Carlson School, Coursera Partner for Management Information Systems Specialization

Professionals looking to expand their knowledge on the role of information technology in organizations can now do so through a new specialization designed by the Carlson School.

The new four-course specialization, titled Management Information Systems, is presented entirely online through Coursera. The courses are taught by four top-ranked Carlson School faculty members—Jason Chan, Gautam Ray, Ken Reily, and Soumya Sen—and provide learners with a robust introduction to the key principles and practices of information systems management.

“This is something that all of us in our department are very excited about,” says Ray. “This specialization allows us to bring this important information to students we would not have been able to reach before. It’s exciting for us to partner with Coursera and create content that will help so many people understand the important role of IT.”

World-class experts explain IT fundamentals

This specialization provides learners with an opportunity to understand the most fundamental aspects of IT in organizations—IT governance, enterprise systems, business analysis, and new technologies. The four courses, which each run five weeks, present a complementary, holistic overview of key IT concepts. No prerequisites are necessary, but it is a college-level course.

While the target audience for the courses is broad, the classes are aimed at managers at any level who use IT to address business problems and are directly or indirectly responsible for managing IT investments and projects. The context of the material is not limited to any particular occupations, industries, or regions.

This specialization provides a robust introduction to the key principles with courses covering the following:

• IS/IT Governance: Learn how information systems address business problems. This takes the form of an IT alignment model that describes how information systems provide capabilities that enable or support organizational strategy. This component also includes an economic analysis of the information system.
• Analysis for Business Systems: Understand the practice of modeling information systems. The goal of this course is to describe the information system defined in the first course, so that the information system can be developed.
• Enterprise Systems: Develop an overview of the capabilities of modern enterprise systems. The goal of this course is to understand the capabilities of enterprise systems, so that the firm can decide if the requirement identified in the second course can be met by an enterprise system. Managerial aspects related to the selection and implementation of enterprise systems will also be discussed.
• IT Infrastructure and Emerging Trends: Study the IT infrastructure choices available to a modern enterprise and the tradeoffs associated with each alternative. Any large information system implementation is a significant organizational change initiative that requires careful stewardship.

The Carlson School’s Information & Decision Sciences Department, for which all four professors teach, is consistently ranked in the top five in the nation for management information systems education, including being ranked No. 3 by U.S. News & World Report.

The Carlson School previously established two Coursera specializations in healthcare marketplace and human resources management. Coursera is an online learning platform that offers more than 2,700 courses, more than 250 specializations, and has partnered with more than 150 different universities.

To enroll or find out more information, visit the specialization's homepage.