37685 - Computational Tools (M-Z)

Academic Year 2020/2021

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Business and Economics (cod. 8965)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the Teaching Activities related to the course “Computational Tools”, students will be familiar with programming techniques, plus, they should have gathered a knowledge on basic instructive concepts that would help them accomplish an optimal research on resources like the internet (and other databases), develop an awareness to select, deploy and elaborate some bibliographical data, statistics, balance sheets, market data, benchmark, outcomes of working groups operating in the corporate/business fields, develop the ability to set-up and structure the information coming from financial support, from the management and from other different professions. This course is intended to complement the analytical skills of the student when it comes to: - perform a research on the internet, on scientific databases, identify data, select it, group them, assess it. - compute the data with the purpose of drafting summaries, documentation and other files that may be useful for the working group. - conducting simple numerical analysis of dynamic economic and accounting models on a spreadsheet - compute indicators and indexes and work them from a graphical standpoint, rely on the use of alternative models e display all outcomes, results and strategies knowing how to assemble all this information. - Evaluate and assess all the different options to reach a full automation of the firm.

Course contents

Theory

Internet and networks, basic on programming techniques and languages, hints on how to gather information and calculate/normalize indicators.

Proprietary and open source technologies.

Overview of firms IT systems.

Applications

MS Excel spreadsheets, general functions, vlookup and pivoting techniques. MS Access tables, queries and macros. MS Excel Power Pivot and Power BI advanced techniques.

Readings/Bibliography

Turban, Volonino, Wood / Information Technology for Management - International students version, Wiley, 2015 (10th edition).

Jelen, Alexander / Pivot Table Data Crunching Excel 2016, Que Publishing, 2015 (2nd edition).

Collie, Singh / Power Pivot and Power BI: The Excel User's Guide to DAX, Power Query, Power BI & Power Pivot in Excel 2010-2016, 2016 (2nd edition).

Teaching methods

Lectures and practical applications in laboratory.

Important note: up to 20 Erasmus students can be accepted, the criteria will be "first come, first served".

COVID update:

Lectures take place both on Microsoft Teams, at the online lectures link, and in class (simultaneously).

Students attending via Teams are supposed to connect in time to the lectures and are responsible of the following:

  • Having a 64-bit computer firmly connected to the power network and (possibly via cable) to the Internet with a working camera and a working microphone;
  • Having 64-bit Microsoft Windows installed and running - in case of a Mac, see here possible solutions to install Windows on Mac computers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuAVOpO7yFc&t=77s

    https://www.pcmag.com/news/how-to-run-windows-on-a-mac

  • Having 64-bit Microsoft Office installed (Unibo provides a free copy to its students, to get it they are required to connect to www.office.com and login with their Unibo credentials, then download the 64-bit WINDOWS Microsoft Office, NOT the Mac one) - Excel and Access - and Power Pivot activated and running (as an alternative it is possible to download 64-bit Power BI Desktop for free here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=58494).

Assessment methods

The course mark is either pass or fail.

The following information may change, based on the decisions of the University based on the COVID situation.

Practical test at the PC on MS Excel Power Pivot / MS Power BI, MS Access queries and Excel Pivots and VLOOKUP, plus a few theory open questions.

COVID update:

Microsoft Access is temporarily not part of the final tests.

Final tests take place on Microsoft Teams, the link will be automatically sent by mail to the students that applied on Almaesami.

Students are supposed to connect 15 minutes before the official start, for identification and troublshooting, and are responsible of the following:

  • Having a 64-bit computer firmly connected to the power network and (possibily via cable) to the Internet with a working camera and a working microphone (also, an ID showing a picture must be at hand, to be identified);
  • Having 64-bit Microsoft Windows installed and running - in case of a Mac, see here possible solutions to install Windows on Mac computers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuAVOpO7yFc&t=77s

    https://www.pcmag.com/news/how-to-run-windows-on-a-mac

  • Having 64-bit Microsoft Office installed (Unibo provides a free copy to its students, to get it students are required to connect to www.office.com and login with their Unibo credentials, then download the 64-bit WINDOWS Microsoft Office, NOT the Mac one) - Excel and Access - and Power Pivot activated and running (as an alternative it is possible to download 64-bit Power BI Desktop for free here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=58494);
  • Having all the above mentioned softwares, plus a tool to convert a word into a pdf (PDFCreator can be downloaded for free here: https://www.pdfforge.org/pdfcreator/download) ready to work, running and tested;
  • Applying in time on AlmaEsami to book the final test (no students will be accepted if out of the list, unless a specific agreement has been taken, with specified reasons).

When the application deadline on AlmaEsami is met, the Professor will send a mail to all the students that applied on AlmaEsami for that test date, sharing a folder where the datasets and the test files will be available, plus additional instructions, if needed. Students will have to check themselves their ability to upload and download files from that shared folder and inform the Professor with a mail in case something is wrong, so that issues are solved BEFORE the date of the test.

Teaching tools

Blackboard, slides, PCs.

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Bergamaschi