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| Course Title | Applied Computer Technology, CIS 103 |
| Locations | C2-19: Center for Business and Industry |
| Course Scheduling | Monday 12:30 – 5:00 PM: Your instructor believes that this class will not meet on October 12th, but this will have to be verified. |
| Course Description | This course is a combination of the study of Microsoft Office 2007 and a survey of computerization and its techniques on the Internet, among social networks and computer equipment. As far as office is concerned, a 'detailed' study will involve Word (for word processing) and Excel (for spreadsheets) with emphasis on using these office components for future academic requirements. A brief analysis of another office component, Access, may be part of this class and it is possible that another component, Powerpoint, will be used for a take-home final. As far as the computer survey, discussion should be provided on digital devices, including cameras, and on social networks such as Facebook. |
| Instructor Info | Marc Rauer's Emails: 777rauer@voicenet.com, rauer777@verizon.net and mrauer@ccp.edu. Please, for your benefit, use 777rauer@voicenet.com as this has the most capacity of all these emails and is looked at the most often. |
| Text Info | Applied Computer Technology CIS 103 by Rutkowsky and Rutkowsky Published by Paradigm Publishing, part of Paradigm's Benchmark Series. Additionally, several other packets come with the book when bought through the CCP bookstore. One such packet allows entry to the snap2007 web site, www.snap2007.com and the other is a 180 day evaluation copy of Office 2007. |
| Additional Material | Students will need a way of off-loading data. The best way to do this is by flash drive (also known as memory stick or jump disk). You can go to Staples - or other such stores - and buy these relatively cheap. Another need will be your own copy (or someone else's) of Micrsosoft Office 2007 (resolved if you buy the book through the book store) and a computer that can run this software. In the event that you do not get through the book, many outlets are available to obtain a copy of this software and the Microsoft site, www.microsoft.com has several versions available and even trial versions if the need exists. It is impossible to deal with this course, and you are almost assuring yourself of an “F” if this software is not available to you to study on your own. |
| Additional Study Facilities | The book's publishers maintain a web site for student use, www.snap2007.com. The instructor is required to activate the tutorials and he will activate relevant tutorials as we proceed through the course. Your instructor is also maintaining a web site for students of these classes which you can find at www.777rauer.com. There’s quite a bit on it already and it will be enhanced almost every week as we move through the course. At the moment, a copy of this syllabus and an Email link are part of the instructor’s web site. You should, for the duration of this class, make it a habit to check out this site as your instructor will be updating this web site first as to additional info and material for this course. |
| Testing | An attempt will be made to use the Publisher's SNAP testing facility. This was partially successful this summer although an even prior previous attempt at computerized testing (with another publisher) had been a failure and this instructor was required to go back to class administered tests. At minimum, we will use the SNAP testing facility for your Word test. We will see about the Excel test. Any computerized tests will be at your convenience, through some designated time period, to be done outside of class. We may return to the old fashioned in-class test for Excel. It is expected that there will be a take home assignment at the end of the session. It is possible, but not certain, that other assignments for you to do both in class and out of class, individually and in groups may be assigned. |
Note: The basis of this course’s outline of study is the normal 14/15 week class at CCP. This class runs as a 10 wk session. The weekly information below has been modified for the length of the course
| Week 1 | Introduction to the course and an introduction to operating systems. An attempt will be made to emphasize file structure. The end of the Class brings on the study of Microsoft Word and its elementary functions. Discussion of margins and paragraph topography. Use of and terminology of fonts. Continuation of formatting concepts in Word |
| Week 2 | Bullets and numbering. Drop cap on paragraphs. We should be able to discuss spell checkers, thesaurus and grammar checkers. Inclusion of graphic objects. Use of tables in word. Table is called a construct in data processing as everything has a table associated with it. Microsoft has greatly enhanced Word tables as we shall see. |
| Week 3 | Use of styles, Themes and review concepts should be subjects of the 4th week of Microsoft Word. By the middle of the class we should be wrapping up Word. There should be a test on the snap2007 web site for this class. At the end o the class we begin our study of Excel. We will take a different approach to Excel than your book. We will be looking at subtotaling and grand totaling and how the old theory of cross tabulation (now known as pivot tables) can enhance your study of data. |
| Week 4 | Introductory concepts of excel including cell placement and use of addresses. Throughout our study of Excel, Microsoft supplied function and techniques will be applied and these include the sun, average, count, max and min functions. If we have the time, the If and pmt function will also be reviewed. |
| Week 5 | One of the enhancements in Excel 2007 is the use of the table construct to be studied during this week of class. This is a major improvement in Excel and brings together the concepts of table format, filtering, sorting and ease of copying under one roof. Pivot tables and charts should be discussed by this time. These are techniques to break data into easily observed classes, either visually like a chart (graph) or conceptually like a Pivot table. The use of both of these can greatly enhance your spreadsheets |
| Week 6 | We end our study of Excel by doing some projects so you can see these concepts in operations. We will be doing problems as we go along in the previous weeks, but this will be an attempt to coalesce the concepts of excel in some practical and facetious projects. Also, expect the Excel test at this point and depending on the software availability, this will either be in class or at your convenience outside of class. During the summer, a take-home final of excel was used but your instructor expects to schedule your excel test way ahead of that. Somewhere in this time we will schedule your excel test which probably will be in class. |
| Week 7 | A librarian will visit us to lecture on the databases available to you as a student of CCP. Previous lectures that the instructor has attended given by the Librarian staff have been very informative and you should look forward to this. This lecture will also allow us to discuss databases in theory and Access, a component of Microsoft Office in specific. Given the timing of this class, we probably should discuss internet and social networking. How do you make a web page and what does this entail. And, what problems could occur as pertaining to social networking as Facebook especially as far as medical ethics are concerned. In addition, you may ask what are people and technicians talking about when talking about viruses and the like. |
| Week 8 | Wired and wireless concepts of networking should be the subject of this week's discussions. Your instructor maintains a home network of 10 to 12 wired machines and 2 to 3 wireless portables. Perhaps, he will attempt an on-site demo, but we know at least that he can provide a discussion of wired and wireless home networks. In addition, bring your questions in about portables and desktop machines and he will attempt to answer these as best he can. |
| Week 9 | Your instructor will attempt to explain the internet to you on a technical and historical basis. Why did it start, when did it become popular, what is its limitations. We’ll merge this with camera technology and attempt to do a web page of the Northwest center. In this, we will be looking at the practical effects of graphic pictures and HTML, the language of the wide world web |
| Week 10 | We wrap up this term by discussing Powerpoint. You probably will be assigned a group project as a take home final although the instructor reserves the right to assign an individual take home final |
CIS 103 is in the process of being changed and this course content goes somewhat to what this course will look like a year from now as it officially morphs into an introduction to technology course. You are acting somewhat like guinea pigs in this transformation and the progress of this class will be transmitted to the department head of the Computer information sciences curriculum (even this terminology of the department is changing). With the Fall’09 term, your book is now the official book of CIS103.
At minimum there should be 4 marking events. Tests in some way for Word and Excel, a take home test in Powerpoint and the instructor's grade in which he determines your input (and output in some cases) to this class. It should be clear that there a possibility of assigning additional projects and they would be included in the marking scheme indicated below (with changes occurring to the percentages shown). Below is a table showing one proposed marking scheme.
| Word test | Somewhere in the 3rd week | 45 pts |
| Excel test | Somewhere in the 6th week | 45 pts |
| Powerpoint Project | End of term during final week | 10 pts |
| Instructor portion | Analysis throughout the term | 10 pts |
You will notice that this is 110 points. The instructor gives an added 10 points to those who help make this class a success. No such addition is given to those working in the opposite direction and they are marked on 100 points, the school norm. What is the instructor looking for in assigning you this extra 10 points: regular and prompt attendance, attention to the material offered in class, infrequent interruptions both verbally and physically (i.e. as in leaving the classroom while lectures are occurring), infrequent use of the internet for activities that are not part of the class, alertness (and not sleeping) in the class. These are some of the factors used. In spite of his demeanor, your instructor tends to know what is happening in the class but is generally focused enough to ignore anything but the most blatant interruptions as the class is in operation. However, at the point of settling grades, he is able to integrate your activities in this class for his part of your mark.
Once your grade is calculated, the instructor may use the school standard to determine a letter equivalent or create a curve. In previous classes in the last year, no curve was necessary as there were enough high grades to offset this need.
Your instructor has and will put up on his web site, 777rauer@voicenet.com, some previous tests for Word and Excel that he has given in the last year. Keep in mind that these were tests given in class and made up by him. To see an example of what was assigned as a powerpoint project in a previous term, direct yourself to a separate web site, www.thediskcoordinator.com. The creator of this web site asked your instructor for some content and you can see the result by clicking on the logo as it appears in the middle of the page. Assuming you have high speed internet, a office 2003 powerpoint pps file will appear and you can click on begin slideshow to see what the winner of the powerpoint contest did to earn this distinction.