For the Students

Here's our pitch: major in what you are passionate about, and add a minor in information technology. IT already plays an important role in all fields today, and the need for graduates from all disciplines with a deep understanding of IT is increasing. In some ways, it is like having your cake and eating it too. In whatever field you choose, the IT Minor can help you stand out when looking for a job and give you an educational foundation to be more effective in your job.

The IT Minor at UMass Amherst is designed specifically to allow you to shape the program to your individual interests and needs. You will choose a total of six courses out of a set of more than 55 options to develop both IT fluency—the skills, conceptual understanding, and capabilities required to keep pace with IT— and some IT depth in your area of interest. You will choose courses that help you learn technical principles in areas such as multimedia, the internet, databases, or programming. You will take at least one course on the human dimensions of IT that will help you develop perpective (such as historical, legal and ethical, economic) about how IT fits or might fit into our world. Finally you will choose courses where you will learn applications of IT in fields that interest you, such as interactive multimedia production, geographical information systems, bioinformatics, online journalism, or e-commerce, to name a few.

The IT Minor at UMass Amherst is nationally recognized for its "IT Across the Curriculum" approach to IT education. This means you learn about IT from the points of view of faculty from all over campus. If you are interested in learning more, visit with the chair of the IT Program to discuss how the IT Minor can work for you.

Come By for a Chat

We encourage IT Minor students to come by to talk about course experiences--from wondeful to tragic--or course planning. Feedback from students is the single best way we can identify holes in our curriculum, problems we need to fix, or successes that we need to sustain. The most direct way to shape the IT Minor to match your interests and needs is to research the courses on line, and include us and your major advisors in your planning. Feel free to stop in to the IT Program office to chat. While you are free to stop in if you are in the area, you should schedule an appointment if you are coming from a distance or have an urgent need.

 

IT Capstone

The Information Technology Capstone is a 6-credit, 2-semester  course that is designed to fulfill the culminating experience requirement of Commonwealth College and also meets requirements for the IT Minor.  The course organizes seniors from any major into multidisciplinary teams to address real-world community needs through IT.  This is a Community Service Learning experience that engages students in partnerships with grassroots organizations in nearby Holyoke, Massachusetts.  Teams of students work with a community organization over the course of two semesters to assess their IT needs,  propose a multifaceted project , and then implement the project.  The projects are carried out with sustainability as high priority; the student teams conduct staff training sessions and leave full documentation and project specific training manuals behind for the organizations.  The course has been a major success with students being challenged and growing their skills, application of those skills to the real world and involvement with non-profit organizations leaving the organizations able to promote their services and meet the needs of their constituents in new ways through the implementation of new technology.

Take a glimpse at recent student Capstone projects:

Nuestras Raices
Holyoke Unites
Juntos Collaborative
Community Education Project
Enlace de Familias