Aspiring information systems professionals can boost their potential by earning a Master of Science in Management Information Systems from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The Collat School of Business’s online MS MIS program provides a comprehensive education and can give students the knowledge and abilities they’ll require when entering the world of information systems management.
Read on to learn about what the MS MIS curriculum includes and how it can help students prepare for their future careers in information systems:
Bridge program: Getting up to speed
The first part of the online MS MIS is the bridge program. This two-course series is designed to get students caught up if they have an undergraduate degree in a field other than information systems.
IS 591: Introduction to Networking and Computer Programming
To a non-programmer, it can be challenging to understand how application developers work and the types of tools they use. This course introduces people without a related background to the concepts of networking and computer programming.
IS 592: Systems Analysis and Database
Information systems are created by combining the concepts of information technology, data storage, and data retrieval. This course explains this process to incoming students who don’t have a background in systems analysis or database administration.
Students advancing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Bachelor of Science in Information Systems degree to the master’s program don’t have to take these two courses.
Core curriculum: Developing key competencies
Once students either complete the bridge program or receive a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems, they can move on to the core courses. These offerings dive into the most relevant subject areas that professionals pursuing a career in information systems need to understand. There are six management information systems core courses:
IS 607: Introduction to Cyber Security
Even for people who don’t plan to pursue a career in cyber security management, having an understanding of risk management, security planning, and the business value of a cyber security plan can be vital. This course serves as an introduction to these concepts and more.
IS 611: Information Technology & Business Strategy
In a business, IT can’t be a freestanding entity; it must be wrapped up in the business strategy to ensure it provides meaningful value to the company. This course covers how to balance IT with business strategy.
IS 612: IT Governance & Management
No complex organization can function efficiently without a set of rules. This course will discuss common IT governance frameworks and how they can be applied to benefit a company.
IS 615: Social Media and Virtual Communities
Most businesses today have an online presence that must be used to the company’s advantage. This course will discuss how to use social media as a business tool and curation methods that can boost business knowledge.
IS 617: Data Science for Business
Capturing and analyzing data has come to be an expected business practice. It allows companies to gain greater insight into their target audiences and industries. This course will discuss how data is captured, analyzed, and used.
IS 618: IT Project Management
Earning the PMI Project Management Professional certification can give students a leg up on the competition when applying to jobs and a good foundation for taking on a leadership position.
Concentration courses: Choosing a specialization
Students can choose one of two information systems concentrations: Cyber Security Management and Business Analytics. The two concentrations focus on specialized skills and expertise that are highly sought after. Students need to complete four courses specific to their chosen specializations, with one class required for both concentrations.
IS 621: Incident Response & Business Continuity
Regardless of whether professionals head up the cyber security team or the IT department, they need to have a plan in the event of a data breach. This course covers the basics of how to respond and move forward after a computer security incident occurs.
Cyber security management courses
The cyber security management concentration focuses on keeping information protected. Students will learn how to detect and avoid threats, as well as develop skills related to managing security teams.
IS 613: Information Security Management
Professionals in charge of an organization’s cyber security efforts must have a sound understanding of how to develop a technology policy, information resource management, and the concepts of security. This course will explore these topics and others in depth.
IS 620: Cyber Attacks & Threat Mitigation
Cyber security professionals need to understand how hackers think and work, including the latest attack tactics and how to detect network vulnerabilities. This course gives students insightful perspectives on these concepts and information about how to guard against threats.
IS 644: Digital Forensics
When people commit cyber crimes, they set off a process of investigations that could lead to their own prosecution. In this course, students will learn about this process, including the role of law enforcement, methods of tracking and identification, and concerns surrounding intellectual property crime.
Business analytics courses
IS 617: Data Science for Business
This course will introduce students to the rapidly growing fields of business analytics/ data science, focusing on how data can be used to support decision making in organizations. It explains what and how principles and technologies of data science can be used to extract useful information and knowledge from large volume of structured and unstructured data (e.g., textual content) in order to improve business decision making. Prerequisite: IS 608 or equivalent
IS 619: Advanced Business Analytics
The course is the study and practice of how we can extract insightful knowledge from large amounts of data. It is a burgeoning area, currently attracting substantial demand from academy and industry. Prerequisite: IS 617 or equivalent
IS 651: Data Management & SQL for Analytics
Explore various concepts of data management/ data warehousing for business analytics. The focus of this course is the process of extracting data from a diverse set of sources, transforming and cleaning data, and loading this data into a format used by analytics professionals. Students will also gain expertise in advanced data querying using Structured Query Language (SQL).
IS 652: Data Visualization for Business
In this course, students gain experience with techniques on how to effectively communicate the results of an analysis using information and visual aids. Students learn effective methods of presenting information in textual and graphical formats and how to frame data results in a business case format for interpretation by business managers. Students gain hands-on experience with the use of modern visualization tools.
Earning an MS MIS degree online at the University of Alabama at Birmingham
The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s MS MIS curriculum helps students gain the knowledge and abilities they’ll need to be leaders in their chosen career paths. In addition to the valuable skills students can develop with this curriculum, the Collat School of Business provides ample opportunities for success through a robust online classroom that allows students to balance school with their jobs or personal responsibilities.
To learn more about earning an MS MIS degree online at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, connect with an enrollment advisor today.
Recommended Readings:
Business courses you can take within the UAB MS MIS program
Career path: How to become an information systems manager
Sources:
University of Alabama at Birmingham Collat School of Business Online Master of Science in Management Information Systems
University of Alabama at Birmingham MS MIS Course Descriptions