OIM3650 UI/UX Design for Web and App Development

4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

If you want to become a designer, or if you want to improve your coding and development skills, this course is for you. You will learn how to use Figma and other tools to prototype your designs and experiment with AI to boost your productivity. You will also learn how to make better decisions for your websites, mobile apps, and more. OIM3650 is a 14-week course that focuses on user interface design for web-based projects, apps, and sites. You will learn how to design responsive and user-friendly interfaces using advanced CSS techniques and JavaScript frameworks and libraries such as Bootstrap. You will also learn about the key principles of design that guide good interface design, the role of UI in your business success, and the difference between user interface design and user experience (UX). You will gain hands-on experience using tools like Photoshop and Adobe XD to create wireframes and prototypes and take a deep dive into how to use Figma for prototyping. You will also try the latest AI methods for rapid prototyping. This course will teach you both theory and practice of UI for all kinds of web-based projects. It is suitable for those who want to understand how design choices affect their business, and those who want to enhance their web-based projects.

For more information about this course, please review this video: https://babson.instructuremedia.com/embed/693ca0f0-1836-4477-9e57-1acb9c65dc62

Prerequisite: OIM3690 or experience in HTML and CSS

  • Program: Undergraduate
  • Division: Operations and Information Management
  • Level: Advanced Elective (UGrad),Advanced Liberal Arts (UGrad)
  • Course Number: OIM3650
  • Number of Credits: 4

OIM3635 UI/UX Design for Web and App Development
2 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

OIM3635 takes a deep dive into user interface design for web-based projects, apps and sites. Students will learn the key aspects of what makes a solid and usable interface on the desktop, a tablet and a mobile device. This course will explore advanced techniques in cascading style sheets (CSS), as well as leverage JavaScript libraries such as jQuery. As part of the course, students will learn about the principles of design, how they relate to solid interface design, and the importance of the UI as it relates to generating and maintaining your business. The course will also introduce the concepts and tools to make working prototypes and wireframes using tools like Balsamiq and Lucidchart. This course will underscore the importance of UI for all types of web-based projects, looking at theory as well as taking a hands-on approach. It is designed for those that are interested in taking web-based projects to the next level as well as those that are interested in how the choices you make as a designer can affect your business.

Prerequisites: MIS3690 or MIS3640

  • Program: Undergraduate
  • Division: Operations and Information Management
  • Level: Advanced Elective (UGrad),Advanced Liberal Arts (UGrad)
  • Course Number: OIM3635
  • Number of Credits: 2

LIT 4673: Unruly Ghosts: Modern Irish Literature & Culture

4 advanced liberal arts credits

Ireland is haunted by its history as a colony and by the traumatic experiences of famine, emigration, and language loss. Yet at her 1990 inauguration President Mary Robinson spoke not of postcolonial ghosts but of "a new Ireland, open, tolerant, inclusive [....] a new pluralist Ireland…," reflective of optimistic post-independence conditions. The mid-1990s to the late 2000s were a period of rapid economic growth-the 'Celtic Tiger,' the 'Boom,' the 'Economic Miracle'-transforming Ireland into one of the wealthiest countries in Europe and spurring seismic social and cultural change. That accelerated, unchecked economic growth has now expressed itself in early 21st century discontents and reckonings. In cultural specters, so to speak. The critical questions raised by Irish Studies are not confined to Irishness and Irish identity; they are ethical, global questions. Our class will study how modern Irish fiction, drama, and film tackle some of the most pressing issues of our time. Our topics will include late capitalist volatility; economic precarity; institutional abuses; immigration, displacement and belonging; language dispossession; and climate crisis.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

  • Program: Undergraduate
  • Division: Arts and Humanities
  • Level: Advanced Liberal Arts 4600 Requirement (UGrad),Advanced Elective (UGrad),Advanced Liberal Arts (UGrad)
  • Course Number: LIT4673
  • Number of Credits: 4

ECN3600: Urban and Land Use Economics

4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

Cities are great places where populations gather, interact, and create new ideas. At the same time, cities represent problems such as traffic, crime, and economic inequality. Why do cities exist in the first place? Why are buildings in the city center taller and more expensive? How do we explain land use patterns and housing prices? Does building infrastructure relieve congestion or create pollution? Does gentrification help revitalize inner cities? This course offers a rigorous survey of urban and spatial economics, building upon previous knowledge in introductory economics courses. Core theories in urban economics will be introduced, as well as ideas in economic geography, spatial econometrics, and sustainable development. Further skills in data analysis and visualization especially through GIS will be developed.

Prerequisites: ECN 2002

  • Program: Undergraduate
  • Division: Economics
  • Level: Advanced Elective (UGrad),Advanced Liberal Arts (UGrad)
  • Course Number: ECN3600
  • Number of Credits: 4

HSS2030 US Politics
(Formerly American Politics)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits
The course begins with a focus on significant ideas, major political and economic institutions, and key social conflicts and events that have shaped the character of American politics. We will position American politics in its historical context, recognizing and contending with the legacies of enslavement, white supremacy, and imperial violence in its development. As such, the fundamental role of race, colonialism, gender, sexuality, and class will be addressed throughout so that we can understand key and persistent features of American politics. The latter half of the course will examine contemporary ideologies, struggles over civil liberties and rights, the forces generating economic inequality, and the origins of mass incarceration and systemic racism. We will also spend the beginning of classes discussing the news, so the class will be flexible enough to respond to and address political events as they occur. The course will involve a combination of lecturing, discussion, and small-group activities, so class participation is important.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

  • Program: Undergraduate
  • Division: History and Society
  • Level: Intermediate Liberal Arts (UGrad)
  • Course Number: HSS2030
  • Number of Credits: 4

ECN3606 Uses and Abuses of Financial Derivatives: An Economist's View

4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

The significant use of derivative instruments began in the 1970s and, since then, has grown at a thunderous rate. Derivatives are used by individuals, businesses, financial institutions, central banks, and governments throughout the world. This course explains financial derivatives from microeconomic and macroeconomic perspectives.


Microeconomic Perspective
The wise use of derivative instruments requires the identification, measurement, evaluation, management, and monitoring of major risks. Some risks are willingly held, but many of are not, and derivative instruments provides a way to transfer these risks to others. Uses and Abuses of Financial Derivatives: An Economist's View explains how companies have used derivative contracts to mitigate risks. It also describes how these instruments can be used for speculative, often destructive, purposes, which have little or nothing to do with a well-conceived strategy. In some cases, actions that were intended to hedge positions ended up being speculative, due (usually) to unpriced risks and a lack of understanding.

In the spirit of "Never waste a good crisis," this course explains the steps and missteps of companies connected to some of the most spectacular derivative disasters, such as Amaranth Advisors LLC, American International Group (AIG), JPMorgan Chase ("London Whale"), Metallgesellschaft AG, Orange County, and Proctor & Gamble Inc. In doing so, the course addresses important questions, such as: What risks did these companies fail to identify or incorrectly price? Could these losses have been prevented?

The chances are high that students in this class will be offered employee stock options sometime in their professional careers, so this course explains how to put stock option offers into the broader perspective of different forms of compensation and their risks. We will find that employers (especially those in start-up companies) often look at ESOs quite differently from employees.

Macroeconomic Perspective
Derivative products have been used by central banks to influence exchange rates and by governments to hedge international borrowing and lending costs. This course explains how central banks hedge themselves and the positive and negative impacts these transactions can have on international capital flows, domestic credit markets, and foreign exchange markets.

Uses and Abuses of Financial Derivatives: An Economist's View also connects you to an ongoing debate about whether financial derivatives can have significant negative effects on national and world economies. On one side are those who believe derivatives are zero-sum games, with the losses of some offset by the gains of others. On the other side are those who believe that derivative instruments can negatively influence nations' monetary and fiscal policies and expectations, thereby precipitating national and international economic and financial crises. This course discusses both sides of this debate, with particular focus the currency crises of Mexico (1994), Thailand (1997 - 1998), Russia (1998), and Argentina (2001).

Engaging in a forward contract means agreeing to pay or receive payment in the future at a price agreed upon today, but how can one know if a forward price is "fair." To address this question, we discuss four "parity conditions," which are at the heart of many macroeconomic discussions - particularly those dealing with derivatives.

Prerequisites: ECN2000 or ECN2002

  • Program: Undergraduate
  • Division: Economics
  • Level: Advanced Elective (UGrad),Advanced Liberal Arts (UGrad)
  • Course Number: ECN3606
  • Number of Credits: 4

LTA2069 Utopia and Dystopia: Literary and Cultural Expressions
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits
This course will examine the difference between ideas of absolute societal perfection and absolute societal imperfection as expressed in literary and cultural texts. Topics of study through such texts will include the ways we govern, the ways we create order, the ways we progress, and the ways we treat others. Over the course of the semester, students will be confronted with a number of questions. What are the elements of a utopia or dystopia? If one is complete perfection and the other complete imperfection - both by definition unattainable - then why are the concepts even worth talking about, and why have they persisted throughout history and across cultures? And maybe most interestingly, is there much of a real difference between the two? We will read works by Jose Saramago, Cormac McCarthy, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ursula LeGuin, and Margaret Atwood.


Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

  • Program: Undergraduate
  • Division: Arts and Humanities
  • Level: Intermediate Liberal Arts (UGrad)
  • Course Number: LTA2069
  • Number of Credits: 4

MOB3526 Values Based Entrepreneurial Leadership
4 Advanced Management Credits

This course has been created specifically for students who wish to develop their capability as a values based entrepreneurial leader. Specifically, the course is about helping students to better understand and develop their own values and learn how effectively apply those values as a leader. Being a successful entrepreneurial leader requires a clear set of values and a willingness to allow those values to govern decision-making beyond simple decision rubrics like profit maximization.

For more information: http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/0l0yj

Prerequisites: (FME1000 and FME1001) or (EPS1000 and MOB1010)

  • Program: Undergraduate
  • Division: Management
  • Level: Advanced Management (UGrad)
  • Course Number: MOB3526
  • Number of Credits: 4

EPS4521 Venture Growth Strategies
4 General Credits
The course focuses on the opportunities and challenges involved in the management of growth in entrepreneurial settings, either in an individual company or as part of a larger corporation. Growth is the ultimate resource constrainer, stretching all systems in a company to the limit and often beyond. Consequently, this course will emphasize management _at the limit_ of what students may have already learned in other functional courses. It will provide students with a series of frameworks, analytical skills and techniques, and decision-making tools that can be used in growing entrepreneurial businesses.

The course relies on non-traditional, experiential learning methods in addition to the usual case-based method. While some classroom meetings will include case discussions involving growth-related issues, other classroom meetings will involve computer-based simulation exercises which are used by leading companies worldwide as an innovative training tool because of the rich experience it provides to participants. Guest speakers will provide further insight into the opportunities and challenges of growth.

The course is particularly useful to students who have interests in one or more of the following areas: (1) growing their own entrepreneurial companies, (2) managing the growth of existing companies in an entrepreneurial fashion by emphasizing innovation and opportunity capture in a dynamic environment, and/or (3) helping companies manage their growth through consulting assignments.


Prerequisites: None

  • Program: Undergraduate
  • Division: Entrepreneurship
  • Level: Advanced Elective (UGrad),Advanced Management (UGrad)
  • Course Number: EPS4521
  • Number of Credits: 4

LTA2016 Violence: Theories of Cruelty, Evil, and the Inhuman
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits
This course will investigate the idea of violence across an extensive spectrum of authors, texts, films, and literary-philosophical perspectives from the East and the West. We seek not merely to engage in a conventional critique but to exceed the boundaries of our embedded understanding by also contemplating this concept's fascinating potential as a form of literary imagination and intellectual expression. Topics will therefore include cruelty, vulnerability, power, betrayal, destruction, vengeance, anger, terror, defacement, pain, disaster, and inhumanity. From the poetics of torture to the damaged writings of war, from theoretical works on catastrophe to cinematic and artistic pieces on the nature of evil, the intent is to explore the many narratives that have emerged across the global horizon in the face of an often violent experience of the modern world.


Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

  • Program: Undergraduate
  • Division: Arts and Humanities
  • Level: Intermediate Liberal Arts (UGrad)
  • Course Number: LTA2016
  • Number of Credits: 4