Information Technology
Note: These courses are restricted to students who have been
accepted into the third year of a Kwantlen degree program.
Professional Communications in Information Technology
Students will address the activities and techniques for developing
proposals, specifications, narratives, reports, memoranda, executive
summaries and other documentations commonly used in
information technology. Students will present written and oral
communication assignments based on the standard Information
Systems Development Lifecycle: Investigation, Analysis, Design,
Development, Testing and Implementation.
Web Programming with Java
The design philosophy of Java and its unique features make it a
powerful language to program systems and applications for the
internet and intranets. This course covers the syntax, resources and
utilities package of Java. Students will examine Java design
principles and use Java to construct components that will include
graphical user interfaces, animated images and audio features in
multimedia systems and to develop executable and interactive
components for both the internet and intranet environments.
Discrete Mathematics
This course provides students with a theoretical foundation in
computation and computability. Students will learn principles,
concepts and applications of discrete mathematics. Topics include:
set theory, logic, formal reasoning, induction, counting, relations,
functions, mapping, formal languages, automata theory and graph
theory.
Advanced Data Communications Systems
Students will study and implement current methods of
interconnecting computers and networks. Topics will include LAN
switching and virtual LANs, various Wide Area Network
protocols, Wireless Networking, network security, and monitoring
and troubleshooting techniques.
Distributed Systems
Students will learn the concepts, principles and techniques used in
the design and construction of distributed systems. They will learn
to apply distributed programming techniques to create network
services and applications.
Multimedia Systems
Students will acquire knowledge of multimedia systems
architecture, digital audio and video representation and the format
of multimedia storage and image processing. They will learn the
application of multimedia information system including
multimedia authoring, multimedia conferencing, multimedia
Group Ware, knowledge-based multimedia systems and high
definition television and desktop integrated computing.
Object-Oriented Software Development
Students will build on the concepts of abstraction, encapsulation,
classes, objects, association, inheritance, pattern and framework to
construct object-oriented software systems. They will evaluate
methodologies that are commonly used in industry and apply them
to improve software quality, increase productivity and promote
software reuse.
Human Factors and Computer Interface Design
As modern systems become increasingly complex, it is critical to
ensure that system functionality is designed from the perspective
of end user requirements. The purpose of this course is to
introduce the students to human factor procedures for analyzing
job and task requirements and for translating this information into
design criteria. An important focus will be procedures for insuring
that compute interface design specifications meet end user
requirements in terms of safety, performance criteria and job
satisfaction. Main topic areas include identification of user
requirements, system design, procedures and tools to design
human computer interfaces and usability testing.
Advanced Systems Diagnosis and Interfaces
Students will learn to install, configure, diagnose, interface and
tune the performance of complex computer hardware and
software systems. They will acquire the skill of using tools to
identify, isolate and resolve system problems to maintain systems
components including but not limited to circuit boards, memory,
hard drives, CD-ROM’s, network interface cards, and peripherals.
Other topics will include analyzing network performance, security
and disaster recovery planning for computer systems, and the
assessment and maintenance of a corporate network beyond the
organization.
Software Engineering Implementation
Students will learn advanced topics in Information Technology
(IT) project management. They will examine various issues relating
to the development and implementation of complex information
systems. Students will also explore the use of new technologies in
IT project management and will extensively use a project
management software application to complete assignments, case
studies and the term project.
Entrepreneurial Development in Information Technology
Students will gain an understanding of entrepreneurship
fundamentals in the information technology sector, including
business planning, financing and venture capital, operations,
human resources, marketing and personal selling.
Software Quality Assurance
Students will learn the essential features involved developing
timely, cost-effective and high quality software products that meet
the user’s requirements. They will examine the effective
deployment of quality assurance procedures throughout the entire
software development process. Other topics covered in this course
will include: the concepts of Total Quality Management (TQM),
development of quality assurance plans, implementation of
verification and validation functions, selection of tools t o support
quality assurance, application of software metrics to measure
quality, and the International Standards Organization (ISO)
certification process.
Data Warehousing and Data Mining
Students will examine the problems caused by having too much
information and the methods, processes and tools for extracting
useful information from multidimensional databases and data
marts stored on different system platforms. They will also acquire
the techniques for defining, selecting, implementing and evaluating
data warehousing and data mining solutions for businesses.
Integration Project
Students will apply their prior learning to an integration project
which may be the critical analysis of a selected area in information
technology, or the development of an innovative solution to a
significant problem in information technology. They may also
implement information technology applications in a subject area
such as art, business, marketing, accounting, economics, human
relations, natural science, social science, health science and
technology.
