CS 150L - Computing for Business Students Computer Science Department University of New Mexico

Course Description
Computing for Business Students: The greater part of CS-150L is about developing the spreadsheet skills needed for success in upper level Anderson School of Management courses. In particular, the focus is on applying algebra skills to:
1) Read a word problem,
2) Extract the assumptions from that word problem,
3) Use Microsoft Excel to represent those assumptions,
4) Use Microsoft Excel to solve the problem in such a way that changing any one of the assumptions automatically changes all dependent results, and
5) Represent all of this in a clear and professional format. For example, the student needs to correctly decide how many decimal places should be shown on various quantities based on the context of the word problem.

While the applications and examples used in this course all relate to business, these are spreadsheet skills that apply to many disciplines.

Students enrolling in Computing for Business Students are expected to already have mastered basic computer literacy skills. The course, does however, fill in some possible gaps such as structured page layouts using Microsoft Word, best practices for using e-mail communication, and some Microsoft PowerPoint features.

Computing for Business Students is a hybrid course that meets once per week for in-person labs and leverages on-line syllabus, videos, quizzes, discussions and other on-line content.

Instructor:
Joel Castellanos , Department of Computer Science

Final Exam Schedule

• "Computing for Management Students, 3rd edition" by Joel Castellanos and Laurie Schatzberg. Pearson Learning Solutions.
  This is packaged with MyItLab software License. ISBN-13 9781256718734 (Software/Textbook package).
  Available at the UNM bookstore. MyItLab is only fully supported for Microsoft Windows (XP, Vista or 7) running Internet Explorer 7, 8 or 9. Students with MacOS have gotten MyItLab to work, but required making various adjustments (i.e. Macs do not have all the same keyboard keys and mouse buttons described in the software instructions. Available at the UNM bookstore.



• MyitLab software License. This is packaged with the textbook.
  


• Microsoft Office 2003 or newer. Work must be done using Microsoft Office. Work done using OpenOffice, Google Docs, WordPerfect or other software products is not acceptable!
  


• Microsoft Windows XP or newer. MS Office will run on MacOS, but MyitLab will only run in Windows XP or newer. Thus, you will be able to do most of the work using MacOS, but for each of the MyitLab assignments you will need access to a Windows PC with Internet access.
  


• Internet access.Dial-up will work - of course, it is nice to have a faster connection.
  


• USB Flash Drive (128MB or more.)
  


• Microsoft Office®, free Internet tutorials. Available for MS Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 on the Web at: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/training-FX101782702.aspx
  

Registration Notes Completion of Math 120 (Intermediate Algebra) with a passing grade is a strict prerequisite requirement for CS-150. Any one of the more advanced mathematics courses offered at UNM including Math 121, Math 123, Math 150, Math 162, Math 163, Math 180 or Math 181 will fulfill this prerequisite requirement. Alternatively, an ACT≥22 or SAT≥510 will fulfill this prerequisite requirement. If you have fulfilled the mathematics prerequisite at a different institution, then you will need to contact Lynne Jacobsen, the Computer Science department Coordinator of Program Advisement via e-mail at csinfo@cs.unm.edu. Explain the situation and send your UNM student ID number along with the course number and section into which you want to register. With your permission in e-mail, Lynne can check your transcript through LoboWeb to verify that you have successfully completed the prerequisite mathematics and override the registration error. The subject line of the e-mail should be: CS-150 registration error.

Lecture Notes:

1. Getting Started with MyItLab
2. Lab 1: The Resume
3. Lab 2: Computer Tour
4. Lab 3: Excel
5. Lab 4: CurrencyConversion & CreditCard
6. Lab 5: Weighted Mean
7. Lab 6: Excel Charts

Sample Final Exams:

1. Sample Final Exams: includes Loan, Annuity, Business Opptimization and Financial Forecast Scenarios.
2. Solution for Loan Scenario
3. Solution for Certificate of Deposit Scenario
4. Solution for Business Optimization Scenario
5. Solution for Outdoor Adventure Scenario