Information Systems and Data Management 5 credits (ISDM5) course

Lecturer: Dr. Paolo Coletti Paolo.Colettiunibz.it Office E203
Teaching assistant: Dr. Alessio Brutti Alessio.Bruttiunibz.it
Teaching assistant: Dott. Christian Zieger Christian.Ziegerunibz.it

Website: www.paolocoletti.it/informationsystems

Timetable: unfortunately due to technical problems, not under my control, I do not have the complete students' list. Thus I can not produce the list of your turns. I hope that the inconvenience would be solved on monday morning and I will publish the turns as soon as I have the list.

Before the exam:

1. check that your account is able to print on a PDF. If not, download the new PDFfiles book and look at chapter 3 to solve it. You will not be helped during the exam on this topic;
2. check that you are able to locate \\ubz01fst\Courses directory. You will not be helped during the exam on this topic;
3. check that your account is not over quota, as described in Basic Computer course book in section 2.3.5. You will not be helped during the exam on this topic;
4. check that in general all aspects of your account work properly.

Course

ISDM course presentation A.Y. 2011/12.
ISDM syllabus A.Y. 2011/12.

Prerequisites

In order to correctly follow this course each student is required previous knowledge on these topics:

• English understanding and reading: you must be able to read and understand spoken English at Cambridge FCE level. If, for example, you have problems reading this website, you will not follow the course correctly.
• Basic Microsoft Windows: you must already know how to use Windows in its basic aspects
• File handling: you must have a good practice on how to move, delete, rename, copy, compress, uncompress files and directories. These are activities with which many students have problems.
• Basic Internet: you must be able to navigate, send and read email, use basic UNIBZ network features and download files.

A detailed list of prerequisites is here. In any case, the teaching assistant will dedicate its first lessons to a precourse on these prerequisites.

Course content

• Basic computer skills, Windows overview and computer networks. This part is both theoretical and practical, and we will see topics which are of everyday use in a typical office environment.
• Microsoft Excel. In this part we will see the basic graphs, formulas and functions of Excel. This part contains also a section on financial Excel applications.
• Relational databases and Microsoft Access. In this part we will see relational databases' architecture, and how to build and modify simple databases with Access

Organization

Hours in standard classroom are unique. Hours in computer room are repeated twice (for lessons) and three times (for exercises) in exactly the same way.

Prof. Coletti is in charge of:

• Basic computer skills, Windows overview and computer networks (6 unique hours in a standard classroom),
• Excel and financial functions (approximately 14 hours, repeated twice, in lab A518),
• Relational databases and Access (approximately 4 unique hours in standard classroom and 6 hours, repeated twice, in lab A518).

The teaching assistants are in charge of:

• precourse on Windows and file handling: 2 hours in room A518 (Dr. Brutti for group 1, Dott. Zieger for group 2 and group 3),
• Excel exercises part 1: 6 hours in lab A518 (Dr. Brutti for group 1, Dott. Zieger for group 2 and group 3)
• Excel exercises part 2: 6 hours in lab A518 (Dr. Brutti for group 1 and group 2, dott. Zieger for group 3)
• relational databases: 6 hours in standard classroom (Dr. Brutti, all groups together)
• Access exercises: 6 hours in lab A518 (Dott. Zieger for group 1, group 2 and group 3)
• exam preparation: 2 hours in lab A518 (Dr. Brutti for group 1, group 2 and group 3)

Books

• Basic Computer course book on computer introduction, computer networks and Windows.
• PDF files course book on PDF files.
• Financial Functions course book on basic finance and Excel's financial functions.
• Videos of practical lessons
• Excel 2007 for Dummies: Chapters 2-5, 6 (pages 209-215, 227-229), 7 (pages 231-240), 8 (pages 261-263), 9, 10 (pages 287-308) , 11 (pages 329-332)
• Excel 2007 Data Analysis for Dummies: Chapters 2 (pages 37-44), 3 (pages 66-71), 4-7, 9 (185, 188, 195, 197, 199-202), 10 (223-231)
• Level 1 and 2 of Databases course book.

Exam

Exam is divided into two parts.

The first part is held in a standard classroom all students together. This part's time is 45 minutes, but may vary according to the complexity of exercises. This part is completely on paper and "closed book": no paper nor electronic help or tool is allowed. It consists in

• questions on computer, Windows, networks (approximately 20% of the grade). This consists in a set of true/false sentences. For each one, you may choose not to answer getting 0 points, answer correctly getting 1 point or answer wrongly getting -1 points. However, the total score of this part cannot be negative;
• written test on relational databases (approximately 20% of the grade).

The second part is held in computer room in turns of 25 students each. Turns will appear on this website as soon as enrolment is closed. This part's time is 45 minutes, but may vary according to the complexity of exercises. If you have specific timetable's needs, please write an email to Prof. Coletti as soon as possible, before the timetable appears. This part is totally open books: you may use any written or electronic document (including books, previous exams with solutions, your personal handwritten or electronic notes and my slides). You may not, however, use any communication program or device. This part consists in

• practical test on computer and Windows knowledge (approximately 5% of the grade), especially file handling;
• practical test on Excel and financial functions (approximately 40% of the grade);
• practical test on Access (approximately 15% of the grade).

Important warning: the crucial point of second part is time. If you never practice with Access and Excel, you will still be able to do the exam but you will waste a lot of time looking for the commands and you will not finish it in time. Only with exercises will you be fast enough to complete it in the indicated time. It is a good idea to practice with a clock on the previous exams that you find below.

Differences from A.Y. 2010/11

Please, if you followed the course in A.Y. 2010/11 take note of these important differences:

• basic computer: little modifications to update it to 2012 technology; zip with password
• removed from Excel course: matrix calculations, MEDIAN, CORREL, COVAR, bonds, PRICE, YIELD, TIME, SECOND, MINUTE, HOUR, cell names, TRIM, UPPER, LOWER, PROPER, monthly interest, cell formatting (posizion, alignment, font, borders, background), shapes' shadows, 3D effects, position, order
• inserted into Excel course: circular reference handling

Study resources

Topic	Lessons' slides	Exercises' slides	Support material (available during exam)	Videos as alternative to attendance	Books as alternative to attendance
Theory	- Computer introduction - Windows - Computer networks	Pre course with Intro files			Basic Computer course book
Excel	Excel	Excel with Excel files	- Financial Functions course book - Excel function translation	Videos of Excel lessons Videos are also available (until 20 May 2012) from any university's computer on \\ubz01fst\Courses\course_coletti	Both these: - Excel 2007 for Dummies: Chapters 2-5, 6 (pages 209-215, 227-229), 7 (pages 231-240), 8 (pages 261-263), 9, 10 (pages 287-308) , 11 (pages 329-332) - Excel 2007 Data Analysis for Dummies: Chapters 2 (pages 37-44), 3 (pages 66-71), 4-7, 9 (185, 188, 195, 197, 199-202), 10 (223-231)
Relational databases	Relational databases and Access	Relational databases Solutions			Level 1 and 2 of the Databases course book
Access		Access		Videos of Access lessons Videos are also available (until 20 May 2012) from any university's computer on \\ubz01fst\Courses\course_coletti

Exam

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Where can I get Windows, Word, Excel, Access, Acrobat, IZArc?
A: You can download IzArc from www.izarc.org for free. For Windows 7 Enterprise Multilanguage and Office 2010 you should open a ticket on https://support.unibz.it and fix an appointment with the network administrators: they will give you the installation disks and you have the right to install these programs on your notebook. Remember to select also Access when you install Office. Adobe Acrobat licence is unfortunately not available, but to produce and protect PDF files you can install alternative free programs such as PDFCreator http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator .

Q: How can I have Windows, Office in English?
A: For Windows Vista, if you have installed the university version Control Panel -> Click, Language and Region -> Change Display Language. If you instead have your own version, probably you have a single language version and you may not change the language.
For Office, if you have installed the university version, in the Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Office -> Microsoft Office 2010 Tools -> Microsoft Office 2010 Language Settings. If you instead have your own version, depending on the version you may or may not have this tool.

Q: May I fix an appointment to talk with you?
A: I have office hours explicitely dedicated to this task, which I try to scatter evenly during the semester with a higher frequency before exams. Try to write an email to me and, if I still have some hours left (in some months I might be entirely absent), I will fix it in agreement with you. In any case all the office hours are open to everybody, I do not fix personal appointments. Obviously you may always ask me questions via email (please, state your problem clearly).

Q: When will the next exam be? Can you give me a hint on the exam's date because I have to catch a plane? Can you move the exam's date? Can you fix the exam's date on the week I suggest?
A: Please stop writing me emails on this topic. Following a request from the students (in A.Y. 2009/10) exam's dates are decided by the secretariat with the agreement of students' representatives. Therefore I do not know the exam's date it until it is officially published on the university online calendar and I have no power to move it.

Q: What if I may not enrol online for technical or administrative reasons?
A: Please write an email to me so I may put you in some turns. In any case you must ask the secretary what to do, since not enrolled students may not attend the exam.

Q: May I do the exam with my computer?
A: Yes. But beware: (1) you must be able to navigate the Internet and to enter directory \\ubz01fst\Courses\Course_Coletti (an alternative can be being able to navigate the Internet and producing a CD). Do not wait for the day before the exam to check it. (2) You are responsible for your different programs' versions and configurations and for the absence on your computer of specific programs. In particular, check that you are able to produce and protect PDF files. (3) If you use another operative system, you are responsible if your files do not open correctly on my Windows 7.

Q: May I do the exam using Windows in a different language?
A: Yes, sure. However pay attention that Excel functions which will be very different. I suggest you to study them directly in your Windows version and, in any case, to take the conversion sheet with you during the exam.

Q: Will the exam be "open books"?
A: The written part is totally "closed book". No paper nor dictionary nor electronic help nor tool is allowed. Practical part is instead totally open books: you may use any written or electronic document (including books, previous exams with solutions, your personal handwritten or electronic notes and my slides). You may not, however, use any communication program or device.

Q: How do questions work?
A: In every exam there is a set of true/false sentences. Each single sentence can be either true or false, without any relation with previous sentences. For any sentence, you may choose not to answer getting 0 points, answer correctly getting 1 point or answer wrongly getting -1 points. However the total score of questions cannot be negative.

Q: Will the exam be similar to the previous ones?
A: Sure, but every year I add the new topics and do not ask topics which were removed from the syllabus.

Q: I am a student of
- Agricultural Science and Agricultural Economics enrolled in A.Y. 2006/07 or before,
- Economics and Management Sciences (EM or BS majors) enrolled in A.Y. 2009/10 or before,
- Economics and Social Sciences enrolled in A.Y. 2007/08 or before,
- Economics and Social Sciences enrolled in A.Y. 2008/09 or 2009/10 who has chosen this exam as optional.
Which exam do I have to take?
A: Your exam was Computer Science and Information Processing at the School of Economics and Management, which does not exist anymore and has been declared equal to this exam Information Systems and Data Management. So you are on the right webpage www.paolocoletti.it/informationsystems .

Q: I am a student of Economics and Social Sciences enrolled in A.Y. 2010/11 or after. Which exam do I have to take?
A: Your exam is Information Systems and Data Management 3 credits at the School of Economics and Management, so you are on the wrong webpage.

Q: Help me! I can not save my files.
A: Before the exam you must empty your email folders of all the big stuff you have inside. Moreover go to \\ubz01fst\students, locate your directory, and searching through all your subdirectories delete all the big or not necessary files. In this way you will have enough space to save everything. If you cannot save due to a shortage of disk space, we can not and will not do anything to help you.

Q: I lost a file during the exam because I did not save it correctly. What may you do?
A: Absolutely nothing. With time spent on exercises you should know the unreliability level of your programs, and how often you have to save.

Q: My files were not copied correctly at the end of the exam. What may I do?
A: Checking that the copy is correct, and practicing file copy even during the exam, is your task and is official part of the evaluation for this course.

Previous exams

Warning: exams from 4 to 17 have Word exercise instead of Access and relational databases exercises.

This page is maintained by Paolo Coletti.

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