CS&E 1113 assignment1

Part 1 – myitlab

The MyITLab software is bundled with your books. The e-text resides on this site and optional training videos that teach you Excel Basics are also available. Remember, the purpose of this class is to teach you problem solving using Excel. It is not a basic MS office class. The videos and part of each pre lab will teach you the basics, but we will not use class time to cover the basics.

Note: Everyone who purchases the book has access to this website and the accompanying e-text.


Part 2 – download the assignment starting files

Carmen is the learning management system used at Ohio State. All course materials are on Carmen (except the books needed for the course). All beginning Assignment files must be downloaded from Carmen and all completed assignment files must be uploaded to Carmen or they will not be accepted.

  • Sign into CarmenClick on the Assignments Linkon the home page.

Download from Carmen: OKOS.xlsx, Loans.xlsx, Jobs.xlsx, Salary.xlsx, Rent or Buy.xlsx
Thrift Store Expansion.xlsx

ALL BEGINNING FILES MUST BE DOWNLOADED FROM Carmen OR THEY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

(Unless otherwise noted.)

Part 3: excel basics, formulas, functions, and charts

Complete from the book, Spreadsheet Programming for Business CSE 1113:

Chapter 1 Introduction to Excel, Pages 1-59

Do not use the starting file indicated in the book, instead use the file, OKOS.xlsx you downloaded from Carmen. This will be the name of your file, so do not rename it as the book instructs. This will be true for all of your lab assignments. USE THIS FILE THE ENTIRE CHAPTER.

Read Pages 1-8
Do Pages 9-11 / Read Pages 12-16
Do Pages 17-21 / Read Pages 22-28
Do Pages 29-33 / Read Pages 34-38
Do Pages 39-41 / Read Pages 42-46
Do Pages 47-50 / Read Pages 51-55
Do Pages 56-59

Chapter 2 Formulas and Functions, Pages 61-101

Do not use the starting file indicated in the book, instead use the file, Loans.xlsx you downloaded from Carmen. This will be the name of your file, so do not rename it as the book instructs. This will be true for all of your assignments. USE THIS FILE THE ENTIRE CHAPTER

Read: Pages 61-65
Do: Pages 66-69 / Read: Pages 70-79
Do: Pages 80-84 / Read: Pages 85-91***
Do: Pages 92-95*** / Read: Pages 96-98
Do: Pages 99-101

**This chapter introduces the IF, LOOKUP, and PMT functions. You will not be required to know these functions until later in the semester when they will be covered in detail.

Chapter 3 Charts, Pages 103-142

  • Do not use the starting file indicated in the book, instead use the file, Jobs.xlsx you downloaded from Carmen. This will be the name of your file, so do not rename as the book instructs. This will be true for all of your assignments. USE THIS FILE THE ENTIRE CHAPTER.

Read: Pages 103-117
Do: Pages 118-122 / Read: Pages 123-130
Do: Pages 131-134 / Read: Pages 135-138
Do: Pages 139-141

Chapter 5Specialized Functions, Pages 157-168

Do not use the starting file indicated in the book, instead use the file, Salary.xlsx you downloaded from Carmen. This will be the name of your file, so do not rename it as the book instructs. This will be true for all of your assignments.

Read: Pages 157-164
Do: Pages 165-168

Part 4: college town thrift store

Complete from the book, Problem Solving Cases in Microsoft Access and Excel, Thrift Store Expansion Tutorial C, pages 87-109.

  • This tutorial will walk you through creating a DSS model. As you read the material you will be asked to complete the worksheet.
  • Use the starting file, Thrift Store Expansion.xlsx you downloaded from Carmen.

Part 5: ted and alice’s house purchase decision

Complete from the book, Problem Solving Cases in Microsoft Access and Excel, Ted and Alice’s House Purchase Decision Tutorial C, pages 110-113.

  • STOP before the section, “Interpreting the Results”. (Located at the bottom of page 113.)
  • Use the starting file, Rent or Buy.xlsx you downloaded from Carmen.
  • Note: cells C20 and C21 use unneeded absolute cell reference the cell reference in the formula should be $C12

Part 6 – upload the completed assignment files to carmen

  • You must zip all your Assignmentfiles into one zip file and submit the zip file.
  • You may upload the zip file many times.
  • The last zip file uploaded will be graded.

Navigate to the files you would like to upload to Carmen.


  • Click on the Modules tab in Carmen
  • Click on Assignment 1 submission

  • Click on Submit Assignment

Part 3 – Signing on to the cse computers

THIS STEP SHOULD BE COMPLETED BEFORE THE DAY/TIME OF YOUR IN LAB EXAM.

Complete this step using the computers in Caldwell Lab 112

All students must have a CSE login to access the computers in the CSE department.

  • Your login information should be the same as your OSU email address and password.
  • If you cannot login after two attempts, please visit the Help Desk in Dreese Lab 895. (Make sure to bring a Photo ID.)

file management

Often students save files by just clicking File/Save and then are distressed when they cannot find this file later to re-open. Without giving the computer any specific information, this file may or may not have been stored to the usual default location set up on many systems; “Documents”. Then even if it’s under the Document’s folder, with so many other files it may still be hard to find. To efficiently and effectively work in an environment containing many files and many system directories, it is crucial to organize your files, so that they may be easily retrieved by you or others in the future. Windows Explorer is the Windows 7 tool for managing files. This tool can be used to create hierarchical folders (also called directories) and subfolders to organize both application and data files. In this exercise you will setup new folders/subfolders, and move files into these new directories.

Navigate to z:\windows\username\documents from Computer

The CSE computer network is a large, complex system, spanning many computers, file servers, printers and other devices. Each student has been given their own virtual drive (Z:) – a space on the network to store their work that only is accessible to them. To simplify the complex path of your home directory, a link has been created. This link is found as follows: Z:\windows\username\documents. Each student will need to substitute their username (login name to CSE system) for username in this file path. To access this directory from Windows Explorer follow these steps:

  • Launch Windows file manager and double click on the Z drive icon from the network section on the window.

  • Double click on the Windows folder in the folder
    contents pane to navigate to Windows folder.
  • Double click on the folder with your username.
  • Double click on the folder labeled My Documents.

Setting up folders and subfolders

Next you will setup several new folders/subfolders to store your lab files for this semester. First you will create a folder named Assignments and create subfolders labeled Assignment 1, Assignment 2, Assignment 3, Assignment 4, Assignment 5, Assignment 6 and In Lab in the Assignments folder.

  • You should now be in the My Documents folder, with the list of already existing files visible in the contents pane. Note that depending on how you navigate to this folder it may be refered to as ‘My Documents’ or ‘Documents’.
  • Right click to bring up a shortcut menu and then select New and then select Folder. Many of the Folder commands can be found on these menus and submenus. An alternate way to do this in Windows 7 is to click on the New folder button located just below the menu bar.
  • Type in the name of your new folder – Assignments.
  • Next, select this new Labs Folder by double clicking on it in the Contents Pane. The Folder path in the address bar will be updated to reflect this new location. Since no files have yet been added, the folder content will be empty.
  • Use the same technique to create a new subfolder named CSE Environment within the selected Labs folder.
  • Create new subfolders in the Labs folder for Assignment 1, Assignment2, etc.

Creating a Favorites link

You may have noticed that going back and forth between folders can be tedious. Oftentimes there are folder locations that are used over and over again in much that same way you would return to a favorite website. Windows 7 has a section called Favorite Links, located in the upper left pane of the Explorer window Navigation pane, where you can create links to folders you use often. To create a link to the CSE Environment folder in Favorites, complete the following steps:

  • Navigate your Explorer window to the level just above the CSE Envornment folder – in this case the Assignments folder.
  • In the Content Pane select the CSE Environment folder by clicking on it, and then drag it (holding down the left mouse button) over to the top left section of the Explorer window’s Navigation pane - labeled Favorites (see arrow on Figure 19). Be sure to drag it above or below an existing link. If dragged to an exisiting link the computer will display “copy to..” instead of “Create link in Favorites”.

YOUR CSE ENVIRONMENT HAS NOW BEEN CREATED!!!

Carmen Submissions(Your zip file should contain the following files.)

  1. OKOS.xlsx
  2. Loans.xlsx
  3. Jobs.xlsx
  4. Salary.xlsx
  5. Thrift Store Expansion.xlsx
  6. Rent or Buy.xlsx

1