Assumption’s Cybersecurity and Marketing Programs Collaborate to Offer a Unique Course

In the spirit of its commitment to deliver a true liberal arts education, Assumption’s five schools are designed to work with and complement one another. An example of such interdisciplinary collaboration is a recent $5,000 grant awarded to the University to develop a new course incorporating both its marketing and cybersecurity programs. 

The course, entitled Digital Sales, Marketing and Cybersecurity, will be a mandatory component to the Grenon School of Business’s digital marketing concentration, and will provide students the opportunity to design a new website for a local company using the latest cybersecurity and digital marketing strategies. This will be achieved through educating the students on how hackers attempt to infiltrate company data through the internet, and examples of how companies can proactively protect their data.  

“This course will go a long way in expanding our understanding of the impacts and risks involved with digital marketing platforms as they are affected by cybersecurity threats,” said Cary LeBlanc, Ph.D., assistant professor of management and marketing and Department Chair of  Management, Marketing and Organizational Communication in the Grenon School of Business. “There is no doubt developing this course will be very beneficial to our students and help prepare them for the realities of marketing, and business in general in the digital world.”

According to Raymond Albert, Ph.D., professor of practice in and director of the cybersecurity program, the collaboration between marketing, business, and cybersecurity is a natural fit and “exemplifies the cybersecurity program’s commitment to promote and support academic integration, cross-fertilization, and establishment of symbiotic relationships,” he explained. “Costs associated with cybercrime are most prevalent in the business sector and are well into the trillions of dollars per year according to various cybercrime reports.  Students completing the new course will have the advantage of knowing more about where the cybersecurity challenges exist and how they may best be addressed.”

In fall 2019, Prof. Zachary Daniels, visiting instructor of marketing, created and launched the digital marketing concentration to provide the University’s marketing majors additional options as they engage in the rapidly developing field of digital marketing. The program’s early success will be enhanced with the addition of this new course highlighting important elements of both cybersecurity and marketing. 

Funding of this grant, which was written by Prof. Daniels, is derived from another grant awarded to Dakota State University in support of Cyber Training curriculum development.  Prof. Daniels will teach the new course at Assumption, which is targeted to be offered at the beginning of the fall 2021 semester.