Instructor: Mr. John Paul Owens
Office: 154-B Carver Hall
Telephone: 334-7901
Email: owensj@ncat.edu
Office Hours:
Tuesday and Thursday: 1:00 - 5:00 p.m
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: 10:00-11:59 a.m.
Or by Appointment
Course Objective:
This course is designed to familiarize students with the growing role of computers and to provide the tools to utilize computers for decision-making. Emphasis will be placed on utilizing existing software packages for the micro-computers to make financial, economics and quantitative analysis of farm and agribusiness-related problems. Topics covered include word processing, electronic spreadsheets, data base management, and the Internet.
Course Text:
There is no assigned text for this course. However, journal and Internet articles will be assigned. Students may also purchase any of the commercial books available for Windows 95, Internet, and Microsoft Office (Excel).
Materials and other necessities:
As a student you are entitled to an email account. If you do not have an email account, you may obtain one from the University Computer Center located in the basement of the Fort Research Building. You will need an email account for this course.
Because this is a computer course, you will need to save electronic copies of class exercises and homework assignments. You will need five (5) High Density (HD) diskettes with your name on each.
Last semester there was an abuse and waste of paper provided for printing in this laboratory. Therefore, for projects, we will provide you with paper for printing. For your personal or other assignments, this laboratory will NOT furnish computer paper for printing.
Late Projects:
Projects are assigned well in advance and the Due dates are noted on your class schedule. Late projects will not be accepted and will count as zero. For class project, see next section. Please refer to your 1997-99 Undergraduate Bulletin, page 69, or 1997-1999 Graduate Program Bulletin, pages 49-50.
Class Attendance:
Class attendance is not considered as part of your grade evaluation. However, projects competed in class are part of your grade evaluation. Please refer to your 1997-99 Undergraduate Bulletin, page 69 or 1997-1999 Graduate Program Bulletin, pages 49-50.
Grade Evaluation:
Homework & Class work 5%
Projects 10%
Examination 1 20%
Examination 2 20%
Examination 3 20%
Final Examination 25%
100%
WARNING
This is a computer application course. The only effective method to master computer application software is to use them. Practice, Practice, Practice. The length of this class is not adequate to master a software application. It is your responsibility to practice the application after class and master the competency before the next class. If you have problems contact the instructor. Your assignment everyday is to practice the software for a minimum of 30 minutes after class. This course is designed to build one skill on another. Every competency is based on a basic understanding of computers, and one competency is build upon another. If you only practice your computer skills while in class, then you will sorely disappointed with your grade evaluation.
Class Schedule
Week 1-3 Operating Systems and Program Operations
Computer configuration; booting; types of files: EXE, BAT, COM, SYS, & INI, formatting diskettes; creating folders; copying, moving, & deleting files; opening and closing programs; minimizing and maximizing windows; multitasking with more than one document, cutting, copying, pasting to/from clipboard; fonts, fort size, font color, bold, italics, underlining, justification (right, center, left), inserting, editing, toolbars, using HELP.
Week 4 - 5 Internet
WWW, email, HTML, Graphics: jpg, gif, & bmp
Week 6- 7 Word Processing
Opening or creating, and saving & closing a document; Task bars; Menus; Font & sizes; justification; Cut, copy & paste; paragraphs; lines and spacing; Page setup (orientation - landscape/portrait), margins, footer/header, page numbers, inserting text boxes & graphics, saving as HTML, bullets, tables, new pages, print preview, print, symbols, form letters & merging.
Week 8 - 12 EXCEL
Moving around spreadsheets and worksheets, cell contents (character, numeric, formula, function). Selecting cells, editing cells, inserting columns & rows, cell copying (absolute and relative), mathematical operations (*,/,+,-); cash flow, taxation, amortization (loans), breakeven, future value, present value, sorting, and graphing.
Week 13 - 15 POWER POINT
Creating, templates, inserting graphs, clip art & text, arranging & sorting slides, transitions.
Week 16 ACCESS
Planning, creating w/wizard, fields, reports, forms, and labels. Sorting records, understanding filters.
Week 17 - All Projects and Make-up Complete; and Review