Bachelor’s in Management Information Systems and Bachelor’s in Cyber Security

Ruth Suarez: Okay. Hello everyone. Thank you for join us in our online Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems and Cyber Security webinar. Before we begin, I’d like to go over just some logistics. First, you are in listen-only mode. The presentation is being broadcast through your speakers to avoid any background noise. Second, please feel free to ask question as we go. You can do so by typing in the Q & A box at the left side of your screen at any time throughout the session. If we don’t get to your question today, and enrollment advisor will follow up with you. Third, this session is being recorded and you can watch this presentation On Demand at any time using the same link you used to register. We will also follow-up with an email after the presentation with a recording.

For today’s agenda, what we will cover, we’ll introduce the presenters then talk a little bit about Maryville University, who we are. We’ll also make sure to cover program overview, talk about the online experience for students, the admissions process, and the requirements. Then we’ll conclude with a live Q & A session, so again as we go through the information and the slides, please feel free to jot down your questions in that Q & A box.

As a quick introduction, my name is Ruth Suarez. I am the Senior Enrollment Advisor here for our online program. Quick background on me. I have been in higher education for about six years now, working with Maryville’s online programs for about four of those years. As enrollment advisors, we are here to help you, not only to determine if the program’s the right fit, but if Maryville’s the right fit for you. If we decide it is, we here to help make the enrollment process as smooth as possible, so we will be talking a lot.

Next, I’d like to introduce Dr. Stacy Hollins.

Dr. Hollins: Hello, everyone. I’m Dr. Stacy Hollins and I have been at Maryville for about three years now. I am the Assistant Dean over all the technical programs. If you have any additional questions, always feel free to reach out to me as well. I’ll be sharing with you a little more information about the MIS program soon. I’m glad to have you all on the line this evening.

Ruth Suarez: Thank you, Dr. Hollins. Then I’d like to pass it over to Professor Kurt Aubuchon. Kurt, would you like to introduce yourself?

Prof.  Aubuchon: Hi. Thank you. Thanks everyone for joining. My name’s Kurt Aubuchon and I am an Assistant Professor of Cyber Security here at Maryville. I just joined Maryville in June, after spending about 20 years in private industry. I’m really thrilled to be here at Maryville. I think we have a great program and I’m looking forward to telling you a little bit more about it.

Ruth Suarez: Awesome. Thank you, Kurt. Let’s go ahead and jump right in and talk a little bit about Maryville University. So, Maryville University, we are a private not-for-profit institution. Really what I’d like to say about Maryville is it definitely takes courage to set out and earn your degree online, on top of all the other things that you have going on in your life. We get it. In fact, courage is something that we know a thing or two about. Here at Maryville, we have been progressively challenging the norms of higher education for nearly 150 years. We started out as one of the first universities in the region to educate women. Today, we continue to push those boundaries and prepare students like you into the digital world. At Maryville, we understand what it takes to step forward to get out of your comfort zone.

Maryville University is nationally ranked, top private colleges. We have a numerous amount of corporate partnerships. We’ll speak a little bit more about that later on. But now listen to what we want to do, we want to invite you to be brave with us. We want to make sure you discover our online programs and how we deliver the student-first experience like any other.

A quick background on our enrollment. So Maryville continues to grow with an online program. According to our student support group, there about a little over 9,000 students who are currently enrolled in the program. We offer quite a variety of different programs, about a 115 programs in total. Out of those 115 programs, 25 plus of those programs are offered 100% online.

Now I’d like to take the time to jump into the Bachelor of Science in Management Information System. The Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems can be in a variety of settings. Some of the different career paths that students choose after earning this degree would be more of a database administrator, a systems administrator, or even technical services manager. With business science management and information systems, it’s universal, right? This can be in any type of company. Really what we’re doing is merging information technology in management and learning how to be able to balance both. Dr. Stacy Hollins, was there anything else in terms of job prospects that you would like to touch on with this BS MIS program?

Dr. Hollins: Yes. I think you covered jobs. I always like to talk about MIS because it’s such a vague area. We created the program so that it would be an opportunity for us to get individual skills in the different areas that they would encounter in any corporation. I was get excited about MIS because it’s needed in every organization, which is why it always feels so broad because people going to the or considering the field and say, “What would I be?” Like when you’re going into cyber security, you’re going to be a cyber security expert. In MIS, you’re actually an asset in that organization in many different ways because you learn about databases, you learn about spreadsheets, but you also learn about hardware and software. You learn about the current technologies that are being used in those different organizations such as Salesforce, different technologies that are used across all organizations. You’re just an asset.

When I started off I the field, it was because I had the skills that other folks, that did different types of work, didn’t have. It always elevated me to the next level in the organization. I just always like to share that. It gives you just a broad and wide variety of skills that are needed in any organization. What it really benefits those folks that really love technology such as myself. If you really love working on different computer programs, figuring out hardware and software, working with different management tools that use technology, then really consider the program because you get to use those technology skills in a great way.

Ruth Suarez: Great. Thank you for that insight Dr. Hollins. Next, I would like to touch base on, specifically the Bachelor of Science Management Information Systems here at Maryville and some of the program highlights. One of the main things that I want to draw attention to, is we definitely personalize your program to individual interests and professional goals. The online degree is designed to prepare you to become a technology leader. You’re getting hands on experience with emerging technologies that ultimately will help you with your real world experience. One of the big things here at Maryville is, we want to make sure that you not only understand theoretical components, but are also able to work a little more hands on. So, we have built a well-rounded skill set that we want to make sure you learn within the curriculum. Some of the things that we want to make sure that you understand with the program itself is, again, how to advance your degree within business and information technology. Dr. Susan Hollins, would you like to-

Dr. Hollins: I can add to that-

Ruth Suarez: Yeah.

Dr. Hollins: Sure. Sure. You brought up a good point, is that we are using the technologies that are used in industry, which excites me. We actually use virtual machines and have moved into a cloud environment using a Loft and Amazon Web Services, so that you actually are in an environment using the tools that you’ll use in industry. So you don’t walk into a corporation or a company or a start your own business or any of that and walking in saying like, “Okay, what next?” Because you’ve actually had the experience with the tools here at Maryville.

The other thing is that the coursework is always being, and the software is always being updated to the latest and greatest. We just developed two of our last courses were collaboration and teaming, where we’re actually using all of the teaming tools that are used in industry, such as Slack and TEAM, all of those tools that you use to collaborate and team within organizations. The other course that we created is an actually Salesforce course where you actually get certified in the first level of Salesforce. So we’re always looking for the latest and greatest. We’re finding out what most companies are using and getting you these skills and the exact tools you’ll use when you get out in industry.

Ruth Suarez: Great. Thank you so much for that information. Dr. Stacy Hollins, was there any other program highlights that you would like to mention with the Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems?

Dr. Hollins: Just that it, again, I’ve already said it and I hope you can feel my passion about the field that you … If you have any interest in technology, and you don’t want to go into one specific field; but, you like technology, and you’re trying to figure out what that is, really consider MIS because it gives you the technology skills across the corporation, across the company. If you have any questions or concerns about that, there’s also a minor. Just consider the program and give call or email if you’re interested and need to talk more through that.

Ruth Suarez: Great. Thank you for that great information. I do want to make sure that we can cover some of the curriculum highlights with the Bachelor of Management Information Systems as well. For the program, it’s a total of 128 credits, broken down into some business core courses, some management information system core courses, along with your general education and general elective courses. As Dr. Stacy Hollins has mentioned some of the new courses that were incorporated into the program, is there anything that might like to highlight a little bit more?

Dr. Hollins: Again, all of our courses incorporate some form of technology that’s being used in corporate. For instance, in 250, we just incorporated Salesforce, the beginning of Salesforce. We look at … Again, all of the software that’s used on a daily basis in corporation. Anything that’s new, we’re always investigating how to get those into our curriculum so that you’ll have expertise with that as well.

Ruth Suarez: Great. Thank you. At this time, before we jump into the Cyber Security program information. I wanted to open up to the Q & T box. See if there were any questions for Dr. Stacy Hollins about the BS MIS program. I’ll give it about a minute or two to jot down any questions that you have. Again, the Q & A box is on the left hand side of your screen. Okay, we have one question here. This student asks Dr. Stacy Hollins, “I love technology and you mentioned about certification. Do the students have the opportunity to get certified in certain IT fields with this program?”

Dr. Stacy Hollins?

Dr. Hollins: I’m sorry I was talking on mute. We do. We have opportunities for our students to get A+ certified, Network certified, and Salesforce certified as well.

Ruth Suarez: Great. Thank you. The other question here asks, “In addition to the degree, do we have options to add a minor to our degree and if so, what is the requirement for this minor?”

Dr. Hollins: You can add a minor to the degree and you can add an App Development minor. If you’re interested in coding, we do have an App Dev minor. The thing about the App Dev minor is it’s not completely online yet, so it depends on where you’re located. You can also get a Cyber Security minor as well. You can also get, I believe, there’s a Business minor as well. I need to follow up with that, but I also believe there’s a Business minor.

Ruth Suarez: Okay. Great. Thank you. The next question asks here, “You mentioned there’s some hands on experience with this program. Can you talk a little bit more about what that looks like in the curriculum?”

Dr. Hollins: For us, hands on is using the technology. Fortunately, again we have access to different systems, like CRM systems such as Salesforce. So the hands on means actually using the technologies that we are teaching. As opposed to reading about Salesforce, and what it does, and hearing how others have used it in case studies, you actually get into Salesforce and use it. That’s what happens with all of our software. We use TEAM as a enterprise system for Maryville University. We started using TEAM to communicate and chat, and also use shared documents and things like that that are in the cloud. You learn about how to use the cloud and how to connect with your colleagues and the people that you work with, using the cloud and things like that, and Slack. So you’re actually using the tools as opposed to a lot of places that just … that you read about the tools when we’re actually using them and incorporating them into our program.

Ruth Suarez: Great. Again thank you so much for your insight Dr. Stacy Hollins with the Bachelor of Science in Management Information System. I want to go ahead and jump into an online program overview of the Cyber Security program. Now I will pass it off to Professor Kurt Aubuchon. If you’d like to talk a little bit more about the program?

Prof.  Aubuchon: Hi. Thanks so much. Again, my name is Kurt Aubuchon and I’m one of the instructors in the Cyber Security program. We’ll talk a little bit about why you might want to do that degree and why you might want to do it at Maryville. A cyber security degree is focused just on information protection. It’s focused on how do we protect our computers and our data from all the threats out there against them. So from computer criminals and from state sponsored actors and activists and so on, all these people have an interest in compromising our data and our systems.

In the Cyber Security program, we help to teach you how to protect data from all of these threats. There are many different corruptions or career field that you can go into with a cyber security degree. Now you’ve probably heard on the news, a number of times about various companies that have been breached. If you’re from St. Louis, you’re probably really familiar with Equifax, which has a big operation here in town, and they had a big computer compromise last year. All these companies you’ve heard about in the news that have had data stolen or have been the victims of computer crime, they all need computer security specialists to help protect their data.

With the degree in cyber security, you can work in any number of sectors, private industry, the public sectors such as government or law enforcement. You can work for large Fortune 500 companies or small or midsize companies. Almost any sector that you can think of needs cyber security specialists. Some common career paths that you might follow when you get out of Maryville with a cyber security degree, you might go and be something like an IT auditor, who go and do overall checks of computer security systems. You might do something called penetration testing, which is where you try to break into systems to figure out how it might be done and then help people patch the systems so they can’t be broken into. You might do computer security management or patch management, which is to help to configure systems so that it can’t be broken into.

Or you might do what I used to do for a living, which is computer forensics and incident response, which is the people who you call when something has been broken into. I would go and figure out what happened when people got broken into. These are all the different kinds of career fields, different kinds of corruptions and there are a lot more, but those are some of the career options you might have with a cyber security degree.

There’s sort of a skills cap right now where there are a lot more security jobs open than there are people to fill them, so it tends to lead to fairly high salaries. Now of course it depends on what specific field you go to, but you may get out of Maryville University and your first job might be $70,000, $80,000, $90,000, those are some of the salaries our graduates are commanding because the demand is so high. If I can just go back one slide here for a second. T

here’s a great resource online called Cyber Seek that show the number of open cyber security jobs at any one time. Apparently, nationwide there are about 300,000 open information security job postings, which means across the country we need about 300,000 more information security specialists to fill all the open jobs. There about 4,000 open right here in greater St. Louis area. Again, that’s what drives the high salary.

At here at Maryville, our program offers three different tracks. You can focus on offensive cyber security. Offensive people are the ones who go in and do things like penetration testing or software testing and try to figure out how to break into stuff, and then help people fix it. You can do the defensive side which is, again, what I used to do for a living; which is the people who react to security breaches or security compromises, or you can do kind of a mix. We have a general track where you can do a combination of both tracks. It’d be kind of cyber security generalist.

As we do in my [ASP] program, we focus a lot on hands on practical skills. You’ll be using a lot of the tools that you’ll use in the industry. When you’re doing the digital forensics class, for instance, you’ll be using forensics tools that you would use when you get out and go to work for law enforcement or private industry or whoever. If you do penetration testing, you’ll be using tools such as Kali Linux and Nessus, those kind of tools that again are industry standard tools that your colleagues are all going to be using. When you get out of Maryville, you’ll be able to say you had hands on experience with them.

A Bachelor of Science degree has 128-credit hour curriculum. Again, there are three tracks that you can choose from. The degree program has a core curriculum that includes some of the things listed there. Business processes; critical security controls; databases; operating system and application security; laws, policy and compliance … We learn all about the different kind of laws we have to comply with as cyber security professionals; application development and so on. These are some of things you’ll take in the core classes. On top of those core classes, you can specialize in things like digital forensics, incident response, ethical hacking, and so on.

Again, this is just kind of what I mentioned. The offensive track, you’ll learn to do things like ethical hacking, which again is when you kind of take on the role of an attacker. You take on the role of a bad guy, and try to break into the systems, and then report how you did it; so, that the people who run those systems can fix them. Networks and security are the people who manage network devices and manage network communication to make sure that it all is protected and is reliable. Mobile security, increasingly a big part of our lives. So much communication is done now on mobile phones. It’s fairly rare that I even write an email anymore on my computer. I use my mobile phone for all that. You guys are probably on the call, many of you are probably in the same boat, and so mobile security is an increasing important part of our lives.

On the defensive track again, I mentioned security information and even management. If you’re familiar with that field then I think you might be familiar with a tool called Splunk, which is a log management system. If you take our security information and event management class, you’ll learn how to use Splunk. You have the opportunity to get Splunk certified at the end of the course. Again, we do virtualization and cloud security, where you’ll learn to do things like secure instances of virtual machines in the Amazon cloud. We do digital forensics, incident response and so on.

Also, if I can back up just a moment to the offensive track, when you do the offensive track, you’ll have the opportunity to come out of Maryville with some great industry recognized certifications including the certified ethical hacker and a few others. So kind of like with the MIS program, you have the opportunity to gain industry certifications along with your bachelor’s degree.

Finally, one of the really cool parts of the Maryville program is we have something called the Cyber Fusion Center. Cyber Fusion Center is a class, but it’s not like other classes. You’re not sitting in a lecture or reading a book. What you’re actually doing is providing security services to our clients. Maryville has other non-profits and school districts that we provide security services for. We do vulnerability scanning for these organizations that wouldn’t be able to go out and afford to hire a regular professional services firm to do their vulnerability scanning. So they engage Maryville, we provide these services to them for free.

The services are provided by students who go into the Cyber Fusion Center, which is a lab set up here in Maryville. They provide services just the same way that they would if they were out working in professional services company. This is a great way to get hands on experience. You’re using all the industry tools that you’d be using to do this kind of job in your career. You’re meeting client deadlines. You’re producing reports for clients and so it’s fun, very much like a professional services firm. Again, Cyber Fusion Center is a class, so you sign up for it just like other classes. If you meet the enrollment requirements and get in under the enrollment cap, you are in the class and doing hands on work. We are real proud of the Cyber Fusion Center. It’s one of the real bright spots I think of the program. I think that was my last slide.

Ruth Suarez: Thank you so much, Kurt. Now I’d like to jump into the online experience highlights. Also, Maryville University’s online program is definitely focused on the individual student. Like a mentioned earlier, Maryville is a small private institution and we try to keep that same feel in our online programs as well. Also, we tend to keep class sizes relatively small. What this allows for students, it allows them to network and to develop relationships with not only other students, but the distinguished faculty that we here. We encourage that communication, email, discussion board postings. Networking is a great opportunity when you’re in your undergraduate program. Remember, if you have question about a certain topic, more than likely one of your classmates will as well, so definitely encourage that communication and networking.

Another benefit of this online program, is it fully asynchronous, meaning that there are no set log in times. We understand that students have various schedules, some work full-time, some are balancing school, work and family. There’s never a day or time that we say, “Hey, you have to be logged in at this day or this time.” Essentially as long as you’re meeting your assignment deadlines and checking in periodically throughout the week, you have 24/7 access to all the coursework material. But as we know, the technology is not always your best friend, so if there is anything that happens technology wise, maybe something’s not working correctly, some of the links aren’t working; we also provide a great tech service option here. That IT service desk is available for you 24/7.

In terms of our Learning Management Systems, we present all of our information through Canvas. Canvas is definitely user friendly and it’s available for you on your computer. There’s also mobile apps, so as you’re going through, maybe you just want to look at some of the calendars, assignment dates calendar, and see what the assignment dates are, you have full access to not only the computer, but also the mobile device as well.

In terms of what it’s like to be a Maryville student and some of the resources that are offered to you. You are exactly the same as any other on campus students. You have access to all of the information that we have here. Starting off, you have your enrollment advisor. Your enrollment advisor, like myself, we are here with you from the beginning all the way until the first week of class. Then we hand you off to our student service advisors. Your student service advisor is essentially going to be your best friend throughout the entire program. They’re there from start to finish. Any questions you have, maybe we might not be able to answer curriculum information, but they will definitely be a nice referencing point and also help you as you start to register for different courses, give you some suggestions here and there as you go.

Like I mentioned earlier, you have dedicated technical support team that’s available for you 24/7. Again, any questions that you have with [theorem], it’s someone live that’s going to be able to help you with those questions. We also have access to the online library resources. Again, everything that Maryville students have on campus, Maryville online students will have the same access to those research engines. We also have available for online students a writing studio. I know one of the biggest concerns that I hear from students coming into school after a few years, is writing those papers again. Definitely encourage you to use that online writing studio just to get some feedback. Key points that I would say from there, make sure that you are submitting your assignments a little bit sooner to give the time to send it over to the writing studio, get some feedback, and rework it as you go.

Now, I’d like to cover more of the admissions requirements and the process for the application. We have two different processes. We have one for incoming freshman and transfer students, which are both relatively similar. Incoming freshman is someone who is coming in without any college credits. Requirements for those students is, we must have a high school diploma or GED, with a minimum GPA of at least a 2.5 on a 4.0 scale. There are no standardized tests required, so there’s no SAT or ACT requirements.

Transfer students. Those are students who are coming in with some type of college credit. Those requirements, just a little bit different. Minimum GPA requirement for them are a 2.0 on a 4.0 scale. Again, no standardized test required, but we will need all official transcripts from any institution attended for college credit. Now, let’s say you fall below the 2.5 or the 2.0 mark, there are possibilities to be considered for what’s called conditional accept. We’ll work with students a little bit closer at enrollment advisor level. We’ll talk about what we can do to really strengthen your application, such as submitting a resume, or letters of recommendation, or even a GPA addendum. Ultimately, again I encourage you to reach out to your enrollment advisor as you’re going through this process. Our job here is to make sure that we submit the strongest application possible.

Speaking of the application process, what I’d like to do it to separate the application process into two easy steps. Step one, would be requesting all of your official transcripts. Again, if you’re a transfer student, we will need all official transcripts from any institution attended for college credit. If you are a freshman coming in, all we would need is your high school or GED transcript. Step two, would be to complete the online application form, which we provide for link for here. The online application for is free to submit. Takes about 10-15 minutes and it goes over, mostly just your bio information, so your background. Again, there are no entrance exams, so no SAT requirements or ACT requirements to apply.

Looking at some tips and tricks as you’re going through the application process. Transcript tips. We definitely encourage students to start ordering your transcripts as soon as possible, especially with the upcoming start dates that are coming up. Transcripts are a little bit tricky. Depending on the time of year, let’s say we’re getting ready for the holidays, registrar’s are closed or they’re short staffed. You just want to make sure that you order those transcripts. You don’t have to worry about before deadline comes. We would definitely recommend electronic transcripts. Those can be sent to the email provided below. The great thing about those electronic transcripts, one, you’re able to track them, and two, they come in next business day. You’ll be able to see when we get them, if we’ve opened them, and get confirmation on all of that. If they have to be mailed in, please reach out again to your enrollment advisor, we’ll be able to provide you with a mailing address. As a reminder for transfer students, we do require all official transcripts from any institution attended for college credit.

Now for the application form itself. When you follow the link provided, make sure that when you are choosing the program that you would like to apply for, that you are choosing the online option as many of these programs do offer the same programs on campus. It’s important to know that edits cannot be made after the application has been submitted. If you have any questions, again reach out to your enrollment advisor. We’re more than happy to help as we go through it. Remember, there’s no application fee to apply, so once we submit the online application form, at that point, we would just be waiting on the transcripts.

I do want to make sure that we can cover tuition and financial aid as well. As of tuition for the program is going to vary depending on the Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems and the Cyber Security program. The Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems program is about $500 per credit hour. Total tuition for that program will ultimately depend on the individual students and how many transfer credits they come in with. Again, it’s a total of 128 credits for both programs.

For the Bachelor of Science in Cyber Security, it’s $622 per credit hour. Again, same concept. Total tuition will depend on the individual students. Maximum, you’re looking at 128 credits. Additional fees, we do have a semester flat fee, which will incorporate all university fees like your online tech fees all the way to your graduation fees, and even unlimited transcripts of that. For the Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems, it’s a total of $350 per [semester?]. For the Bachelor of Science in Cyber Security program, if we’re going part-time, you’re looking at about $350 per semester. Full-time, you’re looking at about $650 per semester.

In terms of payment options, there are quite a few options available for students. Student loans through financial aid or federal Pell Grants are available for those students who apply and qualify. We also offer the option of monthly payment arrangements. Definitely something that we can connect you with the student service center here at Maryville to make sure that that information is given to you. Some students will use employer tuition reimbursements, military benefits, or even student loans. A lot of times what I see with students, is they’ll tend to do a combination of any those different options. So let’s say, you don’t want to take out as many student loans, we’ll see some students do a combination of monthly payments arrangements with those student loans.

At this time, I want to open it up to the question and answer portion of this webinar. Again, I encourage you if you have any questions, please feel free to type in your questions at the Q & A box at the left hand side of your screen. We will jump into one here. Kurt, this one would be more for you. “If cyber security is offered as a minor, will it be more of a benefit than doing cyber security as a major or what would you recommend?”

Prof.  Aubuchon: I think it depends on your career goals. If you are pretty sure that want to go into the security field, I would recommend doing cyber security as a major. I think by doing the major, you will get enough of the MIS background that you won’t be missing anything that’s critical to your future career plans if you do the cyber security major. If you’re not sure if you want to go into cyber security as a career field or if you want to do something like be a IT director where cyber security is part of your responsibilities, but not your sole responsibility, then I might suggest doing it as a minor. But if you know that and you know when I get out of college I wanna go out and be a pen tester, then I definitely recommend doing it as a major.

Ruth Suarez: Thank you, Kurt. This one kind of falls along the same lines in terms of questions. This one asks, “You talked a little bit about the different tracks offered with the cyber security program. Which track would you recommend in terms of finding future jobs?”

Prof.  Aubuchon: I think there are so many jobs to go around that any of the tracks would be … I don’t think you’re going to be struggling for jobs. I think that with any of them, you’ll have a pretty good chance of landing a job pretty quickly. It goes to what you are most interested in. I think the offensive track is maybe a little more popular. I think the offensive tracking, doing pen testing and things like that, is a little flashier, and so there probably a few more people nationwide doing that. I think you might be a little more in demand with good defense skills because I think there are probably a lot of people getting the offense skills. Again, I think that either way, you’re gonna have plenty of job opportunities, but you might find a few more if you focus on the defensive side. Maybe I’m saying that because that was my career for a long time, but, yeah, I’m not sure if that helps. I don’t think you can go wrong because again, there are 300,000 open jobs across the US. I think this is a good time to do either.

Ruth Suarez: Great. Thank you. Next question asks here I have, “My GPA’s below the 2.5 requirement. Can I still apply for the program?” Yes, so we do offer the option for conditional accept to the program. Again, we definitely encourage you to reach out to your enrollment advisor. We’ll be able to help you with some additional documents that you can submit to really strengthen your application. The nice thing with Maryville’s program, when we’re looking at the admissions requirements is we just don’t look at the GPA. We definitely take a wholistic approach to the admissions process. We’ll look at what recommenders have to say about you or what contributed to the lower GPA, so definitely looking at it’s big picture.

This next question, I’ll send it over to you, Kurt. “What type of jobs do we do for the Cyber Fusion Center?” I’m assuming they’re asking more about tasks, the different tasks that are offered when you are working in the Cyber Fusion Center. Could you talk a little bit more about that?

Prof.  Aubuchon: Sure. Currently, we’re focused on doing vulnerability scanning. For our clients, we do external vulnerability scanning. If you’re familiar with these tools, we use primarily a tool called Nessus which is again a fairly industry standard tool. We’re doing vulnerability scanning and we’re doing some web application vulnerability scanning as well. The students do the scan. They get the results from the tools and then we’re not just giving the clients the raw results. The students who do the analysis have to digest and understand the results, and then provide guidance to the clients. Most of our clients are not technical people, so we’re providing them … Here’s what the tools said and here’s what you should focus on, and here’s how you should deal with these results. That’s what we’re doing today. We are gonna be working to expand the services that we offer in the Cyber Fusion Center. Hopefully, fairly soon, we’ll be doing some more things like incident response. We’ll do some additional more in depth penetration testing. We have plans to offer lots more services. Today we’re focused just on doing vulnerability scanning.

Ruth Suarez: Great. Thank you. We’ll leave it open for a few more minutes to go over any additional questions that you might have. Again, reminder, please feel free to type in your questions in the Q & A box to the left hand side. One question we have here. “I’m currently working full-time. Can I do an online program?” Short answer, yes. Definitely a possibility to do this online program. Again, the great thing about an online program is the flexibility that you’re getting with it. It’s asynchronous, so there’s no set log in times. Ultimately, it’ll come down to time management. I would say, per course expect maybe about 10-15 hours a week that you would dedicate on coursework. Again, that’s gonna depend on the course itself and just you, how comfortable you are with an online program and some of the new material. But we definitely have students who are currently working full-time and part-time while doing this program.

Which brings up a good point. We also offer part-time and full-time options for these programs. Ultimately, it depends on just whatever’s gonna work best for you and your schedule. Again, knowing that part-time might take a little bit longer to graduate the program, but doable, taking it sections at a time.

This next question is for … I can shoot it over to you, Kurt. “Do I need to come to campus in order to be able to work on the Cyber Fusion Center?”

Prof.  Aubuchon: For graduate students, you can do the Cyber Fusion Center remotely. Currently for undergraduate students, you do have to be on ground. Generally you do have to be on ground to take the Cyber Fusion Center. If you are an online student, let me know. We may be able to sort of work something out, but typically for undergraduates, Cyber Fusion Center students you do have to be on ground for that.

Ruth Suarez:  Okay. Thank you so much, Kurt. Again, we remind you if your question wasn’t answered at today’s webinar, again, one of the enrollment advisors will reach out to you today or later on today or tomorrow. But thank you all for joining us for this informational webinar on both the Bachelor of Science in Cyber Security and Management Information Systems. This will close the Q & A portion of our webinar. If you look at the resource section on the left side of your screen, you’ll see a couple of different resources available to you. You can always feel free to schedule an appointment with the program advisor. We’ll be happy to touch base over the phone and go over any additional questions that you might have or talk to you about the application process.

We also do want to call attention to the application deadline, which is coming up. Start dates, our next upcoming start date is January 14th, which would be our Spring session. Application deadline is December 3rd. As always, we encourage students to finish applications sooner rather than later, especially with the holidays coming up. We want to avoid a skeletal staff with registrars, make sure everything’s in on time to give us time to register you for the program and touch base on the next steps. Before we leave, we do ask, there’s a quick survey right after this webinar. Three questions, would love to hear from you and our feedback and anything else we can improve on. Thank you all for joining us today and I hope you have a great rest of your day.