Information Technology

Empowers students to make the leap from the high school setting to the college environment. Students will begin a journey of self-awareness where they can identify their individual gifts and talents while considering how God can use their uniqueness within their field of interest. Required of all incoming freshmen, including any student that has not taken college credit after high school, and are younger than 24 years of age are required to enroll in this course. Transfer students enrolling with less than 24 hours and are younger than 24 years of age who have not taken a similar course at another accredited institution are required to enroll in this course.

Emphasizes intellectual and analytical reasoning through reading and writing assignments. Includes instruction in library and research technologies and the writing of a research project. Prerequisite: ENG 1020.

Provides the student with a basic understanding of his or her economic environment and the basic principles and tools of personal financial management. Emphasis will be placed on personal financial planning, including budgeting, managing personal debt, insurance taxes, investments, and real estate. When possible, topics will be analyzed and discussed from a Christian perspective.

An introduction to themes in the natural sciences that have significantly impacted our world. Among the themes discussed are relativity, modern cosmology, evolutionary thought, biotechnology, advances in modern medicine, biodiversity, and the use of natural resources. Scientific discoveries will be approached with both a historical perspective and a consideration of current and future applications. Interactions of scientific thought and the Christian worldview are considered.

A study of biological concepts including the chemistry of life, principles of inheritance, evolutionary theories, biological organization of various organisms, and relatonships between organisms and their environment. Issues related to current advances in biotechnology and medicine are also considered. The process of scientific inquiry is emphasized and practiced in both the lecture and laboratory. Fee charged.

Designed to engage students in dialogue with a variety of Western and Non-Western world literature, past and present. Prerequisite: ENG 1080.

An integration of Christian spirituality, life, and ministry. Through a wide variety of readings and experiences, care is given to evaluate the spiritual structure of the students and to understand spiritual gifts, disciplines, and what it means for each individual to be a constructive influence in the Church and society.

Designed to teach the student concepts and skills needed to succeed in an entrepreneurial venture. It will include understanding unique characteristics an entrepreneur should posses, and it will view marketing, economics, finance, accounting, management, communication and legal issues from a small business perspective.

: Most organizations collect large-scale data sets that must be processed by computers in order to create meaningful and actionable intelligence. Through practical problem solving, students learn to transform raw data into strategic information that supports informed business decisions using modern analytical tools. Prerequisites: MAT 1350 or MAT 3000 or PSY 2060 or BUS 3020

Technology shapes modern life, culture, and business. This course introduces the fundamental principles behind today's digital systems and the role of software design and development as a core problem-solving skill and tool. You'll explore how code powers everything from social media to commerce and learn creative, scalable approaches to building technology that drives business growth in the digital economy. Fee charged

The world-wide web powers modern communication, business, and global access to computing. This course teaches the fundamental principles of web technologies and development through project-based experience. Students will learn major scripting languages, visual design principles, and digital design tools for professional websites that enhance real business environments. Fee charged.

Computing relies on storing, processing, and interpreting binary data-the foundation of all digital information and software. This course builds a core understanding of how data is represented, stored, retrieved, and moved across applications, operating systems, networks, and databases whether the data is structured or unstructured. Through hands-on exercises, students will practice analyzing, organizing, and transforming digital data. Fee charged.

Cyber threats to business and personal data make security a critical priority. This course introduces key cybersecurity challenges and the methods used to protect modern environments. Students will explore network threats, physical security, access control, encryption, data integrity, forensics, penetration testing, and business continuity. Through hands-on exposure to core tools, students will build practical skills for securing IT systems. Fee charged.

This course introduces key network architectures, infrastructures, protocols, and configuration concepts across physical and virtual environments. Students will explore wired and wireless networking, virtualization, network hardware, communications software, and the Internet Protocol. Through hands-on learning, they'll gain the skills needed to design, manage, and support complex modern networks. Fee charged.

This continuation of object-oriented programming foundations introduces the student to the basics of asymptotic algorithm analysis and fundamental data structures like linked lists, stacks, queues, and iterator abstract data types. Simple sorting, searching, and selection algorithms will permit the student to apply their programming skills to intermediate-level applications.

Core hardware and operating system concepts, including components, file structures, memory, scheduling, and peripherals are investigated. Students gain hands on experience installing and working with Windows, MacOS, and Linux, as well as tools and techniques for networking diverse platforms. The course builds practical skills for maintaining multi OS environments and supports preparation for A+ certification.

The Portfolio I course is designed to prepare students to create a digital online presence in order to competitively position themselves in the marketplace. Students are prepared to develop a communication and presentation strategy that best suits their career goals. Prerequisites: 18 hours of computing-related coursework.

The IT internship offers deep learning and mentoring in an IT-related applied setting for which students receive academic credit under the guidance of the university "Learning Contract". The applied experience is onsite at an outside employer. The internship requires the onsite supervisor to establish written expectations for a project-based experience, meets regularly with the student, and provides a written evaluation using a format provided by the university. At 55 hours per credit hour a 3 credit hour work experience will result in 15 hours per week per semester(165 hours total), or 4 weeks of full time. Prerequisite: 18 hours in computing-related coursework.

This senior presentation course is the culmination of your studies, meant to help you demonstrate talent, skills and presentation, and communication abilities. This experience will not only provide you the opportunity to begin honing your skills in presenting your work to be used for expanding your career, but it will allow you to receive feedback from experienced designers and developers from the industry on ways you can improve your portfolio as you begin your job hunt. While it is critical to show finished work which reflects strong concepts, design and technical abilities, it is also important to be able to demonstrate the process used to create the work along with the reasoning which led its final form. Each senior is allowed to present 4- 5 projects. These projects can have multiple components but, in total, can't exceed a total of 10. Presentations are to be, at least, 10 minutes and no longer than 15 and are to be made digitally online or with a projector. The presentation should cover your creative process from beginning to end. Prerequisties: ITI-3975.

The senior seminar is a learning space where students actively evaluate and critique the questions, controversies, and complexities of the information technology and computer science disciplines. While developing disciplinary and research skills, students lead discussions that explore current topics and challenges of intellectual importance. The seminar is facilitated by the faculty member with the goal of preparing students for academic research and professional success.

Deeply rooted in the success of digital experiences is a key intersection between psychology and sociology. User Experience design (or UX Design) is the study and practice of the psychological and design principles of how users interact with interactive systems. This course is a formal study of human computer interaction, information architecture, and usability design. Students will learn analysis and design techniques that will help them to evaluate users, styles, tasks and other factors of the human-computer interface. The course proviedes a foundation for students to be able to build effective computer interfaes that support human needs and improved productivity. Students are also introduced to UX History and current research. The total spectrum of human-computer interaction is contained within the field of User Experience design. This course focuses on the interactive design process in order to generate rapid prototypes that are used to steer business and product design decisions. This course will teach students how to take a concept from prototype to digital product. Students will learn how to transform ideas into tangible reality. Students will learn how to develop user stories and user tasks that will be utilized for the shaping of the product definition and functionality, while at the same time learning how to build a design and a development roadmap.

Virtualization underpins modern distributed systems, cloud computing, and scalable global infrastructure. This course introduces the principles behind virtualized hardware, networks, and software, along with cloud service models such as IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. Students will gain hands on experience implementing and evaluating cloud based services, exploring their architectures, advantages, limitations, and common business applications.

Organizations increasingly rely on effective management of large technology projects. This course teaches core IT project management fundamentals using methodologies such as ITIL, Agile, and Six Sigma. Through case studies and practical projects and exercises, students learn time, performance, and cost estimation, explore each project phase in depth, and gain experience with project management software.