Program Structure

The regulations on this page are effective January 1, 2011.

Completion Requirements

Program completion requirements for the MSc IS are dependent on the student’s academic credentials and professional-level work experience: a recent graduate of a Computer Systems or Information Systems undergraduate program, or an IT professional with the right combination of academic credentials and work experience, may require as few as 30 credits. Others with less appropriate academic credentials and/or marginal professional-level work experience, may require the maximum of 39 credits.

The minimum and maximum credits for different routes are listed in the following table:

The MSc IS program consists of three components:

Information Systems (IS) Foundations

The IS foundations reflect a minimum level of prerequisite IS knowledge, and are required to prepare students for the IS core. For descriptions of these courses refer to the SCIS website.

Exemptions from IS Foundations

Flexible entrance requirements are designed to recognize the range of academic credentials held by IT professionals applying to the program. Exemptions from IS foundations are based on appropriate undergraduate or graduate academic credentials supported by relevant professional-level work experience.

Advanced standing is limited by program residency requirements.

Depending on the incoming student's credentials, the IS Foundations of the MSc IS program may be completed in as few as three credits (one course) or may require a maximum of 12 credits (four courses). That is, to meet the MSc IS Foundation requirements, a student should complete or get exempted from three of the following courses in addition to mandatory COMP 601:

COMP 501, COMP 503, COMP 504, COMP 505, and COMP 506.

Information Systems IS Core

The IS core is a consistent set of information systems core courses offered by all institutions granting similar credentials.

IS Core Academic Regulations

1. All MSc IS students are required to take COMP 695.
2. MSc IS students who elect the essay route or the project route are required to complete four courses (in addition to COMP 695) from the above core courses. MSc students who elect the thesis route are required to complete two courses (in addition to COMP 695) from the above core courses. The student can choose some of them to complete in consultation with the essay/project/thesis supervisors.

The core courses cannot be exempted. The core courses (except COMP 695) may be challenged with the permission of the course coordinators.

The student should declare the route (essay route, project route, or thesis route) before registering in the third core course of the program. Students who select the thesis route do not need to take more than three core courses and should know their intended route at this time. The student must complete all core courses before taking electives.

Career Tracks

After students complete the core, they need to synthesize what they have learned. In the past neither synthesis nor integration was included in the curriculum. Furthermore, system integration is a pervasive aspect of IS practice. For this reason, the program includes an integrating capstone component. Current and emerging concepts and technologies are studied through "career tracks."

These tracks allow students (within the competency and resources of the faculty) to "major" in a specific subject area for which there is demand, or to achieve breadth within a topic area or across a wider scope.

Integration can be viewed from three perspectives. Enterprise integration and integration of the IS function are management perspectives, and will not be pursued in the MSc IS at this time. The integration of IS technologies will be the main approach for MSc IS students, integration courses, or projects. This view concerns the development of an integrated IS enterprise architecture including the evaluation and selection from architectural and platform choices, priorities, and policies, the assessment of the impact of emerging technologies, evaluation of the role of standards, and evaluation of the effect of vendor strategies.

The requirements for the Career Track component of the MSc IS may be met in one of three ways:

1. INTEGRATION PROJECT

This requires completion of the IS foundations and core, a "career track/elective" course, and a project that is considered equivalent in effort to three, three-credit courses. A project supervisor and project sponsor are required, plus one additional reader. This additional reader may be a faculty member or an industry resource person approved by the faculty.

The project should deal with the development of technologies for intra- and inter-organizational systems in the form of an integrated technical architecture (hardware, software, networks, and data) to serve organizational needs in a rapidly changing competitive and technological environment. The project must also satisfy an acceptable combination of the following criteria:

• It deals with a novel exploratory implementation, the results of which will be of some interest to a portion of the IS community.
• It involves novel implementation techniques.
• It involves the implementation of a practical piece of nontrivial software whose availability could have some impact on the IS user community.

2. INTEGRATION ESSAY

The Master’s essay is a single three-credit requirement completed in addition to the foundations, core, and three career track/elective courses. The essay provides a generalist rather than a specialist view, and will be a comprehensive critical survey of aspects of integration (applications, IS organization, and technology). Topics should show how disparate computer platforms and networks can be integrated to provide a flexible and efficient infrastructure for the organization. This course addresses both the "What" and "How" of integration. The essay may identify significant open problems, but it is not expected to contribute significantly to their solution.

An essay supervisor is required, plus one additional reader. In addition to the essay, the student may be required to pass an oral exam on the contents of the Master’s essay, to be administered by the essay supervisor and reader.

3. INTEGRATION THESIS

The Master’s thesis is a five three-credit requirement completed in addition to the foundation, three core courses, and one elective course.

The thesis must represent the results of the student's independent work after admission to the program. The proposed topic for the thesis, together with a brief statement outlining the proposed method of treatment, and the arrangement made for faculty supervision must be identified at the beginning of the program study and be approved by the program director. The thesis will be evaluated by the student's supervisor(s), and at least two examiners appointed by the graduate program director, one of whom shall be external to Athabasca University. The additional thesis examiners may be faculty members or industry resource persons approved by the program director.

Electives

1. MSc IS students who elect essay route are required to complete three courses from the following elective courses or the above core courses.
2. MSc IS students who elect project route or thesis route are required to complete one course from the following electives, or the above core courses in consultation with the project/thesis supervisor.
3. MSc IS students who elect thesis route may complete one course from a related discipline from graduate units outside of the school in consultation with his/her thesis supervisor.

Essay, Project, and Thesis

Thesis Credits

Thesis credits consist of five, three-credit elements, namely, COMP 676, COMP 677, COMP 678, COMP 679, and COMP 680. These elements are not conventional courses; however, they are treated similarly for administrative purposes.

For descriptions of these courses refer to the SCIS website.

Project Credits

Project credits consist of three, three-credit elements, namely, COMP 697, COMP 698, and COMP 699. These elements are not conventional courses; however, they are treated similarly for administrative purposes.

For descriptions of these courses refer to the SCIS website.

Refer to the online Delivery Schedule for courses currently available.

Full- and Part-Time Study

Students may study in the program on a full- or part-time basis. All students must complete a minimum of six credits (two course equivalents) per academic year, i.e., September 1 to August 31.

Continuation Fees

Continuation fees are the same as course fees. Continuation fees are normally assessed when program students do not register in the required six credits per academic year of the course essay, thesis, or project work or when students have completed all required course work but not yet completed their essay or project oral examination.

Residency

To meet the residency requirements, students must complete at least the following through the Athabasca University MSc IS program:

FOUNDATIONS:

COMP 601 (three credits).

CORE:

Two core courses (six credits) = COMP 695 + one core course.

CAREER TRACK:

• The project route consists of COMP 697, COMP 608 and COMP 699.
• The essay route consists of two career track electives and COMP 696.
• The thesis route consists of COMP 676, COMP 677, COMP 678, COMP 679, and COMP 680.

Advanced Standing and Transfer Credit

Students may be eligible for advanced standing through evaluation of coursework applicable to the MSc IS program completed at other post-secondary institutions. Advanced Standing is implemented primarily through exemptions from IS Foundations courses.

Letter of Permission

Students enrolled in the MSc IS program may take one course from other post-secondary institutions in fulfillment of the three credit towards the career track program requirements, provided such course is applicable to Athabasca University’s MSc IS program.

Students wishing to take a course from other institutions must submit a Letter of Permission Request Form, a written request, detailed course outline, and the appropriate Letter of Permission Fee to the Graduate Program Coordinator for review. If approved, the School of Computing and Information Systems will email a Letter of Permission.

To allow mailing time, requests for a Letter of Permission should be made at least one month before the registration deadline at the institution where the student will be taking the course.

Upon completion of the course and in order to receive credit, the student must submit an official transcript to the MSc IS Graduate Program Coordinator.

Credit for Career Track Requirements

Students may also be awarded credit for application to career track requirements on the basis of appropriate graduate level coursework completed at other post-secondary institutions.

The structure of the career track component of the program imposes practical limits on the number of credits that may be awarded through this process.

In no case will the number of credits awarded exceed three credits (one course).

Requests should be made to the Graduate Program Coordinator after the applicant is admitted to the program. The Transfer Credit Evaluation Fee applies for the three-credit course for which credit is awarded.

Time Limit

The changing nature of the subject matter requires that the degree of MSc IS must be completed within five academic years. In exceptional circumstances this time limit may be waived with approval from the Program Director. Students authorized to extend their programs will be required to replace credit for courses that are deemed to have lost their currency. In no circumstances will students be allowed to extend the program by more than two years.

Maintaining Program Status

To maintain program status, students must complete six credits of course or thesis/project work during each academic year. In core courses, the lowest acceptable grade is B-. Students who receive more than one grade of B- or lower, may be required to withdraw from the program.

In elective courses, the lowest acceptable grade is C+. Students who receive more than one grade of C+ or lower, may be required to withdraw from the program.