Bang College of Business, KIMEP University
COURSE SYLLABUS
Spring 2015
GEN/OPM 2301 Business Computer Applications, 3 credits
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of computer
Course Meeting Time and Place: Lec.: #121/VB Tue 08:30-09:45, 11:30-12:45, #2/NEW Tue 10:00-11:30
Tut.: #301/NEW Tue, Thu 13:00-14:15, #325/VB Tue 14:30-15:45, Wed 13:00-14:15, Thu 14:30-15:45, #302/NEW
Wed 13:00-15:45, #317/VB Thu 10:00-11:15.
1. Instructor Information/Availability
Instructor’s Name
Office
Phone
E-mail
Office hours:
Oleg Vlasov, MBA
418/adm.
2064
olegvl@kimep.kz
Nadezhda Fidirko, MSCS
425/adm.
2268
comcour@kimep.kz
TU 13:00-15:30,
WE 11:00-13:00, TH 11:30-13:00
TU, TH 16:00-17:00,
WE 14:30 – 17:00
2. 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.
3. 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
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4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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. 20141517 Nakipova
Gaziza bsc14-327 MUST be submitted via e-mail to olegvl@kimep.kz 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 a week 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.
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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%.
7. Outcome Assessment and Grading Matrix
Final grade for the course consists of the items below:
Assessment Criteria
Continuous Assessment (MTA1 (0%) + MTA2 (60%))
i.
Online Tests - announced (5 * 4%)
ii.
Group Assignment I
iii.
Midterm Exam
iv.
Group Assignment II
v.
Group Assignment III
Final Assessment
i.
Final Exam (comprehensive)
Grand Total:
Percentage
60%
20%
7%
15%
9%
9%
40%
40%
100%
Quizzes (20%)
There will be 5 quizzes within the semester, taking 10-25 minutes to write at the beginning/end
of 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.
3
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
85 to 89
80 to 84
77 to 79
73 to 76
70 to 72
67 to 69
63 to 66
60 to 62
57 to 59
53 to 56
50 to 52
below 50
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Fail
Incomplete
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
I
Withdraw
W
* Grading, attendance and examination policies and procedures are in accordance with overall KIMEP rules.
8. 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, 13th edition, Course Technology, 2011 [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, 7th edition, Sams, 2005 [2].
Financial Modeling by Simon Benninga, MIT Press, 2000 [3] (available in KIMEP library). Chapters
starting from 31 on Visual Basic for Applications.
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.
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9. Course Calendar/ Tentative Session Plan*
Class
WEEK 1:
WEEK 2:
WEEK 3:
WEEK 4:
Lecture topic


Tutorial topic
Readings/activities
Module I. Microsoft Excel.
Course introduction
Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel
functions (1)
 Microsoft Excel
 Microsoft Excel (contd.)
functions (2)
 Microsoft Excel
 Financial Functions
functions (3)
 Financial Functions
 Financial Functions
(contd.)
Study time
Slides
6 hrs
Slides
6 hrs
Quiz 1
20 hrs
Slides
Quiz 2
6 hrs
Introduction to Visual
Basic for Applications
(VBA)
Textbook [3]:
Chapters starting from
31 + slides
6 hrs

VBA (2). Flowcharts.
Macros
Mid-term Exam
6 hrs

Programming Practices
Slides
6 hrs
Module II. Introduction to Programming.
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).

WEEK 5:


WEEK 6:
WEEK 7:
WEEK 8:
WEEK 9:



Introduction to
Programming
Visual Basic for
Applications (VBA)
Office automation
methods. Macros.
Algorithms
Solving business
problems with VBA
Solving business
problems with VBA)
Solving business
problems with VBA)


Programming Practices
(contd.)
 Programming Practices
(contd.)
3 hrs
Slides
Quiz 3
3 hrs
Module III. Computer Hardware and Software.
Internet. HTML. Web Design. Introduction to DBMS. Microsoft Access.

Internet and WWW

Exploring HTML

Internet and WWW
(contd.)

HTML (contd.)
WEEK 12:


Multimedia and the Web
HTML
WEEK 13:

Computer hardware
WEEK 10:
WEEK 11:

WEEK 14:
WEEK 15:
WEEK 16:
Computer hardware
(contd.)
 Computer software
 Introduction to DBMS.
Relational databases.
 Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access
(contd.)

Web design with
Microsoft SharePoint
Designer
 Advanced topics in
web design (1)
Textbook [1]:
Chapter 8 + slides
6 hrs
Textbook [2] or slides
6 hrs
Textbook [1]:
Chapter 10 + slides
6 hrs
Quiz 4
6 hrs
Textbook [1]:
Chapters 1-6 + slides
6 hrs

Advanced topics in
web design (2)

Introduction to
Microsoft Access
Textbook [1]:
Chapter 14
Quiz 5
20 hrs

Microsoft Access
(contd.)
Final Exam
(comprehensive)
3 hrs
* Content of the course is subject to minor changes.
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10. Course Objectives and their Assessment
Learning Outcomes
How they will be taught
How to assess
Understand modern concepts Chapters 1-6 on computer Quiz,
and trends in computer hardware hardware and software
Exam.
and software.
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.
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.
Midterm/Final
Chapters 10 & 8 on Internet Group
Assignment,
and WWW, Multimedia and Quiz, Midterm and Final
the Web; practical tutorial Exams
sessions on web technologies
Lecture sessions on business
applications of spreadsheets,
cases,
practical
tutorial
sessions
Lecture sessions on Microsoft
Excel financial functions,
practical tutorial sessions
Lectures on basics of
programming,
practical
tutorial sessions
Automate routine work by Lectures on basics of
recording
macros,
creating programming,
practical
programs and custom functions tutorial sessions
in VBA, and using other
advanced
capabilities
of
Microsoft Office package.
Understand basic concepts of Chapter 14 on databases and
database management systems database
management
(on example of Microsoft systems, lecture, practical
Access), and their business tutorial sessions
applications.
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Group Assignment/Case
Analysis, Quiz, Midterm
and Final Exams
Quiz, Midterm and Final
Exams
Group
Assignment,
Quiz, Final Exam
Group
Assignment,
Quiz, Final Exam.
Quiz, Final Exam.