MS in Digital Marketing and Analytics Curriculum
New Curriculum Overview
The Master of Science in Digital Marketing is STEM-designated, giving international students three years of OPT training after graduation.
- CSU Degree Program Code: 05074 (Marketing Analytics).
- CIP Code: 52.1399 (Other Management Science and Quantitative Methods).
The MSDM program requires 34 credit units of courses from 18 courses, including one capstone course housing a culminating experience project. Those 18 courses can be grouped into two categories: (1) those that deal with strategies and execution of digital marketing, and (2) those that deal with marketing analytics. Thus, our program equips our students with the necessary skills and knowledge needed for either digital marketing execution side jobs or marketing analytics side jobs.
The revised curriculum (applicable to those starting the program in Fall 2025 or later) requires all MSDM students take 20 credit units of required courses, while allowing them to concentrate on one of the two career emphasis by taking 14 credit units of elective courses:
Within emphasis (14 units), students are recommended to take 10 units of four courses for “Emphasis Recommended” and four units of courses for “Emphasis Other” categories.
However, note that any combination of courses listed under Major Electives on either side will satisfy the required 14 units. Emphases are listed to provide guidance for helping students to choose courses of interest that best fit their career goals, but there is no requirement for choosing a specific emphasis for fulfilling these units. Students who want to balance both emphases can design their own “balanced” curriculum by taking courses from both emphases.
Master of Science in Digital Marketing Course Description
GBA 5140 (Statistics Essentials for Business Analytics)
Applications of managerial statistics for business decisions. Data collection, confidence interval estimation of mean and proportion, one and two-population hypothesis testing of mean and proportion, one-way and two-way Chi-square testing, simple linear regression, multiple linear regression, and Analysis of Variance. Use of computers. 3 units.
IBM 5910: (Strategic Data Wrangling and Visualization)
The art and science of wrangling and visualizing data for storytelling in business; literate coding and reproducible research as part of communication preparation; presentation of complex data for the non-technical audience with a focus on strategic data visualization for various types of data. 3 units.
IBM 6010 (Digital Marketing)
Study of the Internet, its culture and procedures from a marketing perspective. Using the Internet for customer contact, customer service, order-taking, and marketing research. Promotion and distribution considerations. Issues in the creation of successful www sites. On-line experience and projects with real organizations. Technology mediated instruction. 3 units.
IBM 6100 (Search Engine Marketing)
Monitoring customer behaviors on firms' websites and developing digital advertising strategies by establishing
website performance measurements and measuring it, using popular search engine optimization and online advertising tools such as Google Analytics and SEMRush. 2 units.
IBM 6150 (Database Marketing)
Developing and executing strategies to support various digital marketing programs, using CRM as a backbone of ecommerce and direct marketing efforts; building and maintaining databases with the use of popular user-friendly CRM tools (e.g., hubSpots/zoho) for database marketing. 2 units.
IBM 6200 (Online Consumer Psychology and Behaviors)
Seminar of theory and research methods of consumer psychology and behavioral economics; reading and discussion of papers in consumer psychology, judgment, decision-making, and behaviors with an emphasis on nurturing behavioral change of customers. 3 units.
IBM 6250 (Social Media Marketing Strategy)
Gaining in-depth knowledge and skills needed to plan and execute social media marketing, including organic social media, advertising, influencer marketing, and social listening. Studying how to create engaging content, analyze performance metrics, and develop comprehensive social media marketing strategies.. 3 units.
IBM 6300 (Retailing in Digital Economy)
Online retailing strategy and practice as part of multi-channel strategy and omni-channel retailing or as a marketing channel for online-only, ecommerce, with an emphasis on the role of emerging technology (e.g., VR, AI, IoT) and firms’ strategy in interacting with consumers in the digital economy. 3 units.
IBM 6400 (Current Issues in Digital Marketing)
Study of latest trends, practices, and issues in digital marketing with the goal of anticipating and preparing for future disruptions in the digital economy and exploring adoption of the technology to companies in relation with existing portfolios of digital marketing programs. 1 unit.
IBM 6450 (AI in Marketing)
Introduction to AI and Machine learning in Marketing, involving various technologies such as Natural Language Processing, generative imagery, data visualization in such marketing areas as social media marketing, retailing, customer services, pricing, and marketing automation; Special emphasis will be given to data privacy and ethics. 2 units.
IBM 6500 (Customer Insights Methods and Survey Research)
Survey of customer insights methods -- both traditional and emerging techniques from big data, data science, machine learning, and AI -- and primary data collection method with an emphasis on survey methods, including such topics as construct and measurement, reliability and validity, questionnaire design, sampling, data preparation, exploratory factor analysis, frequency distribution, test of hypothesis, ANOVA, ANCOVA, MANOVA, correlation, regression, and Structural equation modeling. 3 units.
IBM 6510 (Foundations of Customer Analytics)
Study of the foundations of econometrics approach to marketing data, with an emphasis on fostering fundamentals of estimators and associated assumptions, with topics ranging from basic mathematical tools, to various issues of regression analysis with cross-sectional data, and to some advanced topics. 3 units.
IBM 6520 (Market Forecasting)
Forecasting of marketing variables such as customer equity, sales, marketing budget, and individual consumer demand for marketing mix decisions, with an emphasis on quantitative methods with time series and panel data and relevant techniques such as time series regression, exponential smoothing, and ARIMA models. 2 units. Prerequisite: IBM 6510.
IBM 6530 (Marketing Analytics)
Advanced data analytics for marketing professionals for segmentation, targeting, and marketing mix decisions; multivariate analysis methods such as discriminant and logit analysis, conjoint analysis, factor analysis, and SEM. 3 units. Prerequisites: IBM 6500 and IBM 6510.
IBM 6540 (Marketing Data Science)
Analysis of large scale marketing data gathered inside or outside of private or non-for-profit organizations, using popular marketing science and econometrics modeling approaches with an emphasis on identifying causal relationships among customer and marketing outcome variables to support marketing decisions. 3 units. Prerequisite: IBM 6520.
IBM 6600 (Text Analysis for Digital Marketing)
Gathering, processing, and analyzing of small- and large-scale qualitative data from various sources such as customer emails, social media sites, product and services review sites, and blogs, regarding customers' interactions with peers and firms; generating insights and making recommendations for strategic digital marketing plan. 2 units. Prerequisites: IBM 6500 and IBM 6510.
IBM 6700 (Marketing Data Management)
This course explores practical aspects of accessing, managing, and analyzing big CRM data. Using popular R programming and its ecosystems for big data management (e.g., Databricks), students will learn how to manage large databases on the Cloud. Emphasis is placed on leveraging big data technologies and tools to uncover actionable insights, enhance customer experiences, and optimize marketing strategies. 2 units. Prerequisites: IBM 5910 and IBM 6510.
GBA 6420 (Optimization Methods for Business Analytics)
Understand how complex business problems can be modeled, analyzed, and solved in an optimal manner. Develop spreadsheet models for complex decisions, and interpret results. Covers mathematical-programming models and decision-making under risk and uncertainty. 3 units.
IBM 6800 (Data-Driven Digital Marketing Strategy I)
The first of the two capstone courses that focus on generating insights from data and planning and execution of digital marketing strategy; emphasis on synthesizing all the knowledge about digital marketing for optimal marketing mix, and critical evaluation of the client firms’ marketing and business environment as backdrop of research. 2 units. Prerequisites: IBM 6010, IBM 6200, IBM 6500 and IBM 6510.
IBM 6950 (Data-Driven Digital Marketing Strategy II)
Continuation from IBM 6800 with a particular emphasis on generating insights and guiding clients for execution of digital marketing strategies, utilizing all the knowledge learned about digital marketing, consumer psychology and behavior, ecommerce, and marketing science. 2 units. Prerequisite: IBM 6800.
