Business Information Technology Top-up Course to BSc

Modules

• Research & Professional Practice
  This module will provide you with the necessary methodological, analytical and development skills needed to design, implement, and analyse a piece of independent research or development piece of work in the form of a consultancy tender, reflection, etc. at an undergraduate level in the field of Informatics. The module will focus on general issues you are likely to adopt for your research project such as: the Research and Development life cycle; collecting and analysing primary and secondary sources of knowledge; elementary consultancy skills, ethics and managing your time effectively and presenting your findings in a coherent manner. The module will focus on specific issues related to your chosen pathway by providing specific pathway tutorial groups where you will explore, in greater depth, those issues most likely to be relevant for your chosen pathway.
• Management Concepts & Evaluation Techniques
  The module will introduce you to aspects of organisational behaviour that need to be taken into account when designing, developing, implementing and maintaining IT systems. It will provide an introduction to organisational structure and culture, managerial roles and information requirements, management and strategy, technological innovation, change management, ethics and the law. The module will also foster your ability to make information system and information technology decisions from a management perspective, evaluating IT value and return on investments.
• Information Management and Decision Support Systems
  Changes in the global business environment combined with rapid advances in ICT have transformed information into a valuable asset and a source of competitive advantage. Different tools and techniques are required to manage and make the most effective use of information. You will examine these tools and techniques to explore the role of information within organisations and look at how different systems analysis and modelling techniques (e.g. soft systems approaches) can be used to structure complex decision problems. You will also study the softer issues associated with the management of information and the legal and ethical implications of misuse of information, compare problem structuring and modelling approaches, and explore the organisational, social and systems views that contextualise these approaches. The module is both practical and theoretical, making much use of case studies.
• Strategic IT Management
  The module will introduce you to the concepts involved in strategic management of information technology. It is designed to address the considerable managerial problems that exist for managers seeking to ensure the effective and efficient utilisation of information technology to aid business performance in contemporary organisations. The module will develop your ability to evaluate the impact of IT/IS on a wider global economy and the influence of IT/IS in modern corporate enterprises. You will be expected to identify the role and expectations of various stakeholders in any contemporary organisation businesses as part of the strategic IT/IS planning process.
• IS Project Management
  As you come towards the end of your honours degree in a Computing/IT subject area, this module takes a broad and reflective view of the profession in a holistic and critical manner. It considers matters of professional and ethical relevance, and particularly considers issues that are of contemporary significance to the subject area.

• IT Systems Administration
  This module will cover the range of organisational and technical procedures required to effectively manage modern computer systems within a typical business environment. Emphasis will be given to planning and design, rather than reactive problem solving.
• Digital Content Management
  Modern websites are interactive applications rather than repositories of information and sophisticated features are taken for granted by both users and owners of the sites. Most organisations have large amounts of digital content, whether of the nature of static information, dynamic news or digital assets which are products in themselves. To handle the required level of complexity and interactive sophistication this demands powerful Content Management Systems have been developed. This module will explore what these systems are, what they do and why they are necessary.

• Honours Informatics Project
  The project contributes significantly towards the final degree. In the final year you spend about 2 days a week on your project. Future employers will probably ask you about your project, and use performance in the project as one of the most reliable guides to your potential. As a final year 40 module for the Honours degree, the project allows you to demonstrate, through a practical application, the extent of theoretical knowledge gained in the first two years of study, practical skills acquired in the subsequent year of industrial or commercial training and further theoretical and practical skills acquired during the final year of study.