BUA602 Syllabus –Section FF- classroom

(This Course outline is also available in SJU Canvas course- BUA602)

SCHOOL / DEPARTMENT:
Tobin College of Business/ Business Analytics & Information Systems Department

COURSE NUMBER /COURSE NAME / COURSE FORMAT:

BUA602 Business Analytics (Section FF)
This course is offered in the Face-to-Face mode.
SJU Course Number: 72892
Cengage Course ID: MTPN91WZVLVG

Classroom: Bent Hall 219

Class Start Time: 6:40 pm, Mondays

CREDITS / PREREQUISITES / SEMESTER OFFERED:

3 Credits / None / Fall 2023

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Dr. F. V. Lu

Email: [email protected]
e-mail communications: Send me an email and I will get back to you ASAP

Office: Bent 410

Student Hours (by appointment): Monday, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm, in person or using Webex
I may be available for consultation if we can pre-arrange a mutually agreeable time to discuss issues.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:
Welcome to the BUA602 BUSINESS ANALYTICS class! I have had taught the course BUA602
multiple times in the past. I will continue to work hard to improve the delivery of the course. In
the meantime, let us work closely together to make sure that the course will reach a successful
conclusion by the end of the semester. Please refer to this course outline carefully and often since
it is a carefully designed roadmap for the implementation and learning of the course. It is
strongly suggested that you pay attention to the five (5) required components of the course work
(page 4) and the weekly course plan (Table 1; page 5) specified in this outline.

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COURSE INFORMATION

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The course maintains a strong focus on presenting statistical and quantitative concepts as applied
in business. All statistical and analytical concepts and theories are illustrated with applied
examples immediately upon introduction. Emphasis is placed on applying data analysis using
modern statistical, analytical and spreadsheet software packages (Excel, Frontline SOLVERS,
MINITAB and SPSS) and understanding data interpretation for business decision-makings.
Especially, spreadsheet analysis using EXCEL and its add-ins (e.g. Solver and Data Analysis
toolpak) is heavily emphasized in class and this practice enables students to take full advantage
of Excel to develop and derive quantitative problem-solving skills.

Note: you are recommended to review the Video Tutorials given in Cengage Mindtap and SJU
Canvas.

Registered students must complete all the required class activities (see page 4 & 5) by the end of
the semester. This course provides MBA students with the needed statistical and analytics
knowledge for business applications.

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Upon successful completion of the course, you should be able to:

• Define and understand business analytics and big data in terms and high-level concepts.
• Practice problem analysis and decision-making in a business environment.
• Develop in depth understanding of the key technologies in data science and business
analytics: descriptive statistics, visualization techniques, predictive techniques,
prescriptive modeling, and data mining.
• Demonstrate knowledge of statistical data analysis techniques utilized in business
decision making.
• Gain practical, hands-on experience with Excel and statistics software and big data tools
through coursework and applied research experiences.
• Employ cutting edge tools and technologies to analyze business data and Big Data.
• Assess the strengths and limitations of analytical models for a given business problem.
• Apply quantitative modeling and data analysis techniques to the solution of real-world
business problems, communicate findings, and effectively present results using data
visualization techniques.
• Recognize and analyze ethical issues in business related to intellectual property, data
security, integrity, and privacy.
• Apply ethical practices in everyday business activities and make well-reasoned ethical
business and data management decisions.
• Understand the use of data mining algorithms to solve real-world problems.
• Apply principles of Data Science to the analysis of business problems.

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Online Learning Web Tools to be used:
This course will use two online platforms: 1.) Cengage’s Mindtap and 2.) SJU Canvas to
administer the course work. Mostly, we are going to use Cengage Mindtap web tools to complete
online class activities including weekly homework assignments/ quizzes, midterm exam, and
final exam. On the other hand, announcements and notes are given in the SJU Canvas Course for
BUA602. In addition, the research paper is required to be submitted to SJU Canvas by the
deadline (See item 3, next page).

Course related documents, data files, Power Point lecture files and other files are made available
in the Mindtap’s Book Companion Site for you to download. If this course outline gets revised or
if I have uploaded any additional files to SJU Canvas during the semester, you will be notified.

COURSE MATERIALS:
TEXTBOOK and Cengage Mindtap information:

Business Analytics, 4th Edition

Authors: Jeffrey D. Camm; James J. Cochran; Michael J. Fry; Jeffrey W. Ohlmann;
ISBN-10: 1-305-62773-3; ISBN-13: 978-1-305-62773-4
SBN-10: 0357131789 ;ISBN-13: 9780357131787 © 2021

NOTE: You are required to purchase the Access Code to register to Cengage’s Mindtap to begin
your work. It is not required to purchase the hard copy of the textbook since the electronic
edition is available for you to use after you have registered to and signed into Cengage Mindtap.

Use the following link to register to access Mindtap

The course Cengage registration link:

https://student.cengage.com/course-link/MTPN91WZVLVG

It is beneficial to know that there is a less expensive option for you to buy Cengage Unlimited
subscription instead of the regular access code for MindTap. The materials required for this class
and any other courses using Cengage products in the same semester, are included in the same
Cengage Unlimited subscription. For $124.99 per semester with 4-month access, you get access
to your Cengage online textbooks, and access codes, in one place. $7.99 hardcopy textbook
rentals are also available for select titles. Please note that e-textbook is available for reading on
Cengage Mindtap once you have registered to it using a purchased Access code. You may ask
for Cengage Unlimited in the bookstore or visit cengage.com/unlimited.
Note. You may download the free Cengage Mobile App to get your Cengage Unlimited online
textbooks and study tools on your smart phone.

3
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
REQUIRED Course Work:
You are required to complete all the five (5) listed components of the course work:

1. Cengage Mindtap homework assignments/quizzes, 40%.

An assignment or a quiz will be given every week on your Cengage Mindtap course page.
Please note that you only need to complete the given quizzes and assignments listed in Table 1
below. You must complete each one of them by the specified deadline. Otherwise, you will receive a
20% penalty for lateness. For week one (1), twelve (12) & Thirteen (13), you are given quiz 1, 9 &
10, respectively. Each quiz consists of multiple-choice questions. You are allowed to have two
attempts for the quiz and the highest score will be recorded. For other weeks, you are given an
assignment consisting of questions selected from end-of-chapter problems. For each assignment, you
will be given three (3) attempts to improve your grade if you are interested in, and only the highest
score will be retained. There is a total of twelve (12) assignments and quizzes combined. Only ten
(10) of the highest scores will be retained to compute your homework average after dropping the two
(2) lowest grades.

2. Midterm exam, 20%.

Tentative Midterm exam date: Monday, October 30, 2023
To be administered in Cengage Mindtap: BUA602 Midterm Exam
Format: a total of 25 multiple choice/fill-in questions. Two attempts are allowed and the higher score
will be retained as the midterm exam score.

3. Research paper, 15%.

Due: Friday, Dec. 8
A research essay is required to submit to SJU Canvas/Assignments/Research paper submission box
by or on Sunday, May 7. For the research paper, you have the freedom to choose any topics related
to the concepts, theories, applications or the successful implementation stories related to business
analytics (and/or big data). The paper should include an Executive Summary on page 1, a list of
referenced sources at the end of the report and a total length of twelve (12) to Fifteen (15) pages,
doubled spaced. Please note that your submitted research paper will be evaluated by TurnItIn
software to reduce the extent of plagiarism.

Note: In the subfolder of Helpful Information for research paper of the CONTENTS folder in SJU
Canvas course, I have provided, for your reference, a list of possible topics for the research paper as
well as three exemplary papers completed by three students in the past. However, your selected
research topic is not restricted to the provided suggested list.

4. Assurance of Learning exam (AOL exam), 5%

The test is required by the BAIS Department, and it also considered as Part 1 Final Exam.
Date: Saturday, December 9
To be administered in Cengage Mindtap: BUA602 Part 1 Final Exam.
Format: a total of 10 multiple choice/fill-in questions. Two attempts are allowed when taking the
exam and the higher of the two scores will be retained as the Part 1 final exam score.

5. Final exam, 20%.

Final exam (Part 2) date: Monday, December 11
To be administered in Cengage Mindtap: BUA602 Final Exam.

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Format: a total of 20 multiple choice/fill-in questions. Two attempts are allowed when taking the
exam and the higher score will be retained as the Part 2 final exam score.
COURSE PLAN AND SCHEDULE:
Most, but not all, of the due days of the assignments, quizzes and exams will fall on Monday.
Please refer to the Tentative Course Plan (Table 1. below) or Cengage Mindtap Assignment List
for the exact due days of assignments and quizzes.

Table 1: WEEKLY COURSE PLAN and ASSIGNMENTS CALENDAR

Week Topics Book Cengage Mindtap Due date
Chapter Assignment /Quiz (Due time 11:59 pm)
Introduction: Decision Chapter 1 & Quiz 1 Monday, Sept. 18
makings, Business Analytics, Appendix A
Data & Big Data, Excel
1 Review
Descriptive Statistics: Chapter 2 Homework 2A Monday, Sept. 25
Organizing and Describing
2 Data
Descriptive Statistics: Chapter 2 Homework 2B Monday, Oct. 2
Organizing and Describing
3 Data
4 Data Visualization Chapter 3 Homework 3 Tuesday, Oct.10
5 Statistical Inference Chapter 6 Homework 4 Monday, Oct. 16
6 Spreadsheet Models Chapter 10 Homework 5 Monday, Oct. 23
25 multiple choice Monday, Oct. 30
7 Midterm Examination Ch. 1, 2, 3, 6 questions on Cengage Available: 8 am – 11:59
& 10 Mindtap platform pm,
8 Linear Regression Chapter 7 Homework 6A - Simple Monday, Nov. 6
Regression
9 Linear Regression Chapter 7 Homework 6B – Multiple Monday, Nov. 13
Regression
10 Time Series Analysis and Chapter 8 Homework 7 Monday, Nov. 20
Forecasting
11 Linear Optimization Models Chapter 12 Homework 8 Monday, Nov. 27
12 Descriptive Data Mining Chapter 5 Quiz 9 Monday, Dec. 4
13 Research paper due Friday, Dec. 8
13 AOL exam (it is also called All the 10 multiple choice 8 am – 11:59 pm,
Final Exam Part 1) chapters in the questions on Cengage Saturday, Dec. 9
course Mindtap platform
13 Monte Carlo Simulation Chapter 11 Quiz 10 Sunday, Dec. 10
14 Final exam Part 2 Ch. 5, 7, 8, 11 20 multiple choice 8 am – 11:59 pm,
&12 questions on Cengage Monday, Dec. 11
Mindtap platform

ASSESSMENT/ GRADING CRITERIA:

Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam Part 1 5%
Final Exam Part 2 20%

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 Assignments 40%
Research Paper 15%
COURSE GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS
A 93-100
A- 90-92.9
B+ 85-89.9
B 75-84.9
B- 70-74.9
C+ 67-69.9
C 60-66.9
F 0-60

Table 2: Fall 2023, SJU Academic Calendar

Date Day Details
August 30 (W) First Day of Classes
Sept 2 (S) No Classes
Sept 4 (M) Labor Day–University Closed–No Classes
6-Sep (W) Last day to add/drop classes
19-Sep (T) Last day to drop a class without a transcript notation
20-Sep (W) Withdrawal period begins
Oct 9 (M) Fall Mini Break - University Closed - No Classes
10-Oct (T) Monday Classes Meet
18-Oct (W) Mid-Term grades due for first-time and first year students
Last day to withdraw from a class or apply for pass/fail
6-Nov (M)
option
Nov 8 (W) Friday Classes Meet
10-Nov (F) Veterans Day Observed–University Closed–No Classes
11-Nov (S) Veterans Day–University Closed–No Classes
Nov 22 (W) Thanksgiving Recess–No Classes
Nov 23-25 (R-S) Thanksgiving Recess–University Closed–No Classes
Dec 7 (R) Snow/Study Day - No Classes
Dec 8 (F) Snow/Study Day - No Classes
Dec 9 (S) Saturday Classes Held
Dec 11-16 (M-S) Final Examination/Assessment Week

ONLINE COURSE INFORMATION

SUGGESTED HINTS FOR STUDY

• For each unit of the lesson plan, you should first read/practice the assigned chapter and its
Power Point lecture notes (downloadable from Cengage BUA602 course Student
Companion site or Canvas course – FILES folder), and then proceed to complete its
assignment or quiz by the specified deadline.
• In unit 1, you are suggested to review Appendix A. – Basics of Excel to polish your
knowledge if you are new to Excel.

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 • There are four groups of videos are available to help you study:

1. Webex classroom Lecture Vidoes: There are recorded videos that I lectured in the
recent semesters. The lecture links are listed in the Announcements section of
Canvas. Also, in an Excel file: List of the BUA602 Recorded Webex lecture by Lu.

2. MINDTAP Videos: On the Date Manager View of the Mindtap course, there are
three (3) videos in each chapter of the textbook. They are nice tutorials for you to
learn certain essential topics in each chapter and you are suggested to go over them
as often as you like.

3. YOUTUBE videos: For many of the course topics or Excel skills, you are
strongly suggested to view certain related videos in YOUTUBE. File name: Youtube
lecture videos for BUA602 Business Analytics.xlsx. You may also want to search helpful videos in
Youtube. For example, if you want to learn the creation and use of PIVOT table, you
can type the key words such as “Excel PIVOT table” in the search box of
www.youtube.com to come up with a list of related videos for to watch and learn.
Similarly, if you want to learn about running a regression analysis using EXCEL,
you can type in the key words such as “Excel Regression Analysis”, again, you are
going to see a list of the related videos for you to choose.

4. Hawkes Learning videos: A collection of Free Videos from Hawkes Learning for
learning the topics of Business Analytics.docx

• For assignment questions, you are strongly suggested to use Excel’s power for solving
computational problems instead of using hand calculation or a calculator. (Please see
Table 4. Above for some of the essential Excel skills which are related to chapter
contents).

PREREQUISITE SKILLS:

Required software skills: EXCEL and its add-ins: Data Analysis and Solver, PowerPoint,
WORD, Access and an Internet Brower (e.g. Internet Explorer Chrome, or Firefox)
Recommended (but, not required) software packages: Frontline’s Analytics Solver Platform for
Education (ASPE), MINITAB, SPSS, and SAS.

Remarks about the optional use of ASPE:

ASPE is software offered by Frontline Systems, Inc. to solve a variety of quantitative and
statistical problems. However, after careful consideration, I have decided to make the use of
ASPE as an optional task for the course work, but not required. You are assured that
assignments, 3 quizzes, and exams will not include the direct application of ASPE. Instead, you
are strongly recommended to use Excel as a computing tool to solve assigned problems and
exams as much as you can.

7
Appendix 1. How to access/register your MindTap course

Course: Section FF of BUA602 Business Analytics Fall 2023

Instructor: Fang Victor Lu

This course requires an online learning platform called MindTap. Follow the instructions below
to get started.

Register for your MindTap Course

1. Use the course registration link https://student.cengage.com/course-
link/MTPN91WZVLVG

2. Follow the instructions on screen to create your Cengage account and register for this
MindTap course.
3. Begin your temporary access* period.

Need help? Visit the Cengage Start Strong Website (https://startstrong.cengage.com) for step-by-
step instructions.

*Temporary Access: You can access your MindTap course until 4:00 AM (UTC) on 9/8/2023 for
free. At the end of the temporary access period, you will be prompted to purchase access. Your
work will be saved and will be available to you again once you’ve completed your purchase.

NOTE: If the cost of your course materials is included in your tuition, you will not need to
purchase access.

MindTap Tips & Training Tools

Learn more about navigating your MindTap course: (https://help.cengage.com/mindtap/mt-

student/introduction.html)

Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Our US-based support team delivers answers and advice via 24/7 online chat, Twitter, live phone
support (1-800-354-9706) and through support.cengage.com, which includes helpful articles, and
tutorials.

If you are having trouble loading MindTap, run the MindTap browser check
(https://ng.cengage.com/static/browsercheck/index.html) to make sure your browser is
compatible or refer to the MindTap System Requirements
(https://help.cengage.com/mindtap/MindTap-System-Requirements.pdf). If MindTap isn’t
loading, be sure to visit Techcheck (https://techcheck.cengage.com) to see if there is an outage.

8
PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS:

It is expected that students alert themselves to the course schedule for assignment submissions.
The date to the left of the session number is the due date for the assignments listed for that
session. Falling behind a single session is unproblematic if occasional rather than regular.
Falling behind 2 sessions in assignment submission will be alarming to the instructor and should
be avoided.

NETIQUETTE GUIDELINES:

Communication is very important in this online course. To maintain a positive online

environment for our class, we all need to follow the netiquette guidelines summarized below.

All students are expected to:

1. Show respect for the instructors and for other students in the class.
2. Express differences of opinion in a polite and rational way.
3. Maintain an environment of constructive criticism when commenting on the work of other
students.
4. Stay on topic when involved in group discussions or other collaborative activities.
5. Use sentences in messages. Use of all uppercase in a message is the equivalent of
shouting and is considered offensive.
6. Be careful when using acronyms. If you use an acronym it is best to spell out its meaning
first, and then put the acronym in parentheses afterward, for example: Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQs). After that you can use the acronym freely throughout your message.
7. Use good grammar and spelling, and avoid using text messaging shortcuts.

INFORMATION LITERACY & TECHNOLOGY

OFF-CAMPUS LIBRARY ACCESS:

When you access one of our libraries' subscription databases from off-campus, will be asked to
login with a username/password to identify you as a St. John's Community member. Directions
for doing this will be on the login screen.

NOTE: If you are still unable to access databases from off-campus after using these instructions,
contact library support at [email protected] .

More resources for online students can be found at:

http://campusguides.stjohns.edu/distance-learners .

STUDENT TECHNICAL SUPPORT:

Support for university provided laptops can be reached through 718-990-5000.

9
TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS:
Students will need Internet access and a PC computer or a Macintosh with the latest version of a
web browser. Students can access Canvas or Blackboard anywhere Internet access is available.
There are some guidelines to follow that will make the Canvas or Blackboard experience much
more productive. Below are some recommendations:
• Firefox Web or Google Chrome browser are the browsers that work best with Canvas or
Blackboard.
• For Android phones, The Canvas mobile app can be downloaded at
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instructure.candroid&hl=en_US
• For Apple phones, The Canvas mobile app can be downloaded at
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/canvas-student/id480883488
• If wireless connectivity problems are encountered, it is best to switch to a hardwired
connection.
• For more information on computer requirements you can visit our website here,
http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/online-learning/get-support/computer-requirements
• Canvas online help can be found at: https://community.canvaslms.com/

UNIVERSITY POLICIES
ACADEMIC HONOR PLEDGE (PLAGIARISM STATEMENT):
Members of the St. John's University community strive to create an atmosphere that embodies
the University's Vincentian mission. As members of this community, students are expected to
maintain the principles of compassion and the values of honesty and academic integrity.

In accordance with this policy, students acknowledge their commitment to the values and
principles of the mission of St. John's University with the Academic Honor Pledge, adopted in
2003 by the University Community and Student Government. For more information, please
visit:
http://www.stjohns.edu/student-life/queens-campus-life/office-student-conduct/academic-honor-
pledge

ETHICAL ISSUES
Ethical issues shall be stressed in this course. Students shall be reminded to avoid the
unintentional distortion and intentional manufacturing of data in the data collection stage, as well
as an unintentional and intentional misrepresentation and misinterpretation of data in the
descriptive and inferential stages of data analysis.

Ethical Guidelines (American Statistical Association)

1. Avoid data selection processes that are inconsistent with transparent treatment of the issues
being studied.
2. Use only statistical methodology suitable to the data and to valid results.

10
3. Strive for valid practical significance, not just statistical significance.
4. Recognize that automated statistical computation alone does not constitute adequate statistical
analysis; it is also necessary to understand the theory, the data, and the methods used in each
statistical study.
5. Respect and acknowledge the contributions and the intellectual property of others.
6. Disclose conflicts of interest and resolve them through: divestiture of the conflicting personal
interest or refusal or withdrawal from the professional activity. Examples where conflict of
interest may be problematic include grant reviews, other peer reviews, and tensions between
scholarship and personal or family financial interests.
7. Provide only such expert testimony as you would be proud to have peer reviewed.

SERVICES FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:

If you are a student with a disability who requires accommodation, please contact the Office of
Disabilities Services during the first few days of the semester. More information can be found at
http://www.stjohns.edu/student-life/health-and-wellness/disabilities-services
Queens Campus: Staten Island Campus:
Marillac Hall, Room 134 Spellman Hall, Room 101
718-990-6867 718-390-4451

Table 3: Suggested Weekly/Chapter plan of learning the Essential Excel Skills

Week Excel skills Book

Chapter
1 Basics of Excel Appendix A
2 Function: =COUNTIF Chapter 2
Sorting and Filtering Data in Excel
Conditional Formatting of Data in Excel
Function: = FREQUENCY
Data Analysis add-in : Histogram
3 Functions: =AVERAGE, = MEDIAN, =MODE, =MAX, = MIN, =STDEV.S, Chapter 2
=VAR.S, =PERCENTILE.EXC, =QUARTILE.EXE, =COVAR.S, =CORREL
Data Analysis add-in : Descriptive Statistics
Charts: Scatter plot
4 PIVOT table & PIVOT chart Chapter 3
Charts: Scatter chart, Line chart, Bar chart, Column chart,
Pie chart and Bubble chart
5 =norm.s.dist (); =norm.s.inv(); =t.dist.2t(); =t.dist.rt(); =t.inv.2t(); Chapter 6
=t.inv ();
6 Excel Spreadsheet Design Chapter 10
Goal Seek
One-way and Two-way Data Table
Functions: =IF, =COUTIF, =SUM, =SUMPRODUCT, =VLOOKUP,
=HLOOKUP
7 Midterm Examination

11
8 Data Analysis add-in : Regression Chapter 7
9 Data Analysis add-in : Regression Chapter 7
10 Data Analysis add-in : Regression Chapter 8
Data Analysis add-in : Exponential Smoothing
11 Solver add-in: SOLVER Chapter 11
12 Analytics Solver Platform – ASP (Optional) Chapter 4
13 Functions: = RAND(), =RANDBETWEEN, =NORMINV, =NORMDIST Chapter 14
Analytics Solver Platform – ASP (Optional)
14 Final examination

STUDENT RESOURCES SECTION

UNIVERSITY WRITING CENTER:

Provides a place where all University students, faculty, and staff are welcome to discuss their
writing with trained writing consultants. The UWC serves online students. More information
can be found here, University Writing Center website.

UNIVERSITY LEARNING COMMONS:

Provides academic support in an inviting, collaborative and contemporary environment.
Assistance is available through professional and peer tutoring in a variety of subject areas, and in
general study skills as well. Here is the link to University learning commons.

UNIVERSITY CAREER SERVICES: Click here for Career Services website.

SUGGESTED TIPS FOR STUDY

Each week, you should first read/practice the assigned chapter and its Power Point lecture notes
(available on SJU Canvas/ My Courses /: DS-602-0-73927-202070: BUSINESS ANALYTICS ),
and then proceed to complete its assignment or quiz by the specified deadline.
• In week 1, you are suggested to review Appendix A. – Basics of Excel to polish your
knowledge if you are new to Excel.
• For assignment questions, you are strongly suggested to use Excel’s power for solving
computational problems instead of using hand calculation or a calculator. (Please see Table 4.
Above for some of the essential Excel skills which are related to chapter contents).
• On Date Manager View of the Mindtap course, there are three (3) videos in each chapter of the
textbook. They are nice tutorials for you to learn certain essential topics in each chapter.
• For many of the course topics or Excel skills, you are strongly suggested to view certain related
videos in YOUTUBE. For example, if you want to learn the creation and use of PIVOT table,
you can type the key words such as “Excel PIVOT table” in the search box of www.youtube.com
to come up with a list of related videos for to watch and learn. Similarly, if you want to learn
about running a regression analysis using EXCEL, you can type in the key words such as “Excel
Regression Analysis”, again, you are going to see a list of the related videos for you to choose.
• It is optional to use Analytics Solver Platform for Education (ASPE) for this course.

12
LEARNING RESOURCES:
Appendix 1: Web Resources
Several helpful web tutorials, example models, and YouTube channel which could be useful to
students.
http://www.solver.com/optimization-tutorial
http://www.solver.com/advanced-tutorial-gradients-linearity-and-sparsity
http://www.solver.com/simulation-tutorial
http://www.solver.com/risk-analysis-tutorial
http://www.solver.com/monte-carlo-simulation-tutorial
http://www.solver.com/video-demos
https://www.youtube.com/user/FrontlineSolvers

Top Web sites for the Readings of Analytics

Analytic Bridge: http://www.analyticbridge.com/
Analytic Magazine: http://analytics-magazine.org/
Data Science Central: http://www.datasciencecentral.com/
IBM Analytics: http://www.ibm.com/analytics/us/en/
SAS Analytics: http://www.sas.com/en_sg/home.html
Lavastorm: http://www.lavastorm.com/

Top 10 News/Blog Sites for Big Data

1. Forrester Big Data Blog
Overview: An aggregation of blogs from company contributors focusing on Big Data topics.

About Forrester (from their site) – Forrester is a global research and advisory firm and serves
professionals in 19 key roles across three distinct client groups. Their clients face progressively complex
business and technology decisions every day. To help them understand, strategize, and act upon
opportunities brought by change, Forrester provides proprietary research, consumer and business data,
custom consulting, events and online communities, and peer-to-peer executive programs. Forrester guides
leaders in IT, marketing and strategy, and the technology industry through independent fact-based insight,
ensuring business success today and tomorrow.http://www.forrester.com/

2. Smarter Computing Big Data Blog Overview: A compilation of contributors blogging about Big
Data and Cloud topics. Each week the top reads in BigData is posted, which lists and links back to top
articles.
About Smarter Computing Blog (from their site) – The blog is intended to provide readers with thought-
provoking content and a place to talk about the issues raised within the content. Smarter Computing Blog
feels strongly that the blog is not going to deliver final answers to the issues raised, but will represent a
starting point for conversation around the issues.

3. GigaOm
Overview: GigaOm features news articles about Big Data, Analytics and Mobile. It’s a great place to read
recent tech news stories and updates on hot topics.
About GigaOm (from their site) – Founded in 2006, GigaOM is now the leading provider of online
media, events and research for global technology innovators. The company is one of the most credible
and insightful voices at the intersection of business and technology, with an online audience of more than
4.5 million monthly unique visitors; industry-leading events, including Structure, Mobilize, GigaOM
RoadMap, and Structure: Data; and a pioneering market research service and digital community, GigaOM
Pro, which provides expert analysis and research on emerging technology markets.

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4. Greenplum.com
Overview: Greenplum provides a section within the site with aggregated blog posts and news focused on
Analytics, Big Data, Data Scientists, Data Warehousing and Hadoop. It pulls information directly from
Forbes, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Information Week.
About Greenplum (from their site) – Greenplum, a division of EMC (acquired by EMC in July 2010,
becoming the foundation of EMC’s Big Data Division), is driving the future of Big Data analytics with
breakthrough products that harness the skills of data science teams to help global organizations realize the
full promise of business agility and become data-driven, predictive enterprises.

5. Data Stories
Overview: A bi-weekly podcast on data visualization with with Enrico Bertini and Moritz Stefaner (two
Big Data industry influencers). Each podcast post provides a breakdown of the content by time and
relevant resource links.

6. Data Round Table

Overview: A community of Big Data and data experts discussing data quality, data integration, MDM,
data governance, and data migration. This is a nice compilation of various perspectives.
About Data RoundTable (from the site) – The Data Roundtable is a forum where industry thought leaders
come together to share the spotlight and discuss data management topics. Each day you’ll find a new post
about something relevant and thought-provoking, from news on federal regulations to pop-culture
commentaries on how data management relates to Seinfeld. There’s no agenda – just ideas.

7. ZDNet
Overview: This blog features Andrew Brust discussing Big Data, Hadoop, NoSQL and the mystical
discipline of data science.

8. The Data Warehouse Insider

Overview: Technical details, ideas and news on data warehousing and Big Data from the Oracle Team.

9. Planet BigData
Overview: Planet BigData is an aggregator of worldwide blogs about Big Data, Hadoop, and related
topics.

10. Dataversity
Overview (from their site): DATAVERSITY™ provides resources for information technology (IT)
professionals, executives and business managers to learn about the uses and management of Big Data.
The worldwide community of practitioners, advisers and customers participates in, and benefits from,
DATAVERSITY’s educational conferences, discussions, articles, blogs, webinars, certification, news
feeds and more.

Sampled Internet Resources for Real-Data

Textbook website http://www.thomsonedu.com/bstatistics

American statistical association http://www.amstat.org/

The Institute of Mathematical Statistics http://www.imstat.org/
Bulletin
Archives of Statistics-Related Discussion http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/information.html
Groups
Chance http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chance/
Institute of Statistics and Decision http://www.isds.duke.edu/index.html
Sciences, Duke University

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International statistics institute http://www.cbs.nl/isi/

Journal of Statistics Education http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/

Statlib http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/

Jobs in Statistics http://www.stat.ufl.edu/vlib/jobs.html

The U. S. Government’s Official Portal http://www.firstgov.gov/

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