File: mist7810learningobjectivesandcoursedescription.html
URL: www.terry.uga.edu/~jaronson/mist7810/
MIST 7810: Advanced Business Applications
Software (Excel)
JE Aronson
Learning Objectives and Course Description
PNC Park (Home of the
Pittsburgh Pirates), Looking across the Allegheney River, Pittsburgh,
PA, August 2004
Learning Objectives
This course provides the foundation
for
immediate spreadsheet use and future development with an emphasis on
creating
formulas and efficiently managing Excel worksheets. Using
Excel, students learn to create and manipulate worksheets (the
tables within the spreadsheet software are called worksheets), and
master basic and advanced commands and capabilities to gain a strong working
knowledge of Excel for accounting purposes. Specific learning
objectives include, but are not limited to the following basic
and advanced features
of Microsoft Excel:
- Fast data entry and navigation
- Printing the spreadsheet
- Creating simple formulas (calculations)
- Using functions effectively
- Copying and moving text and formulas to save time
- Manipulating the professional appearance of the worksheet for
maximum effect
- Creating and manipulating charts to display data in a more
involving and direct manner
- Creating and using lists and pivot tables effectively
- Effective worksheet design and development
- Solving complex decision-making problems with Excel add-ins
- Importing data into worksheets and linking to external data
- If time permits, creating programs (i.e. VBA/macros) directly in
the
worksheet to
enhance their use effectively
Course Description
This course is about the effective use of
spreadsheet software for the
development and use of worksheets. Electronic
spreadsheet software (like Excel) is among the most powerful
application programs
available for PCs. This software provides users with a wide, valuable
array of
management tools (internally and externally) for many applications,
especially those in accounting and finance (business), which include
forecasting, budgeting, cash flow projections, and others, that involve
manipulating and displaying numerical and textual data. The emphasis of
this course is on hands-on learning with Excel 2007.
Students who have taken this course generally are in two categories,
those who take it before a summer internship or permanent position, and
those who take it after having had a summer internship. Students who
take it after having had a summer intership generally report that there
are Excel features that would have saved weeks of effort had they known
about them; students who take it beforehand might not see the
usefulness of any particular feature, but often return from internships
and/or permanent positions to report the same thing. Some students take
the course because the only formal Excel instruction they had was the
short 2-3 weeks of MIST 2090 coverage or its equivalent. Even though
all of the specific examples utilized in the class may not be strictly
accounting-based, the topical material most certainly is. The course is
well worth the time invested in it.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites other than that
students in this course are in the MACC Program and understand the
basics operation of a
personal computer (the PC standard), and especially
- Know how to effectively use the Microsoft
Windows Operating System, and
- Can readily utilize Windows Explorer to
manipulate
(copy, move, delete, create, etc.) files as those that pertain to this
course.
Page maintained by JE
Aronson
Last Modified: August 16, 2009