• About this course
• Instructor and Classroom
• Information and materials
• Re-Taking BA131? Read this please...
• Assignments
  • The "Precision Requirement."
  • Make back-up copies of your work.
• Accommodations
• Grading
• Exams
• Course Policies

About this course

This two-credit-hour course teaches you how to use office productivity software in a professional environment.  You will learn by completing a number of hands-on exercises and assignments with lessons and coaching on business professionalism.  You should exit the course with an excellent foundation that you can apply to any office productivity software applications in any environment. The exercises you will complete are categorized into seven "competencies" and include lessons and assignments on Network File Management, Advanced Email, Word Processing, Analytical Spreadsheets, Spreadsheet Modeling, Data Graphing, and an exercise that pulls it all together in a final integrated assignment.

The single most important item that will ensure your success in this class is reading.  Read all instructions completely and watch carefully for details.

Structure

• Monday is the general lecture.  You will learn the context for the lesson and assignment.

• Lab sessions on Wednesday are "how to" sessions in which you are guided through a practice activity that prepares you to complete the current assignment.

• Help sessions are on Fridays.  The help sessions allow you to work and ask questions in an entirely unstructured setting. There will be no formal demonstrations or presented content on Fridays, so you can get help with any questions you might have about the current assignment or practice.

Conduct

The College of Business and general business community have high standards of professional conduct.  This class provides a number of opportunities for you to practice professionalism as well as establish your own set of professional standards. Expectations for your professional behavior and individual initiative are consistent with a business-like environment. 

You should treat the course no different than a professional job. Attend class every day, be on time, find a place in the classroom that is as comfortable for you as possible, do your own work, do your work on time, and learn how to work in groups (but always do your own work).

Information and Materials

Email

I do not care which email system you choose to use. Here is what I care about:

• You should understand the differences among email systems.
• You should make an intelligent choice about which email system will be your primary system; that is, which email system will you actually open and use to check messages.
• You should have messages forwarded automatically to your primary system so email from me is not being delivered to a “dead letter” mailbox.
• You should be able to receive HTML-formatted messages that contain embedded images, bold text, and other formatting. The messages I send out can be quite hard to interpret if everything is displayed in a crude Courier font.
   

Website

1. Your e-mail account and this course website will be your primary sources of non-lecture  information for the course.
    
2. Recommended Text: Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Step by Step; ISBN 0-7356-1518-7; Microsoft Press 2003
   The Excel 2003 Step by Step text will help you learn some of the more difficult functions and operations that you will be using in this class.  You will find the text useful for many of your classes in the future that involve spreadsheet operations.  This book will not directly be the basis of any graded activities -- that is why it is listed as a recommended rather than a required text.
    
3. Optional Text:  Microsoft Office System Inside Out 2003 Edition
   The MS Office System text is an all-encompassing reference book that should only be purchased if you find help systems or online assistance difficult to use.

If you are retaking BA131 for any reason, you need to take a couple of steps to prevent yourself from having "Academic Integrity" problems. All work in BA131 must be completed in the current term.

Either delete or rename your old BA131 folder, and then create a new BA131. Make sure the new BA131 folder and all files in that folder have a creation date in the current term. If you want to keep a copy of your work from a prior term, move the BA131 folder to your Private folder on drive P. Except for the photograph which the college took of you during the prior term, do not submit or copy anything from those files or folders into your current-term work.

You are much better off not using that old material anyway for two reasons: first, you need to learn the material again and using old work will short-cut your memory and learning; second, lessons change somewhat each term and you need to learn the materials as they are presented, not as modifications to old work.

The good news for you is that the success rate for students retaking BA131 is excellent--if you follow those easy steps detailed above...

All assignments use Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 Premium or above. Most assignments are due Wednesday nights at midnight (the labs generally close Wednesday nights at midnight).  The first three assignments are best completed in the Bexell Labs--I say this because you may find yourself dealing with the complications of being off-site rather than doing your assignments.  The other assignments can be completed off site if you have the proper software on your system.  Keep in mind that the networks or computer labs may be very busy or unavailable just before an assignment is due so don't wait until the last hours to start your assignments.  

The "Precision Requirement."  You should check, double check and then check again... Precision in file names, folder names, locations of files and folders, spreadsheet names, workbook names etc., is a fundamental requirement and an essential skill in all business settings.  Precision is the foundation of business productivity.  The people who use computer systems with office productivity applications recognize and accept the requirements for precision. That same requirement applies to all work you do in these classes.  This means that I will not accept work located in the wrong place on the network or that contains incorrect file names or folder names.  Substantial points will be deducted if your work contains spelling errors, grammatical errors, inaccurate formulas, locations of cells and formulas or otherwise lacks the exacting precision required in business activities and as specified in each assignment and exam. 

While you are checking and double checking your submittals, you also should understand that a single character out of place can result in zero points awarded for an assignment!  

All alternate accommodations are governed by OSU policy or governing statute.  If you have a documented disability and may need accommodations, have any emergency medical information that I should know of, or who need special arrangements in the event of evacuation, please come talk with me so I can make sure this course works well for you. 

I expect this term's BA131 to have seven graded assignments, a midterm, and a final exam. Each activity will have points associated with it, and your initial score will be called your raw score on the activity.

Your raw activity scores will be weighted.   Weighting is a method to establish a relative importance of a numeric score in a group of scores. This means that some activities will be more important to your composite grade than others.  The higher the weighting, the more important the score. I have not selected the final weighting of activities, but you should know that I want the midterm and final exam scores to be weighted fairly heavily. Here is my best guess today about the weights I am likely to use this term.

Likely Assignment and Exam Weights(1000 total):

• Assignment #1: 50
• Assignment #2: 50
• Assignment #3: 50
• Assignment #4: 50
• Midterm: 200
• Assignment #5: 100
• Assignment #6: 70
• Assignment #7: 130
• Final Exam: 250
• Participation: 25 (see below)

Note about Participation added as of April 11th: The students who attended both class sessions today agreed to change this term's grading system to include some Participation points. Students would earn their Participation points by volunteering to work at the front of the room with the mouse. Volunteering once to work at the front would earn full participation points for the term ... never volunteering would leave you without any Participation points. Based on these discussions, I've decided to include 25 Participation points in the course grading system. Katie Quigley volunteered during the 11 o'clock hour, and Catherine Freeland volunteered during the noon hour, so they have earned full Participation points this term.

Your grade in the class will be determined by using the following grading scale against your overall weighted score; that is the total of all your scores from the assignments and exams as adjusted by their various weighting factors.  Grades are not applied to a performance curve; thus, if everyone does well, everyone will receive an A; and if everyone does poorly, ...   This gives us all an incentive to work together to master the material.

Extra Credit Points

There may be opportunities to earn extra credit points on selected assignments.  If so, these will be structured activities such as completing a survey form or attending an external presentation meant to enhance your OSU or College of Business experience.  Extra credit points will only apply to the "raw" score and are meant to be minor adjustments in the total points for the specific assignment identified in the extra credit activity.  The points are not transferable and are not applied beyond the maximum points allowed for an assignment. For example, if you earn 110/120 points on an assignment and earn 10 points of extra credit, your raw score will be adjusted to 120/120.  However, if you earn 115/120 on an assignment and earn 10 points of extra credit, your raw score will be adjusted to the maximum of 120/120.  The intent of the extra credit is to influence only the specific assignment score, not any other scores.  Restricting the maximum score to 100% achieves this restricted influence.

What Weighting Does

The weightings don't really have an effect on anything until the final composite grade is figured.  All of your weighted scores are added together and then expressed as a ratio of weighted points earned to total weighted points.  That ratio is then expressed as a percentage and a grade is determined based on the grade scale.

Example:

• #1 Raw: 100 / 109,               Weighted: 45.87 / 50
• #2 Raw: 88 / 88,                   Weighted: 50 / 50
• #3 Raw: 102 / 115,               Weighted Score:  44.35 / 50
• #4 Raw: 92 / 110,                 Weighted Score: 47.50 / 50
• Midterm: Raw: 155 / 164,     Weighted Score: 189.02 / 200
• #5 Raw: 98 / 100,                 Weighted Score: 98 / 100
• #6 Raw: 109 / 109,               Weighted Score: 70 / 70
• #7 Raw: 165 / 177,               Weighted Score: 121.19 / 130
• TOTAL WEIGHTED (without the final exam)           660.25 / 700 or 94%

You will notice that if you figure your raw percentages and grades, they will be different than your weighted percentages and grades because some grades are more important, or carry more weight in determining your final grade.

Exams

Exams will all be held in Bexell Hall's first floor computer labs.  The exams require you to complete various computer tasks based on the prior lessons and assignments.  Practice versions of both exams will be made available the week before the exam.

• The 90 minute Midterm will test your ability to manage files, send email,  format a business document, and perform basic spreadsheet formatting and formulas.
• The 1-hour 50-minute Final Exam will emphasize advanced spreadsheet skills and integration between word processing and spreadsheet applications.   It will include network file management and e-mail competencies as well.

Certification Exercise

In addition to the ideas about grading above, in order to receive a passing grade in this class, everyone must demonstrate competence at building a healthy simple spreadsheet model.

Specific Course Policies

Standards for written work and e-mail:  Written work and e-mail correspondence related to BA 131 uses the Oregon Department of Education CIM (Certificate of Initial Mastery) Benchmarks for Writing standards for construction, usage, grammar, spelling and conventions. Written work, including course e-mail is expected to be at level 4 or above. If you need a refresher or are not familiar with the benchmarks for writing:

1. Go to this link and read the CIM Benchmark Scoring Guides for High School Writing (use the [Back] button on your browser to return to this page), or
2. Go to this link at the Oregon Department of Education and read about CIM scoring guides. (use the [Back] button on your browser to return to this page).

If you are having difficulty with appropriate writing standards, you should visit the OSU Writing Center for assistance.  Visit the Valley Library Writing Desk or link to the OSU home page for information on the Writing Center.

E-mail messages that do not conform to the minimum standard will result either in a written warning from the instructor or will not be read.  Hostile, threatening or other inappropriate e-mail messages may result in sanctions and may be subject to discipline as outlined in "Behavior in Class" below.

Seek Help when Needed:  If things are not going well for you in the class, come see me—Dave Sullivan.  Don't wait until the end of the term to request help.    

Lecture Sessions:  These sessions deal with the context for the current assignment.  The tasks are placed in a business and professional context so that students understand how the assignments relate to business activities.

Lab Sessions in Bexell 324: Bexell 324 will be the primary lab facility. Do not use class time for general web browsing, e-mail (including e-mail about course scores or assignments) or any other non-lesson-related purpose unless you are asked to do so by the instructor (refer to disruptive behavior, below). 

Personal Conduct

Academic Integrity is the guiding and fundamental principle for the University (refer to the OSU mission statement at http://osu.orst.edu/mission/.  For information on OSU's academic honesty and student conduct policies, follow this link:  http://oregonstate.edu/admin/stucon/achon.htm

Personal and intellectual integrity requirements are clearly stated in the University's Honesty policy and in this policy statement. You are expected to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and must be honest and ethical in all of your work.  Academic dishonesty is defined as an intentional act of deception in one of the following areas:
 

1. Cheating- use or attempted use of unauthorized materials, information or study aids.  Examples for this class: turning in all or part of someone else's work as your own; obtaining solutions to assignments from another person or organization; use of previous term exams or assignments as study aids.

2. Fabrication- falsification or invention of any information.  Examples for this class: Making false statements about your experiences or fabricating your work or education history; providing false answers to surveys completed in class; use of a previous term exam or assignment and turning it in as a current term assignment or exam.

3. Assisting- helping another commit an act of academic dishonesty. Examples for this class: giving someone else your solution files; sending assignment files by email to another student for their use; doing another persons assignments for them.

4. Tampering- altering or interfering with evaluation instruments and documents.  Examples for this class:  Any use of any device or technology to attempt to circumvent the requirements of an exam or assignment--such as altering the "properties" of any assignment or exam file to attempt to change file attributes to obscure or alter information about your files.

5. Plagiarism- representing the words or ideas of another person as one’s own.  Example for this class:  use of any number of words in any sequence from someone else's work and representing the work or ideas as your own; lack of appropriate citations in any work.

Possible penalties for a violation include a failing grade for the assignment or exam, a failing grade for the course, or administrative disciplinary action by your major college or COB, or both, as well as overall OSU actions--which could mean disciplinary suspension from the College or University system. For more detailed information on this subject, visit the OSU Student Conduct web site: www.orst.edu/admin/stucon/achon.htm and the following OSU web site regarding the University's mission: http://osu.orst.edu/mission/.

Academic Integrity-Files and Monitoring:

Files and Assignments:  All work completed for these classes must be original (you must do your own work).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 academic honesty policy of the University.

Professional Behavior In Class: Behavior in class should be professional at all times. Behaviors that are disruptive to teaching or learning will not be tolerated and may be subject to disciplinary action or referred to the Office of the Dean of Students for disciplinary action.  The University and the Oregon State Board of Higher Education have student conduct regulations and sanctions regarding student behavior which all apply in these courses.  The content of email messages you write in this class or concerning this class is subject to professionalism standards and regulations.

•     Examples of unprofessional behavior:
  • Wearing inappropriate clothing for the required course digital picture.
  • Not paying attention to speakers or classroom activities
  • Listening to personal entertainment devices (music/media/games etc.)
  • Showing disrespect to speakers, teaching assistants, lecturers
  • Passive-aggressive activity, such as asking inappropriate questions
  • "Surfing" the web during class (except as part of a class activity)   
  • Reading the newspaper during class
  • Sleeping during class
  • Operating a cell phone (leaving a phone "on" during class)
  • Having a "side-conversation" not related to the class activity
  • Using inappropriate language (swear words, street language)
  • Reading or composing email messages (except as part of a class activity)

Use of Bexell 324 computers during a lecture, work or help session for any purpose other than the specific lesson being presented is considered disruptive behavior. 

Discrimination or Harassment: Discrimination 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 may result from individuals not understanding or being aware of the impact that their remarks or actions may have on others. Individuals should be sensitive to the feelings of others and tolerant of the remarks and actions of others.  If you find the remarks or actions of another individual to be offensive, you should immediately bring it to their attention. If you believe those remarks and actions constitute intentional discrimination or harassment, please immediately bring it to your professor's attention.

Arbitration: There is a one-week arbitration period after midterm exams and assignments are returned. Within that one-week period, you are encouraged to discuss any assumptions or misinterpretations that you made on the activity that may have influenced your grade.  Arbitration issues or questions about assignments should be addressed only to YOUR professor--not other professors or any of the teaching or lab assistants.

Attendance and Class Participation:  Students who attend all lectures and labs are more likely to pass this class than those who do not attend.  Attendance analysis has shown that students who do not attend the lectures and labs fail at a much higher rate than those who do not attend.  If you are unable to attend a class session, it is your responsibility to acquire notes, assignments, announcements, etc. from a classmate. 

Submission of Assignments:  Your performance in this course will depend on your ability to submit your work on the day the assignments are due prior to the deadline.  System down-time, file corruption or loss, or computer failure are not accepted as reasons for late submissions.  If you have a legitimate personal emergency (e.g., health problem) that may impair your ability to turn in an assignment on time, you will be expected to contact the instructor before the due date/time (or as soon after your emergency as possible but no later than 3 calendar days) to communicate the situation.

Pay close attention to the assignment submission instructions.  These instructions provide you with the required locations for submittal. All file, folder, workbook and worksheet names must be spelled correctly and in the correct location in order for that portion of the assignment to be considered submitted.  Assignments will not be accepted for credit after one week past the due date/time.  "Content" portions of some assignments are only graded on the initial due date and cannot be resubmitted.  These are generally the contents of written essays and memos.

Resubmission Policy:  Most assignments -- but not the exams -- assignment may be resubmitted to receive up to 70 percent credit for the improvements made.   If you do not earn a perfect score on the first submittal, correct the deficiencies and resubmit by the re-submittal deadline to receive credit.   The content (written parts of assignments) of essays, memos and other written work cannot be resubmitted and must be submitted on the initial due date and are graded only on the first pass and only one time

Failure to meet minimum competency:  If you do not meet the minimum competency after the resubmission of an assignment, you should to continue to work independently on the lesson and assignment skills.  Your independent work will not be scored or graded and no additional points will be awarded.  However, you will have an opportunity to demonstrate competency during the final exam, so you should ensure that you understand the skills required to complete each assignment properly. 

Incomplete Grades:  This course conforms to the OSU Grading System Academic Regulation AR17 for incomplete grades.   I normally do not allow students to receive an incomplete "I" in this class except for medical emergencies or a death in the student's family that requires them to miss the final exam.  All approvals for incomplete grades and requirements for removal are completed in writing.