Success in the workplace in the twenty first century can hardly be achieved without knowledge, skills, and experience in using modern technology and applying its various components, such as information and telecommunication technology (ICT), computer-based systems and business applications.
The Business Information Technology Management program combines business with information technology to enable students to acquire a thorough understanding of how information technology and computer applications improve effectiveness, increase efficiency and facilitate the conduct of business. Students are thoroughly exposed to the business uses of database management, programming, networking, telecommunication, electronic commerce, internet and online development.
The purpose of the Business Information Technology Management Program at the College of Business Administration of Rafik Hariri University is an integrative composite of four main dimensions: General and Specialized Business Knowledge, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Ethics and Social Responsibility.
An increasing number of companies and entrepreneurial ventures in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) has been trying to capitalize on the computing and information technology revolution to enable and facilitate business operations in areas such as telemarketing, e-trade, e-government, social media, and the like. This is creating numerous job opportunities for people with such skills in such areas as online sales, electronic market research, electronic commerce, online transactions security, phone application development, and information systems management.
This course introduces students to contemporary business principles of ethics and social responsibility. Students learn to make ethical judgments on important ethical issues they face daily by relating them to a framework of ethical principles, including utilitarianism, justice, moral rights, ethics of care, and vices and virtues. Ethical dilemmas related to conflict of interest, sustainability in business strategy, and corporate governance are examples of issues discussed in this course.
Prerequisite: Junior Standing.
This course reviews the fundamentals of good academic writing in English, teaches essay writing essentials and research skills in two rhetorical modes (persuasion and argumentation), and provides practice in writing essays in these modes, research papers and oral presentations.
Prerequisite: ENGL 101 or TOEFL 550+ (paper) or 80+ (computer).
This course is designed to help students develop effective professional communication skills, both orally and in writing. In this course, students learn how to write emails, memos, letters, proposals, reports, and other forms of employment correspondence. In addition, this course helps students sharpen their presentation skills. Broadly, this course enables students to behave professionally and effectively in their prospective jobs.
Prerequisite: ENGL 210.
This course introduces freshman students to poets with intrinsic literary merit. In addition to broadening the student’s understanding and appreciation of literature, the chief aim of the course is to develop the student’s critical thinking and analysis and to encourage original responses to literary expression in well-developed oral and written criticism.
Co-requisite: ENGL 210.
This course introduces literature through works of fiction, poetry, and drama. It introduces students to the pleasures of reading literature and to interpretative approaches to literature. It aims to provide students with competence in critical thinking and practice in close reading and analysis, knowledge of the formal characteristics of each genre, and appreciation of literary excellence. Readings include a variety of short stories, poems, and plays selected from a wide range of British, American, and World literature.
Students study Shakespeare's representative comedies, histories, and tragedies in this course. The plays are read intensively and understood in the context of the period's theatrical conventions, the culture of play in early modern England, and the social, cultural, religious, and intellectual history of the period.
This broad survey course provides a narrative of British history from 1066, including political, social, and cultural developments.
This is an elective course whose major objectives are to familiarize students with contemporary issues to enhance their level from historical and cultural points of view.
This course examines the ties between Europe and the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on the reaction of Middle Eastern societies to European intervention and influence.
This elective course aims to familiarize students with various events that shaped the evolution of social and economic developments in the Middle East to enhance their level from the historical and economic dimensions.
This is a study of some major topics in philosophy. The course emphasizes theory of knowledge, theory of mind, determinism and free will, and morality and ethical values. Along with some assigned readings, students will watch movies, the analysis of which will help them comprehend the content of the course better.
This course is a standard introduction to the formal techniques of argument analysis. Formal logic was invented to mirror and evaluate mathematical reasoning; however, this course will concentrate on the relationship between formal logic and everyday reasoning and language usage in general.
People often wonder about what makes good ways to live and the right ways to act. They also speculate about the best way of life, what action is right, and what authority moral claims have over us. The course introduces students to the major moral theories and thinkers addressing these questions.
This course introduces contemporary philosophical thinking on ethical issues in business. Students will be exposed to important ethical issues they might face, asked to give sound ethical judgment to problems they might face in their line of work, helped become armed with a set of codes that will prepare them to confront and resolve ethical dilemmas they might encounter at work, and enabled to apply the techniques for analyzing and resolving ethical problems when they arise.
This course introduces students to peace building and conflict prevention by examining the main theories on peace and security. It examines the ideas of Thucydides, Aristotle, Erasmus Grotius, Kant, Gandhi, and other thinkers who believed that the whole peace was of high value. It develops students’ critical skills and understanding necessary to translate their academic learning to specific practical situations, such as those posed by peace building either with the UN, governments, or NGOs. It helps understand the complex and interconnected challenges to peace and provides knowledge to meet them.
Through reading, writing, and speech, students will become familiar with the persuasive strategy described in Aristotle’s Rhetoric and consider how that strategy can be employed in professional and personal situations in writing, public speaking, and negotiation.
This course teaches students rhetorical modes in short essays and journalism, including memoirs, reportage, and reflective essays. Students will practice a writing style focusing on conciseness and clarity, effective oral presentations, and reading articles, essays, and other increasingly complex materials.
This course addresses the ethical problems in journalism, public relations, and advertising, particularly in today’s digital media environment.
Prerequisite: CMNS 301.
This course integrates methods, perspectives, and concepts of Peace Studies, Culture Communication, and Peace Journalism to explain contemporary debates in the global public sphere. It considers how cultural stereotypes about ideology, religion, and culture frame Arabs and Americans in the mass media. RHU students will engage with students from collaborating universities in the United States in online, asynchronous conversation and participate in shared projects that explore the role of the media in influencing Arab and American relations.
This course is designed to provide a practical introduction to the fundamental principles of public speaking and a forum for practicing public speaking skills. Students will learn how effective speeches are conceived, prepared, and delivered through various instructional strategies (discussion, class workshops, readings, lectures, and presentations).
This course surveys some key figures, movements, and texts in cultural studies from the 19th century to the present. The concentration will be on the historical, political, religious, cultural, and institutional aspects during this period. Students will read, analyze, and interpret certain primary works to gain insight into the contexts in which they originated.
This course will examine motivational factors that influence children’s learning. Topics include attribution theory, teacher influences (expectancy effects), learning structures (competitive vs. cooperative learning), family influences (the socialization of achievement), cultural influences (how cultural background impacts college performance), and individual differences (intrinsic motivation and sex differences in learning).
The course surveys selected works in English or translation from non-Anglo-American cultural traditions. Texts can be drawn from African, Asian, European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern literature focusing on their historical and cultural contexts.
This course will survey language acquisition theories. It will deal with human language processing, learners’ motivational factors, and contextual factors influencing language learning. It will uncover the principles of first and second language acquisition.
This course introduces the psychology discipline's theories, concepts, and viewpoints. The course is directed toward understanding human behavior by dealing with topics such as the history of psychology, learning, personality, behavior, motivation, perception, social psychology, mental health, and other areas.
This course studies the dynamics and effects of social influences on individual human behavior. In this course, students will explore topics such as attitude changes, social beliefs, roles, conformity to group processes, and prejudices, with special attention given to the Middle Eastern perspective.
This course presents the theories of personality, including psychoanalytic, behaviorist, humanist, and others, while considering different factors that shape personality and behavior. The study includes methods of assessing personality.
This course examines the biological, sociological, and cultural influences on the psychology of women. It includes such topics as gender stereotypes, the development of gender roles, gender comparisons, women and work, love relations, women’s physical and mental health, violence against women, and women in later adulthood.
This course examines scientific research on happiness and its practical application in three main areas: positive emotions, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. This course also presents practical ways to promote and maintain a sense of well-being and happiness in all aspects of one’s life.
This course is intended to help students be aware of the consequences of war and conflicts on children's mental health and well-being. The course will examine a variety of effects, emphasizing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological conditions that result from war. The course will empower the students with the techniques of working with children affected by war.
This course explores practical theories for understanding congregational conflict and various perspectives on conflict transformation. Students will reflect on their styles of dealing with conflict and learn new ways of responding. They will explore practices of dialogue and mediation for addressing conflict in interpersonal, small group, and congregational settings to develop an approach to addressing inevitable situations of difference, change, and conflict in various situations.
An introduction to the theories of abnormal behaviors, including addiction and substance abuse, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, depression, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, phobias, schizophrenia, and sexual disorders. Students will consider the theoretical implications and treatments for various abnormal behaviors.
This course is designed for psychology, sociology, communications, and other social sciences students. It introduces them to advanced research design and methodology, including statistical analysis.
Prerequisite: MATH 220.
This course explores a variety of sociological theories and approaches to understanding society. The student will learn about human social life, groups, and societies and be helped to detect the social influences shaping our lives. The approach used in this course is a self-exploratory process that develops individual and social awareness. A secondary objective is discussing methods common to sociology, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, and feminism.
This course introduces the study of sociological concepts as they apply to the institution of education. Students will examine race, class, status, poverty, and bureaucracy issues in the educational setting. They will also examine current perspectives and research about the social aspects of the learning process.
This course deals with cultural issues like cultural awareness, enculturation, acculturation, and cultural shocks. It involves hands-on activities to promote cultural awareness and equip students with skills for dealing with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. It includes team-oriented research and presentation that reflects all the cultural aspects and some minute details of the culture they choose to work on.
Students in this course examine communication theory and case studies to gain insight into the factors that affect human communications. It aims to improve students’ communication skills and equip them with techniques to enhance the quality of their relationships. The course also offers strategies for managing interpersonal conflicts.
This course examines contemporary Arab society, considering its social structures and groups, cultural patterns, and other aspects of the society. Students consider current issues related to Arab culture and society.
Co-requisite ENGL 210.
This course analyzes the role of culture in an individual’s sense of identity, emphasizing how it manifests in the Middle East.
The course addresses class, status, and gender inequalities, examining how they affect individuals and society.
This course tackles the social issues of various political ideologies' historical and contemporary evolution. It aims to develop students’ understanding of the social bases of politics and political ideologies, along with the recent changes in the socio-political world. Different economic and political philosophies are considered, and their effects on the fate of nations and their citizens are detected.
This course emphasizes the fundamental principles of chemistry, including stressing atomic structure, bonding, stoichiometry, gases, solutions, acids and bases, and solution equilibria.
Prerequisite: None.
This course provides an opportunity to develop an understanding of several basic environmental functions, the complicated nature of environmental systems, and the need for multidisciplinary solutions to environmental problems. Topics covered include the hydrosphere, water quantity and quality, soil and the soil ecosystem, biological resources, waste disposal, air pollution, ozone depletion, acid rain, and global warming. The course also includes a set of experiments that offer students practical experience in different environmental analysis settings, including air and water quality.
Different cultures in different landscapes are compared to the Middle East. This course examines the many issues of human population, perception of the environment, diffusion of ideas, and cultural aspects of resources and urban growth.
This course introduces students to managerial decision analysis using quantitative tools. The course will introduce students to using and building mathematical models to help managers make informed decisions. The focus is on the applied aspects of statistics and math. As such, the course will cover the basics of probabilistic and statistical techniques, decision analysis, linear programming, optimization, forecasting, and waiting-line theory.
Prerequisite: BADM 250 or MATH 351.
Students will study the general principles of microeconomics. Included are the theoretical constructs of consumer behavior, cost structure, and the operations of business firms in the market economy under conditions of perfect competition, oligopoly, monopoly, and monopolistic competition.
Students will study the general principles of macroeconomics. This course presents the formal Keynesian theory of income determination and its contemporary critiques, including the study of the possible causes and solutions to unemployment and inflation and the importance of the international economy. Government fiscal and monetary policies are examined in detail.
This course will expose students to corporate and business finance and financial management's foundational principles, theories, and applications. It covers simple and compound interest, risk and rates of return, time value of money, stocks and bonds valuations, discounted cash flow analysis, and financial ratios.
Prerequisite: BACC 205.
Students study the basic functions of management and are exposed to modern management practices, current events, problem-solving, and ethical dilemmas. Topics include decision-making, strategic and operational planning, organizational structure, Human Resources management, leadership, and control techniques. The instructor facilitates discussion and integrates these topics through contemporary business issues and case studies.
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to information systems and their application. It explains how to use and manage information technologies to revitalize business processes, conduct electronic commerce, improve business decision-making, and gain competitive advantage.
Prerequisite: BITM 200
This course introduces students to the statistical techniques used to analyze large datasets. The course covers the theory and application of both parametric and nonparametric methods. Students will learn to visualize the data using univariate and bivariate plots and factor and cluster analysis to investigate whether correlation exists in a multidimensional space. They will also build and test predictive models such as linear, logistic, and time-series models.
Prerequisite: BADM 250.
This course introduces students to the basic concepts, analyses, uses, and procedures of management accounting. It would enable students to understand and view cost as part of activities planned and implemented by a company. It aims to develop managerial decision-making skills by covering the following topics: cost categories, cost-volume-profit analysis, master and flexible budgets, direct costs, and manufacturing overhead variances and relevant costs.
This course introduces the basic principles, theories, and marketing practices in our modern, ever-changing business environment. The course covers the marketing process activities on creating value for customers to capture value from customers in return. It also discusses the marketing mix and how to build long-term customer relationships. Students will analyze case studies about a “real-life” product or service. Videos and in-class discussions on current marketing topics will assist in the learning experience.
Co-requisite.: ENGL 210
The Co-op work experience is designed to provide students with full-time work term in business, industry, or government. The main thrust of this course is the opportunity to put into practice the major aspects of the student’s business education. Special emphasis will be placed on assessing the attitude and work ethics of the “co-op” student. Students will be encouraged to network in the industry and to participate in professional organizations.
Prerequisite: ENGL 217 and Senior Standing.
This course provides the students with the necessary skills to manage their business projects using effective techniques in leading, organizing, scheduling, and controlling the tasks contributing to the project goals. Topics include selection and statement of work of projects; skills of project managers and task breakdown structure; PERT/CPM scheduling and budgeting;
This is a foundation course for all computer programming courses. It enhances programming skills and presents the fundamentals of structured programming concepts in C. The course covers primitive data types, expressions, control statements, functions, and arrays. It also provides a hands-on experience with MATLAB.
Prerequisite: BITM 200, Equivalent to COSC 214.
Students will explore advanced database concepts, including automation techniques, using popular Windows-based DBMS software. The course includes the following topics: the planning, creation, and maintenance of databases; the development of information retrieval techniques; the design customization of forms; and the creation and use of macros and modules in an automated system.
Prerequisite: BITM 305; Equivalent to COSC 231, CCEE 315.
This course offers a traditional look at the systems life cycle process. Modeling and charting will be included. The tools and methodology applied by the systems analyst will be studied. The course covers an overview of the system life cycle, UML Diagrams, feasibility analysis, project management, HCI, and the golden rules of user interface design.
Prerequisite: BITM 305, Equivalent to COSC 341, CCEE 510.
An introduction to data communications and networking, covering networking hardware/operating system concepts, modem, WAN, and LAN standards and protocols.
Prerequisite: Junior Standing; Equivalent to COSC 360, CCEE 354.
This course teaches students how to develop and implement web-based programs emphasizing interface programming. It introduces students to web development, client-side languages, and styles needed to develop adequate and responsive websites. The course covers HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript/jQuery, and responsive design.
Equivalent to COSC 333, CCEE 411.
The instructor leads the students through detailed aspects of starting a business, from identifying the opportunity through the feasibility study to preparing a business plan that covers marketing, operational, and financial aspects. Students also learn about funding, expansion, and franchising strategies.
Prerequisite: Senior Standing.
This course introduces business intelligence as computerized support for managerial decision-making. It concentrates on the theoretical and conceptual foundations of business intelligence and commercial tools and techniques available for effective decision support. It focuses on extracting business intelligence from data sets for various applications, including reporting and visual analytics in multiple domains, including web and business analytics, to aid decision-making processes. Provides hands-on experience with various business intelligence software for reporting and building visualizations and dashboards.
Prerequisite: Senior Standing & BADM 350
This course is a blend of lectures, case studies, and discussion of current global and international business environments. Students will learn the concepts of international business strategies and procedures and comparative environmental frameworks. It familiarizes students with theories and practices of international trade, investment, and financial environment. Students will apply strategies of international business, country evaluation and selection, export and import, foreign direct investment, and global marketing.
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to corporate finance. It covers fundamental concepts such as capital budgeting, cost of capital, capital structure, working capital management, and measures of corporate performance. Participants will explore financial decision-making frameworks, risk and return analysis, dividend policy, and the impact of leverage on a firm’s financial health. Additionally, the course will delve into environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors and their significance in corporate governance, highlighting how these elements influence financial strategies and stakeholder expectations. By the end, learners will develop the skills to assess corporate financial strategies, optimize capital allocation, and make informed investment and financing decisions while considering ESG principles and effective governance practices.
Prerequisite: BFIN 300.
Continuing COSC 214, this course covers the basics of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) languages and data structures. It covers pointers, classes, encapsulation, constructors/destructors, object instantiation, and templates. The course also details data structures and applications such as stacks, queues, lists, and trees.
Prerequisite: COSC 214. Equivalent to CCEE 216.
This course continues the web programming course and trains students to become full-stack developers. It allows students to get to know how to develop back-end programs, connect their website or web application to a database, use regular expressions, develop asynchronous client access to server data, work with structured data formats such as JSON, as well as work with a third-party medium like web services.
Prerequisite: COSC 231 and COSC 333. Equivalent to CCEE 514.
If you have a query about a specific major or application, please contact the relevant Administrative Assistant.
Administrative Assistant Tel: +961 5 60 30 90 Ext. 301
E-mail: da_bus@rhu.edu.lb