MSM Courses

(Core Courses are UPPERCASE - 21 credits in total)
Syllabi are pdfs

MSM600/601 FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT I & II
6 credits
2 trimesters
Foundations of Business Management I syllabus
This course is concerned with the management of the firm as a total unit and explores all elements of the corporate strategic planning model with special emphasis on corporate and managerial finance. The class will be concerned with both the determination of strategic direction as well as management of the strategic process.
Students will deal with the analytical, behavioral, and creative aspects of business simultaneously. They will investigate the tactics of execution including the capitalization of the enterprise, the development and understanding of financial statements, and the relationship of financial resources to all other resources and capabilities available for pursuit of the strategic vision.
Foundations of Business Management II syllabus
Complementing the Foundations I course, this course is concerned with the development of management and leadership skills. There is an emphasis on the management and use of Information Technology to drive business strategy.
We will view business as a collection of key processes and investigate the achievement of breakthrough performance through technology supported redesign of existing processes. Students will work in small groups to investigate through case studies how Information Technology can be an enabler of process innovation.

MSM608 CHANGE MANAGEMENT syllabus
3 credits
Beginning with an overview of Organizational Change Management (OCM) model, this course prepares participants to lead change within an organization. The course includes a thorough examination of a systematic approach to enterprise wide change initiatives and specifically how to successfully implement Information Technology initiatives.
In addition to learning Best Practices related to OCM, the course includes applying specific tools and strategies to their project work. Example of topics included in this class include: Gap Analysis, Readiness Assessment, Stakeholder Assessment, Change Agent Capability, Culture Scan and Communication Strategies.
Participants are required to select a "live" project and apply the course content to this project.
Note: this course is designed for IT professionals who have little or no formal knowledge of OCM strategies or models.

MSM602 PROJECT MANAGEMENT I syllabus
3 credits
Based on the PMBOK (R) core knowledge areas, this course guides technology leaders through the application of the project management initiating and planning processes. Key topics include project selection, scoping, schedule development using MS Project,
budgeting, team building and project communication. Students will create a comprehensive project plan using a project of their choice.

MSM605 LEGAL AND ETHICAL INTERNET ISSUES I,II, III syllabus I / syllabus II / syllabus III
3 credits (1-per-trimester, fully online)
In the context of an increasingly electronically-enabled business environment, managers consistently face several major questions: What are the laws that affect the Internet, and what effect is the Internet having on our legal system? How do those laws influence the content that can and cannot be distributed on the Internet? How do they influence who has access to the Internet? How have digital technologies impacted contract laws and agreements? Which user information is "public" and which is "private?" What are the current laws concerning copyright, privacy and censorship in the online world and how do they relate to the materials on your Web site? How may trademark law affect your choice of a domain name?

MSM609 CAPSTONE PROJECT
6 credits
Capstone Projects are the culminating experience to the MSM program. They demonstrate mastery of the interdisciplinary curriculum and the implementation of a unique MSM solution to a real-world problem in an organizational setting.

Example Projects:
John DiElsi and Anna Story, 1999: Health Ed Online
http://gradcenter.marlboro.edu/~astory/capstone/

Theresa Kelly, 1998: UNUM Broker Marketing Plan and Website
http://gradcenter.marlboro.edu/~tkelly/capopenhome.html

Scott Looney, 2001: HIPAA Compliance Project
http://gradcenter.marlboro.edu/~slooney/capstone/

Deborah Maynard, 2002: Northeast Food Cooperatives Website Strategy
http://gradcenter.marlboro.edu/~dmaynard/i_capstone.html

John Wills, 2003: Hampshire Educational Collaborative
http://gradcenter.marlboro.edu/~jwills/capstone/

MSM Electives

MSM603 Project Management II syllabus
3 credits
Based on the PMBOK (R) core knowledge areas, this course develops the students' knowledge and tool kit for successful project execution and change management. Key topics will include use of MS Project to monitor and control schedules, progress reporting, risk management, quality management, cost management as well as contracting and procurement. Project Management I is a pre-requisite.

MSIT618 Human-Computer Interaction syllabus
3 credits
The goal of this course is to provide an overview of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and related topics relevant to the business and development of technologies. While the focus of the course is on business systems that incorporate electronic collaboration, e-commerce and other web-enabled technologies, the principles and topics are applicable to almost any product, service or system that must be designed. The course includes several projects and activities intended to provide experience and understanding of how to carry out specific techniques, as well as awareness of constraints, trade-offs and sacrifices that must be made during the design life cycle of a product or service.

MSIT614 Technical Fluency syllabus
3 credits
Every student who graduates from MCGC must be fluent in the current language of technology. In this AEC (acronym expansion course) we will focus on the important TLAs (three-letter acronyms) of the WWW (World Wide Web). We’ll look at these concepts from both the technical and business perspectives, considering not only what the term represents but also how it is used in the business world and the social
responsibility implications. By the end of the course, students will be able to explain such concepts as RSS, VPN, hub, switch, wiki, blog, SQL, DBA and many more. Moreover, students will have a strategy for maintaining this technical fluency as the Internet continues to evolve.

MSM612 Designing with Web Standards syllabus
3 credits
This class will help you understand and implement standards in a professional format. You willl learn how to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), the widely-supported standard for styling web pages; how to transform word processing documents into structured web documents that will work in tomorrow's browsers; how to write cross-browser compatible, standards-compliant code; and how to use the CSS box model and other advanced techniques to lay out pages.

MSM620 Marketing Management syllabus
3 credits
Marketing management is the practice of planning and implementing the development, price, promotion and distribution of goods and services to facilitate marketplace exchanges, in support of organizational objectives. This course examines the marketing process from the strategic perspective of organizational management, with emphasis on the three-step process of analyzing the market, developing marketing strategies and planning marketing programs. Emphasis will be placed on current trends in the marketing profession driven by developments in Internet technologies and the globalization of commerce.

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