College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences
School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems
Information Technology, Master of Science
Overview
In addition to University Requirements:
Students may be able to use some courses to meet more than one requirement. Contact your advisor for details.
| Minimum Units for Completion |
30 |
| Major GPA |
3.0 |
| Additional Admission Requirements |
Individual program admission requirements over and above admission to NAU are required. |
| Research |
Individualized research may be required by chosen emphasis or offered as an option. |
| Additional Fees/Program Fees |
Required |
| Progression Plan Link |
View Program of Study |
Purpose Statement
This Master of Science in Information Technology (IT) will prepare you to enter or continue in the information technology workforce, building core skills that are widely applicable to many areas of IT, science, engineering, industry, business, and research.
This degree is flexible and is designed to help students to build both broad skills and specialization in the areas of information technology, cybersecurity, programming, and database design and management. The students will be able to take foundational courses in each of these four areas and then be able to further customize their degree by taking additional electives in the focus area of their choice. The degree will culminate in a capstone course experience where students will be able to apply their new knowledge to real design challenges in Information Technology.
This program is designed for students with STEM backgrounds, including engineering, information technology, information systems, or computer science, gained through the successful completion of an undergraduate degree or other professional experience.
As a graduate, you will be prepared to contribute to a wide variety of IT areas in both academia and professional practice including areas of network administration, cloud computing, cybersecurity, programming, and database design and management.
Student Learning Outcomes
Information Technologies
- Demonstrate the ability to apply the practices of network management, data management, software engineering, programming, and cybersecurity to information technology design and management.
- Concepts: Network management, virtual LAN, file share services, raid, access control, reliable systems, round robin, cloud computing, the server environment, application of mathematical models for decision-making, and resource management.
- Competencies: Students will be able to evaluate and analyze how aspects of information technology relate to design and practice. Students will be able to analyze how these choices impact the function of an information technology system and be able to integrate information technologies to create solutions to common and novel environments. Students will also understand the ethical implications of information technology design of systems and describe how these provide the guiding principles of practice.
- Assessment Methods: Similar to the continuous improvement process used in other programs in the College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences, courses are identified as supporting the learning outcome, strongly supporting the outcome, or marked as a culminating experience. Four courses are currently marked as supporting the outcome directly, three courses are marked as strongly supporting the outcome, and one class is marked as a culminating experience. Required (core) courses are specifically noted - the rest of the courses are electives. Strongly supporting coursework includes Information Technology Networks (core course), Systems Administration, and Information Security, while supporting courses also include Cloud Computing and Web Technologies. The capstone (core course) is a culminating experience for this learning outcome. Student artifacts are identified for assessment and scored according to a faculty-designed rubric. Student performance is periodically assessed by a faculty curriculum and continuous improvement committee. Course learning outcomes and program objectives are assessed periodically by both faculty and an industrial advisory board.
- Measures: Students will complete, across several courses, multiple homework projects and oral presentations of their work, in addition to the standard testing used to score mastery of learning objectives.
Cybersecurity
- Identify, analyze, and implement cybersecurity solutions using industry-recognized best practices and standards.
- Concepts: Information security, access control, vulnerability and penetration testing, blockchains, cryptography, mobile/cloud/web security, threat characterization, and secure protocols (SSH, TLS, DNSSEC).
- Competencies: Students will be able to understand common information security standards, the tools to implement them, and the vulnerabilities they address.
- Assessment Methods: Similar to the continuous improvement process used in other programs in the College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences, courses are identified as supporting the learning outcome, strongly supporting the outcome, or marked as a culminating experience. Five courses are currently marked as supporting the outcome directly, three courses are marked as strongly supporting the outcome, and one class is marked as a culminating experience. Required (core) courses are specifically noted - the rest of the courses are electives. Strongly supporting coursework includes Information Security (core course), Blockchains, and Applied Cryptography, while supporting courses also include Network System Administration and High-Performance Cluster Administration. The capstone (core course) is a culminating experience for this learning outcome. Student artifacts are identified for assessment and scored according to a faculty-designed rubric. Student performance is periodically assessed by a faculty curriculum and continuous improvement committee. Course learning outcomes and program objectives are assessed periodically by both faculty and an industrial advisory board.
- Measures: Students will complete, across several courses, multiple homework projects and oral presentations of their work, in addition to the standard testing used to score mastery of learning objectives.
Programming
- Identify, explain, and implement foundational programming and web technology concepts.
- Concepts: website development, WWW, Dynamic HTML, CSS, PHP programming, Python Programming, Django, Ajax, C Programming, Data Structures, Principles of Languages, cloud computing, high-performance computing.
- Competencies: Students will be able to implement foundational programming techniques in web development, standalone application, and high-performance computing settings.
- Assessment Methods: Similar to the continuous improvement process used in other programs in the College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences, courses are identified as supporting the learning outcome, strongly supporting the outcome, or marked as a culminating experience. Four courses are currently marked as supporting the outcome directly, three courses are marked as strongly supporting the outcome, and one class is marked as a culminating experience. Required (core) courses are specifically noted - the rest of the courses are electives. Strongly supporting coursework includes Web Technologies (core course), Introduction to Data Structures, and Introduction to Principles of Languages, while supporting courses also include Cloud Computing. The capstone (core course) is a culminating experience for this learning outcome. Student artifacts are identified for assessment and scored according to a faculty-designed rubric. Student performance is periodically assessed by a faculty curriculum and continuous improvement committee. Course learning outcomes and program objectives are assessed periodically by both faculty and an industrial advisory board.
- Measures: Students will complete, across several courses, multiple homework projects and oral presentations of their work, in addition to the standard testing used to score mastery of learning objectives.
Databases
- Describe and apply the basic and advanced principles behind the design, implementation, and use of relational databases.
- Concepts: relational databases, data warehousing, data normalization, Data Definition Language, Data Manipulation Language, SQL, pattern recognition, text mining, AWS, cloud computing, Hadoop.
- Competencies: Students will be able to design relational databases, deploy these databases on local or cloud systems, and efficiently access data within these databases using retrieval queries. They will be able to compare and contrast different database platforms, discriminating between the advantages of each, and recommending an appropriate solution based on the use case.
- Assessment Methods: Similar to the continuous improvement process used in other programs in the College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences, courses are identified as supporting the learning outcome, strongly supporting the outcome, or marked as a culminating experience. Four courses are currently marked as supporting the outcome directly, three courses are marked as strongly supporting the outcome, and one class is marked as a culminating experience. Required (core) courses are specifically noted - the rest of the courses are electives. Strongly supporting coursework includes Databases (core course), Data warehousing, and Text Mining, while supporting courses also include Cloud Computing. The capstone (core course) is a culminating experience for this learning outcome. Student artifacts are identified for assessment and scored according to a faculty-designed rubric. Student performance is periodically assessed by a faculty curriculum and continuous improvement committee. Course learning outcomes and program objectives are assessed periodically by both faculty and an industrial advisory board.
- Measures: Students will complete, across several courses, multiple homework projects and oral presentations of their work, in addition to the standard testing used to score mastery of learning objectives.
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