Bang College of Business, KIMEPUniversity
COURSE SYLLABUS
Fall 2016
GEN/OPM 2301 Business Computer Applications, 3 credits
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of computer
Course Meeting Time and Place:Lec.1: #1/NEW Tue 08:30-09:45, Lec.2: #1/NEW Tue 10:00-11:15;
Tut.: #302/NEW Tue 14:30-15:45, Wed13:00-14:15,14:30-15:15, #301/NEW Thu10:00-11:15, 13:00-14:15, 14:30-15:45.
- Instructor Information/Availability
Instructor’s Name / Office / Phone / E-mail / Office hours:
Oleg Vlasov, MBA / 418/adm. / 2064 / / TUE 14:30-15:30,
WED 9:00-13:00,
THU 9:00-10:00
Nadezhda Fidirko, MSCS / 425/adm. / 2268 / / TUE 13:00-14:00
WED-THU 14:30-16:30
- Course Overview
This course is a broad overview of the main topics in business computer applications. Students gain an understanding of computer architecture, networks, telecommunications; they learn how to apply information and knowledge systems, operations and decision support systems, spreadsheets, databases to a wide range of tasks and decision making process. The course emphasizes how organizations benefit from and use computer based technology. The purpose of the course is to foster business thinking through available technical means.
- Learning Objectives
This course will provide students with basic concepts and techniques of using computer technology to facilitate business activities of an enterprise. The practical aspects will be emphasized through group projects to relate the recent theoretical developments with real business situations. Overall objectives of the course are to:
KNOWLEDGE: Students will have an understanding of
- Various functions of computer applications for business.
- The relationship between IS and other departments.
- The importance of IT and IS problems and other forces affecting businesses.
- The role of information technology in the context of organizations.
- Contribution of IS to the firm’s competitive advantage.
SKILLS: Students will learn to
- Promote company’s image via building a web site
- Use spreadsheets for computing profits and costs, building pro-forma statements, analyzing financial position and other business activities of companies.
- Develop simple decision support systems with help of spreadsheets.
- Use DBMS for efficiently managing big volumes of data
- Use efficient office automation and VBA programming techniques
APPLICATION ABILITIES: Students will be able to
- Develop efficient and effective procedures and policies.
- Implement ethical decisions and incorporate strategies to achieve goals and objectives.
- Link various forces acting on and challenges facing the organization.
- Develop the ability to analyze specific business problems with help of IT and to propose solutions.
VALUES AND ATTITUDES: Students practice
- KIMEP core values
- Academic honesty
- Respect for peers and instructors
- Ability Outcomes
By the end of this course students will be able to:
- Understand modern concepts and trends in computer hardware and software.
- Promote company’s image by creating and publishing attractive web sites with help of web-editing software (Microsoft FrontPage), using scripts, java applets, flash animations, hit counters, web form elements, and basic HTML editing.
- Analyze and solve real-world business situations that require intensive calculations or analysis with help of Microsoft Excel.
- Facilitate complex financial calculations with help of Excel financial functions.
- Understand basic concepts of programming and algorithms.
- Automate routine work by recording macros, creating programs and custom functions in VBA, and using other advanced capabilities of Microsoft Office package.
- Understand basic concepts of database management systems (on example of Microsoft Access), and their business applications.
- Instructional Approaches/ Teaching Methodology
The course will be facilitated through a combination of lectures, tutorial sessions, in-class exercises, discussions, problem solving assignments, readings, and self-work. The emphasis is on learning through class participation and working on assignments. Outside the class time individual study is required from recommended textbooks, lecture slides, online course materials, and other sources like Internet. Students will therefore take responsibility for their own learning and the classroom will be a place for giving the guidelines and showing the directions through lectures, presentations, discussion and tutorial work. Students are required to read corresponding textbook chapters and other instructional materials before the lecture in which the material will be covered.
- Course Conducting Policies
It is expected that students will prepare for classes: read textbook chapters, lecture slides, and supplementary materials, practice in-class and end-of-chapter problems, and accomplish comprehensive mid-term and final exams. During this course you will be also given several group homework assignments. For this you will be required to form groups of no more than 4 students. Groups with bigger number of students are not allowed. List of group members (including Student ID, Last and First Names and network ID of each student, e.g. 20161517 Nakipova Gaziza bsc16-327 MUST be submitted via e-mail to before the announced deadline; students failing to meet this requirement will be divided into groups forcedly; once groups are formed and group numbers are announced NO changes in the groups will be allowed until the end of semester under any excuses).All assignments will be submitted online. It is suggested that group members will meet with their study group regularly to prepare these projects. Each group member must check that assignment is submitted on time, even if you confer the submission to one member. It will be impossible to submit the assignment later than the appointed due date. Several online quizzes will be also offered during the semester to check your current knowledge.
Ground Rules:
- Come to class prepared to discuss and to accomplish assignments relevant to the current topic. For this you have to read the chapters and supplementary material in advance.
- All appeals are accepted within aweek after grades for test or assignment have been published.
- There is no provision for make-up exams.
- You may leave the room while class is in session only in the case of an emergency. Leaving any other time is disruptive and may influence your grade. The same applies to being late more than 5 minutes.
- Students must turn mobile phones off or choose silent mode during the class time.
- To avoid free rider problems in group assignments a team may file a petition to reconsider grades of team members according to their contribution. This may be done in one week since the assignment or presentation has been delivered. By default all the participations are assumed equal.
Cheating is a serious administrative offence and will at least result in non-negotiable grade of ZERO. If two assignments have obvious elements of copying then both will receive grade of zero without investigation of the reasons and faults of the parties involved.
Attendance will be monitored throughout the course. Three consecutive late attendances (attending 10 minutes after class start) will be converted to a one class absence. Giving proxy signatures for one another will be considered as serious offence and for both involved students attendance will be crossed out for that class. Students will be penalized per each missed class if they have already missed 20% of classes (including lectures and tutorials) or 6 classes. Thus, if student have missed 8 classes during semester (either lectures or tutorials), his/her final grade will be automatically decreased by 2%. Total penalty for poor attendance may not exceed 10%.
- Outcome Assessment and Grading Matrix
Final grade for the course consists of the items below:
Assessment Criteria / PercentageContinuous Assessment (MTA1 (30%) + MTA2 (30%)) / 60%
/ Online Tests - announced (5 * 4%) / 20%
/ Group Assignment I / 7%
/ Midterm Exam / 15%
/ Group Assignment II / 9%
/ Group Assignment III / 9%
Final Assessment / 40%
/ Final Exam (comprehensive) / 40%
Grand Total: / 100%
Quizzes (20%)
There will be 5 quizzes within the semester, taking 10-25 minutes to write at the beginning/endof tutorial. The date and time of the quizzes will be announced, and topics for preparation will be published on the course web site. Quizzes usually consist from combination of 10-15 MC, OE or problem (PR) questions each. Quiz 1 will consist of questions on Microsoft Excel, types of worksheet references, and basic Excel functions (such as =SUM(), =AVERAGE(), =SUMPRODUCT(), =VLOOKUP(), =IF(), =OR(), =AND(), =SUMIF(), =COUNTIF(), etc.). Quiz 2 will cover Excel financial functions (such as =PV(), =FV(), =PMT(), =IPMT(), =PPMT(), =RATE(), and =NPER()). Quiz 3 will cover basic concepts of programming and VBA. Quiz 4 will include MC questions on Internet and HTML language, and may include a practical task on HTML. Quiz 5 will cover Hardware and Software topics. You will not have quiz in the first CLASS of study. There are no provisions for make-up exams. Quizzes are not recoverable, if any student missed the test s/he will not have chance to retake it. If you have missed the class – you have missed the quiz. No medical certificates and other excuses are accepted. You are not allowed to take quizzes with students from other tutorial sections.
Group Assignments (25%)
There are 3 group assignments within a semester. All assignments in the course are submitted electronically via KIMEP intranet. Correct and timely electronic submission is a part of your grade. Computer classes can be crowded on the day of deadline, so be sure that you have submitted your assignments in advance. If you have missed the assignment deadline for any reasons, you may have a chance to recover it within the week after deadline with 15% grade reduction for each day of delay.
Midterm Exam (15%)
Midterm exam will cover all the topics you will study within the first half of semester (Spreadsheets, Excel Basic and Financial Functions). Don’t expect to have any multiple-choice questions. You will be offered 10-12 essay questions and practical problems to solve. It will be closed book, paper-based exam. You have to bring blue pens, and Student IDs on this exam. Using mobile phones instead of calculators is prohibited.
Final Exam (40%)
Final exam is comprehensive, closed book, and covers all topics you will study within the semester. Format of this exam, rules and requirements are similar to the format of midterm. Make sure you will bring blue pens, and Student ID cards with you.Any attempt of communication with neighbors during exam will be immediately penalized without warning!
Grading Policy:
Online Tests, Midterm Exam, Group Assignments, and Final Exam will be percentage graded and then finally converted to letter-grade i.e. A+, A, A-, B+, ... according to the table below.
90 to 100 / Pass / A+
85 to 89 / Pass / A
80 to 84 / Pass / A-
77 to 79 / Pass / B+
73 to 76 / Pass / B
70 to 72 / Pass / B-
67 to 69 / Pass / C+
63 to 66 / Pass / C
60 to 62 / Pass / C-
57 to 59 / Pass / D+
53 to 56 / Pass / D
50 to 52 / Pass / D-
below 50 / Fail / F
Incomplete / I
Withdraw / W
* Grading, attendance and examination policies and procedures are in accordance with overall KIMEP rules.
- Instructional Resources
All instruction materials for this course will be published on the course web page. Students are also welcome to use built-in help system for each of the applications they are working with.
Suggested books and readings:
- Understanding Computers: Today and Tomorrow, Comprehensive, Deborah Morley and Charles S. Parker, 15th edition, Cengage Learning, 2015 [1]. Chapters 1-6 on computer hardware and software, chapters 8, 10 on Internet and web technologies for business, chapter 14 on databases and database management systems.
- Teach Yourself HTML and CSS in 24 Hours, Julie Meloni, Michael Morrison, 8th edition, Sams Publishing, 2010 [2].
- Financial Modeling, Simon Benninga, 4th edition, MIT Press, 2014 [3]. Chapters 36-39 on Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
- Materials on Microsoft Excel and DBMS Microsoft Access available in KIMEP library.
- Lecture slides (available through class web site).
Supplementary electronic documents will be published on the course web site.
- Course Calendar/ Tentative Session Plan*
Class / Lecture topic / Tutorial topic / Readings/activities / Study time
ModuleI. Microsoft Excel.
WEEK1: /
- Course introduction
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Excel functions (1)
WEEK2: /
- Microsoft Excel (contd.)
- Microsoft Excel functions (2)
WEEK3: /
- Financial Functions
- Microsoft Excel functions (3)
WEEK4: /
- Financial Functions (contd.)
- Financial Functions
Quiz 2 / 6 hrs
Module II. Introduction to Programming.
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
WEEK5: /
- Introduction to Programming
- Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
- Introduction to Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
Chapters starting from 31 + slides / 6 hrs
WEEK6: /
- Office automation methods. Macros. Algorithms
- VBA (2). Flowcharts. Macros
WEEK7: /
- Solving business problems with VBA
- Programming Practices
WEEK8: /
- Solving business problems with VBA)
- Programming Practices (contd.)
WEEK9: /
- Solving business problems with VBA)
- Programming Practices (contd.)
Quiz 3 / 3 hrs
Module III. Computer Hardware and Software.
Internet. HTML. Web Design.Introduction to DBMS. Microsoft Access.
WEEK10: /
- Internet and WWW
- Exploring HTML
Chapter 8 + slides / 6 hrs
WEEK11: /
- Internet and WWW (contd.)
- HTML (contd.)
WEEK12: /
- Multimedia and the Web
- HTML
- Web design with Microsoft SharePoint Designer
Chapter 10 + slides / 6 hrs
WEEK13: /
- Computer hardware
- Advanced topics in web design (1)
WEEK14: /
- Computer hardware (contd.)
- Computer software
- Advanced topics in web design (2)
Chapters 1-6 + slides / 6 hrs
WEEK15: /
- Introduction to DBMS. Relational databases.
- Microsoft Access
- Introduction to Microsoft Access
Chapter 14
Quiz 5 / 20 hrs
WEEK16: /
- Microsoft Access (contd.)
- Microsoft Access (contd.)
* Content of the course is subject to minor changes.
- Course Objectives and their Assessment
Learning Outcomes / How they will be taught / How to assess
Understand modern concepts and trends in computer hardware and software. / Chapters 1-6 on computer hardware and software / Quiz, Midterm/Final Exam.
Promote company’s image by creating and publishing attractive web sites with help of web-editing software (Microsoft FrontPage/SharePoint Designer), using scripts, java applets, flash animations, hit counters, web form elements, and basic HTML editing. / Chapters 10 & 8 on Internet and WWW, Multimedia and the Web; practical tutorial sessions on web technologies / Group Assignment, Quiz, Midterm and Final Exams
Analyze and solve real-world business situations that require intensive calculations or analysis with help of Microsoft Excel. / Lecture sessions on business applications of spreadsheets, cases, practical tutorial sessions / Group Assignment/Case Analysis, Quiz, Midterm and Final Exams
Facilitate complex financial calculations with help of Excel financial functions. / Lecture sessions on Microsoft Excel financial functions, practical tutorial sessions / Quiz, Midterm and Final Exams
Understand basic concepts of programming and algorithms. / Lectures on basics of programming, practical tutorial sessions / Group Assignment, Quiz, Final Exam
Automate routine work by recording macros, creating programs and custom functions in VBA, and using other advanced capabilities of Microsoft Office package. / Lectures on basics of programming, practical tutorial sessions / Group Assignment, Quiz, Final Exam.
Understand basic concepts of database management systems (on example of Microsoft Access), and their business applications. / Chapter 14 on databases and database management systems, lecture, practical tutorial sessions / Quiz, Final Exam.
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