(mellow jazzy music)
- Hello, I am Professor Rick Jerz
and I welcome you back to our last session together
of Business Analytics.
Wow, we have had a fast and powerful course together.
We have had fun learning about how to better analyze data
and I have enjoyed being right here with you.
I would like to review some of the things
we have learned this semester
and I would like to encourage you
to continue your education into business analytics.
Okay, let me get started.
Probably the best place for us to go
to review what we have learned
is to maybe go back to the syllabus
and to look at the Course Objectives.
These were, this course introduces techniques
of quantitative modeling, statistical analysis,
and structured decision making
that are useful for professionals and managers.
A unifying element of the course
is the use of Microsoft Excel
to perform various kinds of analysis
in a spreadsheet environment.
The major topics of the course
are displaying and analyzing data in Excel,
systematic decision analysis in the face of uncertainty,
understanding and describing randomness
in the business world, gathering data using sampling,
inferring sound conclusions from sample data,
establishing relationships between two or more sets of data
using regression,
determining best decisions using optimization models,
and simulating uncertain business environments.
Yep, I think we did this.
The course also develops required background material
so as to be completely self contained.
By the end of the course the students should
have stronger quantitative skills including
but not limited to the use of Excel,
be familiar with many of the quantitative issues
arising in management,
be a better consumer of quantitative information,
and be ready for further studies in the MBA program.
Yep, I think we accomplished this too.
These course objectives might have seemed
a little bit overwhelming initially.
But I think when you reflect upon all of the things
that we did this semester,
we covered all of these course objectives quite well.
Here are some of the specific business analytics
knowledge and skills that we learned.
We learned how to make good business decisions
using statistics and decision theory.
We learned how to tabulate and display data graphically
using Microsoft Excel.
We learned about descriptive statistics
including central tendency and dispersion.
We learned about probability;
classical, empirical, and subjective.
We learned how to calculate probabilities
with different types of data.
This led us to look at different kinds of data distributions
including binomial distribution and normal distribution.
We saw how the normal distribution might be applied
to both population data and sample data.
We got into this concept of test of hypothesis
and saw how it could be used
to test the validity of statements,
both for one sample and two sample tests
and other kinds of data scenarios.
We learned how to perform regression
and correlation analysis
for both single independent variables
and multiple independent variables.
And we learned about optimization and simulation.
We learned how Microsoft Excel could be used
to do all of these analyses.
I hope that you learned
how to use Microsoft Excel more effectively.
We learned about business analytics by using the textbook,
by using my lecture videos, from my reinforcement videos,
from self assessments on Moodle, from discussion forums,
by using Microsoft Excel, and from exams.
I hope that my methods and material were enjoyable
and helpful to your learning experience.
We use modern technologies to let us learn at a distance
and you still had access to me, your professor.
You had a chance to experience my method
of managing and presenting material
through the use of this interesting produce called Moodle
and we communicated electronically
including posting on Moodle and email.
Although we never met each other in class
I think I have learned something about all of you.
Although this course is now over
and maybe some of you will soon be graduating,
I want to remind you about lifelong learning.
Education does not end once receiving your degree.
You should always be seeking out additional education.
Hopefully a lot of this will be provided to you
by your employer.
I want to encourage you
to think about continuing your education
by joining professional organizations.
One advantage of joining these organizations right now
while you are still a student
is that most of these organizations
provide student discounts.
Typically it costs between 25 and $50
to join one of these organizations.
At this low cost you might wanna join
several of these organizations right now.
Remember, that if you do join one of these organizations
that you should list them somewhere on your resume.
A lot of companies do like to see professional involvement.
On Moodle in one of the last topics
you will see a link to additional resources.
Make sure to take a look at these
to see if any of them will help you further your education.
The last thing I want to remind you about educationally
is this thing about mobile education.
At the beginning of the semester I suggest to you
that you use your smartphone
to listen to my instructional videos.
I hope you tried it and found it enjoyable.
I do believe that the smartphone and other mobile devices
are among the most powerful educational tools
available to us.
They are education on the go.
You can be learning something new
whenever you have any spare time.
Please spend some time
exploring all the educational material available to you
for your device.
This is pretty cool technology, take advantage of it.
Let me mention a couple things to you
about this Moodle course.
I will keep it turned on
for at least another month maybe longer.
I do encourage you to save your materials
that you have accumulated from this course
and burn them either to a CD or DVD.
Actually, I encourage you to do this for all of your courses
kinda like building a portfolio.
Now at least for this course
if you ever do find
that you want to reference something that we have done
and you forgot to save it, feel free to email me
and I'll do my best to get you the material.
In addition to this, I want you to know
that even though I have been your professor
for this semester I do consider myself being your professor
for the rest of your life or at least the rest of my life.
So, whenever you need my help or advice
feel free to contact me and I will do my best to help.
Let me tell you a few things about final grading.
Of course throughout the semester you have seen your grade
continuously being updated on Moodle
and for the most part this is going to be your final grade.
However, I do always look at everybody's individual grade
and see if you happen to be on a borderline situation.
Whenever you are on a borderline I will always do my best
to move you up to the next grade level.
So the grade that you see on Moodle,
until I let you know that it is final,
is your worst case scenario.
If I make adjustments it will only be upwards.
When I finalize your grade I will email you
and let you know.
At the same time I will move these grades
into the university system.
Make sure that if you have any concerns whatsoever
about your grade that you get back with me
and let me know.
I hope that you have appreciated all the effort
that I went through to help you understand this topic
of business analytics.
I believe, however,
that there is always room for improvement
and I encourage you to do two things.
The first is to complete the university survey.
By this time you should have received it
and have probably finished it.
In addition to this survey
I'm going to be turning one of my own surveys on in Moodle.
This is an optional survey for you to do
but I really seek out your ideas for improving this course.
I will leave you with these remaining thoughts.
All of the techniques, tools, methodologies
that we've learned are available to any organization.
What makes one organization better than another?
The answer to this is it's people, people like you.
People make the difference
and I hope you can make a difference
in the companies that you work for,
oh and maybe even your own company.
I really enjoyed being with you throughout the semester
and hope you enjoyed it as well.
I wish the best for you, bye-bye.
(mellow jazzy music)