Academics

Through our graduate program, you will earn a master of science degree in information and communication science (ICS). The nature of the program is interdisciplinary, based upon the philosophy of holistic learning and content integration. Not every topic in this highly complex field, which spans the gamut of business topics, technology, human and organizational communication, history, usability, political science, psychology, and regulatory policy, deserves or can have course length treatment. Instead, our ability to interweave topics and issues in the study of problems and cases in the field helps students understand why the various academic elements from the liberal arts base of their undergraduate education are important. 

It also helps them to understand areas of weakness in their backgrounds that they must improve in their graduate experience. Students with MIS, EE, and computer science backgrounds need to fill different weaknesses than our management, radio and television telecommunications, communications studies, political science, or journalism students. The critical point of the curriculum is to prepare them broadly for a career. By approaching courses in a problem-solving mode, not unlike expectations in the workplace, we hope to motivate our students to realize their deficiencies and to overcome them. They do this because they recognize their personal and professional needs, not just because the faculty has identified a set of requirements.

Two thirds of the course graduation requirement is ICS core courses, but each year there are 15 to 20 additional elective courses available. We recognize that our students go into a wide range of positions from this program and, to the extent possible, we attempt to prepare them for the changing environments they will enter. We do not prepare narrow specialists for a single area in the work environment. We intend to prepare problem-solvers with solid backgrounds in technical information management topics who are able to be rapidly productive in varied positions in the digital world.

We are also offering a new four-course certificate program, which you can earn online.

Why Study ICT at Ball State?

How to Apply