IT for Business

The course provides an introduction to the principles of information technology in the business. Lectures will cover issues that occur in everyday office work and should be integrated with different levels of organization management:

- data quality in organization

- consistent user interface of applications

- creating and using different data sources

- open and proprietary file formats

- embedding and linking to documents and other objects

- increasing operational efficiency through IT tools

- applications of AI in office work, AI ethics

Practical cases will be solved using the office suite tools

Course outline:

1. The role of productivity software in an organization

2. Applications of the word processor

- text formatting (font, paragraph, bulleted and numbered list),

- organizing information in columns and tables,

- additional document features (section, header, footer, page numbering),

- inserting and modifying objects (pictures, shapes, diagrams, charts),

- reference content and contents sources (footnotes and endnotes, creating and modifying tables of contents and indexes)

- working in review mode and tracking changes.

3. Applications of the spreadsheet

- addressing convention - relative, absolute and mixed references,

- cell and font formatting and use of the formula bar,

- creating financial simulations,

- using built-in functions

- using nested functions in a formula

- working with data from multiple spreadsheets,

- creating charts with one and multiple data series,

- introduction to the use of financial functions in a spreadsheet,

- database functions in the spreadsheet - simple and multi-level data sorting, data filtering using autofilter and advanced filtering.

4. Applications of the presentation program

- presentation formatting, themes and masters

- pictures, objects, SmartArt

- animations, transitions and multimedia

5. IT tools in office work from a technology trends perspective

J. Lambert. Microsoft Word Step by Step (Office 2021 and Microsoft 365), 2023

W. L. Winston. Microsoft Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling (Office 2021 and Microsoft 365) 7th Edition, 2021

J. Lambert, C. Frye. Microsoft Office Step by Step (Office 2021 and Microsoft 365), 2022

J. Habraken. Microsoft Office Inside Out (Office 2021 and Microsoft 365, 2021

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

in terms of knowledge:

• identify relationships among employees, company departments and management staff (K_W02)

• describe the role of IT tools in the organization (K_W05)

• identify Technology Trends relevant for organisation (K_W05)

in terms of skills:

• evaluate data quality risks (K_U01)

• examine technical and ethical issues of use of IT tools in the organization (K_U05)

In terms of social competencies:

• evaluate opportunities and challenges of increasing operational efficiency through IT tools (K_K01)

The final grade consists of (percent of final grade):

- exam on practical use of the word processor (30%),

- exam on practical use of the spreadsheet (40%),

- group project (presentation of 11-20 slides in front of the group, 2-3 people per group, the content and formatting of the file are assessed) (20%)

- active participation in classes (10%)

For every exam on practical use of application passing threshold is 50%

Attendance at classes

- 2 absences allowed

- more than 50% absences is assessed as NK

Rating scale for final grade: DST (51%-60%), DST Plus (61%-70%), DB (71%-80%), DB Plus (81%-90%), BDB (91%-100%)