By George Lorenzo

 

 

The business world is a competitive place. With more and more MBA-waving applicants out there, professionals are seeking highly specialized graduate degree programs to bolster their expert-level status and make them more marketable.

To answer the demand, degrees with career specializations - also referred to as "concentrations" or "tracks" - are fast becoming commonplace at institutions across the country. Prospective graduate students can find specialized online programs in everything from sports leadership, higher education enrollment management, and automotive systems engineering, to information assurance, information technology management, and business ethics.

Online graduate degree programs in education and business curriculums, for example, offer a wide variety of concentrations. At the university placements
, online graduate education students can choose from concentrations in administration and supervision, curriculum and instruction, computer education, and much more.

At Capella University, cyber business students can specialize in finance or marketing. At the -
University College (-
), online students can enroll in a new global master of business administration program.

A look inside some of these specialized programs reveals a host of robust and unique coursework that can put prospective students on the fast track to success.

Leadership and Ethics
At Duquesne University's School of Leadership and Professional Advancement, an online master of science in leadership and business ethics (MSLBE) is growing in popularity since it was launched in 2002. The program covers ethical issues in the workplace and provides decision-making frameworks to resolve such dilemmas.

In addition to participating in plenty of meaningful online discussions, generated by such courses as "Conflict resolution," "Information Ethics," and "Global Ethics," a capstone project is required in which virtual teams of three to five students work together on an investigation of a modern-day ethical issue.

For example, in a capstone course taught by MSLBE Program Director and Professor Jim Weber, one project featured an analysis of reality TV. "Students do an analysis of the first episode of 'Survivor' by [examining] the moral reasoning between the participants," explains Weber. "We also had students do various survey work, such as an analysis of consumer privacy in relation to information technology providers," he says.

MSLBE student Bob McCarthy, a U.S. Air Force captain and an orbital evaluator at the Cheyenne Mountain Space Control Center in Colorado Springs, CO, says he enrolled in the program because he wanted a degree that would be applicable to his world. "I wanted something I could use in the civilian world, that would benefit me in the Air Force, and that I would feel passionate about," he says.

Part of that passion was brought to life by working with his classmates, McCarthy explains. "I have all these friends - my classmates whom I have never spoken to or seen. You get a different angle on learning when you are reading what people have to say and [preparing] what you have to write. You get time to think about things and respond."

Information Assurance
Being able to think and respond appropriately is also a big part of a master of science in information science and computer systems management with a new information assurance track, offered by -
.

The information assurance track consists of five courses that, combined, have been designated as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education by the National Security Agency (NSA), which protects U.S. government information systems. The track prepares students for dealing with potential security threats in corporate, government, and nonprofit information technology areas.

Don Goff, a professor in the -
program and execTech Schoolve director of the university's Security Studies Laboratory, explains that in the state of Maryland alone, there is a current need for up to 7,000 professionals with information assurance computer security skills. He cites increasing dependence on computers and Internet connections as the cause of such high demand.

Those professionals who will have an edge? "Ones who can safeguard databases and make sure online connectivity is secure, especially credit card transactions," says Goff. "It's a hot topic, and people are finding what they are looking for in this program in terms of its substance and depth." Since it launched on campus in 2002 and then became a fully online modality in 2004, the program has enrolled more than 1,200 students, he adds.

Valerie Frazier, an information assurance manager who is a working civilian for the Department of the Navy at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, was awarded a full scholarship to earn her master's degree in computer systems management with a concentration in information assurance. The scholarship is part of a $330,000 NSA grant awarded to -
to increase the number of qualified students entering the field of information assurance.

Frazier, who began her studies in January, says her first foray into the world of online learning - in a Security Policy, Ethics, and the Legal Environment course - was intense. "But the professor understood that we were all working adults, and he helped us get through the weekly online conferences where you are required to participate in discussions," she explains. With faculty support, Frazier made it through three tough papers and successfully completed a final exam for the course.

 

 

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Working Professionals

The vast majority of students in these online programs are mature working professionals, with plenty of other responsibilities. Austin, for example, is 45, married, and has two grown children. McCarthy is 37 and married with three children, ranging from - old to 13. Frazier is 46 and married, with a 14-year-old and a 22-year-old. Wassef is 38 and single, and he travels frequently for his job and visits with family in Montreal, Canada.

All these students have the drive, determination, and self-direction, which Austin believes is necessary to be a successful online learner. "It really works well for people who have a career, have some learning under their belt, and have developed good disciplinary practices in their lives," notes Austin. "It's not going to work for students who need to be held accountable every step of the way."