Computing and Information Technology with a Foundation Year - BSc (Hons)

The Foundation Mathematics module provides the basic knowledge and mathematical skills which will equip the students to continue their studies to an undergraduate programme. The module will be focused on mathematics related to the field of computing. The interactive taught sessions will use fundamental mathematical in discussions to broaden understanding of the theory and practice introduced in the module. Additional support materials will be made available on the module Moodle website.

Student engagement in the employment of interactive classroom activities and discussions will build the required confidence in maths This will enable students on this module without a strong background in mathematics to work at this level in fundamental mathematics.

Academic and personal study skills are essential elements which should be applied in order to be successful in Higher Education. This module aims to help you in developing basic research skills, academic writing and reflection skills. These skills are inevitably important and will support your transition to the higher education levels of study associated with your chosen degree programme.

Within the module, you will learn various academic skills that should facilitate both academic knowledge and enhance your learning development.

This module will be supported with 2hrs of extra module support session.

This module provides the skills necessary to design a web based application around a clear understanding of the business information requirements, a structured design of an interface and the development skills necessary to implement a solution.

This module focuses on varied technologies relating to the design and development of application to meet the information needs of a business. The module will analyse and design an application that meets current web standards.

This module will provide you with an introduction to digital media technology and will allow you to explore technology-driven change in the media industry.

This module will introduce the fundamentals of audio / video capture and editing allowing you to explore workflow practices. You will document your development process, including aspects such as storyboarding and risk assessments and will create an artefact that relates to technology in your chosen degree or industry.

During the journey within higher education, developing your independent study is an essential skill to support shaping the knowledge to become more useful and applied within practice. This module aims to provide you with necessary skills and tips that should support you to work independently within your discipline and to successfully apply project management tools and techniques to a mini project related to your subject discipline.

Within the module, various tutorials, workshops and seminars will encourage the elements or creativity, innovation and thinking. The skills developed from this module acts as a foundation both towards subjects within your discipline, and more importantly, your final year’s project in Level 6.

This module will be supported with 2hrs of extra module support session.

Foundations of programming aims to provide you with the fundamental principles and practice-based activities needed to begin developing software programs. The module details the anatomy of a structured software program that includes the creation of a program algorithm, a logical, simple and organised program flow and the generation of pseudo and programming code. The module uses a combination of theory and practice-based sessions designed to engage students in group and individual activities to identify the components of a software program and to apply their knowledge into hands-on software programming activities. During the module sessions you will acquire the basic skills to design and create software programs.

This module will be supported with 2hrs of extra module support session.

This first-year project allows you to develop and cultivate a creative mind-set through collaborative innovative practice, allowing you to bring together knowledge and imagination to construct a viable product. It is an opportunity to express your ideas, skills and talent to the wider community of innovative practice.

In this module, you learn how modern operating systems are the glue that bind computer hardware and networks together and how they manage the user experience for individual computers and wider networks. We will focus on the function and purpose of operating systems, with a focus on hands-on practical skills. We will build on learning from your networking, programming and computer systems modules, enhancing and extending skills in all these areas. You will make heavy use of Open Source Software, demonstrating what can be achieved with this huge publicly shareable resource on a very limited budget.

This fundamental computer systems module puts into practice the learning done through reading, video lecturers, skills building labs and problem based learning for the acquisition of new knowledge and core practical competencies. Module content and assessment encourages realisation of multi-disciplinary computing, it challenges students to interface with the environment by configuring Internet of Things devices and systems for collecting data for the proposed solution. 

Within the module of Computer Programming you will learn the key skills of Programming and how this relates to technology and communications. Programming is an engineering tool that plays a vital role to drive most of the modern technologies surrounding us, including the technological devices for communication, transportation and entertainment. In other words, it can be said that our modern lifestyles are heavily dependent on programming. Moreover, businesses increasingly rely on computers and the software run on them. Programming skills and a broader and deeper understanding of programming are therefore becoming increasingly important to the jobs market. 

The module gives you the opportunity to learn mathematical concepts and methods and critically reflect on how they relate to computing and communication systems. You will develop core mathematical and statistical skills which are fundamental in computing and technical work in general. You will be expected to solve mathematical and statistical problems on paper and on a computer.

The module provides the opportunity to learn and critically reflect the skills required in building and designing basic networks and their requirements within a network infrastructure. This module builds on the underpinning knowledge and theory of networking systems.

This module forms part of the Research and Enterprise strand that runs through each programme curriculum from level 4 to 7. It builds on the core concepts, which were introduced to you at level 4 in the practice based computing related modules and the underpinning role innovation plays in this.

As you have chosen to major in developing your technical capability, knowledge and skills required for you chosen career path, this module is designed to draw upon your technical learning framework through Reflection, Evaluation, Entrepreneurialism and Management (REEM). REEM forms the principles of this module allowing you to explore and to further build on your strengths and achievements to pursue excellence in a professional context.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of connected computing devices, electromechanical, digital machines, objects with the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. It is estimated that by 2020 there will approx. 50 billion IoT devices. This module will provide knowledge and skills for the research, synthesis and evaluation of solutions incorporating internet communication systems and devices that can be used to make informed and wise decisions.

In this module you will build on the foundations of networking, maths, programming, and computer hardware modules you studied during level 4 to further investigate and apply relevant techniques. It will complement and support your other level 5 modules in particular the HCI, Project, networking, infrastructure and virtualisation content. 

Within the module Server Systems, you will learn that servers are the engines that deliver the data of the worldwide Internet and cloud revolution. In this module you will learn how to design, configure and troubleshoot servers to provide both the data and network services required in modern networks. You will spend a lot of time actually configuring and troubleshooting servers in this module to give you the hands-on skills required by industry. This will be backed up by theory delivered via videos and reading and short lectures.

In this module will you will focus on combining theoretical concepts around user experience design with practical “hands-on” approaches widely used in industry and academia to create effective interactive experiences. Current technology developments involve humans using information centred applications, both physically and cognitively. With the advent of ubiquitous computing and connected products, digitalisation has enabled information architectures that are not solely focused in software based applications, but also in tangible computing devices. In this context, you will learn about the user-centred design process that places a core emphasis on designing products and applications for “people”. In particular, you will learn techniques for gathering and understanding a target audience’s requirements, the importance of universal design and accessibility, methods for undertaking rapid prototyping, core principles around aesthetics and visual design, and a range of techniques for designing, running, and analysing user evaluations. You will apply this knowledge to collaboratively design and evaluate an innovative digital prototype using industry standard tools.

In this module you will have the opportunity to learn and critically reflect on the skills required for Network Technologies. This module builds your knowledge and underpinning theory for the networking modules and you will review the requirements from a small to medium scale network deployment engineering context. 

This module provides a thorough grounding in all aspects of: conceptual data modelling (entity relationship models), relational theory and relational algebra, CASE tools for designing a database and its interface, database design and normalization. It also looks at SQLPlus to for querying data in a relational database system.

The module will make use of practical sessions to practice database design theory and apply the techniques to producing a quality database design.

The purpose of the module is to enable you to undertake a sustained, in-depth and research-informed project exploring an area that is of personal interest to you. In agreement with your supervisor, you will decide upon your topic which will take the form of a practical outcome (artefact) with accompanying contextual material. The main consideration when choosing your topic is that it must be aligned to the programme you are studying, and you should consider the relevance of this topic to your future academic or professional development.

At this level, you will be expected to work independently but you will receive additional one-to-one support from your supervisor, who will be familiar with your chosen topic area. As you progress on the module, extra support will be available and this may take the form of group seminars, workshops and online materials that will help to develop your project. 

A Data Centre (DC) is the Infrastructure supporting the Application Ecosystem (AE). It is a facility that centralises an organisation's IT operations and equipment, as well as where it stores, manages, and disseminates its data. Data centres house a network's most critical systems and are vital to the continuity of daily operations.

This module aims to provide you with a conceptual understanding of Business Systems and the practical experience for the technologies used in developing an integrated business solution. It focuses on information systems that underpin the business context of organisations and the demand for business intelligence.

The module draws on transactional value of real-time data through mobile/IOT devices. Intelligence has become a key aspect of most organisations competitiveness, be it customer or resource informed. 

This module enables you to gain an understanding of the processes, scope and role when providing guidance or advice in a professional consulting capacity. It will also assist you if you join a larger organisation with the aspiration to become a leader and manager. The module provides awareness on the wider consulting profession and practice, the consulting role in computing and the management of client relationships. The focus will be to analyse and evaluate the frameworks, processes and techniques applied by computing consultants, managers and leaders. 

This module prepares you for industry by guest lectures, industry talks, industrial visits and real life case studies. The case studies and assessments have been designed in collaboration with practising IT Consultants and IT Architects.