This is an introductory course designed for business or accountancy undergraduate students who have no programming background and are interested to learn how to manage data and conduct business analytics programmatically. It is oriented to enhance their technical skillset. The aim of this course is to provide a broad understanding on how to manage data, the process of preparing data for analysis, basics of analytics, and the means to communicate analytics outcome. This course will equip students with the ability to write customized solutions to inform business decision, integrate statistical libraries for data analysis, and construct visuals or reports for business understanding. This module will provide students with individual hands- on practices to hone their coding skills and opportunities to develop coding solutions in a team. We utilize Python language as the medium of learning because it is one of the most in-demand coding language and its user-friendly syntax is well suited for the beginner level. You will utilise modern development tools to turn information into insights.
You will learn to understand the development environment of programming language.
Then move on to pick up language semantics like coding syntax, variables, methods, functions, mathematical operators, Boolean operators, decisions, compound decision, control structures and iterations. These will help you to build a holistic understanding on programming basics and the ability to write code independently. The course will also cover foundation of business analytics including how to define problem statements in the business context, data preparation, data transformation, data consolidation, data analysis, and data visualization.
Course Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you (as a student) would be able to: 1. Interpret elements of programming components and distinguish different programming syntax, control structures, data types and design methods. 2. Write codes that allow you to solve simple business problem programmatically. 3. Data selection and connect codes to external source. 4. Manage data to sufficiently derive and communicate analytics outcome. 5. Apply appropriate statistical and graphing modules or use visualization software to present data graphically. Learning and Teaching Method This course adopts a blended learning approach where asynchronous e-learning and synchronous teaching in seminar setting are combined to achieve learning objectives. You will learn through a wide range of learning materials, such as online references, textbooks, videos, pre-readings, in-class activities, coding discussion and group work. Students are to complete pre-seminar materials prior to each week of seminar. - Total 13 sessions. - Each week 3 hours of seminar. - Course starts in week 1.
Course Assessment
Component Weightage 1. Class Participation 20% 2. Practical Assessment (PA) 40% 3. Group Project 30% 4. Group Presentation 10% Total 100%
Readings and References
You may refer to any resources that aids your understanding, some suggested references are listed below. Recommended Online Reference: (PT) Python 3 Tutorial: https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/ (TT) Tableau Tutorial: https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/guides/get-started-tutorial/en- us/get-started-tutorial-home.html (SQ) SQLite Library: https://www.sqlite.org/index.html (PL) Pandas Library: https://pandas.pydata.org/ (MP) Matplot Library: https://matplotlib.org/
Textbooks: (WP) William F. Punch, The Practice of Computing Using Python, 3rd Edition, 2017, Pearson, ISBN 978-1-2921-6668-1.
(ML) Mark Lutz, Learning Python, 5th Edition, 2013, O’Reilly Media, ISBN 978-1-4493-5573- 9.
(WW) William Wesley McKinney, Python for Data Analysis, 2nd edition, 2017, O’Reilly Media, ISBN 978-1-4919-5766-0.
(SW) S. Christian Albright and Wayne L. Winston, Business Analytics, 2017, 6th edition, Cengage Learning, ISBN 978-1-305-94754-2.
(SB) Steven Bird, Ewan Klein & Edward Loper, Natural Language Processing with Python, 3rd edition, 2009, O’Reilly, ISBN 978-0596516499. Course Schedule
Week Topic Readings/ Activities
1 Course Introduction & Programming Basic: • Installation and programming Installation guide; environment WP Chp 1; • Programming syntax ML Chp 1, 2, 3 • Variables • Basic data types 2 Operators: • Mathematical operators WP Chp 1, 2 • Comparison operators ML Chp 34 • Logical operators • Debugging and Exception Handling 3 Control and Function: WP Chp 2, 5 • Decision ML Chp 12, 13, 16 • Iterations • Function design 4 Data Types: • String WP Chp 4, 7 • List ML Chp 5, 7, 8 • Tuple 5 File Input and Output: • Dictionary • List and Dictionary Comprehension WP Chp 9, 14 • File reading and writing ML Chp 14 • Processing text/CSV files • The urllib package for network connection 6 Object Oriented Programming: WP Chp 11, 12 • Object ML Chp 25 • Class • Inheritance 7 Connect Codes to Data Source: • SQL basic SQL Documentation • Data Manipulation Language Recess Week 8 Data Preparation & Descriptive Analysis: • Dataframe WW Chp 4, 5, 7 • Data wrangling PL Documentation • Data cleaning PA I • Descriptive analysis 9 Data Visualization: • Plotting in Python MP Documentation • Data visualization in Tableau TT Tutorial • Dynamic data visualization 10 Cluster and Regression Analysis: PL Documentation • Clustering Analysis SW Chp 10 • Regression Analysis 11 Text Analytics (eLearning): • Web scraping for unstructured data SR Chp 8 • Text analytics • Text pre-processing • Text classification 12 Revision & Practical Assessment PA II 13 Project Submission Project Presentation Due
ILO 1. Interpret elements of programming components and distinguish different programming syntax, control structures, data types and design methods. ILO 2. Write codes that allows you to solve simple business problem programmatically.
Traits Performance Not Yet Substantially Developed Participate and Insufficient participation in Able to communicate exceedingly well an communicate classroom activities or making argument that addresses all the key points thoughts and confusing statements. and recommendations. Actively analysis in a participates with insightful comments. succinct manner Evaluation: (assesses Oral Not Yet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Substantially Developed Communication)
Not Yet Substantially Developed
Identifies and Unable to use appropriate coding Addresses main problem, and good use of considers coding elements, especially those salient to coding elements to construct readable and practices that the problem. Fail to see the main efficient codes to solve the problem. are relevant to problem within the question. the given Evaluation: problem. Not Yet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Substantially Developed
(assess Critical Thinking)
Rubric 2 (Practical Assessment – assess AK and PSDM)
ILO 1. Identify and use components in programming environment, distinguish different programming syntax, control structures, data types and ways to design function. ILO 2. Write codes that allows you to solve simple business problem programmatically. ILO 3. Data selection and connect codes to external source.
Traits Performance Not Yet Substantially Developed Demonstrates Does not demonstrate Able to differentiate and use suitable data understanding in data understanding of types in programming. Make good types programming. Confuse judgement base on the given problem. about the usage of data Good naming convention and coding types. practice.
Evaluation: Not Yet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Substantially Developed Not Yet Substantially Developed Does not demonstrate Excellent use of good coding practice, Demonstrates ability of ability to use coding effective application of coding elements using appropriate coding element. and algorithm. Good use of control elements. structures, iteration and function design. Evaluation: Not Yet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Substantially Developed Not Yet Substantially Developed Does not demonstrate or Good understanding on the reference and Demonstrates ability to not able to understand quote external reference needed to solve draw relevant reference references. the problem and ability to adopt it into to solve the problem different context. Evaluation: Not Yet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Substantially Developed Not Yet Substantially Developed No data model or code was Well-constructed solution and code and Devise strategies to developed to suitably aid form comprehensive analysis which construct proper model the analysis. examine the data from different or code for analysis perspectives.
Evaluation: Not Yet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Substantially Developed
Learning Objective: ILO 4. Manage data to sufficiently derive and communicate analytics outcome. ILO 5. Apply appropriate statistical and graphing modules or use visualization software to present data graphically.
Traits Performance Not Yet Substantially Developed Programming: Does not demonstrates Excellent use of good coding practice, Demonstrates a basic understanding on coding effective application of coding elements understanding of basic. and algorithm. Good use of control essential coding structures, iteration and function design. elements Evaluation: Not Yet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Substantially Developed Not Yet Substantially Developed Analytics: No analysis of problem and Excellent analysis of problem and propose Analyses and evaluates no solution is provided. well supported solution. Solution illustrates problem and Contradicting analysis is coherent understanding to solve the implements appropriate given. problem. Provides convincing analysis and analytics solution solution. Evaluation: Not Yet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Substantially Developed Not Yet Substantially Developed Merely repeats information Examines the data and source of evidence; Identifies and assesses provided, taking it as truth, questions its accuracy, precision, the quality of data given or denies evidence without relevance, and completeness. Carefully and provides additional adequate justification. examines data with substantiated analysis analysis related to the Analyses inadequately and supported by evidence. issue. understanding of the data. Evaluation: Not Yet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Substantially Developed
Learning Objective: ILO 4. Manage data to sufficiently derive and communicate analytics outcome. ILO 5. Apply appropriate statistical and graphing modules or use visualization software to present data graphically. Traits Performance Not Yet Substantially Developed Central message is not explicitly Central message is precisely stated; stated in the presentation. Main main points are clearly identified. points are not clearly identified, Communication audience unsure of the Outcome direction of the message.
Evaluation: Not Yet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Substantially Developed Not Yet Substantially Developed Content is erroneous or Content is accurate, thorough, and Relevant Content irrelevant; references and directly on point; strong support and supporting materials are references are provided. Exhibits depth absent. Lacks depth in content and insight in content. Effective use of and little insights are exhibited. time and stays within time parameters. Presentation falls outside set Excellent use of visualization to present time parameters. Lack of data. appropriate visualization. Evaluation: Not Yet 1 2 3 4 5 Substantially Developed Not Yet Substantially Developed No clear structure, no Organizational pattern is clearly and Communication explanation for solution. consistently observable and makes the Structure Organizational pattern (specific content of the presentation cohesive. introduction and conclusion, sequenced materials within the body, and transitions) is not observable. Evaluation: Not Yet 1 2 3 4 5 Substantially Developed
