG 109 Object-Oriented Design with UML
Object-oriented modeling and design form the foundation of many software projects today and are pre-requisites to developing in C++, Java, and other object-oriented programming languages. This course covers object modeling and design techniques as they are applied from the point the high-level project requirements are established, through high level and detailed design, to the point where implementation is ready to start. The course focuses on Unified Modeling Language (UML), an approach that combines previously competing object modeling theories, as well as concepts including distributed object frameworks; design patterns; existing object-oriented languages such as C++ and Java; and lifecycle and maintenance issues of object-oriented applications.

RSEG 110 Linux Tools
This is a survey of several Linux tools and techniques: common commands, shells and shell programming, regular expressions, sed, awk, cron, make and a skimming of Perl. Comparisons to Windows will be used to illustrate similarities and differences and to illuminate the Linux system.

RSEG 120 Software Development Methodologies
This course covers non-programming related aspects and best practices of the software development process, from requirements engineering, architectural design, and quality management to software maintenance and process improvement. Concepts addressed include software engineering tools, models, and methodologies; requirements engineering and specifications; system modeling; business process analysis; VORD analysis; design foundations; high-level architectural design; control and distribution models; function-oriented design; object-oriented design; user interface design; estimating and scheduling; risk management; and software maintenance and improvement.

RSEG 122 Advanced Software Development Methodologies
This course is designed as a continuation of RSEG 120 Software Development Methodologies. This course will continue to explore software engineering through the remaining project processes – Architecture, Design, Testing, and Maintenance. This course will provide both theoretical discussion of the need for the various process components, but will also provide information useful in deciding when a particular is necessary or when it is excessive for a particular project. The course will cover the processes in the context of both waterfall and iterative development models.

RSEG 125 Foundations of Software Quality Assurance
This course covers a broad range of topics related to software quality assurance (SQA). The course explores the combined application of a variety of SQA components, including: SQA activities typically performed by external participants; extension of SQA activities to project schedules and budget control; SQA implementation issues, SQA risk management considerations; and costs associated with SQA.

RSEG 126 Release Control and Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (DevOps)
This course provides an introduction to theory, tools and techniques needed by software release engineers. It is intended to give students the skills to evaluate and use tools for continuous integration and delivery (DevOps).

RSEG 127 Software Engineering Studio
This course provides an opportunity for students to work collaboratively on a complex software project. Organized in teams, students will analyze a software problem, develop requirements, designs, test plans, and deliver code. Students will synthesize skills learned in the Software Engineering program to deliver a significant project, under the guidance of faculty.

RSEG 128 User Interface Design
This course introduces user interface design principles and concepts of user-centered design. User Interface concepts for web, desktop and mobile applications are practiced in a variety of design projects. Universal design concepts, accessibility design, navigational schemas and elements of screen design are also discussed.

RSEG 131 Software Testing Techniques
This course covers topics related to software testing methodology, with a focus on realistic, pragmatic steps for testing consumer and business software. Concepts covered include test cycles; testing objectives; testing in the software development process; types of software errors; reporting and analyzing software errors; problem tracking systems; test case design; testing tools; test planning; test documentation; and managing a test group.

RSEG 150 Ruby Programming
This course introduces the fundamentals of Ruby, a popular open source dynamic language which balances functional (declarative) and imperative (procedural) programming. Students will learn how to obtain and install Ruby, create and debug programs, write test cases, and distribute Ruby software. The course will introduce the Ruby on Rails framework. The course is centered on a term-long course project.

RSEG 155 Functional Programming with Java and Scala
This course provides hands-on experience with functional programming—a style of programming that has seen increasing popularity due to its ability to work with complex concepts through highly adaptable models. Functional programming supports higher-level abstractions, customizable data structures, as well as concurrency and parallelism inherent in cloud computing and big data analytics. Students will use functional extensions of Java and a popular functional programming language Scala to apply functional programming approach to a variety of design, modeling and implementation challenges.

RSEG 160 Computer Communication: Redefining the Internet
This course emphasizes the "why" and the "how" of transporting information among distributed computer systems, using both wired and wireless infrastructures. We cover the information transmission and processing over a wide range of services, from those that depend on the Internet Of Things (IOT) to those that utilize "converged" multi-media real-time and non-real-time content. Concepts covered in some detail include: (i) meeting the communication requirements of services, e.g. telemetry, internal and external "cloud" communication, real-time robotic communication, that require subsets or modifications of the basic communication protocols in use for the last 40 years; (ii) meeting the communication requirements of services that require secure, errorless, and very high-speed transmission of real-time and non-real-time information, e.g. Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Peer-to-Peer (P2P) sharing (data/video), Video on Demand (VOD); (iii) how computer network architects and designers meet these service requirements by engineering computer networks (including the modern Internet) with continually updated hardware and software. In particular, the course emphasizes how the newest sets of communication protocols in common use support 21st Century computer network architecture and design.

RSEG 161 Web Development Technologies
This course provides an extensive examination of client and server side technologies used in developing web applications. On the client side, concepts addressed include how to create attractive and well-functioning web pages using XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript. On the server side, concepts addressed include web development with servlets, JavaServerPages (JSP), JSP Custom Tags, Java Standard Template Library (JSTL), JavaServerFaces (JSF), Ant, and Ajax, and how web applications, built with these technologies, access and interact with databases using Java Data Base Connectivity (JDBC).

RSEG 165 Design Patterns
Design patterns, an advanced area in object-oriented design, focus on solutions to problems commonly found in the design of object-oriented programs. This course covers the fundamentals of the core patterns: creational, behavioral, structural, and system patterns. Concepts covered include how to select a design pattern appropriate for a particular design problem; how to apply/implement this pattern in a language, such as Java or C++; and how these patterns are used extensively in the Java programming language and Java APIs, including patterns for reflection, security, AWT/Swing, RMI, JDBC, and J2EE.

RSEG 167 Microservices Architecture and Development
Microservices provide a proven architecture for building service-oriented enterprise applications of any scale. Microservices architecture enables development of complex software applications by decomposing them into smaller services that work together to form larger business services. Microservices are independent of each other, self-contained, and independently deployable. The Architecture part of the course will examine a technology-agnostic microservice capability model that addresses monitoring, managing, distributing, scaling, and discovery of microservices. The Development part of the course will focus on implementing responsive microservices at scale. This part of the course will use the latest proven frameworks and products to build scalable microservices: Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Docker, Mesos, and Marathon.

RSEG 170 Database Management
This course covers data modeling, including relational, object-oriented, and object-relational database design concepts and issues. Concepts addressed include relational theory and database design; entity relationship modeling; normalization; issues of design and implementation; issues of database integrity, security, recovery and concurrence; and object-oriented databases.

RSEG 171 Data Warehousing and Data Mining
This course covers the foundations of data warehousing and data mining, and then explores how these technologies convert information into knowledge. Data warehousing is compared and contrasted with operational databases, and the use of various data mining techniques are considered in terms of a variety of problems. From a technical perspective, a special emphasis is placed on data warehouse design and the most common implementation issues.

RSEG 175 Mobile Applications and Responsive Web Design
Mobile devices are increasingly prevalent and consequently demand attention from organizations. Mobile devices are not only a telephone -- they are small personal computers including smart phones, PDAs and tablets/iPad. The devices allow the user to access the Web, as well as introduce a world of applications. The Web sites and applications used through a mobile device have serious business impact and potential. This course covers the study hand-held of mobile devices and teaches hands-on approaches to working with them. Concepts addressed include how to create responsive Web sites that take advantage of mobile devices and creating custom device-specific native applications. Assignments will give students the opportunity to create responsive web sites and Android mobile applications that they can run on simulators and/or on their own mobile devices. Having a mobile device is not required and will not impact coursework or grade.

RSEG 176 Cloud Computing
The data center is increasingly virtual. In this class, students will explore “cloud”-based services, ranging from “Software as a Service”—using internet-based software suites such as Google Docs or Salesforce.com, through platform-based systems (PaaS) such as Microsoft’s Azure environment that make it easy to focus on developing new apps or services, to complete cloud-based infrastructure (IaaS) such as Amazon’s Web Services. The class also explores how use of the cloud also changes how we “do” IT. Cloud-based services are especially well-suited to Agile development and Lean Startup thinking. This leads to new ideas such as DevOps and “continuous deployment.” In addition, use of SaaS security systems changes how we integrate systems, how we handle identity and access management (IAM), opening up new threats—and new opportunities—to keep data secure. Finally, we will look at how the cloud enables us to work with more data than ever before, “Big Data”—NoSQL databases and scalable infrastructure (e.g., Hadoop). Students will learn how to evaluate the various cloud-based services and how to communicate that evaluation to decision-makers in the organization. There will also be a hands-on practicum using Amazon Web Services (AWS) and exploring the most common features of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and how IaaS, overall, differs from older paradigms of systems management and program architecture.

RSEG 180 Software Development in C#
This course covers the programming language C# (pronounced “C sharp”), used to develop Windows applications. The focus of the course is learning the .NET programming environment, Windows programming and the syntax and capabilities of the C# language. Concepts covered will include Microsoft Visual Studio .NET IDE, C# language syntax, control structures, arrays, exception handling, Windows graphical user interface, multithreading, strings, graphics and multimedia, files and streams, XML, database SQL and ADO .NET, ASP .Net, web forms and web controls, ASP .NET and web services, networking, data structures and collections.

RSEG 181 Agile Software Development
Agile Software Development has evolved into a flexible software lifecycle model, framework, and set of development techniques that present an answer to challenges of developing software projects under tight timelines and changing requirements. This course will use a variety of software projects and case studies to define agile software development practices and the concepts of adaptive and evolutionary refinement, and to demonstrate how they can be used to deliver software projects. The course will examine best practices in applying agile software development techniques as a flexible response to changes. SCRUM framework, a popular methodology in Agile Software Development, will be examined and used in team projects, as a flexible methodology for self-organizing teams.

RSEG 182 Advanced JavaScript Programming
The course gives students an opportunity to work with multiple JavaScript frameworks (client-side and server-side) utilizing asynchronous programming, persistence, caching, and more. This course will teach students how to design, build, and test scalable client-side and server-side applications in JavaScript. It introduces students to three popular JavaScript frameworks – AngularJS, Backbone.js, and node.js. AngularJS, a JavaScript framework created by Google, is a highly extensible set of tools that allows to create client-side code that is component-based and easily testable. Backbone.js is a JavaScript framework focused on keeping data in sync across various parts of a web application. Node.js is a JavaScript runtime built using the Chrome V8 engine. Students will explore these three advanced JavaScript frameworks through a set of projects that highlight the special features of each framework.

RSEG 290 Special Topics in Software Engineering
Special topics courses are offered each semester. Please see the Schedule of Classes for specific topics offered.

RUCD 101 Innovation & User-Centered Design
This course introduces students to a foundation in user-centered design methodologies and processes that are currently being utilized to drive innovation across a wide variety of modern industries. We will primarily focus in on how an embedded, organization-wide, design-driven mindset leads the way for innovation in on-screen experience design and development, while also leaving room for non-screen-based considerations. Students explore the theory and practice of user-centered design as a means of leading innovation through: design; critical qualitative and quantitative research; collaborative, interdisciplinary project work; conversations, reviews and interactive team-based activities; iterative design and development cycles; development of personas, use case scenarios and human-centered stories; usability testing and analytics; as well as other aspects of experience design. Students explore a collection of standard, fresh practices for informing and guiding design decisions throughout each iteration of the process. Throughout the course, students will leverage experience-driven, immersive activities to: sketch and design at various levels of refinement; drive and guide conversations around design decisions and rationale; research and create project-relevant personas; pull together preliminary research to inform initial design work as well as assess iterative designs with quick and dirty usability assessments; create napkin sketches, flow diagrams, wireframes, maps, visual comprehensives and prototypes to facilitate logical and productive design conversations; discuss organizational UX maturity and develop strategies for building better awareness, mindset and culture for user-centered design methodologies; as well as document your process, deliverables and collaborations to help you guide, optimize and promote the value of innovating through user-centered design.

RUCD 120 Cognitive and Social Psychology of User-Centered Design
This course will examine the psychological and social aspects that impact human interface interaction in both physical and virtual environments. Topics will include Signal Detection Theory, Gestalt Theory, Cognitive Load Theory, and various motivational theories ,as well as the cultural and social implications of design.

RUCD 130 Information Architecture
Information Architecture (IA) is defined as “The art and science of organizing and labeling shared information environments (web sites, intranets, online communities and software) to support usability and findability” (iainsitute.org). This course balances theoretical grounding of IA with practical design work. We will cover principles of IA as a professional practice and how to design effective, research-supported, user-centered information systems. Students will understand and apply information organization concepts, design and apply appropriate assessment techniques for particular information environments, and develop strategies to effectively communicate design rationale and advocate for users.

RUCD 150 Prototyping and Evaluation
Prototyping, evaluation and iterative design refinement make up the cornerstone of any meaningful, well informed product development process. Without the valuable feedback loop these research methods provide, there is no other more tangible and effective way to directly assess whether or not our users' needs will be met through our design work. Testing product features through prototyping and usability can provide critical insight to inform our design decisions and ultimately launch the best products possible in extremely efficient and cost effective ways. In this course we will discuss and explore how frequent, prototype driven user feedback cycles bring value: to the design process; to the business; and — most importantly — to the intended end users of the experiences we design. This course will provide students with direct exposure to the evolutionary process of user-centered design methodologies through prototyping, evaluation and iteration. Topics covered in the course include: prototype design and development (including rapid prototyping), various levels of visual and interactive prototype fidelity; basic usability practices for testing prototypes with users and stakeholders; as well as evaluation methods to continually assess and iteratively optimize an experience throughout the entire design lifecycle.

RUCD 160 Information Visualization Theory & Techniques
The goal of information visualization is to communicate information accurately and effectively to users, helping them to analyze and make decisions about data and evidence. The course will cover various data visualization theory and techniques, while providing students with the opportunity to apply them. Students will gain an understanding as to how humans visually perceive and make inferences from data graphics. They will experiment with various data models, graphical conventions, and tools as they design, innovate and evaluate data visualizations.

RUCD 170 Design Operation & Leadership
In this course students will learn the strategies for effective implementation particularly from an institutional/business perspective. Topics will include building an effective team, includes project management, cost analysis, and resource allocation. Leadership components include models and methods of leadership within the contexts of conceiving, designing, implementing and operating products, processes and systems, and models and theories, such as the Four Capabilities Leadership Framework.

RUCD 180 UX Design Processes
This course will provide students with the industry skills and techniques required to work effectively on a user experience (UX) or product team in the context of different organizational environments. Students will explore a range of development processes (Agile, Lean, SAFe, and many others), and learn how UX design and user research fit into those processes. Coursework will focus on developing and applying communication and collaboration skills. Topics will include obtaining stakeholder and executive buy-in for UX resources, process change, and the integration of design thinking and design critique activities into product development processes.

RUCD 185 Design of Non-Screen User Experiences
The opportunities to develop innovative user experiences are no longer limited to web and mobile interfaces. This course will introduce students to challenges that extend beyond the digital screen, including design for services, devices, and emerging technologies. The service design portion of the course will focus on techniques for understanding context of use and designing cohesive experiences across multiple touch-points. The UI design portion will introduce tools for designing and testing specialized UIs for embedded systems, Internet of Things (IoT), voice, and immersive environments.

RUCD 190 Capstone in User-Centered Design
This seminar-style course is intended to bring together all of the prior knowledge and skills that the student has obtained. Students will work independently or in small teams to produce a prototype of a product or system. The process will be an iterative, semester-long project in which students ( or small teams of students ) will identify the purpose of the design; construct a set of wireframe documentation with justification for the design, capturing the up-front intentions behind of the user experience; and mockup &/or prototype the UX with subsequent user testing that leads to a final prototype. With the exception of the final prototype, each part of the process will include peer reviews. A final presentation of the product will be the culminating activity, and will receive feedback from a program-curated group of industry experts.