MSc Information Technology

What will I cover in this module?

This module is designed to develop a critical and in-depth awareness of the theory, concepts, technology, practices, and professional issues involved in the analysis, design, development, deployment, and maintenance of database systems in a global context. Issues related to data management and data storage, such as the UK Data Protection Act, will also be explored, in relation to other international legislation. Practical exercises will give you an opportunity to explore a variety of database products, and you will be encouraged to develop an objective, scientific approach towards evaluating them within a theoretical context.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. To demonstrate a critical and in-depth awareness of the theory, methods, design issues, development, deployment, and maintenance of modern database systems.
2. To demonstrate a mature  and culturally sensitive ability to critically evaluate and select database products, development methodologies and implementation strategies, and apply these to design and implement database systems to a professional standard within a globalised, industrial context.

INDICATIVE CONTENT/AREAS OF STUDY

• Data Management
• History of database systems
• Database System Architecture
• The Relational Model (Types, Values, Relations and relation-valued variables, Relational algebra and calculus, Integrity, constraints, and views)
• Relational database design (Functional dependencies, Normalisation, Semantic modelling)
• Transaction management (Recovery, Concurrency)
• Security
• Optimisation and performance tuning
• Distributed databases
• Decision support systems (Data mining, Data warehousing)
• Temporal and Spatial databases
• Deductive databases
• Object oriented databases
• Object/relational databases
• Database languages
• Data representation and XML

How will I be assessed?

100% CW

Given a set of detailed requirements, you will be expected to develop two comprehensive working database implementations, using competing technologies or vendor products. You will then be required to produce evidence that illustrates how you have compared, contrasted and selected your chosen products or technologies. The workload for this assessment is approximately 6000 words or equivalent.

You will be encouraged to participate in formative assessment activities that will enable personal and professional development through reflection to take place. For OLDL learners, the assessments will be delivered using a variety of online communication methods within the University's Virtual Learning Environment or its equivalent.

How many credits is it worth?
20

What will I cover in this module?

This module aims to equip students with the required knowledge about communications and security that will enable them to work at management level in Enterprise IT. It introduces the concepts of network topologies and protocols, and how they are applied to the Enterprise. It also aims to create awareness of the need for systems and network security and to give students a clear understanding of the security aspects as applied to Enterprise Networks.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Demonstrate a critical and in-depth awareness of the theory, methods, and issues involved in the design, development and deployment of modern Enterprise networks.
2. To evaluate the security requirements for an organisation by providing an appropriate solution to a given case study.

INDICATIVE CONTENT / AREAS OF STUDY

Network Technologies

• Network protocols / topologies.
• Design, implementation, operation and management of Network systems
• Implications of Enterprise wide networks

Security and Business Continuity Planning and Management

• General definitions of vulnerability, threats, access control, risk analysis, authentication
• Cryptography mechanisms, network monitoring and auditing, backup and recovery, virus protection
• Business continuity planning and management
• Security management, including end-user computing and internal and external human threats.

How will I be assessed?

100% CW

Assessment will be by means of a portfolio of learning artefacts demonstrating the achievement of all learning outcomes. For equivalence, the assessment workload will equate to 6000 words, although it is anticipated that the learning outcome could be met in a variety of ways. Typically this will consist of a number of design exercises that will build into a significant case study, the case study will feature elements related to your home nation. Usually a portfolio will contain:
A Business Continuity Plan

• A network architecture
• An evaluation of the proposed solution

How many credits is it worth?
20

What will I cover in this module?

This module is concerned with the management of IT-oriented projects. Learners will experience organisational, managerial and professional issues, in preparation for large scale projects in the workplace.

Learners will work both in small groups and individually to critically explore, apply, experiment and evaluate IT project management frameworks. Weekly seminars (or online content) and an online discussion forum will be utilised to explore current established project management approaches. Learners will have the opportunity to engage in peer-review and present ideas and assessment proposals, prior to approval by the relevant module tutor. Finally, learners will demonstrate the practical application of their learning through a demonstration.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Learners will be able to critically evaluate, select and apply project management techniques that are suited to the IT industry.
2. Learners will be able to apply theory to justify the management approach of an IT project, and demonstrate practical experience of identifying problems that appear in IT projects.

INDICATIVE CONTENT / AREAS OF STUDY

• Project management approaches
• Managing risk
• Resource allocation
• Project planning
• Change management
• Project management tools and monitoring
  

How will I be assessed?

100% coursework

• Coursework 1: 30%:  Assessing learning outcome 1
  Learners will negotiate a research topic with the module tutor in relation to emerging project management approaches, before conducting a rigorous, peer-reviewed investigation into a relevant topic. The research findings are to be presented to peers during the module (1500 words or equivalent).
  
• Coursework 2: 70%:  Assessing learning outcome 2
  Learners will work collaboratively to define a problem area and apply theory to produce and demonstrate a practical solution to an IT project. Learners will be assessed individually as to their contribution to the group output.
  

How many credits is it worth?
20

What will I cover in this module?

This module provides the opportunity for you to consolidate upon and extend your understanding, skills and knowledge of computing as developed through the programme. Through this module you will demonstrate your knowledge, understanding and skills at masters level. The aim is to ensure that you are able to formulate and tackle real world, commercial problems competently, efficiently, independently, and with relevance to a particular problem and/or application which should draw upon knowledge and experience from the your first degree or equivalent experience.

A dissertation of between 12,000 and 18,000 words will provide the main means of assessment, together with a deliverable quality 'product'. A product may be a piece of software, a detailed design for a system or a feasibility study. Other deliverables, as agreed with the supervisor, will be considered. You must demonstrate their ability to apply what they have learnt on the course in an independent and rigorous fashion.

On successful completion of this module you'll be able to:

1. Critically assess contributions in the literature of a range of academic concepts/paradigms and analyse their relevance to the field of Computing and Informatics in a range of academic and business contexts, leading to the creation and justification of a methodologically sound research programme.
2. Undertake methodologically sound research into a significant computing issue, demonstrating their ability to devise, recommend and/ or implement innovative solutions to the area under investigation, and to be able to present these solutions coherently
3. Adopt a self critical approach and reflect on the processes of planning and undertaking a significant piece of independent research.

You'll cover:

• Choosing a topic and narrowing it down to a concise set of research objectives
• Continual reading for research: about the chosen topic and about research methods
• Thinking about and selecting an appropriate research design/methodology
• Writing a critical literature review
• Collecting both secondary and primary data
• Creating an appropriate artefact
• Analysing data
• Drawing conclusions and assessing their significance in relation to existing work
• Writing up the final dissertation.

How will I be assessed?

100% Coursework

The assessment of the Independent Scholarship module is by a final report in the form of a dissertation and is intended to address all learning outcomes.

How many credits is it worth?
60

What will I cover in this module?

This module presents the Object Orientation paradigm in the context of industrial web application architectures. This involves requirements gathering, analysis, specification, design, implementation and finally critical review. You will use industry standard notations, approaches and integrated development environment tools as applicable.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Critically appraise and model user requirements.
2. Produce a design for some software using object oriented principles.
3. Apply suitable industrial approaches to the implementation of a software system using Object Oriented principles.
4. Critically evaluate the use of design patterns in the global context of software development.

INDICATIVE CONTENT / AREAS OF STUDY

Web application architectures are ubiquitous in the commercial IT industry, and one of the most pervasive paradigms with respect to application development is that of Object Orientation.
You will experience a full development project lifecycle from requirements gathering through to documentation and evaluation, and understand the myriad skills and techniques that are required to bring an application development project to a successful conclusion. In particular you will be required to explore and engage with multi-cultural issues such as communication, negotiation and presentation, in relation to international contexts and the global software development economy.

You will use an appropriate programming language that supports object orientation constructs, as well as industry-relevant tool sets. The workshop sessions (on campus study) or guided activities (online study) enable a variety of activities to be experienced and instigated by your peers. You will work together with your peers to practice the application of different skills at different stages, and you will be required to discuss and debate approaches, frameworks and techniques that may be relevant to the web application domain.

You will be required to evidence your learning throughout the module, in the form of two portfolios. The exact nature and presentation style of the portfolio will be undertaken by the learner, under guidance from the module tutor. There will be a strong emphasis upon practice-based research, as a means of demonstrating what has been achieved, but also to provide a formative assessment approach throughout the study.

How will I be assessed?

100% CW

The nature of the module is such that you will develop personalised ways of demonstrating your achievement of the learning outcomes. Therefore, after completing a critical design portfolio, you will construct an application portfolio that demonstrates your achievement.

How many credits is it worth?
20

What will I cover in this module?

The module aims to develop your ability to study at masters level and to develop, plan, execute a research project.

On successful completion of this module you'll be able to:

1. Research, review and critically evaluate current academic literature within a specific context in order to identify the key issues and gaps within current knowledge
2. Demonstrate a critical understanding of research design and methodological enquiry and to propose an appropriate research plan. Reflective evaluation of the impact of ethical values on academic research will be demonstrated
3. Systematically analyse and synthesise researched data and theories.

You'll cover:

• Studying at Masters Level (Literature Review, Critical evaluation concepts and practices, Sources, Search Strategies, Communication of ideas and results)
• Research Project Development (Principles of planning projects and project lifecycles, Identifying tasks and estimating timescales, Risk analysis. Ethical, social and professional issues)
• Analysis and Synthesis of Data and Information (Experiment design, Methodologies for quantitative and qualitative investigations, System modelling concepts and constraints)

How will I be assessed?

100% Coursework

Assessment will be by means of a portfolio of written work demonstrating the achievement of all learning outcomes totalling between 4000 and 5000 words. There will be a strong component of rapid, formative assessment during the delivery of that part of the module relating to learning outcome 1 which will be linked to summative assessment.

How many credits is it worth?
20

What will I cover in this module?

Web-based systems, web enabled systems and web-enhanced systems are becoming increasingly prevalent. Emerging web technologies are continuously being introduced by vendors, consortiums and academic research, and it is vital that individuals possess an understanding of the current and future architecture, communication and technological requirements of web technologies. You will exposed to a number of tools, techniques, technologies and architectures in order for you to make critically informed judgements with regard to the suitability of web solutions for a particular purpose.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. To demonstrate a critical and in-depth awareness of the theory, methods, design issues, development, deployment, and maintenance of modern web-centric systems.
2. To demonstrate a mature ability to critically evaluate and select web technologies,, development methodologies and implementation strategies, for a given or future globalised business context.

INDICATIVE CONTENT/AREAS OF STUDY

• The Internet, WWW, HTTP and TCP/IP
• Requirements gathering
• Software engineering approaches
• Client and server side technologies
• Persistence
• The semantic web
• Web X.0 and mash-ups
• Data representation and XML
• Web security
• Multi-agent systems
• The mobile web
• Collective intelligence
• Creating business cases for web technologies

How will I be assessed?

100% CW

As a group you will negotiate a topic to investigate in relation to web technologies with your module tutor. Then, you will work collaboratively to develop a product that utilises web technologies for business benefit. Working with your module tutor, you will also identify how you as an individual will be assessed in terms of the contribution that you make to the group. During the module you will generate and collect evidence of your progress, which at the end you will draw from to produce a portfolio that best demonstrates your learning. The portfolio may take many forms and need not wholly be written. The workload for this assessment is approximately 6000 words or equivalent.

How many credits is it worth?
20