Study Guide

Objective

Students will
• Understand the fundamental concepts and terminology of business analytics
• Know how to identify the biases in a decision-making process and ask for the right information
• Establish a strategic understanding of business analytics and make holistic judgments
• Apply appropriate analytical methods and techniques to find solutions to business problems
• Understand how to use data to summarize, visualize and develop insights with critical thinking
• Explain data visualization principles and guidelines for effective analysis and presentation
• Develop and interpret a wide range of visualizations in Microsoft Power BI
• Communicate data-driven business insights and make persuasive data storytellingCourse

Content

• Key analytical skills that apply across functions and industries
• Explaining and interpreting analysis results and making decisions based on those analysis
• Creating informative data visualisations with Microsoft Power BI to telling a story for better decision making
• Aligning analytics initiatives with business objectives

Evaluation scale

0-5

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

The coursework meets with many of the six criteria below. The assignment shows satisfactory performance in more than three of the criteria.

The following criteria are used for assessing the IM Master’s coursework (lecture involvement, discussion, written assignments and discussion leaders).
• The student shows an understanding of the relevant course content in relation to the contents of the articles, lectures and discussion.
• Student texts/presentations demonstrate an understanding of the article/lecture content and an ability to select, interpret and justify key messages in a grounded manner.
• The student shows interconnections between the proposed concepts and current business practice, showing abilities of reflection, evaluation and discussion.
• The student shows professional initiative, active participation and responsibility in both individual and team work.
• The student shows the ability to collect valid knowledge for his/her topic from outside the course sources by using scholarly search tools, by questioning current business practice and by practicing source critique.
• Student assignment is written in line with academic writing practice and instructions for Master’s Thesis, using the Harvard Referencing system, with references both in the text as well as reference list. The texts are written in coherent, fluent English.

Assessment criteria, good (3)

The coursework meets with most of the above criteria.
Additionally the assignment shows good quality performance in three or more of the criteria or otherwise good interpretation.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

The coursework meets with all the above six criteria. Additionally the assignment shows excellence in three or more of the above criteria or otherwise deviating excellence.

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

• Student texts/presentations demonstrate an understanding of the article/lecture content and an ability to select, interpret and justify key messages in a grounded manner.
• The student shows interconnections between the proposed concepts and current business practice, showing abilities of reflection, evaluation and discussion.
• The student shows professional initiative, active participation and responsibility in both individual and team work.
• The student shows the ability to collect valid knowledge for his/her topic from outside the course sources by using scholarly search tools, by questioning current business practice and by practicing source critique.
• Student assignment is written in line with academic writing practice and instructions for Master’s Thesis, using the Harvard Referencing system, with references both in the text as well as reference list. The texts are written in coherent, fluent English.

Prerequisites

• Basic computer skills and a familiarity with tools like Microsoft Excel will be helpful, but not compulsory