George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
The MS in E-commerce degree is managed by the School of Information Technology and
Engineering and is a joint degree with the School of Management, School of Public Policy,
School of Law, College of Arts and Science, and the College of Nursing and Health
Science. The program is designed to prepare graduates with the depth and breadth they
need to take advantage of electronic commerce opportunities in commercial and
enterprise management opportunities in the “new economy.” They will be able to
understand management, public policy, and information technology aspects, and
effectively integrate these in developing electronic commerce solutions in a wide variety of
specialized applications from electronic government, to electronic banking, to tele-health.
More importantly, they will respond to the demand for professionals to work in a wide
variety of capacities in “digital age” organizations in Northern Virginia and elsewhere.
Program Format
The degree program requires 36 credits be completed. All students complete an Ecommerce core, the breadth requirement, comprised of six courses from four
interdisciplinary foundation disciplines totaling 18 credits. Following completion of these
core courses, students take specialized application courses, for a total of 15 credits, in one
of six chosen fields of concentration: Information Technology, Management, Health
Systems, Public Policy, Enterprise Management, and Law.
Students from all
concentrations will deepen their theoretical and practical knowledge through courses in
the concentration, the depth requirement, building upon a common core of knowledge.
One of the unique features of the degree program is an electronic commerce capstone
project course (3 credits), taken by all students at the completion of all their coursework.
The capstone project is an interdisciplinary course that reinforces and integrates material
covered in core and concentration courses. It allows students to pursue a mixed teambased, practical project related to E-commerce in an identified area of opportunity. This
capstone project serves to give students an integrative experience in response to digital
age challenges and opportunities. It also allows them to work with other students from a
diverse set of backgrounds.
Admission Requirements
Applications to the program must be submitted to the Graduate Admissions Office of the
School of Information Technology and Engineering. The requirements are:
1. Fulfill all admission requirements for graduate study at George Mason University.
2. Hold a baccalaureate degree with a satisfactory GPA.
3. Demonstrated programming experience in at least one block-structured programming
language (e.g., Java, C, C++, Visual Basic, Pascal) or in a scripting language (e.g.,
Javascript) used in Web design. This experience can be obtained either through
courses and/or work experience. Provide course descriptions and syllabi as well as
copies of transcripts and grades obtained. If only work experience is available, submit
a statement describing your work experience in programming. This should include:
where you worked, the type of programs that you were responsible for writing, years of
experience in each job, and programming languages used.
4. Submit transcripts of all post-secondary education; a self-assessment form (normally
included in the application package or available from the department); a brief (one- to
two-page) statement of educational and work experience; three letters of
recommendation; and official report of either the Graduate Record Examination, the
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), or Law School Admissions Test
(LSAT).
Degree Requirements
In addition to the general requirements of the university, completion of this program
requires the following:
q
q
q
Eighteen credits comprising the following three-credit core courses:
· EC 511 E-commerce Basic IT Infrastructure
· EC 512 E-commerce Software Services
· EC 521/MBA 603 Managerial Economics and Decisions of the Firm
· EC 522/MBA 613 Financial Reporting and Decision Making
· EC 531 Law and Public Policy in E-commerce
· EC 541 Integrative Case Studies in Electronic Commerce
Fifteen credits in one of the four concentrations: Information Technology, Business and
Economics, Law and Public Policy, and E-commerce Applications. The courses that
can be used to fulfill these requirements are described in List of Courses section.
Three credits in EC 600 - Group Project in Electronic Commerce.
Sample Schedule
The following sample schedule could be followed by full-time students.
Semester 1 (9 credits):
EC 511 E-commerce Basic IT Infrastructure
EC 521/MBA 603 Managerial Economics and Decisions of the Firm
EC 531 Law and Public Policy in E-commerce
Semester 2 (9 credits):
EC 512 E-commerce Software Services
EC 522/MBA 613 Financial Reporting and Decision Making
EC 541 Integrative Case Studies in Electronic Commerce
Semester 3 (9 credits):
3 courses in the chosen area of specialization.
Semester 4 (9 credits):
2 courses in the chosen area of specialization
EC 600 - Group Project in Electronic Commerce
List of Courses
Core Courses
Core courses are numbered EC 5yz where y is a discipline designator (1: Information
Technology, 2: Business and Economics, 3: Law and Public Policy, and 4: E-commerce
Applications) and z is a sequence number.
EC 511 E-commerce Basic IT Infrastructure (3:3:0)
This course discusses the basic networking infrastructure used in E-commerce
environments as well the typical multi-tiered E-commerce architectures of E-commerce
sites. The ISO OSI Reference Architecture. Functions and main features of the IP
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
protocol. Functions and main features of the TCP protocol: connection establishment,
error control, congestion control. The HTTP protocol. Load balancers, Web servers,
application servers, and databases servers in an E-commerce site architecture. Software
architecture elements such as servlets, transaction processing services, remote method
invocation, cgi scripts, and active server pages are discussed.
EC 512 E-commerce Software Services (3:3:0). Pre-requisite: EC 511.
Flow analysis of E-commerce transactions and the role of the various software servers
(web servers, application servers, and database servers) in executing E-commerce
transactions. Examples of various technologies are used to illustrate typical designs.
Protocols used for authentication and payment in E-commerce. Introduction to symmetric
and public-key encryption. Digital signatures. Digital certificates. The Secure Sockets
Layer (SSL) protocol. The Transport Layer Service (TLS) protocol. Secure electronic
payment protocols.
EC 521/MBA 603 Managerial Economics and Decisions of the Firm (3:3:0).
Provides a fundamental understanding of how microeconomics concepts are usefully
applied to managerial decision making. Principles of microeconomic theory are explored
fully, including market supply and demand, production and cost functions, industry
structure, and product and resource pricing.
EC 522/MBA 613 Financial Reporting and Decision Making (3:3:0).
Foundation course focusing on the economics and analysis of business transactions and
related financial reporting issues. Topics include an introduction to the accounting
framework used in financial reporting, analysis of economic events and their impact on
financial reports, analysis of the impact of accounting method choices on financial reports,
and financial statement analysis.
EC 531 Law and Public Policy in E-commerce (3:3:0)
This course explores the developing legal and policy framework applicable to the use of
advanced communications and information technology. The foundation for this course will
be a rapid review of the history of electronic communications regulation in the United
States in this century and the transformation of that legal system which is already rapidly
well underway. Although it is necessary to consider international aspects of global
networks, including recent WTO and WIPO international agreements, and European
privacy directives, the course will lean heavily on United States experiences. Overview of
salient public policy issues associated with Electronic Commerce deployment: Internet
taxation, regulatory issues, digital divide, transborder data flow, spectrum allocation,
privacy, authentication, policy, use of fixed wireless, UCITA, Bluetooth and others.
Lecture, guest speakers from government EC regulators, practical exercises, hands-on
demonstrations.
EC 541 Integrative Case Studies in Electronic Commerce (3:3:0). Open to EC majors
only. Prerequisites: EC 511, 521, and 531.
Students apply knowledge and skills from core courses to manage the complexity of ecommerce in specialized applications. Using case study methods, students analyze and
synthesize the requirements for successful e-commerce program development and
management in industry-specific applications in healthcare, banking, retail and
government.
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
Area Specific Courses
This section describes courses that can be used to satisfy the discipline-specific
graduation requirements. Students need to take 15 credits from one of the four following
areas: Information Technology, Business and Economics, Law and Public Policy, and
Health Care and Services Industry.
Information Technology
Students who select the Information Technology concentration must take fifteen credits,
which must include the following three 3-credit courses:
q
CS650 Database Engineering or INFS 614 Database Management
q
CS 656 Computer Communications and Networking or ECE 542 Computer Network
Architectures and Protocols
q
INFS 762 Information Security Principles
In addition to these three courses, students must take at least one of the courses in
Appendix B and at most one course from Appendices C, D, and E, to complete the five
courses required for the Information Technology concentration.
Business and Economics
Students must take MBA 623 Marketing Management and select four additional courses
from the list below.
MBA 725 Leadership
MBA 712 Project and Cost Management
MBA 731 Business Systems Development
MBA 732 Knowledge Management
MBA 733 Business Data Communications
MBA 734 Electronic Commerce
MBA 735 Systems Thinking and Business Simulation
MBA 736 Managing Digital Business
Law and Public Policy
Students must take fifteen credits by choosing, in consultation with their advisor, a
coherent set of courses from the list of courses listed in Appendix D.
Health Care and Services Industry
Students must take fifteen credits (12 required and 3 elective credits). The elective course
is selected in consultation with the advisor from a coherent set of courses from the list of
courses listed in Appendix E.
HSCI 678 Introduction to the US Health System (3 credits) is required in addition to the 15
credit application courses, if students do not have recent relevant working experience in
the US health system. Determination is made at the time of program admission. Students
will take at least four required courses (12 credits) and one elective (3 credits) from the
following list:
Required Courses:
q
HSCI 707 Health Care Management Policy, Law, and Ethics
q
HSCI 709 Health/Medical Informatics for Health System Managers
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
q
HSCI 720: Health Databases and Data Integration
q
HSCI 722: E-commerce and On-line Marketing of Health Services
AX.3 Capstone Project
All students must take the capstone project course. It is described below, but it will be
modified slightly when the new E-commerce program is implemented.
EC 600 Group Project in Electronic Commerce (3-6:3-6:0). Prerequisite: Completion of all
core courses and at least nine of the credits in the specialization area of the MS in Ecommerce program. Group projects in electronic commerce (EC) selected to illustrate
special problems and solutions in development, design, and implementation of EC
systems. Groups will be inter-disciplinary involving students with background in
information technology, business, public policy, law, and health information systems.
Faculty from these various specialties will be involved in teaching the course. The final
project will be exhibited to a panel of judges composed of faculty members and experts
from private and government organizations.
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
Appendix B: Information Technology Courses
CS 571 Operating Systems (3:3:0). Prerequisites: CS 310 and 365. Models of operating
systems. Major functions including processes, memory management, I/O, interprocess
communication, files, directories, shells, distributed systems, performance, and user
interface.
CS 650 Database Engineering (3:3:0). Prerequisites: CS 540, 583, and 571. Data
models for network, hierarchical, object-oriented, and relational management information
systems. Covers development (including internal structures) of a database system.
CS 656 Computer Communications and Networking (3:3:0). Prerequisites: CS 571 and
STAT 344 or equivalent. Techniques and systems for communication of data between
computational devices and protocols of the seven-layer ISO reference model. Topics
include the role of various media and software components, local and wide area network
protocols, network design, performance and cost considerations, and emerging advanced
commercial technologies. Emphasis is on the TCP/IP family of protocols.
CS 671 Advanced Operating Systems (3:3:0). Prerequisite: CS 571 or permission of
instructor. Advanced topics in the design and implementation of microkernel-based,
object-oriented, and distributed operating systems. Specific topics include support for
interprocess communication, the interaction between computer architecture and operating
systems, distributed file systems, transactions, and distributed shared memory.
CS 672 Computer System Performance Evaluation (3:3:0). Prerequisites: CS 571 and
MATH 351, or permission of instructor. Theory and practice of analytical models of
computer systems. Topics include queueing networks, single and multiple class meanvalue analysis, models of centralized and client-server systems, software performance
engineering, and web servers performance.
CS 673 Multimedia Computing and Systems (3:3:0). Prerequisite: CS 571. Focuses on
technological and development environments involved in developing multimedia
applications. Projects involve experience with multimedia authoring tools and simulations
to assess performance.
CS 707 Distributed Software Systems (3:3:0). Prerequisite: CS 706 or permission of
instructor. Issues in the design and implementation of distributed applications. Topics
covered include distributed programming using sockets as well as higher-level
technologies such as remote procedure calls and distributed object middleware
technologies including Java RMI, CORBA, and DCOM.
CS 750/INFT 750 Theory and Applications of Data Mining (3:3:0). Prerequisite: CS
681, 687, or 688, or permission of the instructor. Concepts and techniques in data mining
and their multidisciplinary applications. Topics include data bases; data cleaning and
transformation; concept description; association and correlation rules; data classification
and predictive modeling; performance analysis and scalability; data mining in advanced
database systems, including text, audio, and images; and emerging themes and future
challenges. Term project and topical review required.
CS 755 Advanced Computer Networks (3:3:0). Prerequisite: CS 656. Current and
emerging issues in advanced computer networks and their applications. Topics include
software systems associated with packet and cell switched networking architectures and
protocols, high-performance LANs, scheduling and congestion control, mobile networking,
multimedia applications, and the next generation of the Internet.
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
ECE 542 Computer Network Architectures and Protocols (3:3:0). Prerequisites: STAT
344 or equivalent, and graduate standing in the School of IT&E. Introduction to the
architectures and protocols of computer networks and the concept of packet switching.
Topics include ISO standard layer model, physical interfaces and protocols, data link
control, multiaccess techniques, packet switching, routing and flow control, network
topology, data communication subsystems, error control coding, local area network,
satellite packet broadcasting, packet radio, interconnection of packet-switching networks,
network security and privacy, and various examples of computer networks.
ECE 646 Cryptography and Computer Network Security (3:3:0). Prerequisites: ECE
542 or permission of instructor. Topics covered include need for security services in
computer networks, basic concepts of cryptology, historical ciphers, modern symmetric
ciphers, public key cryptography (RSA, elliptic curve cryptosystems), efficient hardware
and software implementations of cryptographic primitives, requirements for
implementation of cryptographic modules, data integrity and authentication, digital
signature schemes, key exchange and key management, standard protocols for secure
mail, www and electronic payments, security aspects of mobile communications, key
escrow schemes, zero-knowledge identification schemes, Smart cards and PCMCIA
cards, quantum cryptography, and quantum computing.
ECE 741 Wireless Networks (3:3:0). Prerequisite: ECE 642 or equivalent. Theoretical
foundation and practice in design of wireless networks. Emphasis is on mobility and
teletraffic modeling aspects. Networking issues and state of the art performance
evaluation methods of radio and system infrastructure applicable to wireless cellular and
local networks are discussed. Topics include analysis of mobility, handoff, control traffic
loading, resource allocation techniques, multi-access protocols, admission policy and call
control, network infrastructure and multi-layer configuration, wireless LANs, and packet
data systems.
INFS 601 Operating Systems Theory and Practice (3:3:0).1 Prerequisites: INFS 501,
515, and 590; or equivalent. Fundamental concepts including process synchronization and
scheduling, interprocess communication, memory management, virtual memory,
deadlocks, security and access control, file and disk management, performance analysis,
and distributed systems. The impact of computer architecture on operating systems is
examined. Case studies and comparative analysis of operating systems are presented.
INFS 614 Database Management (3:3:0). 2Prerequisites: INFS 501, 515, and 590; or
equivalent. Introduction to database systems, emphasizing the study of database models
and languages and the practice of database design and programming. Topics include the
Entity-Relationship model, the relational model and its formal query languages, SQL, the
theory of relational database design, and object-oriented and logic-based databases.
Computing lab is included.
INFS 623 Information Retrieval (3:3:0). Prerequisites: INFS 501, 515, and 590; or
equivalent. Study of models and methods for storage and retrieval of unstructured
information, such as documents. Topics include information retrieval models, automatic
indexing, document clustering, statistical thesauri, search techniques, performance
1
CS 571 and INFS 601 are mutually exclusive. Only one of them can be used for the MS in Ecommerce program.
2
CS 650 and INFS 614 are mutually exclusive. Only one of them can be used for the MS in Ecommerce program.
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
measurement, answer visualization, and search engines for retrieval from the World Wide
Web.
INFS 740 Individual Project in Electronic Commerce (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Completion
of INFS 640. Projects in electronic commerce selected to illustrate special problems and
solutions in development, design, and implementation of EC systems; designed to need
multiple skills in economics, information technology, and business involving ethical,
cultural policy, and legal issues. Projects selected from public sector, medical, or industrial
application.
INFS 755 Decision Support Database Systems (3:3:0). Prerequisites: INFS 614 or
equivalent. Course covers techniques to design and maintain data warehouses and to
mine large databases in order to discover useful trends and patterns. Topics include the
multidimensional nature of data and the usage of the star schema, maintenance of
warehouse views in the presence of updates to the operational data, and the concept of
On-Line-Analytical Processing (OLAP) as a decision support tool. Datacube compression
and approximate query answers in the datacube are studied, as well as the concept of
data mining as a decision tool. Mining techniques covered emphasize scalability over
large datasets.
INFS 760 Advanced Database Management (3:3:0). Prerequisite: INFS 614. Study of
advanced database models and languages, database design theory, transaction
processing, recovery, concurrency, distributed database, security, and integrity. Recent
developments and research directions are discussed.
INFS 762 Information Security Principles (3:3:0). Prerequisites: INFS 601, 612, and
614; or permission of instructor. Study of security policies, models, and mechanisms for
secrecy, integrity, and availability. Topics include operating system models and
mechanisms for mandatory and discretionary controls; data models, concepts, and
mechanisms for database security; basic cryptography and its applications; security in
computer networks and distributed systems; and control and prevention of viruses and
other rogue programs.
INFS 765 Database and Distributed Systems Security (3:3:0). Prerequisite: INFS 762
or permission of instructor. Science and study of methods of protecting data: discretionary
and mandatory access controls, secure database design, data integrity, secure
architectures, secure transaction processing, information flow controls, inference controls,
and auditing. Security models for relational and object-oriented databases. Security of
databases in a distributed environment. Statistical database security. Survey of
commercial systems and research prototypes.
INFS 766 Internet Security Protocols (3:3:0). Prerequisite: INFS 612 or equivalent.
Study of network and distributed systems security. Review of basic cryptography, and
threats and vulnerabilities in distributed systems. Security services: confidentiality,
authentication, integrity, access control, nonrepudiation; and their integration in network
protocols. Key management, cryptographic protocols and their analysis. Access control,
delegation, and revocation in distributed systems. Security architectures, multilevel
systems, and security management and monitoring.
INFS 767 Secure Electronic Commerce (3:3:0). Prerequisites: INFS 601, 612, 614 and
INFS 762 or 766. Cryptography review, cryptographic protocols, secure electronic
transactions, public key certificates and infrastructures, authentication and authorization
certificates, secure credential services and role-based authorization, mobile code security,
security of agent-based systems, electronic payment systems, intellectual property
protection, secure timestamping and notarization.
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
INFT 809 Scaling Technologies for E-Business (3:3:0). Prerequisite: at least one
operating systems and one networking course. This course discusses, from a quantitative
point of view, the characteristics of the most important technologies used to support the
implementation of e-business sites. The discussion includes topics such as hardware and
software architectures of e-business sites, authentication, and payment services,
understanding customer behavior, workload characterization, scalability analysis, and
performance prediction. A term paper and a project are required.
OR 635 Discrete System Simulation (3:3:0). Prerequisite: OR 542 or STAT 354 or STAT
344, or equivalent, and knowledge of a scientific programming language. Computer
simulation as a scientific methodology in operations analysis, with emphasis on model
development, implementation, and analysis of results. Discrete-event models, specialized
languages, experimental design and output statistics are covered. Extensive
computational work is required.
SWSE 619/CS 619 Software Construction (3:3:0). Prerequisite: SWSE foundation
courses or equivalent. An in-depth study of software construction using a modern
language. Concepts such as information hiding, data abstraction, concurrency, and objectoriented software construction are discussed.
SWSE 620/CS 620 Software Requirements and Prototyping (3:3:0). Prerequisite:
SWSE foundation courses or equivalent. An in-depth study of methods, tools, notations,
and validation techniques for the analysis and specification of software requirements.
Students participate in a group project on software requirements.
SWSE 621/CS 621 Software Design (3:3:0). Prerequisite: SWSE 619, or CS 540 and
571, or permission of instructor. Concepts and methods for the architectural design of
large-scale software systems. Fundamental design concepts and design notations are
introduced. Several design methods are presented and compared, with examples of their
use. Students participate in a group software design project.
SWSE 632/CS 632 User Interface Design and Development (3:3:0). Prerequisite:
SWSE 619, or CS 540 and CS 571, or permission of instructor. Principles of user interface
design, development, and programming. Topics include user psychology and cognitive
science, adaptive user interfaces, icon and window design, command language design,
user guidance systems, and collaborative working.
SWE 642 Software Engineering for the World Wide Web (3:3:0) Prerequisites: SWE
619, or CS 540 and CS 571, or POI. Detailed study of the engineering methods and
technologies for building highly interactive web sites for E-commerce and other web-based
applications. Engineering principles for building web sites that exhibit high reliability,
usability, security, availability, scalability and maintainability are presented. Methods such
as client-server programming, component-based software development, middleware, and
reusable components are taught.
SYST 781/INFS 781/STAT 781: Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery (3:3:0).
Prequisites: SYST/STAT 644 or CS 650 or INFS 623 or equivalent. This course is
concerned with methods and systems for deriving user-oriented knowledge from large
databases and other information sources, and applying this knowledge to support decision
making. Information sources can be in numerical, textual, visual, or multimedia forms. The
course covers theoretical and practical aspects of current methods and selected systems
for data mining, knowledge discovery, and knowledge management, including those for
text mining, multimedia mining, and web mining.
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
Appendix C: Business and Economics Courses
MBA 603 Managerial Economics and Decisions of the Firm (3:3:0). Provides a
fundamental understanding of how microeconomics concepts are usefully applied to
managerial decision making. Principles of microeconomic theory are explored fully,
including market supply and demand, production and cost functions, industry structure,
and product and resource pricing.
MBA 613 Financial Reporting and Decision Making (3:3:0). Foundation course
focusing on the economics and analysis of business transactions and related financial
reporting issues. Topics include an introduction to the accounting framework used in
financial reporting, analysis of economic events and their impact on financial reports,
analysis of the impact of accounting method choices on financial reports, and financial
statement analysis.
MBA 623 Marketing Management (3:3:0). Develops abilities to make marketing
decisions in a wide variety of institutional and competitive situations. Emphasis on the use
of technology to aid in analysis, decision making, and communication of decisions to
relevant publics. Emphasis on case studies, team work, and projects.
MBA 712 Project and Cost Management (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Completion of M.B.A.
core requirements or permission of instructor. Focuses on project scheduling, time-cost
tradeoffs, budgeting, cost control, and project monitoring. Special emphasis on costmanagement aspects of projects in technology in intensive industries. Use of software and
case studies.
MBA 725 Leadership (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Completion of M.B.A. core requirements or
permission of instructor. Provides an overview of the major conceptualizations of
leadership and motivation in organizations. The course integrates theory, research, and
applications. Students apply the principles of leadership and motivation to their own work
situations and to the evaluation of cases.
MBA 731 Business Systems Analysis and Design (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Completion of
M.B.A. core requirements or permission of instructor. Studies methods and tools for
analyzing and designing business information systems with an emphasis on business
processes. Topics include data modeling, process modeling, interaction analysis, and user
interface.
MBA 732 Knowledge Management (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Completion of M.B.A. core
requirements or permission of instructor. Examines the firms that use knowledge
management principles and approaches: intellectual capital, human capital, customer
capital, tacit and explicit knowledge, the new role of the Chief Knowledge Officer,
leveraging of knowledge management.
MBA 733 Business Data Communications (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Completion of M.B.A.
core requirements or permission of instructor. Introduces data communications and
telecommunications technologies and their application in business, including LANs,
WANs, PBXs, voice services, network operating systems, corporate internetworking, the
Internet. Analysis of the data communications industry. Business applications of data
communications in manufacturing and service sectors, along with regulatory issues and
impact of globalization.
MBA 734 Electronic Commerce (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Completion of M.B.A. core
requirements or permission of instructor. Applies skills and knowledge in designing and
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
building a business-to-business or business-to-consumer web commerce site. Emphasis
is on products, strategies, and website design.
MBA 735 Systems Thinking and Business Simulation (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Completion
of M.B.A. core requirements or permission of instructor. Systems approach to design,
analysis, and improvement of cross-functional business processes. Use of business
simulation software for modeling and analysis. Application areas include E-commerce,
online services, and technology management.
MBA 736 Managing Digital Business (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Completion of M.B.A. core
requirements or permission of instructor. Develops a strategic understanding of the new
electronic marketplace. Emphasis is on technical, legislative, and social issues influencing
digital business. Changes in business processes and organizations enabled by electronic
commerce technologies and applications are studied.
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
Appendix D: Law and Public Policy Courses
ITRN 604 International Trade and Technology (3:3:0). Examines science and
technology policies and international trade, with an emphasis on their relationships and
interactions. The roles of science and technology as economic drivers are assessed, and
the strategies employed by companies and governments to link research and
development to economic growth and competitiveness are explored. The research and
development systems and technology-related trade policies of the United States, Japan,
Europe, major developing countries, and selected newly industrialized economies are
examined, with an emphasis on policies affecting trade and technology. Specific cases
involving interactions between science, technology, and international trade are explored.
ITRN 712 World Trade Organization and Global Trade (3:3:0). Focuses on the legal
aspects of international trade regulation by studying the international legal and political
regime established under the WTO and assessing the impact of domestic economic
legislation on U.S. trade regulations.
ITRN 730 Information Technology Fundamentals for International Business and
Trade (3:3:0). Deals with technology and issues relating to the emergence of computing,
information, and telecommunications technologies in the mainstream of society. The aim
is to provide a general understanding and facility with technologies of contemporary
interest.
ITRN 742 Technology Policy and International Strategies (3:3:0). Introduces students
to the opportunities and problems created for organizations and society by the emerging
Internet and policies affecting the trajectory of Internet developments. Also covered are
technological factors in the planning horizon and domestic policy and international treaty
factors affecting the Internet trajectory; and new horizons for Internet applications.
ITRN 756 National Security and the Global Economy (3:3:0). Examines the impact of
globalization and changes in the international economic and political systems on concepts
of national security. The nexus of economic and security concerns in the post-cold war
era, with particular attention to emerging issues, including trade and economic security,
proliferation of advanced military technology and control of weapons of mass destruction,
international drug trafficking, and defense conversion, is emphasized. The focus is on the
implications of changing security requirements on U.S. defense and economic policy and
activities.
ITRN 759 Trade Licensing, Controls, and Documentation (3:3:0). Examines legislation
and practices concerning regulation of trade. Current customs and import-export control
regulations and documentation requirements for international transactions are reviewed.
The course is designed for students who need a practical and detailed understanding of
rules and documentation for international business transactions.
ITRN 768 Global Intellectual Property Rights and International Trade (3:3:0).
Examines national, regional, and international systems for the protection of intellectual
property. The course addresses the current international system and the ongoing
multilateral efforts to strengthen intellectual property protection worldwide. Regions and
countries that pose special challenges for intellectual property, and U.S. policy and law
related to these challenges, are examined.
ITRN 772 International Telecommunications (3:3:0). Focuses on developments in the
field of international telecommunications and satellite regulation. The regulatory
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
environment and the business and financial aspects of the global telecommunications
industry are examined.
ITRN 773 International Strategic Management (3:3:0). Presents a comprehensive
approach to international strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation processes
affecting policy and program development within multinational firms and government
agencies. Integrates marketing, finance, accounting, and management. Covers techniques
for forecasting international business, political, economic, technological, legal, and sociocultural forces.
LRNG 762 Strategic Knowledge Management (3:3:0).
Strategic knowledge
management is about leveraging and sharing knowledge in order to develop more
effective organizations. This is accomplished by (i) understanding the concepts of
knowledge, relationships, and communities of practice and (ii) managing the interactions
among people and information and people and people. The latter involves understanding
the context in which people interact in organizations in order to be able to identify and
management across 'boundaries' of organizational communities where relationships are
weak and interaction across boundaries is poor. The course connects theory and
practice.
It draws on the latest knowledge management literature, adopting an
interpretive-constructionist approach to knowledge and knowing. It examines the role of
technology in knowledge management and explores the changes needed to support
knowledge work in organizations.
PUBP 736 E Commerce and the Digital Divide (3:3:0). The "digital divide" refers the
uneven distribution of Information Technology services, especially telephony and Internet
connectivity, to citizens. Since Internet deployment is heavily skewed toward more
wealthy users, this disparity has become a major focus for national policy discussion and
debate. The course discusses many of the ongoing policy issues involved : universal
access to Internet (global, national, regional local), equality of use in areas like on line
delivery of government services, privacy, on line voting, e-government and others. The
course also focuses on efforts to ameliorate the digital divide sponsored by major
multilateral agencies like the World Bank and the United Nations, since the non-developed
nations represent about eighty percent of the population but have only five percent of
Internet capacity and usage.
PUBP 737 Cases and Concepts in E-commerce. (3:3:0). Electronic government has
become a significant public policy issue world wide. It offers the prospect of dramatic
improvements in the delivery of government services but also portends major debate
about government intrusion. Course covers the emerging public policy issues associated
with electronic government: job displacement in the public sector, privacy, procurement
and supply chain management, voter profiling, scope of government services, challenges
to "digital democracy", Internet-based voting, land management, the "digital divide" and
others.
PUBP 760
Science and Technology Policy in the 21st Century (3:3:0). This course
investigates the roles dynamic scientific research and technological innovation play in
contemporary society. It focuses specifically on the design and analysis of alternative
public policies intended to influence the rate and direction of technological change in
societies and on the use of scientific and technical knowledge in public policymaking more
generally. The course uses historical and international comparative approaches to assess
the politics and pragmatics of S&T policy. Included in the course is material from the fields
of policy evaluation and analysis as well as organization theory, the economics of
innovation, and the sociology of science and technology. Applications focus on areas of
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concern to the “New Economy,” such as biotechnology, networked telecommunications
and computing, and the globalization of technology-based production.
PUPB 771 Enterprise Engineering and Organizational Policy. (3:3:0). This course
introduces the student to the modern extended and integrated organization. The focus is
on the managerial and policy aspects of creating and managing modern information
technology enabled public and private sector organizations. Organizational change is
rapid and dramatic. Management models based on hierarchical command and control
structures have been displaced in the private sector and are being challenged in the public
sector. Information systems are being realigned around processes, and organizational
power is mirroring this realignment. The process-oriented and integrated model has been
extended to include customers, suppliers, and other claimants and stakeholders. Some of
the questions addressed include: How do organizations manage this transition? What are
the modern approaches for planning for the transition, and what are the procedural models
that guide the implementation? What are the implications for policy makers? This course
provides an understanding the change process by focusing on all aspects of managing
this complex change process, from strategic planning through the implementation of
modern integrated information systems, popularly known as Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) systems.
PUBP 773 Supply Chain Integration and Management (3:3:0). The course lectures
focus on two issues: Supply chain integration from an information technology perspective,
and Supply chain management from a decision support perspective. Topics include
ERP/Web integration, Advanced Planning, and Customer Relationship Management. The
student will learn the theoretical and practical concepts of modern supply chain integration
and management, and will receive hands-on laboratory experience with modern supply
chain solutions.
PUBP 775/SYST 695 Economics of Electronic Commerce (3:3:0) This course focuses
on gaining competitive advantage through Electronic Commerce implementation. The
course focuses on the identification and growing of new market opportunities, as well as
the electronic enabling of existing business relationships. The course considers businessto-consumer relationships as well as the economics of strategic procurement, ERP
hosting, customer relationship management, catalog hosting, portal operations, and
supplier management. The primary emphasis is on understanding problem, scope and
solution; and then focusing on understanding the economic performance of the solution.
The emphasis of the lectures is implementation consulting from a systems engineering
perspective. Students are expected to learn about trading exchanges, be able to build
models that analyze a variety of auction strategies, learn the basic mathematical models
used in dynamic pricing, learn to incorporate risk in analysis, and be able to analyze the
models built into current ERP systems.
PUBP 777/SYST 697 Critical Information Technology Infrastructures (3:3:0). This
course will cover the design and implementation of high-speed network and application
services in support of modern Enterprise Resource Planning systems. Critical
technologies include high speed data communication, switched vs. routed data flow,
workflow engines, business rule and web application servers, and load balancing
technologies. A large-scale web enabled ERP system architecture will be examined in
detail. The specific course objectives for students are to develop a working vocabulary,
along with a sound conceptual understanding of the most common IT infrastructure
architectures and standards that are implemented by many of today's "hi-tech"
organizations, and to identify the capabilities, typical uses, and the limitations of such
technologies.
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PUAD 781 Information Management: Technology and Policy (3:3:0). Prerequisite:
PUAD 680 or permission of instructor. Examines the challenges that organizations
encounter as they move to a more technologically sophisticated information and
communication environment.
Organizational policy issues evolving from new
technologies, including privacy, security, authentication, content control, intellectual
property, and taxation, are studied, focusing on the effectiveness of previous policy
solutions and analyzing proposed solutions.
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Appendix E: Health Care and Services Industry Courses
HSCI 678 Introduction to the U.S. Health System (3:3:0). Course is required, as a
prerequisite to all other certificate courses, for students who do not have familiarity with all
aspects (financing, providers, care systems) of the U.S. health care system and recent
working experience. Explores the structure, function, and financing of the health care
delivery systems in the U.S. Designed to familiarize students with the development of the
various sub-systems of care and the ways in which public, private, and social forces
influence the politics of healthcare, shape the system, and impact public health. Includes
analysis of systems infrastructure and the socio-political context of the U.S. health care
system.
HSCI 707 Health Care Management Policy, Law, and Ethics (3:3:0). Survey course
that prepares health care executives to understand selected legal and ethical principles as
applied to complex decision-making and policy analysis in the management of health care
organizations and systems. Legal relationships (torts and contracts) and ethical references
are used for selective managerial application in the analysis and management of
organizational and clinical dilemmas, statutory and regulatory trends, and the
management of scarce resources and interdisciplinary teams in health systems.
HSCI 709 Health/Medical Informatics for Health System Managers (3:3:0). Introduces
health/medical information systems with emphasis on systems analysis and design to
support managerial and clinical communications and decision-making. Explores trends
and innovations in information technology and systems, focusing on the managerial
oversight of health/medical information systems. Includes review and analysis of the
issues and uses of databases and database management systems for clinical and
managerial transactions and decisions in health care organizations and integrated health
systems.
HSCI 720: Health Databases and Data Integration (3:3:0) Students learn to manipulate
large databases, create linked table queries, write SQL application programs, understand
sources of data conflicts, and identify methods of integrating ODBC databases with legacy
data. Students learn concepts of data warehousing, methods of analysis of large
databases including Bayesian belief networks and machine learning in the health care
context. Course involves a semester-long data integration group project.
HSCI 722: E-commerce and On-line Marketing of Health Services (3:3:0) This course
will teach students concerning the development of online health services, the organization
of online businesses, online marketing, online financial and clinical transactions, and
venture capital and IPO process. In addition, students learn about creating and
maintaining web pages and online databases. The course will review the literature on
impact of computer services on patient care and health care organizations. It will review
examples of successful and bankrupt technology firms in health care. Students, in groups,
are expected to draft a business plan and develop early version of the service they are
proposing.
HSCI 714: Telehealth Applications (3:3:0) Prerequisite: HSCI 678 or recent work
experience in the US Health System This course provides an overview of current and
emerging telehealth applications. Content focuses on uses and evaluation of telemedicine
in rural and urban settings. Telehealth programming, staffing, funding and reimbursement
will be addressed. Challenges of managing regulatory, ethical and international policy
considerations will be addressed.
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Additional Courses Open to Students as Electives:
Note: HSCI prefix Courses require working knowledge of the US health care industry or
must take HSCI 768 as a prerequisite.
HSCI 703 Financial Management of Health Systems (3:3:0). Examines the tools and
methods of financial management in health care organizations and systems with emphasis
on allocation and use of funds. Analysis of costs and constraints of alternative source of
funds and the application of financial decision instruments and their effect on operational
management and market value of the entity is covered.
HSCI 704 Contemporary Issues in Health Systems Leadership and Management
(3:3:0). Analyzes management theory and practice from recently evolving works that
identify, analyze, and resolve strategic organizational problems and issues in health care
systems. Applied leadership strategy to effectively manage a variety of critical issues in
health care systems, such as organizational development, change management, human
relations and diversity, quality management for organizational and clinical effectiveness,
technology, competing priorities, conflicting constituencies, delivery system redesign, and
health services research.
HSCI 705 Strategic Management and Marketing in Health Care (3:3:0). Develops
executive skills for strategic decision making through the use of marketing-based tools and
techniques as applied in health care systems. Strategic planning, market research and
opportunity/risk analysis, customer assessment, market segmentation and life cycle
assessment for health care services in managed care and non-managed care
environments are covered.
HSCI 706 Integrated Health Systems Management (3:3:0). Explores emerging
structures for financing and delivery of comprehensive health services in integrated health
systems. Successful development and management of alliances, provider hospital
organizations, and managed care systems with an emphasis on strategies for vertical
integration, community partnering, contract negotiation, governance, and management of
antitrust situations.
HSCI 708 Operations/Quality Management of Health Services (3:3:0). Examines the
operations and quality management functions of a health care/service organization from a
strategic viewpoint. Explores the contributions of operations research and quality
management to improve delivery and production of health services and business
processes from the perspective of the health care manager. Explores contemporary
performance measures (quality and productivity) useful for improving process
performance and selected decision support system methods from operations
management.
HSCI 712 Health Services Research (3:3:0). Prerequisite: HSCI 701 or comparable
statistics course. Students learn the role of health services research in policy- and in
evidence-based management and clinical practice. Students learn to formulate a problem,
to conduct online searches of published literature to describe the state of knowledge in the
field, to conceptualize the research project, to conduct analysis of secondary data, to
design an experiment, and to conduct evaluation research. Students learn to organize
presentation of research and methods of feedback.
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George Mason University – MS in E-commerce program description
HSCI 715 Health Economics (3:3:0). Emphasizes health care managers an
understanding of economic efficiency in the U.S. health system. Microeconomic methods
are used to examine markets and resources in health care. Health care is examined as a
commodity, and the demand for health and medical care services, provider behavior, and
the function and behavior of insurance markets is explored. Selected topics include:
government role, financing arrangements, insurance reform, rationing, price regulation,
and provider competition.
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