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BA271 Syllabus PageAbout this courseBA271 will extend your ability to use a personal computer effectively. It is designed as a follow-on course to BA131 and should improve your ability to use a personal computer as a partner in completing everyday tasks like writing, planning and organizing. A major component of the course will be to learn about database management systems. Another major thrust will be to use computers with style, class, and skill to improve your ability to communicate well. This means the course will focus on blending non-computer skills – such as creating interesting content and expressing ideas well – with computer topics like using programs effectively. For example, I won’t be impressed with how attractive your website is if you fill it with editing bloopers, lifeless ideas, a lot of pictures and no content. I will assume you have the prerequisite computer skills equivalent to the material taught in BA131. This includes being comfortable writing memos with a word processor, building budgets with a spreadsheet, sending and receiving email with attachments and using a graphical operating system to perform electronic housekeeping tasks. If things are not going well for you in the class, please meet with me. Do not wait until the end of the term to request help. I can help get you back on track and successfully complete the class if you communicate problems immediately. Class ScheduleI split the BA271 class into two parts this term: lectures and lab sessions.
On days when we will have an exam or quiz, you will go the basement computer lab, complete the work, and deliver files either by leaving them at specific network locations or by attaching them to an email message. On those days, the lab sessions will be cancelled. Collecting Information and MaterialsFew people learn to swim from a textbook. Similarly, you should not expect a textbook to teach you how to use a computer well. Most of what you learn will come from interacting directly with a computer—either in the classroom, the computer lab, dorm room, or wherever. Learn to use the help system, set up experiments and make good guesses about how programs work, read your e-mail, and surf the Internet. The undo The Web and email will be the primary sources of assignments and information. Course textbook:
For the latter half of the class, we will use Microsoft Office Access 2003, Introductory, written by Joseph Adamski and Kathleen Finnegan, published by Course Technology (Thomson Learning) on December 11, 2003. Note that this is not the most current version of the textbook. The most current version has different exercises -- but all the same basic instructions about how to use Microsoft Access. It sells for a bunch more than the older version, so I stuck with the older version. If you decide to buy the textbook on-line, which I recommend, make sure you buy the Dec. 11, 2003 and the Introductory version. Here is a listing of the price and availability of used versions of this textbook that I downloaded on September 26, 2005 from www.Amazon.com.
The best way to learn tennis or other sports is to practice, practice, and practice. It turns out that building healthy computing skills is similar. You need to practice enough that you spend your time thinking about what you want to accomplish rather than how to give commands. Along these lines, I will only require you to complete a few of the exercises in the textbook, but you are encouraged to do more of them. If you visit the Thompson Course Technology website, you will be able to download data files needed to complete the other exercises. I put a copy of the Access 2003 textbook on reserve in the library. Its call number is VR 208. AssignmentsSome assignments are reasonably simple, while others will involve more thought and effort to complete. I strongly recommend completing assignments well in advance of the due date. The computer lab will be packed right before an assignment is due and the true procrastinators will be rushing to complete it. If you run into trouble, you run the risk of not completing it on time and giving up. Plan ahead, you'll thank yourself later. Make back-up copies of your work. It only takes a few seconds to make a back-up copy of a file—or of a folder containing many files and subfolders. Having a back-up copy can save hours of rework if a file becomes lost or corrupted. If you have any questions about how to make back-up copies of an assignment, play this video. This is an essential skill in any business setting. Since the best way to learn this skill is to practice it, you are required to make a back-up copy of each assignment in a different folder and preferably on a different drive. Thus, you should expect me to be less than sympathetic if you come with a sob story about how you lost all your work and you never bothered to make a back-up copy. Submitting AssignmentsAssignments will be turned in electronically, generally by putting your work in an area of the College's network that I can see. For most assignments, I will run a program that "harvests" your work by copying it to another location on the network. This will consolidate all the assignment files, making it easier for us to open and grade them. I intend to run the harvesting program shortly after the assignment's due date and time. This means you must place your work EXACTLY where the assignment describes. For example, if you are asked to create a "Phase3" folder, but you create a "Phase 3" folder, then our harvesting program will not collect your work because your "Phase 3" folder has an extra space between the word "Phase" and the number "3." One common problem in the past has been to create files with duplicate file extensions. A file extension is the three-letter ending on each file name. For example, you may be directed to create a file named "budget.xls," but you inadvertently created "budget.xls.xls." This blunder is easy to make if you leave the settings inside Windows as they are set by default. To avoid this type of error, open My Computer or Windows Explorer and give a Tools--Folder Options command. Adjust the View settings so you do not "Hide file extensions for known file types" (see the image below). If file extensions of known file types are hidden, then an Excel file named "budget.xls" will appear on the screen as just "Budget." Then, if you want it to be named "Budget.xls," you are likely to inadvertently change its name to "Budget.xls.xls." After adding this extension, the file name will look correct on the screen, but because of its duplicate extension, it won't be harvested correctly when I use automated methods to find your work. When you adjust the settings in the dialog box shown below, I recommend putting a check box next to "Display the full path in title bar". This will make it easier to verify exactly where your files are stored.
You are responsible for making sure your work is located and named correctly. To help you avoid blunders (which can be awfully easy to make), I will build Student Pages filled with pre-built links to where your work should be located. Verify that your work has been placed in the right location by clicking on your UserID (see the sample below).
If your work is in the right location, the browser should open it. If the browser displays an error message similar to:
then your work is not in the correct location, the harvesting program will not find it, and you will not receive credit for your assignment until it is placed in the correct location. If it is moved to the correct location later, you will not receive more than half-credit for the assignment. Do not let this happen. Figure out what is wrong and fix it prior to the due date. If your assignment is at the wrong location of the network, then:
For most assignments, a grader will examine your work and enter scores and possibly some comments into a grade book program. Once all the grades have been entered for an activity, I will either use Microsoft Word's mail-merge abilities to send everyone in the class a "personalized" email message containing each person's score and an explanation of how the work was graded. Lots of reasons could delay our ability to harvest a copy of your work, so you should leave your work on the network until you receive a grade for the assignment. It is a good idea to save all your assignments, grades and emails until you receive your final class grade at the end of the term. It is your backup in the event something goes wrong with my copies. Late AssignmentsAssignments up to one week late receive half credit—but only if you send me an email message asking for the assignment to be graded late. This is essential because without the email message, I will grade whatever the harvesting program captures (if anything), so you must tell us not to use the usual grading procedure. Make sure your email message has a subject line that says, "Please grade my late assignment X", where you replace X with the actual assignment name. Assignments more than one week late will not be graded. GradingLetter grades will be assigned according to the number of points accumulated on activities and exams. The Graded Activities page lists each graded activity along with its points and due date. I want the overall class to earn roughly a 3.0 grade point average, which is slightly higher than typical for freshman or sophomore classes in the College of Business. Thus, I will not use 90-80-70-60 percent cutoffs to determine final grades. Instead, at the end of finals weeks, after I have finished grading all activities for the term, I will adjust the values until the overall grade point average for the class is roughly 3.0. The best way to understand this process is to look at how I assigned grades last Fall term. This link to an Excel workbook lets you examine the gradebook for Spring term, 2005. The workbook contains two worksheets: Total and Grades.
Adjusting AssignmentsBecause life is full of unexpected events, I will let you completely foul up one assignment without penalty. I don't care what the problem might happen to be: a death in the family, absolute confusion about how to complete the assignment, or simply sleeping through the assignment's due-date cut-off time. This adjustment will not affect your exam scores because the hands-on exams are the best single indicator that I receive about how well you can use a computer. To understand how I will make this adjustment, open the Spring 2005 Excel Workbook and look at the Adjustment column on the Total page. It uses a formula similar to: =MAX($E$234-E218,$G$234-G218,$H$234-H218,$I$234-I218,$J$234-J218,$L$234-L218,$M$234-M218,$N$234-N218,$O$234-O218,$P$234-P218,$Q$234-Q218,0) This scary-looking formula does something quite simple: It looks at all assignments to see which one can be boosted the most by raising its score up the median score received by other students, thereby letting you completely foul up one assignment without penalty. Grade Disputes or ErrorsMy graders and I are human, and we are certain to make at least a few mistakes while grading during the term. You are responsible for auditing our grading and asking for adjustments when you think an error has been made. To assist with this process, I will use a mail-merge process to send each student "personalized" messages about your assignments and exams. You will have one week (7 days) to contact me about the grading. Thus, you cannot wait until the end of the term before objecting to grades on early assignments. If you have a simple factual issue with grading, then email is likely to be most appropriate (please see the Using Email section below). If you have questions about subjective issues, or you cannot explain the circumstances thoroughly and clearly through email, then please contact me in person. ExamsHands-on exams will be held in Bexell Hall's basement computer labs, and they will require you to complete various computer tasks. You do not need to bring anything to any of these exams. Practice versions of the exams are available for you to examine now. The practice versions show exactly what students in a prior terms were required to complete. This term's class will teach about newer software, and the format of the exam is likely to improve as well. But if you want a quick way to see an example of the skills you will be required to master, then take a good look at the practice exams. In prior terms I gave in-class quizzes during the evening lecture sections. This term I will replace those quizzes with multiple choice questions on the midterm and final exam. Thus, the practice versions of the exam will not contain a section of multiple-choice questions, but the actual exams will contain multiple-choice questions. The purpose of these questions will be to test your understanding of how the hands-on assignments and exams fit within the broader computing field. The best way to study for these questions will be to attend the evening lectures.
AccommodationsIf you have a documented disability and need accommodations, have emergency medical information that I should know, or need special arrangements in the event of evacuation, please talk with me as early as possible. I want to make sure your experience in this class is appropriate for your needs. Academic HonestyMuch of what you learn in this course will be through interactions with other students. As you will often teach each other, it is difficult to draw the line between getting legitimate outside assistance and outright cheating. Students who receive too much assistance ultimately cheat themselves by not attaining the computer skills needed in their college careers and the competition for jobs in the "real world." Despite the preceding disclaimer, you are to do your own work on all activities and exams. Direct or indirect use of exams or other student work from previous terms to complete your exams or assignments is a violation of academic honesty. If you turn in all or part of someone else's work as your own or allow someone else to turn in your work as theirs, then you have committed a violation of academic honesty and will be dealt with in accordance with regulations of the University. Possible penalties include a failing grade for the work in question, a failing grade for the course, and suspension from the College or University. It only takes a few seconds to cut-and-paste a photograph or text into your web pages, and that can trick the unwary into forgetting about intellectual property rights and academic honesty. Don't let the ease of copying electronic material seduce you into forgetting the usual rules about giving credit for the sources of material prepared by others. Using EmailI want to encourage students to communicate with me through e-mail during the term. If you decide to send me a message, I'd like you to consider the care and attention you should give to email messages sent in a professional context. We all make mistakes in spelling and grammar when sending email, but you should remember people will form opinions about your mental abilities based on how you write. Poor grammar and spelling in an email message is similar to meeting colleagues dressed in dirty clothes with poor hygiene. Email limitationsEmail doesn't work well for some types of issues. First, it rarely works well for resolving differences of opinion. Face-to-face negotiations are more likely to work well at that. As an example, if you are upset with something I've done and want to change my behavior, do not write an emotional message stating how rotten I've have been. Instead of flaming through email, try talking in person. Second, email is not good at answering technical questions ... especially if you don't really understand what is going wrong. If you have that sort of question, come to the help sessions or a video conference instead. Email StandardsI receive a lot of email, so to manage the volume efficiently and reliably, I want you to follow these simple standards when sending me messages:
An Email ExampleI received this message from a concerned student who created a poorly organized form on an Access assignment:
My first reaction was to laugh because the last sentence is funny to an educator's ear. It bears repeating:
Now compare that sentence with the overall BA271 course objective listed at the top of the BA271 Home Page:
So why have I put this student's email flame in the Syllabus section of the BA271 website? Because we all need to consider how this sort of message is likely to be received. Like all email flames, this message rants and raves about someone else's behavior. Will this make the recipient feel like compromising? Is it a way to build healthy interpersonal relationships? These questions are really important to consider before clicking "Send" -- especially if you were angry while writing the message. Discrimination or HarassmentDiscrimination or harassment will not be tolerated in the classroom. Most cases of discrimination or harassment violate Federal and State laws and University Policies and Regulations. Intentional discrimination or harassment will be referred to the Affirmative Action Office and dealt with in accordance with the appropriate rules and regulations. Unintentional discrimination or harassment is just as damaging to the offended party, but it usually results from people not understanding the impact of their remarks or actions on others, or an insensitivity to the feelings of others. We must all strive to work together to create a positive learning environment. This means that each individual should be sensitive to the feelings of others and tolerant of the remarks and actions of others. If you find the remarks and actions of another individual offensive, please bring it to their attention. If you believe those remarks and actions constitute intentional discrimination or harassment, please bring it to your instructor's attention. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dave Sullivan. |
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