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BA271 - Information Technology in Business
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| Points | Criteria |
| 2 | Proper tables in top half of QBE |
| 2 | Correct fields in bottom of QBE |
| 2 | Used Count function in the Total row |
| 2 | Correctly sorted the query |
Here are thumbnail images of the task and its solution:
Relationships view Datasheet view Query-By-Example design-time view
March
5th: A colleague sent me this image, and I find it enough fun to want to share
it with you ...
March 1: I will send out email messages about this week's work samples later today. Right now, here is a graph of how everyone performed:
February 27
Last night's work samples were substantially better than last week's work samples. At least half of the class appears to have a basic understanding of the relationships among tables in a database, and about one quarter of the class can prepare a workable database structure to hold the information in a report. So while I found the drawings a lot better, many of you still have a ways to go before you can complete this simple task in a workable manner.
Here is one solution to the task ... other solutions would also work.
The Invoice report used as the basis of last night's work sample
A likely Microsoft Access Relationships view for a database structure that could create the Invoice report.
February 22 at 6 p.m.:
I've seen several people have real trouble with Step 7 of the Access 2 assignment (which suggests you should import data into existing table structures), so I spent an hour trying to determine what was going wrong. To help other people avoid these problems, I've extended the instructions for step 7, and I recorded a video illustrating the problem and several solutions.
I'm hoping this helps ... and good luck. -- Dave Sullivan
February 21: I've spent some time thinking about this week's work sample, and I've concluded the activity was good and tested an important skill. As a result, I've decided to give everyone another chance at this activity next Monday. To do this, I will scan another report (this time I will select a customer-oriented report, because some students found the term "vendor" confusing). Then I will ask you to use reverse engineering to determine an appropriate database structure that could hold the data shown in the report. Rather than asking you to draw the database structure in a Visio format, I will ask you to use a Microsoft Access -- Tools -- Relationships format. Thus, the only differences between next week's work sample and this week's work sample will be that the picture in class will show an Invoice rather than a Purchase Order, and I will want your database schema to look like how Microsoft Access shows relationships rather than how Visio shows them.
February 20: Last night's work sample was easier to grade than I expected: people did so poorly that I simply gave most database schemas a score of 2 out of 8 points. About 25 percent of the class had at least part of their drawing make some sort of sense, and I gave those students 4 points. A handful of students appeared to understand most of the basic concepts, and they either earned 6 or 8 points.
The Purchase Order used as the basis of last night's work sample A likely Visio-based schema for Purchase Orders.
February 10: Many of you took BA131 from Ray Tanner. Ray ended a nine-year stint as the instructor for BA131 last week. Next Thursday evening, his faculty colleagues will be hosting a celebration of his dedication to OSU students and teaching BA131. I'm hoping some of you will take the time to write some thoughts about how Ray has affected your thinking. To make this easy to do, I built an on-line survey titled "Thoughts for Ray Tanner". It should only take a few minutes to fill out, but collectively the thoughts from his former students are likely to mean quite a bit to Ray. I promise we will package the thoughts appropriately for his celebration event.
February 6th, part 4: Microsoft Producer (which you use in the Peer Review process) is only installed on some of the computers in the basement computer labs. To find ones that have it, go through the double glass doors and turn to the lab on the right. Thus, Microsoft Producer is installed on the computers in Bexell 120, but not on the computers in Bexell 112.
February 6th, part 3: I arrived home last night in a thoughtful mood about the conversation Timothy Hardin and others opened in last night's lecture. I fully intended to read and score each 4"-by-6" work sample, but as I read through the cards, I found myself unable to develop workable criteria for scoring them. This prompted me to think back about the last couple of work samples:
To help you get started building a form, you might want to download and begin editing this sample feedback form. Please know that the purpose of this sample form is not to provide a good example for you to use. Instead, its purpose is to provide a quick way for you to import a working form into your website. You will need to substantially revise its content (along the lines suggested in the prior paragraph) if you want your website to earn an "A".
This week’s work sample asked you to put together a 5-year plan for how you wanted to add value to the collective storehouse of knowledge contained on-line. While this is a useful thing to consider, I’m not at all sure how I would grade something this open-ended. As a result, I’ve asked my grader to “Simply sort the cards in order and enter 6 points for each student who completed a card.” Thus, I decided to adopt the recommendations your colleagues made in the lecture – at least for how I will grade last night’s work sample.
Looking to the future, next week’s work sample will involve five 2-point multiple-choice questions primarily about database terminology. These questions will draw from primarily from Chapter 1 of Succeeding in Business with Microsoft Office Access 2003, the textbook we will use for the last half of the course. Thus, I strongly recommend reading and thinking through this chapter before attending Monday’s lecture.
February 6th, part 2: Last term as part of the midterm exam, I asked people to write "an original essay about a wiki engine appropriate for use in a mid-sized company; that is, a company with 20 to 100 employees." This term the topic will once again deal with some aspect of using a wiki. Thus, before the exam, I recommend reading through the ideas and following the suggested exercises in this site's What is a Wiki page.
February 6th, part 1: Two of your colleagues have asked variations of this question:
I was looking at the websites that I will need to peer review. And noticed that one of the websites is not properly published, therefore I can't view the site. Is there a way I can work around this? Thank you for the help, and thank you for pushing the due date back, that is VERY helpful!!
The main reason why I spent Saturday looking at the Basic Website activity was to get feedback quickly to people who had not correctly published their website project. Everyone should check the Basic Website email message I sent out on Saturday to make sure I didn't encounter this sort of publishing problem with your work. If your website isn't published correctly, then obviously you should correct that as soon as possible -- otherwise your peer reviewers will encounter the problem described above.
If you are a peer reviewer, and one or more of the websites you are supposed to review is not published correctly, then you should follow these instructions:
What should you do if one of the websites that you are to review doesn't exist? First, look directly at drive V to see if the student might have built a website in the wrong location. For example, did the student build a folder named websight or website2 rather than one named website? Or did the student rename the index.html file to be home.htm or index.htm-- this will keep the links on the Student Pages portion of the class website from finding the student's home page. Then, regardless of what you find, record an appropriate videoclip giving the student feedback about where they stand with respect to their project. To do this, you would record a short videoclip about the "Page Not Found" error.
February 5th, part 2: I’ve pushed the due date for the Peer Review activity back from Wednesday at 2 p.m. to Thursday morning at 10 a.m. That pushes the due date for this activity as far back as possible without having it overlap with the midterm exam.
February 5th, part 1: One of your colleagues asks:
How in-depth do you want the sources page? I just have the websites listed that I used and any information used from them I put in quotes. Do you want captions used with the photos?
The Sources page of your website should clearly explain what you wrote and did and what you copied from other places. A list of other websites used is not sufficient. My recommendation is to write out what you have done in an annotated bibliography so your Sources page explains what you did and what you copied just as if you were talking to a colleague who wants to understand your contribution to the website.
February 2nd: Two reading suggestions for Monday evening's lecture and work sample:
February 2nd: One of your colleagues asks:
I'm wondering how I can work on my website at home? Is this possible?
If you go home and download Nvu from the Nvu website, then you can install that program to run on your home computer.
The next problem is to move files back-and-forth between your home computer and school. I recommend spending a few dollars and buying a flash drive to do this. The cheapest ones will cost about $10 and can be found at PriceWatch.com. You would use this device to move your entire Website folder between home and the cob-storage network server at school.
Alternatively, you might follow the instructions for Remote File Access that I wrote a couple of years ago. This page describes two other methods of moving files between home and school, but they require more technical expertise to set up.
February 1st: Here are some work samples prepared by your colleagues in Monday evening's lecture. We will discuss these forms in class today.
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| Renter Application | Qualifying for Services | Basketball Stats | Recipe Contest | Newsletter Request |
January 31st: One of your colleagues asks a series of useful questions. Here they are along with my answers:
I have a few questions about the basic website. Firstly, are you actually looking for information in the pages, or should I just state what type of information will be in that page?
Both approaches could be used … but certainly enough actual information must be in the website for it to make sense.
Secondly, the 750 word minimum, is that required for just the final website, or the basic website as well?
My guess is that if you have written less than 300 or 400 words for the basic website, I’m likely to conclude that you haven’t made a reasonable first-draft effort.
For the basic website, are we required to do a text image such as the one we did on class on Tuesday?
No, this is a very open-ended assignment, and I want you to use your judgment about how to lay out the pages in your site. Thus, although I strongly recommend using a logo and lively headings at the top of each page, the choice of what to do is up to you.
What about the feedback forum for the basic website too?
That can be deferred to the final website. On the other hand, the more complete your basic website is, the better quality feedback you will get from the students who will peer-review your site. Also, you will have less to do to complete the project later.
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Another student asks: I was wondering if it is ok for me to type everything out myself without using other peoples information. The only thing I have on my sources page are the places I got my pictures at.
Yes, of course, that approach makes sense. Often students will build a website based on someone else's business. When that is the case, even if every sentence in the site is written from scratch, the original source information came from someone else ... and that source should be cited. It is exactly this sort of description, such as "I wrote everything in the site myself, but I obtained all the source information from my Uncle Bob", that caused me to ask everyone to write an annotated bibliography. With an annotated bibliography, you can explain where you got information and what you wrote in clearly understandable sentences.
January 23nd:
Here is a fun page layout drawing for the Jackson (Jordan) Valley "Big Loop"
rodeo that one of your colleagues created last night. We will use this as the
basis of our in-class activities today.
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January 22nd: One of your colleagues asks:
Question: Where can I get a copy of Visio?
Answer: Go to the college's Student Computing Support page to learn about the Microsoft Academic Alliance. It will let you download Visio, Access, Vista, and other Microsoft software (but not Word or Excel).
Question: In lecture tonight you mentioned that our next homework assignment was due on Monday, but the Graded Activities page has it due on Friday. I was just wondering which day it was due.
Answer: I incorrectly described the next due date in tonight’s lecture. It will remain due on Friday at 2 p.m. as the Graded Activities page suggests.
January 19th: I finished grading the Prerequisite Exam. If you did not take the Prerequisite Exam last Tuesday, then you should work through it informally (and then I recommend sending me a copy of the files so that I can give you informal feedback about well you did). This link will take you to the actual exam that people took on Tuesday. Here is a chart showing the distribution of scores among the 143 people who took the exam on Tuesday.
As I promised last week, I will be in the basement computer lab all day today (from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.), and you can come by to take the exam whenever is convenient for your schedule.
A handful of people have contacted me telling me that they will have problems getting to OSU today. That is understandable. If you cannot take the exam today, I will temporarily leave your Prerequisite Exam box empty in the class gradebook. Then, after the final exam, I will review all your other scores and come to a conclusion about how well you likely would have done if you had taken the exam, and I will fill in a score for your Prerequisite Exam. Thus, although I want to encourage people to take the exam today (because I think it is a great learning experience), if you cannot take it today, that will have no effect on your final grade in the class.
I'm hoping this policy makes sense and seems reasonable under the circumstances.
I spent last night and some of this morning reading all the 4" x 6" cards everyone filled out at last night's lecture. I began by placing all the cards into four different piles based on their appearance. This sorting was based on my first impression of how attractive, professional, and easy to read each card was. I found the cards varied dramatically in how visually effective they were. Some cards presented information in an engaging and clearly understandable manner -- while others gave off the opposite reaction. I then gave scores from 0 to 4 to each card based on its visual appearance.
Here are three cards that worked well (please click to enlarge). Note that I removed their names from the images to protect their personal information.
Next, I read each card. I not only wanted to learn a bit about each student, but I also wanted to evaluate the card's content. I was interested in whether the ideas were expressed clearly and were appropriate. Once again, I gave each card a score from 0 to 4 based on its content and writing quality. Since the purpose of the cards was to allow students to introduce themselves to me, I was unlikely to give any card a perfect score if it contained only general information that would apply to any instructor or colleague -- it seemed like some reference should be made to BA271 or computing.
Overall, I am happy with this activity's outcome. Preparing a well-written and attractive document in a short period of time is a very important business skill. While computers can help somewhat with alignment and printing, most of the hard work falls on the author's shoulders. I've found that with practice and feedback, people get better at this sort of task.
Please remember that this assessment is only the first of nine in-class work samples -- and only your top six scores will count toward your final grade. Some students were not in class last night, and they will have eight more chances to earn six reasonable scores.
I will use this web page to make announcements throughout the term. Please check this page whenever you arrive at the BA271 website. You are responsible for checking for new announcements at least once a week.
Opening activities:
Begin by reading the course syllabus and the other top-level web pages for the BA271 website. These pages explain the course structure and have many ideas to help you make the class a success.
- Spend time examining this website. Become comfortable with its organization, read the rules in the syllabus, look at prior exams and assignments, and think about my suggestions for "How to Succeed". Read the rest of this page carefully.
- Learn about the College of Business computer systems by reading these Computer Support pages
- Accounts Overview -- How to use the college's user accounts, email boxes, and file storage locations, and understanding business versus ONID accounts.
- Email -- How to use the college's Exchange email system or the university's ONID email system, and how to forward email from one system to another.
- File Storage --How to store files or create web pages.
- Remote File Access -- How to reach the college's file server from off campus.
Using Email:
Oregon State University gives every student in my BA271 class at least two email accounts on two completely different email systems.
- The College of Business creates an email box for every student, faculty, and staff member associated with the college.
- The university provides everyone with an ONID (Oregon State Network ID) account that includes an email box.
- You may have other email boxes if you take forestry or science classes.
- Finally, you can sign up to use a third-party email system, such as Yahoo Mail.
Since I do not know which system you prefer to use, I must make a choice about where to send email. Until last term, I sent all email to my students via their College of Business email boxes. This made sense to me because I am a business professor. Starting with last term, I decided to send some messages to College of Business email boxes and other messages to ONID email boxes. This made sense because I wanted to encourage you to forward mail so that you do not have "dead letter" email boxes.
I do not care in the least 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.
If you did not already know about your various email boxes on campus, or if you want help learning how to forward messages from one system to another — then you should read the Using Email help page in the College of Business website.
For whatever it is worth, I use my Business email box (known as sullivan@bus.oregonstate.edu) as my primary mailbox, and I have my ONID (also known as sullivda@onid.orst.edu) set to forward messages automatically to my Business mailbox.
I sent everyone registered for BA271 a "Welcome to BA271" message on Monday, January 8th. Verify that you receive this message. If you have difficulty finding and reading the "Welcome to BA271" message, make sure you attend a help session, drop by my office, or send me an email message. Taking this class without being connected to email properly would be like wearing sunglasses while driving at night.
This website was created and is maintained by
Dave Sullivan. |
