MSc in Digital Transformation
University of Hull Online
Key Information
Campus location
Hull, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
Distance Learning
Duration
2 years
Pace
Part time
Tuition fees
GBP 9,800 *
Application deadline
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Earliest start date
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* payment by instalment and funding options available
Introduction
Learn to think systemically and critically about new digital technologies, evaluate their business potential and protect your organisation from costly mistakes.
Why this MSc in Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is about harnessing the technological potential for your organisation. Technologies such as 3D printing, blockchain, AI and quantum computing are set to reshape the business landscape, but there’s always something new on the horizon. With the constant pressure on organisations to adopt novel digital technologies as they emerge, it's not easy to predict what’s around the corner.
With the University of Hull's MSc in Digital Transformation, you will understand that while a prediction is impossible, there are things you can do to manage and capitalise on the technological potential. Learning to adapt to new technological shifts and comprehend their business value requires a new mindset and new capabilities.
Instead of using technology to automate old ways of doing business, you will attain the confidence to evaluate technological potential and choose the right technology to transform how your organisation operates. You will be able to be aware of the deeper issues around each shift, analyse new technologies strategically and assess their organisational benefits and transformational potential.
No matter what industry you work in, you will get the know-how to help your organisation minimise its exposure to costly mistakes and safeguard its resilience. Whether it’s a global pandemic or a cyber-attack, you will develop the data analysis skills you need to focus on the digital challenges your organisation has to be ready for.
You will become competent on how to interpret and visualise data to support your organisation’s decision-making process. You will also familiarise yourself with the role of ethics in digital transformation and learn how to avoid the ethics violations that have tripped up corporations of many different sizes in recent years.
After completing this MSc, you will be able to manage the adoption, implementation and utilisation of current and future digital technologies with confidence. You will become a valuable individual for any organisation looking to use data-driven insights to help it maintain a competitive advantage.
What you learn
From case studies, you will learn how the introduction of new technologies inside an organisation will affect its structure, the working relationships between people, the power dynamics and the way data is exchanged. You will inquire into how new technologies can create resistance to change, disrupt business operations, and allow for the creation of unintended consequences. You will see how failed technological transformation projects have even led to bankruptcy for some businesses.
You will gain an understanding of the relationship between an organisational system and its environment so that you can realise the potential of future technologies for an organisation. You will apply systems thinking to analyse problematic situations in different ways. These are skills you can continue to use throughout your career and as you move into more senior positions.
You will also learn how to:
- Identify the organisational challenges created by disruptive digital technologies, but also to realise the opportunities of harnessing such technologies and their transformative power for your organisation.
- Analyse, interpret and visualise data for decision-making in your organisation.
- Perform digital analyses on social media data for the classification of online customer behaviour.
- Set up cyber-awareness programmes within organisations and improve resilience in the face of cyber-security threats.
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Career Opportunities
Many companies are looking to expand their operations to digital platforms and make more meaningful use of digital technology and for that, they need employees who understand the implications of digital transformation for their business.
After finishing this course you will gain a broad and deep subject matter of technological domains like AI, augmented reality, blockchain, quantum computing and 3D printing. You will be able to think reflectively about technology, the ethics of technological change, and how to develop a digital strategy that protects your organisation from cyber-security threats.
With a Digital Transformation MSc, you can be central in planning, coordinating, and exploring digitalisation activities within your current organisation, or in your next move up the career ladder.
Roles open to you as an MSc Digital Transformation graduate could include:
- Digital Transformation Manager
- Information systems manager
- Cyber-Security Manager
- Information Technology Manager
- Information Systems Analyst
Curriculum
Course modules
On this MSc in Digital Transformation, you study the following compulsory modules
Disruptive Technologies and Organisational Challenges in the Digital Economy (30 credits)
You will explore how digital technologies can lead to failures and unintended consequences for organisations, but also, how technology can enable organisations to achieve a meaningful digital transformation and compete in the context of the digital economy. You will review the latest technologies, such as 3D printing, blockchain, quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and their wider implications in business and society.
You will also start to think through technology in a systems theoretical manner and develops critical thinking around digital assets. This is essential as new technologies change frequently and managers need to approach them carefully.
More critically, as businesses rely more and more on technology and the protection of digital assets becomes critical for their uninterrupted operation, you will concentrate on the cybersecurity challenges that organisations face.
Information Management and Visualisation for Business Decisions (30 credits)
You will explore information management principles in the context of business decisions, with an emphasis on information visualisation. This creates hands-on opportunities to reflect on data principles and the key distinction between data and information.
How can managers move from the different possibilities that data create in order to generate meaningful information in a business context? These explorations are done through specialised software like Tableau or Mathematica but no coding will be required.
You will take a management approach to information, so you can reflect critically on the value of data in business, understand the impact of data, and explore different forms of data manipulation and visualisation.
Customer Led Disruption in a Digital Era (30 credits)
Every single organisation is vulnerable to disruption caused by changes in the way that customers behave, what they demand and what they value. You will focus on the customer, how their behaviour is increasingly shaped by digital technology, and how to build deep unique insights to transform businesses and gain sustainable competitive advantage.
You will explore how innovative digital disruption is often led by customer demand and changing needs. Tools will be used to create sophisticated segmentation analysis using demographic, behavioural and psychological data, mapping customer journeys online and offline to define and develop transformative business opportunities.
You will explore the impact of online communities and key opinion leaders (including influencers) through analysis of social media, forums and dark social data. You will develop an understanding of how to analyse this data, some of which may be owned by different departments in an organisation. You will also examine some of the ethical challenges and legal frameworks which are essential in handling sensitive information.
Digital Strategy & Innovation (30 credits)
On this module, you will broaden your perspective on different types of innovation, to help you develop and evaluate digital transformation strategies. You'll examine the challenges of the implementation process, including identifying stakeholders, beneficiaries and end-users of the implementation process in an organisation where complexity reigns. You will also review prominent perspectives (theories) on adoption and diffusion studies.
You will explore how organisational members make sense of digital innovation and how they can oversee the implementation and adoption of technology in a complex organisational environment. Organisations have many different stakeholders with different professional backgrounds, experiences, motivations, capabilities and underlying rationalities. How can we bring those together?
By exploring how human-machine interaction underpins the process of implementation, we can build a holistic view of a process that is absolutely vital to organisational success in the digital era.
Dissertation (60 credits)
You will undertake a research-oriented dissertation (8,000-10,0000 words) on a topic of your choice, associated with the sub-themes of the taught modules. As part of your dissertation, you will review existing and appropriate literature, select and justify a research design as well as a theoretical framework/model, collect empirical data from a business, and analyse, discuss, and present your findings.
How you're assessed
All assessment for the course is based on coursework and submitted online.
Your performance on the course will be assessed through a range of methods including:
- Ongoing tutor and peer feedback
- Practical work, including group projects and discussion forums
- Written work, including case studies, reports and essays
Admissions
Accreditations
English Language Requirements
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