ITM250 SPREADSHEET AND DATABASE PRODUCTIVITY

ITM250 SPREADSHEET AND DATABASE PRODUCTIVITY SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY, MADRID CAMPUS Spring 2015 Course Information Course Title Course Numbers Course Discipline Course Description Introduction to Information Technology Management ITM-250 Information Technology Management The purpose of this course is to help students build skills and knowledge related to the use of electronic spreadsheet software. The focus is on the use of these tools to improve decision making and efficiency in organizations. Students will learn how to properly apply techniques such as scenario analysis, goal seeking analysis, logical functions and lookup tables. In addition, students will learn how to build simple databases, and retrieve data from more complex databases. Students will also learn how to extract data from databases to enable analysis in a spreadsheet. Location Tuesday/Thursday(PAH 25) Meeting day(s)and Meeting Time(s) TTH 12:30-13:45 Prerequisites Instructor Information Name Kirk Tennant Web site http://bob-europe.com/moodle E-mail: tennantk@slu.edu Office Location #34 2 nd Floor, Business and Economic Faculty Salon Office Hours MW 9:00-12:00; F by appt. only Phone 91 554 58 58 (254) Biography Degrees: MS(Management) MA Theological Studies MS(Engineering Management) MA (English Arts) Course Objectives This course will examine business decision-making and analytics tools and techniques utilizing the most widely used spreadsheet program Microsoft Excel. It will focus on hands-on learning, and you will become familiar with and then master beginning through advanced Excel functions. You will review many examples of how Excel is used by businesses in performance analysis, problem solving, and decision making. Using situations

from functional areas such as operations and supply chain, marketing and sales, finance and accounting, you will begin to learn about these business disciplines and the critical function of business analytics. On completion of this course, students will be able to: 1. Understanding the role of computer technology, information systems and E-business in management practice and business operations. 2. Understand the main steps in solving a decision problem, their challenges, and how different information technology tools can help with these challenges. 3. Carry out the steps involved in modelling (conceptualizing and formalizing) a business decision-making problem, implementing the model in Excel, and using the Excel model to solve the problem. 4. Develop advanced Excel hands-on skills for addressing a variety of decision problems, including: input and edit data; create formulas; build and audit models; create graphs and reports; conduct what-if and scenario analysis; retrieve, filter, manipulate, and summarize data; conduct data-driven business intelligence using PivotTables. 5. Develop competency and confidence in the full range of Excel functionality, basic through advanced, necessary to support your use of Excel in future semesters throughout your business courses and in any internship. As a decisionsupport computer tool, Excel is applied universally across business disciplines such as accounting and finance, marketing and sales, operations and supply chain. Use of Excel in other courses will re-enforce and enhance your hands-on work in the ITM 325. 6. Learn and use the many interfaces between Excel and SQL databases. 7. Understand rudimentary business intelligence and analytics using MicroStrategy software. Course Goals This course integrates with the liberal arts education mission of Saint Louis University, Madrid Campus by: Emphasizing effective communication skills Requiring critical and creative thinking Helping students improve their problemsolving skills Helping the student construct, understand, and interpret quantitative data Helping the student to develop the ability to assess information in regards to relevancy

and value Textbook and Other Instructional Material Readings Policies Grading A listing of Web sites and readings by topic are presented on the Moodle Web site which provide the student with needed background reading in all topics covered during the semester. Letter grades are based on a 600 point course grading Scale. Your course letter grade, you "final grade" in this course, is determined by the number of points you earn. Total possible points and exam weights are as follows: Points 12 Weekly Projects... 300 Semester Exam 100 Business Intelligence Project 100 Database Project... 100 Semester Excel Project 100 700 A reduction of two points will be made for each class day any assignment is late. Grades are assigned on the basis of the student earning the percentage of points based on the following strict scale: NO EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENTS ARE AVAILABLE. Percentage Grade 94-100 A 90-93 A- 87-89 B+ 83-86 B 80-82 B- 77-79 C+ 73-76 C 70-72 C- 60-69 D 59 or less F Computer Exercises Each week during the semester, computer exercises will be used to bring "real" world materials into the classroom experience. All work on these assignments is to be done individually. If an individual s work is found to be copied from another individual both will be considered incomplete work and receive a 0. During the

semester, students will complete twelve (12) individual projects. The projects will have been customized and/or designed for each student; therefore, no two students will have the same projects. The twelve projects are: CE #1 Excel I 25 CE #2 Excel II 25 CE #3 Excel III 25 CE #4 Excel IV 25 CE #5 Excel V 25 CE #6 Excel VI 25 CE #7 Excel VII 25 CE #8 Excel VIII 25 CE #9 Excel IX 25 CE #10 Access I 25 CE #11 Access II 25 CE #12 Access III 25 Total 300 IMPORTANT NOTE: All computer exercises must be submitted to Moodle by upload. All students registered for this lecture section must complete all of these computer exercises no matter which lab section they are assigned. Accommodation Statement In recognition that people learn in a variety of ways and that learning is influenced by multiple factors (e.g., prior experience, study skills, learning disability), resources to support student success are available on campus. Students who think they might benefit from these resources can find out more about: 1. Course-level support (e.g., faculty member, departmental resources, etc.) by asking your course instructor. 2. University-level support (e.g., tutoring/writing services, Disability Services) by visiting the Academic Dean's Office (San Ignacio Hall) or by going to http://spain.slu.edu/academics/learning_resources. html. 3. Students who believe that, due to a disability, they could benefit from academic accommodations are encouraged to contact Disability Services at +34 915 54 58 58, ext. 204, send an e-mail to counselingcenter-madrid@slu.edu, or to visit the Counseling Office (San Ignacio Hall).

Confidentiality will be observed in all inquiries. Course instructors support student accommodation requests when an approved letter from Disability Services has been received and when students discuss these accommodations with the instructor after receipt of the approved letter. Academic Integrity and Plagiarism The University is a community of learning, whose effectiveness requires an environment of mutual trust and integrity, such as would be expected at a Jesuit, Catholic institution. As members of this community, students, faculty, and staff members share the responsibility to maintain this environment. Academic dishonesty violates it. Although not all forms of academic dishonesty can be listed here, it can be said in general that soliciting, receiving, or providing any unauthorized assistance in the completion of any work submitted toward academic credit is dishonest. It not only violates the mutual trust necessary between faculty and students but also undermines the validity of the University s evaluation of students and takes unfair advantage of fellow students. Further, it is the responsibility of any student who observes such dishonest conduct to call it to the attention of a faculty member or administrator. Examples of academic dishonesty would be copying from another student, copying from a book or class notes during a closed-book exam, submitting materials authored by or editorially revised by another person but presented as the student s own work, copying a passage or text directly from a published source without appropriately citing or recognizing that source, taking a test or doing an assignment or other academic work for another student, tampering with another student s work, securing or supplying in advance a copy of an examination without the knowledge or consent of the instructor, and colluding with another student or students to engage in an act of academic dishonesty. Where there is clear indication of such dishonesty, a faculty member or administrator has the responsibility to apply appropriate sanctions. Investigations of violations will be conducted in accord with standards and procedures of the school

or college through which the course or research is offered. Recommendations of sanctions to be imposed will be made to the dean of the school or college in which the student is enrolled. Possible sanctions for a violation of academic integrity include, but are not limited to, disciplinary probation, suspension, and dismissal from the University. The complete SLU Academic Honesty Policy can be found at the following link: http://spain.slu.edu/academics/academic_advising/d ocs/academic_integrity.pdf Important Dates January 27 Last day to drop a class without a grade of W or to add a class January 27 Last day to choose audit (AU) or pass/no pass (P/NP) options March 13 Last day to drop a class and receive a grade of W May 8 12:00 15:00 Comprehensive Excel Exam

Student Outcome Assessment Saint Louis University-Madrid Campus is committed to excellent and innovative educational practices. In order to maintain quality academic offerings and to conform to relevant accreditation requirements, we regularly assess our teaching, services, and programs for evidence of student learning outcomes achievement. For this purpose we keep on file anonymized representative examples of student work from all courses and programs such as: assignments, papers, exams, portfolios, and results from student surveys, focus groups, and reflective exercises. Thus, copies of your work for this course, including any exams, assignments and/or submitted papers may be kept on file for institutional research, assessment and accreditation purposes. If you prefer that Saint Louis University-Madrid Campus does not keep your work on file, you will need to communicate your decision in writing to your professor. HOW TO LOGIN TO MOODLE (A LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM [LMS]) The materials for this course are integrated into the Moodle LMS (website: http://bobeurope.com/moodle). To use the website you must register. Use the following process to register: 1. In the upper right hand corner, click on the login link. 2. The website is self-registering, meaning you can choose your own username (all lowercase, I recommend last name with first initial) and password (note password rules 1 capital letter, 1 number, 1 non-alphanumeric character like # sign, and a total of 8 characters). [NB: Please write your password in a secure place so you don t forget it.] 3. After putting your username and password in and clicking on the login button, you will receive a form [first time only] asking for your full name, valid email address, city etc. Fill in the form and click on profile update button at bottom of page. 4. Check immediately to see if you received an email in your email account (one entered above) from admin user (check your junk mail if not in regular accounts.) This email will have a link which you should click. 5. Return to the Moodle LMS window and navigate to the opening screen of bob (upper left hand corner link). From here, you should be able to select the course: Information Technology Management. You may be asked for a course enrollment code, for this course it is ITM200. 6. From this point on, all you need to do is navigate to the website and enter your username and password and navigate to the materials needed.

TENTATIVE WEEKLY SCHEDULE WEEK 1 JANUARY 14-16 Overview of spreadsheets and basic functionalities. Formulas, cell addressing (relative vs. absolute), basic functions. Model building in Excel Formulas, cell addressing (relative vs. absolute), basic functions Worksheet Formatting/ Naming worksheet ranges/printing worksheets Evolution of IT and its current state: Introduction and overview What is business decision-making and business analytics? Why use IT tools to support business decision making? Model Development: Problem conceptualization (influence diagrams) and formulation (variable definition tables). Model implementation in Excel. Spreadsheet modeling and design principles. Understanding Company Stock Price and Financial Data; Getting Data from the Web Winston: Chapter 2 Discussion of the future IT needs of the managers of the 21st century. Introduction to data graphing. Inclass Exercise WEEK 2 JANUARY 19-23 Charting(graphing) Data/Trendlines Graphical Project Management CPM/PERT Winston: Chapters 12, 27, 49-51; Stock Price Exercise Introduction to Excel VBA modeling. WEEK 3

JANUARY 26-30 Presentation layer of an Excel model Conditional formatting of data Interactive control buttons Winston: Chapters 24, 44; Exercise 2 [Tastee Snax A and B] How to display data visually based on CPM and PERT. WEEK 4 FEBRUARY 2-6 Using Excel for Management Economic Order Quantity Winston: Chapters 41, 42, 44 Exercise 3 [Benford s Law] Combining data and models for decision-making in inventory. WEEK 5 FEBRUARY 9-13 Estinating Learning Curves Winston: Chapters 9, 10 Exercise 4 EOQ [Building Functions in Excel] Combining data and models for decision-making in learning curves WEEK 6 FEBRUARY 16-20

Implementing Financial and Business Functions in Excel Winston: Chapters 25, 43 Exercise 5 [Learning Curve Exercise] Using the standard financial and business Excel functions. WEEK 7 FEBRUARY 23-27 Introduction to Simulation in Excel Winston Chpt. 8, 9, 10 Exercise 6 [Retirement Accumulation Plans in VBA] Understanding how simulation models are used in business management of investments, inventory, etc. WEEK 8 MARCH 2-6 Introduction to Linear Programming Winston 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 Exercise 7 [Queing Simulation Models w Costs] Learning to use Excel Solver in many business disciplines. WEEK 9 MARCH 9-13 Solver for Managers and Supply Chain Analysis Inventory/Investment Models

Winston: Chapters 28, 77 Exercise 8 [LP Ice Cream Case] Learning more on using Excel Solver WEEK 10 MARCH 16 20 Basic Managerial Accounting Model/What-If Analysis Tools/Senario Manager Winston: Chapters 24, 44 Exercise 9 [More Solver Cases] Conditional Programming and Sparklines WEEK 11 MARCH 23-27 Big Data Analysis with Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts Winston: Chapter 33 Exercise 10 [Baylee] Using Pivot Tables, Pivot Charts, and Slicers to analyse data. WEEK 12 MARCH/APRIL 30-3 HOLY WEEK BREAK-NO CLASSES WEEK 13

APRIL 6-10 Introduction to Databases Winston 17, 18, 19 Exercise 11 [Big Data Analysis with Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts] Using Excel for Managerial Accounting analysis of a business. WEEK 14 APRIL 13-17 Constructing a SQL Database, Combining Excel with SQL Databases; Coding SQL with QBE Winston: Chapters 16, 40 Exercise 12 [Natalie Tours] How to use Excel s Audit Tools and Workbook/Worksheet/Cell Protection. Help with semester project. WEEK 15 APRIL 20-24 Combining Excel with SQL Databases; Coding SQL with QBE

Introduction to Access DBMS with Excel Interface/Help in completeing semester project. WEEK 16 APRIL/MAY 26-1 Combining Excel with SQL Databases; Coding SQL with QBE Introduction to BI/BA. WEEK 17 MAY 4-6 Introduction to Introduction to BI/BA.