Back up your technology expertise with an information technology degree

This course introduces students to the Franklin University community and provides strategies for successful transition to and participation in that community. Topics include University resources and procedures, strategies for advancing communication skills, the use of electronic tools to participate in virtual environments, and the development of an academic and career plan.

This course prepares students to be successful lifelong learners both academically and in their chosen careers. Franklin courses require a high level of self-directed learning and focus on skills required in the workplace and the classroom that are easily transferable between the two environments. The course includes strategies for advancing communication skills, including the use of electronic tools to participate in virtual environments. The assignments and activities in the course are created to closely simulate teamwork found in the workplace.

By using applied critical and creative thinking, students in this course will develop a set of communication skills that will enhance their personal and professional relationships and endeavors. This course will focus on skill development in key areas such as self, perception, listening, verbal messages, conversations, relationships, conflict management, persuasion, and public speaking.

This public-speaking course emphasizes the fundamentals of extemporaneous speaking. Skill-building activities and assignments focus on research, organization, reasoning, style and delivery of presentations as well as listening and audience engagement.

This is an intermediate course focusing on the composition of research papers. Students in this course prepare to be active participants in professional discourse communities by examining and practicing the writing conventions associated with their own fields of study and work. By calling attention to the conventions of disciplinary writing, the course also prepares students for upper-division college writing and the special conventions of advanced academic discourse. Course activities include three extended research papers, semi-formal writing addressing interdisciplinary communication, and readings fostering critical engagement with disciplinary conversations.

This course is designed to serve students in the Computer and Information Sciences majors. The topics covered are descriptive statistics in numerical & graphical methods, probability concepts, discrete and continuous probability distributions, estimation theory, hypothesis testing, simple linear regression and correlation, and linear programming. These topics will be taught with a rigorous Algebra content and using a statistical software such as Minitab. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

This course provides an introduction to software construction using an object-oriented approach. The student learns and reflects on problem analysis, object-oriented design, implementation, and testing. To support the concepts and principles of software construction, the student will design, code, test, debug, and document programs using the Java programming language. Basic data types, control structures, methods, and classes are used as the building blocks for reusable software components. Automated unit testing, programming style, and industrial practice are emphasized in addition to the object-oriented techniques of abstraction, encapsulation, and composition. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

This course covers fundamental programming principles for individuals with at least some programming background. Major themes are structured programming, problem solving, algorithm design, top-down stepwise refinement, and software lifecycle. Topics will include testing, data types, operators, repetition and selection control structures, functions, arrays, and objects. Students will design, code, test, debug, and document programs in a relevant programming language. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

This course serves as an introduction to the function, design, administration, and implementation of computer networks. Topics include network infrastructure, architecture, protocols, applications, and the OSI networking model. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

The Internet has changed dramatically; so have the activities that are dependent on it in some shape or form. Understanding the need for security, it's influence on people, businesses and society, as well as business drivers is critical. The course also covers malicious attacks, threats and vulnerabilities common to the world of security, as well as access controls, and methods to assess and respond to risks. Hands-on labs accompany the various concepts that are taught.

This course introduces the Linux operating system with a focus on the foundational Linux concepts and core tasks of the system administrator. Students will examine numerous commands and tools to maintain and operate Linux systems. This course utilizes hands-on lab exercises to provide students with professional experience.

This course explores the concepts of cloud computing, including financial impacts and business value, financial requirements, deployment, risks, and security. Hands-on exercises help students to gain experience with cloud computing environments, identifying technical and security requirements for given deployment scenarios, implementing the proposed cloud deployment scenario, and troubleshooting technical issues of existing cloud computing scenarios.

This course covers both the design and basic configuration of computer networks. Using Cisco Systems CCDA? certification as a guide, students will learn about the OSI model, network topologies, Wide Area Network (WAN) technologies, wireless LAN, IP addressing, routing protocols, and network security mechanisms. This course also utilizes simulation software to create a small virtual network on the student's personal computer running Windows XP or Vista. This provides the student interactive configuration experience with the Cisco Systems Internetworking Operating System (IOS) in an isolated environment. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

This course covers the basic methods of Linux system administration. The course will focus not only on user-level commands and utilities, but also upon installation and configuration of the kernel, file system, memory, peripheral devices, authentication/authorization and network facilities. The course also provides an introduction to the Perl programming language and the role of Linux in the enterprise. This course also uses virtualization software to isolate the Linux operating system from the underlying host operating system. As such, administrative access to a late-model computer with sufficient memory and hard drive space is required. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

The Information Technology capstone course encourages teamwork in small groups on a substantial project. The intent of this course is to provide a capstone experience that integrates the material contained in required courses of the ITEC major. It also provides an opportunity for students to recognize and evaluate the interrelationship of their general education courses with the courses taken for their major. The capstone will include discussion about professional and ethical issues related to Information Technology. Students will also culminate their experiences with an overview of the evolution of computer systems and a look at the near-term future.

This course provides a conceptual survey of general systems theory followed by a conceptual and technological survey of the structure of distributed information systems architectures, operating systems, network operating systems, peripheral technology and user interfaces. Interoperability between these architectural components will be explored and current technology and trends in each architectural element will be reviewed. This course will de-emphasize, although not ignore, mainframe architectures in favor of information architectures more applicable to client/server computing. The various interacting categories of client/server computing as well as the benefits and implications of such a system will be fully explored. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

This course covers fundamental concepts necessary for the design, use, implementation and administration of database systems. The course will stress the fundamentals of database modeling and design, the languages and facilities provided by database management systems, and some techniques for implementing and administering database systems. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

This course provides an introduction to the concepts of information technology project management and techniques for initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling of resources to accomplish specific project goals. Both technical and behavioral aspects of project management are discussed. While the focus is on information technology projects, the principles follow the nine project management knowledge areas outlined in the Project Management Institute's PMBOK? Guide Third Edition and thus are applicable to the management of any project. Topics will include integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resource, communications, risk, and procurement management. Project management software utilization is emphasized.

This course examines various issues related to the management of information systems. Topics include: strategic planning, organizing the technology resources, means of prioritizing and selecting information technology, staffing, personnel management, and assessment. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

In a highly connected, data intensive, and cost-focused business environment, the practice of information security not a business advantage; it is a customer requirement. Viruses, malware, trojans, denial of service attacks, phishing, and even Wiki leaks have become headline news. Failure to insure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data costs companies millions, if not billions of dollars in legal settlements, lost business, and trade secrets. In this breadth-based course, you will get an overview of information security principles and practices, including security models, risk management, access controls, intrusion detection and prevention, cryptography, software vulnerabilities, and ethical issues. Subsequent courses expand on this foundational material in much greater depth. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

This course covers the fundamentals of security in the enterprise environment. Included are coverage of risks and vulnerabilities, threat modeling, policy formation, controls and protection methods, encryption and authentication technologies, network security, cryptography, personnel and physical security issues, as well as ethical and legal issues. This foundational course serves as an introduction to many of the subsequent topics discussed in depth in later security courses. Note, this course has proctored exam(s). This exam requires additional technology, if student uses online proctoring.

Networks are the major point of entry to most computer systems. Preventing unwanted intrusion, use, abuse, or flooding of communications channels is a high priority to organizations trying to protect their assets. Network security is about preserving the appropriate use of network resources while preventing disallowed use. In this course, you will learn how to employ firewalls, VPNs, and stateful packet inspection techniques to harden computer networks. Topics include packet filtering, intrusion detection and prevention, ingress and egress rules, monitoring, network access controls, authentication, authorization, and auditing.

Proper assessment, management, and mitigation of risk are essential to any information security strategy. Risks aren't just related to IT assets, but to the overall business that the IT organization is supporting, thus, business continuity planning and impact analysis is also important. In this course, you will learn how to identify and analyze risks, determine impacts, and develop plans to mitigate issues. Topics include threats, vulnerabilities, exploits, and countermeasures; US compliance laws; risk assessment and mitigation; business impact analysis; and business continuity and disaster recovery planning.

This course focuses on knowledge, understanding and skills related to building competencies in overseeing the architecture, design, and implementation of software systems. Specific topics include agile software development practices, planning and governance of large projects, identification, assessment and management of current and emerging information technologies, and the application of project management tools for software architecture, project communications, risk analysis, cost estimation and budgeting, and quality control in managing the software development life cycle.

This course provides the student with an introduction to Windows Server administration and is structured to assist a network manager or planner in planning, configuring, installing, running, and repairing networks that include a Windows Server. As such, it provides an introduction to server installation, Active Directory, printer management, domains, network clients, security, disaster recovery, fault/error management, and scripting of common tasks. This course uses cloud based software to provide the Windows Server operating system environment. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

This course covers a breadth of subjects in Database Administration. Building on the database management systems course, this course covers topics about the configuration, administration and performance of the database engine itself. Using Oracle 10g as a platform, students will learn about installation, configuration, performance tuning, security, disaster planning and recovery, and network connectivity of databases. This course also uses virtualization software to isolate the database server operating system from the underlying host operating system. As such, administrative access to a fast machine with at least 1 gigabyte of memory and 20 gigabytes of available hard drive space is required. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

This course introduces the fundamentals of Business and Data Analytics. Students will learn the fundamentals of business problem framing, data wrangling, descriptive and inferential statistics, data visualization, and data storytelling in analytics. Not open to students with credit for INFA 300.

This course introduces data visualization fundamentals using the leading visualization tools in the industry and focuses on project-based learning. Students will learn how to develop dashboards and discover insight effectively based on data. Not open to students with credit for INFA 350.

Students will learn the basic concepts behind major machine learning algorithms, the essential steps for creating a typical machine learning model, the strengths and weaknesses of different algorithms, and the model evaluation using different performance metrics. Eventually students will be able to build a prediction model by machine learning algorithm using Python language. The differences between Java and Python will be reviewed. The common problems in practical machine learning exercises and their solutions also will be discussed.

Today's organizations have come to depend on storing data and provisioning services through virtual cloud infrastructures. This course provides a broad coverage of virtualization and cloud infrastructure technologies, how this contrasts with physical data centers and the ways that organizations transition between these environments. Students plan, design, and provision cloud-based virtual desktops, documents, applications and services across multiple platforms. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).